| Unfit men working long hours face greater heart risk, study shows Poor physical fitness and working more than 45 hours a week is potentially lethal combination for men aged 40-59Unfit, middle-aged men who work more than 45 hours a week are more than twice as likely to die of heart disease as those who devote less time to their jobs, new research medical research warns today.It identifies the combination of poor physical fitness and working for unusually long hours as a potentially lethal combination for men aged between 40 and 59. However, men who manage to remain physically active into middle age are not at risk, emphasising the health benefits of regular exercise.The findings in the study, in the medical journal Heart, reinforce the health risks being run by men in that age group who are part of Britain's long hours culture. Working excessive hours is thought to damage cardiovascular health by causing someone's heart rate and blood pressure to go up and stay raised for long periods. This happens whether the work itself is physically demanding or not.The heart health and physical fitness levels of some 5,000 Danish men aged 40-59 working for 14 companies was examined for 30 years by a team from the National Research Centre for Denmark's Working Environment.Participants did cycling tests to indicate how fit they are and disclosed how many hours they worked a week. More than two-thirds worked between 41 and 45 hours, but almost one in five clocked up more than 45 hours.Among unfit men, those who were in the latter category were more than twice as likely to die of heart trouble than those who worked for less than 40 hours.Heart health campaigners said that the study underlined the need for middle-aged men to maintain a good level of fitness by taking part in regular physical exercise, despite the pressures on their time.Dr Jane Landon, deputy director of the National Heart Forum, a coalition of 65 health organisations which aims to reduce the damage done by poor heart health, said: "Men in this age group don't need to be doing extreme sports but they do need to be keeping physically fit by, for example, walking or cycling or even doing gardening or DIY, which all contribute to a good level of fitness."Men's risk of developing heart trouble increases as they head into middle age, and is heightened if they put on weight, or have a poor diet or are unfit. The research's conclusion that fit men of the same age and working patterns as those who are unfit proved the protective effects of regular exercise, she said.Cathy Ross, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said that men should try to be physically active for at least 30 minutes at a time five times a week. "We already know that working long hours can increase blood pressure, a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease."Being physically active helps to control your blood pressure and previous studies have shown that being physically fit can help you cope with the demands of long hours, physically demanding jobs and shift work," she said."This study adds to these findings by demonstrating that men who are physically active as part of their everyday life do not increase their risk of coronary heart disease, irrespective of the number of hours they work."Heart attackHealthMedical researchDenis Campbellguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
[news] Paul Rodhouse appointed to Science Innovation and Strategy Board Professor Paul Rodhouse, biological oceanographer with the British Antarctic Survey, has been appointed to the Science and Innovation Strategy Board (SISB) of the Natural Environment Research Council. SISB is responsible for developing the NERC science strategy, and advising the Council on funding of new programmes and initiatives.Professor Paul RodhousePaul, who is also Principal Scientist f... antarctica.ac.uk |
Claims to BP Fund Attract Scrutiny People are submitting questionable claims that range from grocery money to $20 billion, with little documentation. feeds.nytimes.com |
Lucy Mangan: They can't pull the wool over my eyes. Well, not any more Maybe it's late-onset teenage rebellion, or some kind of early pre-menopausal hormonal adjustment, but a new questioning spirit is stirring within meI am not one of life's natural interrogators. It wasn't the way I was brought up. In fact, looking back, I suspect there were North Korean children who questioned aspects of the regime under which they laboured more closely than I did. It never occurred to me to ask why we couldn't have a drink with soup1, why bumphled cushions couldn't be sat on before 2pm2, why butter was for grown-ups and margarine for children3 and why napkins had always to be folded so the motif was in the bottom left-hand corner4. (Answers, extracted much later in life, below.)However. Things change. Maybe it's late-onset teenage rebellion, maybe it's some kind of early pre-menopausal hormonal adjustment, but of late I have felt a certain new questioning spirit stir within me, a light but distinct scepticism colouring my vision and displacing some of the head-bobbing compliance that has led so many to dismiss me, rightly, as eight-tenths mud turtle.Two recent stories have encouraged me across the threshold into this new world. First, there was the article in the British Medical Journal on how drug companies tried to parlay a claim that 43% of women suffered from "sexual dysfunction" into a lucrative market for Viagra-like pills among the female population. I remember thinking, back in 1999, when the survey in question first appeared, that it seemed more likely – based on anecdotal evidence, common sense and possession of a vagina – that most of those women were, in fact, suffering from "crap shag syndrome". Due to the simpler and happier arrangement of their genitals, men can enjoy themselves by putting said genitals more or less anywhere, as Portnoy's Complaint famously testifies. Julie Burchill once wrote a column opining, in passing, that most men would have sex with mud if there was nothing else on offer. She got a letter from one reader the next day saying that in his adolescence he had done exactly that. Quod erat, possibly on a bit of boggy wasteland near you, demonstrandum.Until they are much older, wiser and/or forcibly instructed otherwise, men approach ladies' bits in the same gung-ho manner. Disappointment is bound to ensue. Such a survey makes you suspect that there are no women involved in science at all. Anyone who has been drinking with her girlfriends and heard the vastly differing sexual experiences that dwell within any one of them, let alone the group, will tell you there's no such thing as a genital attrition rate of 43%. It's all down to chemistry (in the metaphorical rather than pharmaceutical sense) and the dextrous or otherwise wielding of the penoid. I knew that. We all did. But an assertion came from an authoritative-looking group and I thought, "Oh well, there must be something in it." Fool.Ditto the news last week that women being "too posh to push" was a myth. Again, I always thought that one didn't stack up. I know a lot of women. I know quite a lot of doctors. And knowing what I did about them all, I never could visualise a situation in which they'd ask for and agree to (respectively) a caesarean in order to avoid the messy business of natural birth. But again, I presumed that somebody, somewhere knew better. And now, new research reveals, they don't. The vast, vast majority of C-sections are apparently done for medical reasons. That makes a lot more sense.Of course, eventually I shall have to question the new answers, but for now I'm going to concentrate on following up old questions. At last, I'll have a hobby. I'm going to start by asking my mother why the napkins always have to be folded so that the motif lies in the bottom left-hand corner. "Because that's the right way" will no longer suffice. It is a new dawn, and I need answers.1 Because soup's a drink and a meal. 2 To make the bumphling worthwhile. 3 Because of the war. 4 Because that's the right way.Medical researchSexual healthHealthRelationshipsLucy Manganguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Climate change will cost a billion people their homes, says report British scientists will warn Cancún summit that entire nations could be floodedDevastating changes to sea levels, rainfall, water supplies, weather systems and crop yields are increasingly likely before the end of the century, scientists will warn tomorrow.A special report, to be released at the start of climate negotiations in Cancún, Mexico, will reveal that up to a billion people face losing their homes in the next 90 years because of failures to agree curbs on carbon emissions.Up to three billion people could lose access to clean water supplies because global temperatures cannot now be stopped from rising by 4C."The main message is that the closer we get to a four-degree rise, the harder it will be to deal with the consequences," said Dr Mark New, a climate expert at Oxford University, who organised a recent conference entitled "Four Degrees and Beyond" on behalf of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. Tomorrow the papers from the meeting will be published to coincide with the start of the Cancún climate talks.A key feature of these papers is that they assume that even if global carbon emission curbs were to be agreed in the future, these would be insufficient to limit global temperature rises to 2C this century – the maximum temperature rise agreed by politicians as acceptable. "To have a realistic chance of doing that, the world would have to get carbon emissions to peak within 15 years and then follow this up with a massive decarbonisation of society," said Dr Chris Huntingford, of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Oxfordshire.Few experts believe this is a remotely practical proposition, particularly in the wake of the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks last December – a point stressed by Bob Watson, former head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and now chief scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. As he put it: "Two degrees is now a wishful dream."Researchers such as Richard Betts, head of climate impacts at the Met Office, calculate that a 4C rise could occur in less than 50 years, with melting of ice sheets and rising sea levels.According to François Gemenne, of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations in Paris, this could lead to the creation of "ghost states" whose governments-in-exile would rule over scattered citizens and land lost to rising seas.Small island states such as Tuvalu and the Maldives are already threatened by inundation. "What would happen if a state was to physically disappear but people want to keep their nationalities?" he asked. "It could continue as a virtual state even though it is a rock under the ocean."Peter Stott of the Met Office said the most severe effect of all these changes is likely to involve changes to the planet's ability to soak up carbon dioxide. At present, around 50% of man-made carbon emissions are absorbed by the sea and by plants on land."However, the amount of carbon dioxide that can be absorbed decreases as temperatures rise. We will reach a tipping point from which temperatures will go up even faster. The world will then start to look very different."Cancún climate change conference 2010 | COP16Climate changeGlobal climate talksEnvironmental sustainabilityRobin McKieguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |