Lifestyle

Moderate alcohol intake prevents weight gains: Study

nishtha — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:05:15 +0530

Figure conscious women are often advised to stop drinking to avoid extra calories but a new research suggests that women who regularly consume moderate amounts of alcohol are 30 per cent less likely to gain weight than nondrinkers. Researchers at Brigham and Women's hospital in Boston said the women who consumed two to three servings of beer or wine each day were less likely to gain extra pounds as they get older.

The 13-year research found that women who did not drink at all gained the most weight. The findings, reported this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, are based on a study of 19,220 US women aged 39 and over who had normal body weight at the start of the study. Researchers tracked the women's drinking habits over 13 years.

About 60 per cent of the women were light or regular drinkers, while about 40 per cent reported drinking no alcohol. Over the course of the study, 41 per cent of the women became overweight or obese. The risk of becoming overweight was almost 30 per cent lower for women who consumed one or two alcohol beverages a day, compared with nondrinkers.

The nondrinkers in the study actually gained more weight over time: nine pounds, on average, compared with an average gain of about three pounds among regular moderate drinkers. The effects were found for beer, red wine, white wine and spirits, although the strongest association was found for red wine. It isn't clear what accounts for the association, the authors said.

But it is also possible that at least some of the observed link between alcohol and midlife slimness is not direct and has to do, instead, with other things drinking women tend to do, the authors added. For example, women who drank more alcohol in the study consumed fewer calories from other food sources, particularly carbohydrates.

The women who drank moderately also were more likely to smoke, were more physically active, had lower body mass indexes at the start of the study and had a less healthy diet. Still, alcohol appeared to influence weight even when researchers controlled for such factors, the authors said. Regardless of the reason for the link, the research should not translate into advice for women, said Dr James C Garbutt, a professor of psychiatry at the University of North
Carolina's Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies.

"If the message is that by drinking some alcohol you're going to lose weight, that's a potentially complicated and dangerous message," he said. Other studies have linked consumption of more than one drink a day to an increased risk of breast cancer. Moderate wine intake, especially red wine, has been found to have some beneficial effects on cardiovascular health in both women and men.

But, Garbutt said, "Alcohol is very much a double-edge sword. For some people, it may have benefit and for others it may have harm."

Drinking coffee 'protects the heart'

nishtha — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:32:43 +0530

Sipping a strong cup of hot coffee not only helps clear the mind and perk up energy, but it could be a livesaver too, for a new study has revealed that caffeine protects the heart. An international team has found that drinking coffee regularly could protect drinkers from irregular heart beats or rhythms -- and the more cups they drink a day, the less likely they are to suffer from the condition.

For the study, researchers, led by Dr Arthur Klatsky of US pharmaceutical giant Kaiser Permanente, followed 130,054 men and women, aged 18 to 90, and found that those who drank four or more cups of coffee each day had an 18 per cent lower risk of hospitalisation for heart rhythm disturbances. Those who reported drinking one to three cups each day had a seven per cent reduction in risk compared to abstainers.

"While the link didn't automatically suggest that coffee alone was responsible for the link, it did appear to show coffee did no harm," Dr Klatsky was quoted by 'The Daily Telegraph' as saying Dr Klatsky added: "Coffee drinking is related to lower risk of hospitalisation for rhythm problems, but the association does not prove cause and effect, or that coffee has a protective effect.

"However, these data might be reassuring to people who drink moderate amounts of coffee that their habit is not likely to cause a major rhythm disturbance."
The latest results, presented at the American Heart Association's Annual Conference in San Francisco, followed a raft of other researches which showed coffee has a protective effect on the heart.

A report from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain showed that drinking three cups of coffee a day could reduce the risk of women dying from heart disease by a quarter. Another showed that men who drank five or more cups of coffee were 44 per cent less likely to die from the disease. Drinking two to three cups of coffee a day was also shown to reduce the risk of a stroke by almost 20 per cent.

The peak span of wedding bliss? Just under 3 yrs, says study

nishtha — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:20:39 +0530

Want to the know the peak span of wedding bliss? Well, married couples are at their happiest two years, 11 months and eight days after walking down the aisle, a new study has revealed. Researchers have based their findings on an analysis of a survey of some 4,000 husbands and wives who were asked to
pinpoint their happiness.

Just under three years emerged as when couples feel completely comfortable with each others bad habits and have a plan for their future. They will also enjoy a full sex life, have carried out enough DIY for their house to make it homely and still find time for romantic meals together. "Our research showed that three years after walking down the aisle everything seems to come together - making each other laugh the most and cuddling up in front of the TV.

"They'll also spend the longest amount of quality time together each evening and make small gestures like offering to cook dinner and help with the washing up. "We've found the secret to the happiest time together isn't about big, expensive and lavish gifts, but being there for each other to share special moments," the 'Daily Express' quoted lead researcher Carol Richardson, from wedding website www. confetti.co.uk', as saying.

The study also found that the couples enjoy romantic meals and nights out with mates partying after two years and four months. Wives are likely to receive flowers, chocolates and compliments two-and-a-half years down the line. A man's help with household chores like hoovering and cooking reaches its peak just before their third anniversary, while arguments will be a distant memory three months later, the study has found.

Weekends away tend to drop away after three years and four months as couples swap the countryside for the sofa. And the maximum amount of "me time" -- watching footy on TV, drinking with mates in the pub or shopping with girlfriends -- is enjoyed after three years and five months, the study found.

High-fat diets raise stroke risk in women: Study

nishtha — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:40:42 +0530

Eating a lot of fat, especially the kind that's in cookies and pastries, can significantly raise the risk of stroke for women over 50, a large new study finds. The new study is the largest to look at stroke risk in women and across all types of fat. It showed a clear trend: Those who ate the most fat had a 44 per cent higher risk of the most common type of stroke compared to those who ate the least.

"It's a tremendous increase that is potentially avoidable," said Dr Emil Matarese, stroke chief at St Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. "What's bad for the heart is bad for the brain." He reviewed but did not help conduct the research, which was presented yesterday at an American Stroke Association conference.

It involved 87,230 participants in the Women's Health Initiative, a federally funded study best known for revealing health risks from taking hormone pills for menopause symptoms. Before menopause, women traditionally have had less risk of stroke than similarly aged men, although this is changing as women increasingly battle obesity and other health problems After menopause, the risk rises and the gender advantage disappears, said Dr Ka He, a nutrition specialist and senior author of the study from the University of North Carolina.

He and another researcher, Sirin Yaemsiri, wanted to see whether dietary fat affected the odds.

Music lessons can improve a child's brain

SnehaSubra — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:19:06 +0530

Music lessons improve children's ability to learn languages by increasing their brain's sensitivity to sounds, including speech, a new study has claimed.

Tests by researchers at Northwestern University, Chicago, found that exposure to music could be beneficial to the brain in its developmental stages and it has advantages for all children, including those who are dyslexic and autistic, The Telegraph reported.

The researchers established a link between musical ability and the capacity of the nervous system to take in sound patterns and said playing musical instrument has a
direct impact on a child's ability to learn languages.

Professor Nina Kraus, who led the team, said playing an instrument had an impact on automatic processing in the brainstem, the lower section of the brain which governs breathing, the heartbeat and reaction to sounds.

She said: "Playing music engages the ability to extract relevant patterns, such as the sound of one's own instrument, harmonies and rhythms, from the 'soundscape'.

"Playing an instrument may help youngsters better process speech in noisy classrooms and more accurately interpret the nuances of language that are conveyed by subtle changes in the human voice."

A spokeswoman for the National Autistic Society, US, said many children with autism respond well to music.

She said: "It seems that music can help children to communicate and interact with those around them, relax or to express emotions."

Eat chocolate daily 'to keep strokes at bay'

sitansu — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:56:58 +0530

There is no need to feel guilty the next time you gorge on chocolate, for researchers claim that eating a few squares daily is good for your heart.

An international team, led by McMaster University in Ontario, has carried out two studies and found that eating chocolate every day can protect against strokes and may also lower the risk of death after suffering a stroke.

The first study looked at 45,000 men and women and found that among those who ate a small bar a week the risk of stroke was down by 22 per cent compared with those who ate no
chocolate.

The second study found that 1,169 people who ate 50 grams of chocolate once a week were 46 per cent less likely to die following a stroke than people who did not eat chocolate.

Chocolate is rich in antioxidants called flavonoids, which may have a protective effect against stroke, but more research is needed, say the researchers.

"More research is needed to determine whether chocolate truly lowers stroke risk or whether healthier people are simply more likely to eat chocolate than others," Sarah Sahib, who led the team, was quoted by the media as saying.

Last year, an international study in the US found that chocolate may ease emotional stress. In the study, the scientists identified reductions in stress hormones and other stress-related biochemical changes in volunteers who rated themselves as highly stressed and ate dark chocolate for two weeks.

"The study provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 grams during a period of around two weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of healthy human volunteers," the scientists had claimed.

Even a single cup of hot espresso 'is bad for heart'

sitansu — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:50:01 +0530

Here's some bad news for those who can't get out of bed without sipping a hot espresso -- a single cup of the caffeinated drink is enough to damage your heart, a new study has claimed.

Italian researchers have carried out the study and found that the high amount of caffeine in a single espresso can have "unfavourable cardiovascular effects" -- it cuts blood flow to the heart by more than a fifth.Decaffeinated coffee, in contrast, boosts blood flow, the study has found.

A single espresso contains up to 130 milligrammes of caffeine, compared to 75 mg in a cup of instant. Filter coffee contains around 120 mg per cup. For their study, the researchers from the University of Palermo recruited 20 volunteers. They examined the blood flow of the subjects who drank a single espresso and compared it to a decaffeinated alternative. The caffeinated variety narrowed blood vessels, cutting blood flow to the heart by an average of 22 per cent within an hour, according to the findings published in the 'European Journal of Clinical Nutrition'.

This is because caffeine acts to block a chemical which keeps blood vessels expanded. But when the volunteers drank a decaf espresso, the flow improved slightly. The blood pressure also rose significantly after a normal espresso.

According to the researchers, the benefits of the caffeine-free drink could be because of the healthboosting anti-oxidants in coffee. These benefits would be more than cancelled out in the short-term by the large amounts of caffeine in the normal espresso. But in the long-term the antioxidants might win out, explaining why other studies have found that regular coffee drinkers have a lower risk of heart problems and diabetes. "A possible explanation for this 'coffee paradox' is related to both the caffeine and antioxidant content in coffee, as the latter may be efficacious in the longterm, whereas the former may have more immediate effects.

"Understanding the potential biological effects of coffee may have important public health implications," the researchers were quoted by the 'Daily Mail' as saying.

But, Dr Euan Paul, of the British Coffee Association, said: "It is important to note that this pilot study was only
conducted in 20 people and caffeine can affect individuals very differently.

"The overwhelming evidence shows that when consumed in moderation -- 400-500mg of caffeine per day, the equivalent of approximately four to five cups -- coffee is safe for the
general population."

Internet addiction 'linked to depression'

nishtha — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:29:34 +0530

In today's world, the Internet plays an irreversible role and often stands as a testament as to just how fast the world moves now. But, browsing has a dark side -- it's addiction can cause depression, says a new study.

Researchers in Britain have carried out the study and found a strong link between heavy Internet use and depression -- in fact, the longer people spend surfing websites, the more unhappy they are.

According to them, those worst affected are both depressed and addicted, possibly because they are substituting the net for normal social activities.

Lead researcher Catriona Morrison of Leeds University as quoted by leading British newspaper the 'Daily Mail' as saying, "The Internet now plays a huge part in modern life but its benefits are accompanied by a darker side.

"While many use the Internet to pay bills, shop and send e-mails, there is a small subset of the population who find it hard to control how much time they spend online, to the point where it interferes with their daily activities." The researchers have based their conclusions on 1,319 responses to an online questionnaire. They questioned the subjects aged from 16 to 51 to assess levels of Internet dependency and depression and found that the longer people spent online the more depressed they tended to be.

"There was a high correspondence between the amount of time spent on the Internet and levels of depression. If you look at how dependent people feel they are on the Internet, that is likely to correspond with how happy or sad they feel," Morrison said. The researchers have identified 18 hard-core Internet users who spent many hours online each day and were classed as "Internet addicted". Their average depression score was more than five times higher than that of non-addicted users, and they were more likely to be moderately or severely depressed.

The addicts spent more time browsing pornography sites, gaming sites and online communities. They also tended to be young, having an average age of 21.

Dr Morrison said: "Our research indicates that excessive Internet use is associated with depression, but what we don't know is which comes first -- are depressed people drawn to the Internet or does the Internet cause depression?" The findings have been published in the latest issue of the 'Psychopathology' journal.

Sunbathing 'can boost men's sex drive'

nishtha — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:50:38 +0530

Forget popular pills. Sunbathing can boost a man's sex drive, says a new study. Researchers at Medical University of Graz in Austria have carried out the study and found that the levels of the male sex hormone testosterone in men's blood rise accordingly with doses of Vitamin D.

Vitamin D is a vital nutrient produced in the body after exposure to sunlight and contained in fish and meat. In their study, the researchers found that men with more Vitamin D per millilitre of blood had much more of the main male sexual hormone circulating than those with less, the British media reported.

And the average amount of testosterone over the course of the year was subject to the same fluctuations as the vitamin D level. Both decrease from October - at the beginning of the winter months - and reach their lowest level in March because of the weaker solar radiation during this period. Ad Brand, spokesman of the Sunlight Research Forum in Veldhoven in the Netherlands, said: "Men who ensure their body is at least sufficiently supplied with vitamin D are doing good for their testosterone levels and their libido among other things."

The new findings back up previous research that found an hour of sunshine can boost a man's testosterone level by up to 69 per cent. Testosterone is the most important male sexual hormone. In males it is mainly responsible for the development of the sex organs, the formation and maintenance of typical male sexual characteristics, sperm production as well as the controlling of male desire.

Prayer increases forgiveness towards others: Study

nishtha — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:36:53 +0530

In what could be considered a scientific proof to the adage -- to err is human and to forgive is divine, a new study claims that prayer makes people more forgiving. The study by Florida State University psychologists suggested that those who pray for others feel increased levels of forgiveness which is a vital element in maintaining close relationship.

To reach this conclusion a team of researchers carried out two scientific experiments, results of which are appeared in journal Psychological Science. In the first experiment, the scientists had a group of men and women pray one single prayer for their romantic partner's well being. Then they were asked to describe their partner before a tape recorder.

The scientists then measured the level of forgiveness, by studying the diminishing negative feelings about the persons for whom they prayed. "Their results showed that those who had prayed for their partner harboured fewer vengeful thoughts and emotions. They were more ready to forgive and move on," the ScienceDaily reported.

In a second study, the researchers had a group of men and women pray for a close friend every day for four weeks. Others simply reflected on the relationship, thinking positive thoughts but not praying for their friend's well-being. They also added another dimension. They used a scale to measure selfless concern for others not any particular person but other people generally.

The researchers found that all the participants have expressed forgivingness towards the people for whom they prayed. "Is it possible that directed prayer might spark forgiveness in those doing the praying and in the process preserve relationships," the researchers concluded.

Give marriage a boost with 'we' word

nishtha — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:08:31 +0530

Want your marriage to last? Just try to make heavy use of the first person plural pronoun "we", says a new study. An international team has claimed that couples should try to describe them as "we", rather than as "me" and "you" -- this exhibits more positive emotional behaviour and both the partners would be more satisfied with their relationship.

For their study, researchers, led by Robert Levenson of the University of Berkeley, put some 154 couples through "conflict conversations" while monitoring their physiological responses using a polygraph. Older couples used far more "we" words than middle- aged couples, showed less cardiovascular arousal and less negative emotional responses, and also had more instances of positive emotional responses, the findings revealed.

The researchers have also noted that the person using the "we" word is not the one who receives the most benefit, at least not directly -- rather, the words have a soothing effect on their partner, the 'New Scientist' reported. According to them, if one uses a lot of "I/you" words, one'll activate a "separateness schema" in one's relationship. This is "particularly toxic to marriages. Spouses use separateness language as a way of expressing the frustrations in ways that are often contentious and adversarial," the team members were quoted as saying.

Cutting down on the negative emotional effects of marital arguments is almost certainly good for one's health. Men also put themselves at more risk of heart disease if they resort to controlling behaviour in arguments, the study said. The findings have been published in the 'Psychology and Aging' journal.

Anand Jon pleads not guilty to new molestation charges

nishtha — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:33:29 +0530

India-born celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander has pleaded not guilty to dozens of new charges of sexually assaulting at least nine women and underage girls here between 2002 and 2006 after being jailed for 59 years by a Los Angeles court for similar crimes.

The hearing in New York is separate from the case against 36-year-old Alexander in California, which concluded in 2008 with the designer being convicted of sexually assaulting seven women and girls and receiving a sentence of 59 years life-imprisonment. The girls were as young as 14. In 2007, Alexander had been charged in New York but the case was in standby until the California case concluded.

The accused allegedly systematically molested women between the ages of 15 and 26 by using drugs and the opportunity of modelling to lure women during the period between 2002 and 2006 in New York. The prosecutors also introduced new charges on yesterday, stating that two women became physically helpless because of the drugs the accused had given them, and again two of his victims were under-age.

Wearing a white T-shirt, dark glasses and khaki pants, Alexander said nothing but "not guilty." The New York charges could lead to 25 years in prison.

Alexander had maintained his innocence throughout the California case as well. His lawyers had claimed that many of women were lying about what happened to them.

Alexander was on his way up in the fashion industry when the charges against him surfaced, making an appearance on "America's Next Top Model" and working with celebrities like Paris Hilton. Police began investigations in 2007 after a woman filed a complaint about being sexually assaulted in his apartment.

Armani debuts their new underwear model Megan Fox

nishtha — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:15:11 +0530

Hollywood beauty Megan Fox has stripped down to her designer underwear to promote fashion giant Emporio Armani's lingerie line. The Transformers star who has been voted the 'Sexiest Woman Alive' twice, was photographed by none other than Giorgio Armani himself for the racy pictures, reported Sun online.

The snaps of the 23-year-old brunette will shortly be splashed across billboards in the world's biggest cities. "Megan is young and sexy and has a lot of spirit. Emporio Armani Underwear and Armani Jeans are all about a youthful attitude making her the perfect choice for the collections," said Armani about his new model.

The line was earlier promoted by British 'it' couple David and Victoria Beckham who had grabbed headlines when they posed together in their underwear.

Exercise can help improve memory in old age: Research

nishtha — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:54:21 +0530

One more reason why elderly people should adopt a regular fitness regime, American researchers have claimed that four hours of exercise every week can help them improve their memory. The researchers at University of Washington School of Medicine found that elderly people with mild memory problem who carried out a rigorous fitness regime for a longer period showed improvements in their thinking skills.

For their study, the researchers looked at a group of men and women with mild memory problem aged around 70. They were assigned to have one hour of high intensity exercise with a trainer four days a week for six months while the others just carried out gentle stretching.

They found that the group who exercised showed improvements in their thinking skills, with a more marked difference among the women, The Telegraph reported.

In another study by a team at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester in Minnesota, it was found that elderly people who had exercised since middle age by taking brisk walks, doing aerobics, yoga, strength training or swimming were 39 per cent less likely to have memory problems.

"Those who exercised into old age were almost one third less likely to have problems," it said. However, the studies, published in the Archives of Neurology, said light exercise such as bowling, slow dancing or playing golf with a cart did not reduce the risk of memory problems.

Miep Gies, who helped hide Anne Frank, dies at 100

nishtha — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:45:50 +0530

Miep Gies, the office secretary who defied the Nazi occupiers to hide Anne Frank and her family for two years and saved the teenager's diary, has died, the Anne Frank Museum said on Tuesday. She was 100.

Gies' Web site reported that she died on Monday after a brief illness. The report was confirmed by museum spokeswoman Maatje Mostar, but she gave no details. The British Broadcasting Corp. said she died in a nursing home after suffering a fall last month.

Gies was the last of the few non-Jews who supplied food, books and good cheer to the secret annex behind the canal warehouse where Anne, her parents, sister and four other Jews hid for 25 months during World War II.

After the apartment was raided by the German police, Gies gathered up Anne's scattered notebooks and papers and locked them in a drawer for her return after the war. The diary, which Anne Frank was given on her 13th birthday, chronicles her life in hiding from June 12, 1942 until August 1, 1944.

Gies refused to read the papers, saying even a teenager's privacy was sacred. Later, she said if she had read them she would have had to burn them because they incriminated the "helpers."

Anne Frank died of typhus at age 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945, just two weeks before the camp was liberated. Gies gave the diary to Anne's father Otto, the only survivor, who published it in 1947.

After the diary was published, Gies tirelessly promoted causes of tolerance. She brushed aside the accolades for helping hide the Frank family as more than she deserved — as if, she said, she had tried to save all the Jews of occupied Holland.

"This is very unfair. So many others have done the same or even far more dangerous work," she wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press days before her 100th birthday last February.

"The Diary of Anne Frank" was the first popular book about the Holocaust, and has been read by millions of children and adults around the world in some 65 languages.

For her courage, Gies was bestowed with the "Righteous Gentile" title by the Israeli Holocaust museum Yad Vashem. She has also been honored by the German Government, Dutch monarchy and educational institutions.

Nevertheless, Gies resisted being made a character study of heroism for the young.

"I don't want to be considered a hero," she said in a 1997 online chat with schoolchildren.

"Imagine young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I am afraid nobody would ever help other people, because who is a hero? I was not. I was just an ordinary housewife and secretary."

Born Hermine Santrouschitz on Feb. 15, 1909 in Vienna, Gies moved to Amsterdam in 1922 to escape food shortages in Austria. She lived with a host family who gave her the nickname Miep.

In 1933, Gies took a job as an office assistant in the spice business of Otto Frank. After refusing to join a Nazi organization in 1941, she avoided deportation to Austria by marrying her Dutch boyfriend, Jan Gies.

As the Nazis ramped up their arrests and deportations of Dutch Jews, Otto Frank asked Gies in July 1942 to help hide his family in the annex above the company's canal-side warehouse on Prinsengracht 263 and to bring them food and supplies.

"I answered, 'Yes, of course.' It seemed perfectly natural to me. I could help these people. They were powerless, they didn't know where to turn," she said years later.

Jan and Miep Gies worked with four other employees in the firm to sustain the Franks and four other Jews sharing the annex. Jan secured extra food ration cards from the underground resistance. Miep cycled around the city, alternating grocers to ward off suspicions from this highly dangerous activity.

In her e-mail to the AP last February, Gies remembered her husband, who died in 1993, as one of Holland's unsung war heroes. "He was a resistance man who said nothing but did a lot. During the war he refused to say anything about his work, only that he might not come back one night. People like him existed in thousands but were never heard," she wrote.

Touched by Anne's precocious intelligence and loneliness, Miep also brought Anne books and newspapers while remembering everybody's birthdays and special days with gifts.

"It seems as if we are never far from Miep's thoughts," Anne wrote.

In her own book, "Anne Frank Remembered," Gies recalled being in the office when the German police, acting on a tip that historians have failed to trace, raided the hide-out in August 1944.

A policeman opened the door to the main office and pointed a revolver at the three employees, telling them to sit quietly. "Bep, we've had it," Gies whispered to Bep Voskuijl.

After the arrests, she went to the police station to offer a bribe for the Franks' release, but it was too late. On Aug. 8, they were sent to Westerbork, a concentration camp in eastern Holland from where they were later packed into cattle cars and deported to Auschwitz. A few months later, Anne and her sister Margot were transported to Bergen-Belsen.

Two of the helpers, Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman, were sent to labor camps, but survived the war.

Around 140,000 Jews lived in the Netherlands before the 1940-45 Nazi occupation. Of those, 107,000 were deported to Germany and only 5,200 survived. Some 24,000 Jews went into hiding, of which 8,000 were hunted down or turned in.

After the war, Otto Frank returned to Amsterdam and lived with the Gies family until he remarried in 1952. Miep worked for him as he compiled the diary, then devoted herself to talking about the diary and answering piles of letters with questions from around the world.

After Otto Frank's death in 1980, Gies continued to campaign against Holocaust-deniers and to refute allegations that the diary was a forgery.

She suffered a stroke in 1997 which slightly affected her speech, but she remained generally in good health as she approached her 100th birthday.

Her son Paul Gies said last year she was still receiving "a sizable amount of mail" which she handled with the help of a family friend. She spent her days at the apartment where she lived since 2000 reading two daily newspapers and following television news and talk shows.

Her husband died in 1993. She is survived by her son and three grandchildren.

Kate Moss "inspirational" to girl friends

nishtha — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:06:52 +0530

Supermodel Kate Moss has been hailed as "inspirational" by her friends as she apparently boosts their confidence and encourages them to dress well. The 35-year-old model's friend actress Sadie Frost said that Moss is always full of praise for those she loves and urges them to show off their best assets to impress, Contactmusic reported.

"Kate is inspirational. She's got a fantastic attitude to her body and the thing about her is she's a real woman's woman. She is the first to tell you that you look gorgeous," said Frost, mother of three children with ex-husband Jude Law. "She's always the first to compliment a girlfriend on how they look. And she means it," she added.

The 44-year-old actress admitted that she often admires Moss's figure but is happy with her own shape. "Kate has an amazing body. She's got a bum and legs I'd love to have, but that's her. I'm smaller," said Frost.

Giving up smoking raises diabetes risk, claims study

nishtha — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:27:15 +0530

Contrary to popular belief that giving up smoking is good for diabetics, a new study claimed that kicking the habit sharply increases the risk of developing the disease. American researchers found that quitters had a 70 per cent increased risk of developing type-two diabetes in the first six years as compared with non-smokers because they tend to put on weight.

The Johns Hopkins University team, however, stressed that smoking is a well known risk factor for type-two diabetes -- as well as many other health problems, such as heart disease, stroke and cancer. Researcher Dr Jessica Yeh said: "If you smoke, give it up. That's the right thing to do, but people have to also watch their weight. Quitters tend to put on weight because smoking acts to suppress appetite."

The study, based on 10,892 middle-aged adults who were followed for up to 17 years, found that the risk of developing type-two diabetes was highest in the first three years after giving up smoking, the BBC reported. Around 1.8 per cent of people giving up smoking developed type-two diabetes each year during that period. If quitters avoided developing the condition for 10 years, then their long-term risk returned to normal.

People who made no effort to give up smoking had a constant 30 per cent increased risk of type-two diabetes compared to non-smokers. Type-two diabetes means the body either fails to make enough of the hormone insulin, or cannot make proper use of it, leading to uncontrolled blood sugar levels. One of the major risk factors for the condition is being overweight.

The researchers found those who smoked the most and those who gained the most weight had the highest likelihood for developing diabetes after they quit.

On average, during the first three years of the study, quitters gained about 3.8kg. The researchers said doctors should keep in mind the importance of weight control when counselling people about giving up smoking.

The use of nicotine replacement therapy has been shown to blunt the weight gain associated with giving up smoking. Martin Dockrell, of the anti-smoking charity Ash, said: "The researchers are clear that smokers should quit but -- especially if you are a heavy smoker or are already overweight -- you might want to gently increase your exercise when you quit.

"If you are a smoker who is also overweight you should talk to your doctor about how to get the best from quitting. "A little more exercise could help improve your sense of well being, reduce weight gain and undo some of the harm done by smoking leading to a healthier, happier you."

Pat on head helps older people remember habitual tasks: Study

nishtha — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:20:11 +0530

Showing a way to older people struggling with bad memory, American scientists have claimed that doing something unusual like patting on the head effectively reduces repetition errors in their habitual tasks like taking the daily dose of medicine.

Researchers from Washington University in St Louis said taking a daily medicine in a routine and precise fashion can be a befuddling challenge for some senior citizens many of whom tend to err on the side of over-medication, taking a dangerous second dose when in doubt about the first. "To remedy this potential problem, older adults could be instructed to take their medication while placing one hand on their head or in some other unusual or silly way, like crossing their arms," lead author Mark McDaniel said.

He said, "Our results indicate that older adults can use these sorts of more complex motor tasks to effectively reduce repetition errors in habitual prospective memory tasks, such as taking a daily medication". The study, published in journal Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, examined whether the tendency of older adults to err on the side of repeating a poorly remembered habitual task could be reduced by providing advance instructions to omit doing a task if in doubt about whether it was previously executed.

It also tested whether doing something unusual while executing a task would help seniors remember having done it. In the study, participants were asked to push the F1 key on a computer keyboard once -- and only once -- at some point at least 30 seconds into a series of relatively simple, three-minute-long, letter-recognition tasks, such as pushing the computer key for the letter that comes next in the alphabet after a letter being displayed on the monitor.

The performance of older adults averaging 72 years of age was compared with results from a group of college students put through the same trials.

"When ongoing task demands were challenging, older adults committed more repetition errors than younger adults, regardless of whether they'd been told in advance to err on the side of omission told not to push the F1 key if they had any doubt about whether it had already been pushed once in the same trial," says McDaniel.

This finding, along with other data from the study, suggests that older participants can learn to monitor their output and make better mental notes regarding the completion of a prospective memory task. For applied purposes, using a distinct motor activity to minimise repetition errors in older adults' prospective memory tasks would seem to have great potential, he says.

Respect for elders 'is in the genes'

nishtha — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:11:09 +0530

Ever wondered why we respect our elders? Well, it's not just good manners, but it could be in our genes, says a new study. Researchers in France have carried out the study and discovered the practice may have its roots deep in evolution -- in fact, respect for elders is a trait which is in genes rather than learned, the Daily Mail reported.

They have based their findings after an analysis of the behaviour of a group of monkeys who, just like the most polite people, stopped and listened carefully whenever their elders made a pronouncement.

Although senior members of the monkey troop "talked" less, they were more likely to elicit a response from younger members, the study found. And, according to the researchers, the finding that primates other than humans appear to respect their elders suggests the trait is bred into us rather than learned.

In fact, the researchers studied the calls made by the nine female members of a group of Campbell's monkeys, which are native to west Africa. They found that the older monkeys called out less frequently but were more likely to receive a reply than the "chatterbox" youngsters.

"Age appeared a major factor in the contribution of individuals to vocal exchanges. Elders were less loquacious than younger individuals. Despite that, they received more responses," said the researchers from University of Rennes. Writing in the 'Biology Letters' journal, they said the older animals may have merited more attention because they had greater knowledge and a stabilising role on the group.

Positive lyrics can make children caring, responsible

nishtha — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:03:34 +0530

If your kids have developed a habit of enjoying music during bedtime, make sure you play some good numbers, as a new study claims listening to lyrics with positive messages make children more caring and socially responsible.

After years of studies purporting to show the harmful effects of young people's listening to songs with violent or misogynistic themes, a psychologist from the University of Sussex in England, Tobias Greitemeyer, has concluded that music containing positive messages has a beneficial impact on listeners.

"It's a very consistent effect," said Greitemeyer, whose team did a series of tests on groups of students. In their experiments, the participating students were randomly divided into two groups. One group listened to socially conscious songs or those with a neutral message, while the other was exposed to neutral, or meaningless lyrics.

In one of the tests, after the music had stopped a researcher "accidentally" knocked some pencils from a table and paused before beginning to collect them, The Guardian reported. On average, those who had heard songs such as Michael Jackson's Heal the World -- one of the songs with social message -- responded more quickly and picked up almost five times as many pencils as those in the other group.

Other volunteers were asked, after listening to the music, whether they would help with a separate research project. Almost three times as many in the "pro-social" group said they would, showing that they behave more considerately compared to others.

Men, women on different planets 'while on bed'

nishtha — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:55:12 +0530

It's often said that men are from Mars while women are from Venus. Now, a new study has claimed that they really are on different planets -- while on bed.

Researchers have found that while a man's body always reacts when he feels aroused, only some women's bodies do -- confirming the longheld belief that when it comes to human's natural urges, the genders can be hopelessly out of sync.

For their study, the researchers looked at a series of researches published between 1969 and 2007 involving more than 2,500 women and 1,900 men, the Daily Mail reported. Participants were asked how aroused they felt during and after exposure to a variety of stimuli such as sexual images. Their replies -- a subjective measure of arousal -- were compared with their physiological responses as measured by blood flow to the genitals.

The men's subjective and physiological responses matched closely, while there was more often an inconsistency between women's bodies and minds. Some women reported feeling aroused even though there was no discernible physical change. Others said they had not been aroused even though the physical signs suggested otherwise. Such a mismatch hardly ever occurred among men.

"We wanted to discover how closely people's subjective experience of sexual arousal mirrors their physiological genital response -- and whether this differs between men and women," Professor Meredith Chivers, of Queen's University in Ontario, who led the study, said. She said the findings, published in the latest issue of the 'Archives of Sexual Behaviour' journal, would be useful for future studies on the difference between the sexes and the way they feel about sex.

More reasons to shed that flab around the waist

megha — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:08:37 +0530

Shedding extra flab may be in vogue, but most of the health conscious people are not aware that excess fat around the waistline may facilitate long-term diseases, according to a recent survey.

According to the survey of 12,000 Europeans, almost nine in every 10 people had no idea that a thick waist, or visceral fat, was a sign of a build-up of a dangerous type of fat around the internal organs.

Only a quarter of those questioned thought being overweight was a risk to long-term health at all, found the survey by British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.

The visceral fat is strongly linked with type 2 diabetes and heart disease and most people would lose weight once they found out the risk, said the report.

It is thought that the danger of visceral fat is related to the release of proteins and hormones that can cause inflammation, which in turn can damage arteries and enter the liver, and affect how the body breaks down sugars and fats.

Report author Dr Terry Maguire, honorary senior lecturer at Queen's University in Belfast, said people did not know that visceral fat, which you cannot see or feel and which sits around the organs in the abdomen, is there or that it poses a problem.

"Most overweight people still see themselves as having a body image issue not a health problem and they need to understand the health benefits of weight loss as well as the cosmetic results," he was quoted by the BBC as saying.

Research shows that waist circumference is a good indicator of visceral fat and therefore of a person's risk of diseases associated with being overweight, such as type 2 diabetes. When weight is lost, visceral fat is more easily broken down for energy.

When asked about losing weight, two-thirds of respondents said they would go on a diet in the New Year.

However, Prof David Haslam, the co-author of the report and chair of the UK National Obesity Forum, cautioned that steady sustainable weight loss is important and that crash diets were likely to be unsuccessful.

"They can actually do more harm than good. Invariably weight is put back on, with some of the weight regained accumulating as visceral fat," he said.

The survey comes as Britain's health department announced that more than 300 of the 1,500 babies who were likely to have been born this New Year's Day could be overweight or obese by the time they start school unless action is taken.

'Women prefer cell phones over boyfriends'

sitansu — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:11:16 +0530

Mobile phone seems to have become first love of many girls as a survey found that losing their cell phones is more upsetting for women than splitting with their boyfriend.

In a survey of 4,000 women living in Australia, carried out by British pawnbroker Borro to know their most treasured possessions, four in every 10 women said they would be lost without their mobiles, but would happily go without a man in their life.

Majority of the women surveyed consider their mothers to be their most prized possession followed closely by their photographs and then their mobile phone, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Besides mother and mobile, women treasured their friends more than then their boyfriends, the study claimed.

Other items which made it to the list of most treasured items in a woman's life were diamond rings, pets, laptops and hair straighteners.

As part of the survey, when the women were asked whether they would dump their boyfriends for money, a large chunk said they would consider doing so if offered more than $ 1 million in cash.

The survey's results showed the changing focus of what is important in many women's lives, said Anne Hollonds from Relationship Australia.

"I think it fits within the fact that we are very focused on our own lives these days," Hollands added.

A new device that can curb snoring

nishtha — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:36:02 +0530

British scientists have developed a tiny device, of the size of a match box, that they believe could be a revolutionary cure for snoring. The device, which would be implanted in the chest, works by stimulating the heart muscles responsible for keeping the airways open during sleep.

The high-tech device -- Apnex System -- can also be programmed to switch itself on or off at the time patient goes to bed or wakes up. The user is also provided a switch to regulate it, incase they want to stay-up till late or lie-on. Although the device is still undergoing tests, it could help thousands of people who suffer from sleep apnoea, the snoring related condition that affects millions across the globe, Daily Mail reported.

Sleep apnoea is common in middle-aged men who are overweight, because excess fat around the neck puts pressure on the airways during sleep. Left untreated, it can raise the risk of high blood pressure and heart attacks. The Apnex is implanted beneath the collarbone on the right side of the torso. Two leads are wired up to muscles in the chest. Their job is to monitor breathing rate.

A separate lead is tunnelled under the skin to the hypoglossal nerve, which is found underneath the tongue and is responsible for activating the muscles around the throat. When the device is turned on, the sensors in the chest tell it when the patient is breathing in and out. The implant then sends a signal to stimulate the nerve during inhalation.

Once the hypoglossal nerve has been stimulated, it gets the muscles around the throat working properly so breathing is not disrupted and there is no snoring.

"The science behind the device was 'entirely plausible' and that stimulating the hypoglossal nerve will keep sleep apnoea at bay," said John Stradling, an expert in respiratory medicine at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford.

Pointing out that earlier efforts to make similar devices have had mixed results, Stradling said, "They worked to some extent ,but there were reports that patients could feel the device during the night, which kept them awake just as much as the sleep apnoea. And in some early models, the wires broke.

"It also involves surgery. I think this device might suit a few people, but it is a long way from becoming standard treatment," he added. Presently, the device is being tested in the US and Australia.

2009 saw fashion weeks galore

nishtha — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:30:07 +0530

Fashion weeks are usually preceded with a buzz among the fashionistas and the industry but year 2009 saw so many of them in the country that it almost snatched away the exclusiveness of the gala outings. The dust in the Indian fashion fraternity raised by a parallel fashion week along with the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW) a year ago finally settled. However, the fashion world got more and more decentralised with few takers for the multiplying number of fashion weeks.

"There has definitely been an overkill and I am not sure that there will be much business for the large number of fashion weeks," fashion designer Ritu Kumar told PTI. If the second edition of the Kolkata Fashion Week was a dismal show, the debut of Bangalore Fashion Week and the Hyderabad Fashion Week faded as soon as they emerged on the fashion scene.

"There is a difference between city-wise fashion weeks and a national fashion week. Those weeks are just a glamour and party event that does not end up in any major orders at all. Our fashion weeks are B2B events where people have to pay for their stall," Sunil Sethi President, Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) told PTI. "They do bring awareness but they should be called a fashion event not a fashion week as the participation is very erratic," he added.

However, a glimmer of hope came with the Van Heusen India Men's Week, a first of its kind fashion week in the haute couture history that was dedicated to explore opportunities in the burgeoning market of men's fashion. Achieving considerable success in it's debut, it led to India becoming only the fourth country to hold an all-men fashion week after London, New York and Paris. Trend wise, innovation became the key for both the old horses and the greenhorns as they played with a variety of themes in their collections.

India's tryst with fashion weeks may have happened just a decade back, but designers have learnt how to surprise their audiences, be it a dress with our PM Manmohan Singh emblazoned on it or a collection inspired by World War II. Couturists brought the Macedonian era come alive, blended Indo-Chinese culture magnificently and provided an icing on the cake by giving the 'Indian Saree' a unique turn to be worn over jeans in a bid to make it more catchy for the next generation.

"The year did start on a note of pessimism with orders being cancelled or reduced Internationally and on the domestic front payments were being extended. However, with the wedding season things now have improved especially for couturists," Sethi said.

Fashion weeks also saw stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sri Devi and Sushmita Sen lending Bollywood glamour to the fashion world.

However, it was difficult to point out whether fashion was using Bollywood or the stars were using the runway to promote their films.

The debate still goes on, but the showstopper for the fashion world was Sanjana Jon's 'starry' show at the WIFW that featured celebrity siblings including Salman Khan-Sohail Khan, Sushmita Sen-Rajiv Sen, Riya Sen-Raima Sen and Amaan Ali Khan-Ayaan Ali Khan.

Sanjana, sister of celebrity Indian-American fashion designer Anand Jon, had organised the show in support of her brother Anand Jon, who has been sentenced for 59 years of imprisonment in the US for multiple sexual abuse cases. But her debut at the runway raised some eyes over her credentials as a fashion designer. The year ended with a 'Gurgaon' edition of the first ever India International Fashion week which saw fashion designers from countries including UK, US, Tanzania, Canada, Pakistan, France, Denmark, China, Italy, Peru rubbing shoulders with their Indian counterparts.

"It's been a good year since all of us came together but there's just one fashion week for me and that's the WIFW," Rohit Bal said at the Chivas Studio.

"In the coming year we are looking for a better link-up with the textile ministry and hoping for them to give fashion world an industry status. We also want to take fashion forward by catching up with niche markets and a special focus will be on International fashion, from Japan to Paris," Sethi
said.

There might have been no 'Wardrobe Malfunctions' this time around, but with the Chennai Fashion Week coming to an end and the Pune Fashion Week and a fashion week for Goa to be held soon, one wonders whether the fashion world malfunctioned in making fashion available to one and all.