Now sitting down is bad for you

This is all just the usual epidemiological nonsense. There is no double-blind support for it. All that it probably shows is that people in poor health sit down more. Big surprise!

RELAXING at home can have deadly consequences for women who sit for more than six hours a day during their leisure time, regardless of how much they exercise, scientists say.

A new study from American Cancer Society researchers found that women in particular who sat for longer than six hours a day during their leisure time - engaged in activities such as watching television, surfing the internet and reading - had higher death rates.

And it did not matter how much daily exercise they did, the risk remained virtually unchanged.

Several studies have already shown there is a link between long sitting times and obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease risk factors, and unhealthy diets. But the latest study - which surveyed 123,216 people for 13 years - found a link between the amount of time people spent sitting and their death rates.

It found that the more leisure time people spent sitting, the higher the risk of death, particularly for women. Women who said they sat for more than six hours a day during their leisure hours were found to be 37 per cent more likely to die during the period of the study, than those who sat for less than three hours a day.

Men who sat for more than six hours were 18 per cent more likely to die than those who sat for less than three.

The results remained virtually unchanged when physical activity was factored in. However, lack of exercise combined with long sitting times was a killer combination. Women who sat more and were less physically active were 94 per cent more likely to die compared with those who sat the least and were the most active. For men the figure was 48 per cent.

Alpa Patel, who led the team of researchers, said long sitting times were shown to have important metabolic consequences influencing things such as cholesterol and resting blood pressure, which were biomarkers of obesity and cardiovascular and other chronic diseases.

The study concluded that public health messages needed to encourage people to reduce the time they spent sitting as well as promoting them to exercise.

"Because a sizeable fraction of the population spends much of their time sitting, it is beneficial to encourage sedentary individuals to stand up and walk around as well as to reach optimal levels of physical activity," Mr Patel said.

SOURCE






Now swimming pools are bad for you

This seems very confused and is in any case a study in laboratory glassware rather than in real life. They found that swimming pool water was more toxic but instead of blaming people peeing in the pool etc., they blamed the disinfectant used! And they end up recommending chlorine as a disinfectant -- which is the one mostly used anyway!

Swimming pools can give you cancer, because disinfectants in the water react with sunscreen, sweat, and skin to form a toxic cocktail of chemicals, a study has suggested. The disinfectant used to keep pool water free from disease can also react with swimmers' urine and hair to cause conditions including asthma and bladder cancer.

Products like sunscreen and oil are packed with nitrogen So is air. Air is MOSTLY nitrogen!], which reacts with the disinfectant to create toxic chemicals capable of mutating genes. These mutations contribute to birth defects, accelerate the ageing process, cause breathing problems, and even induce cancer after long-term exposure.

A team of researchers from the University of Illinois compared samples of tap water and pool water and found using advanced DNA technology that pool water samples led to more cell damage in humans.

Lead researcher Professor of Genetics Michael Plewa said: "All sources of water possess organic matter that comes from decaying leaves, microbes and other dead life forms.

"In addition to organic matter and disinfectants, pool waters contain sweat, hair, skin, urine, and consumer products such as cosmetics and sunscreens from swimmers. "The study compared different disinfection methods and environmental conditions and our results proved that all disinfected pool samples exhibited more DNA damage than the source tap water.

"Care should be taken in selecting disinfectants to treat recreational pool water. "The data suggest that agents containing the chemical bromine should be avoided as disinfectants of recreational pool water. "The best method to treat pool waters is a combination of UV treatment with chlorine as compared to chlorination alone."

Prof Plewa also said that carbon should be removed before disinfection when pool water is being recycled.

He added: "Swimmers can also help reduce the toxicity of pool water by showering before entering the water. "Pool owners should also remind users about the potential harm caused by urinating in a pool. "These simple steps can greatly reduce the production of toxic disinfection by-products."

SOURCE