Teenage Obesity – The Silent Killer

Obesity continues to rise with about 15% of the target audience being teens. With both parents working in a fast-paced world teens often have to make their own food choices. Most of them prefer “junk food” they can grab while watching television or playing video games. Lack of physical activity largely contributes to the growing problem.

Teenage obesity usually leads to adult obesity. While it is rare that teens experience the health problems associated with obesity, they need to be aware that those problems are likely to appear at some point in their life. Studies have shown that severely obese young females could lose an average of four to eight years off their normal life expectancy. For males in the same age group the numbers are much higher at twelve to twenty years.

Teenage Obesity And Discrimination
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Teens who are obese face ridicule from their peers. During the teenage years physical beauty is of great importance. Youth magazines flaunt petite girls along with muscular, well built males. The clothing market directed at the youth generally does not offer fashionable clothing for obese teens. This alone can lead to low self-esteem.

The most popular girls and boys are nearly always small and attractive. Studies have shown that the overweight teen is more likely to be the subject bullying and name-calling. This can lead to social withdrawal, unhappiness, and can even go as far as causing mental illness. Teenage obesity often leads to teenage depression. Depression is listed as one of the top causes for teen suicide.


Teenage Obesity – The Solution
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Parents have a responsibility to teach and guide their children, including teaching them proper nutrition. Eating habits that are formed during the teen years are likely to carry over into adulthood. Offer healthy snacks such as yogurt, popcorn, nuts, low fat chips, and fresh fruit. Avoid fried foods at meals and offer as many fresh vegetables as possible. Discourage sugary drinks and teach the importance of plenty of water.

Encourage your teen to stay active. Give them chores such as helping in the garden or washing the car. Take family hikes on local nature trails or visit the zoo. Bicycling and swimming are other family oriented activities which can help to reduce a sedentary lifestyle.

One final note to make is to always show your love. Encourage your teen to make the right choices and give them your full support. Be a good role model and focus on providing the proper nutrition at your family meals. Encourage activity and plan family outings that involve some sort of physical participation. Understand that teenage obesity needs to be addressed early in life in order to prevent complications when they reach adulthood.

Desktop Linux hurts Microsoft

Linux has kept a big chunk of the server business out of Microsoft’s hands. But in 2008, Linux will hurt Microsoft on the desktop. Here’s how.

A new computing platform
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Thanks to Moore’s Law and evolving application needs, a new computing platform arrives every 10 years. Mainframes in the ’50s, minicomputers in the ’60s, PCs in the ’70s, microcontrollers in the ’80s, PDAs and cell phones in the ’90s and now sub-$400 - soon to be sub-$300 notebooks.

Small and light enough to be carried everywhere, these sub-notes provide Internet access, PDA functionality and basic mail and document creation functionality at a rock-bottom price. Asustek is expected to build 1,000,000 Eee sub-notes in Q1 ‘08 alone. Asustek’s competitors are just getting warmed up.

What can Microsoft do?
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Microsoft has gotten fat on the $50 Windows tax it charges PC manufacturers. But on a razor-thin margin vendors can’t afford Windows.So they’re going with Linux. If Asustek sells 5 million Eee’s, and their competitors sell another 5 million, several million consumers will be introduced to desktop Linux for the first time.And millions of copies of Windows and Office won’t be sold.

Microsoft will skate in ‘08
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For all the attention Apple gets for its growing market share, the Linux-based sub-$400 notebook/sub-$200 desktop unit sales will be several times as large in 2008. Even combined this won’t hurt Microsoft in 2008, thanks to the growing migration to Vista.

2009 is a different story. 25 million Linux desktops will take a bite out of Microsoft sales - one that Wall Street will certainly notice.

The Storage Bits take
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Microsoft’s days as a de facto monopoly are coming to an end - and not a moment too soon. Increasingly desperate attacks on Linux will intensify, but how does Microsoft go after Wal-Mart?

Popular "'Medical myths'" Busted

Some claim drinking eight glasses of water a day leads to good health, while reading in dim light damages eyesight.Others believe we only use 10% of our brains or that shaving legs causes hair to grow back thicker.

But a review of evidence by US researchers surrounding seven commonly-hold beliefs suggests they are actually "medical myths".Some are utterly untrue, while others have no evidential proof, the British Medical Journal reports.Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis hunted medical literature for evidence on each claim.They found no evidence supporting the need to drink eight glasses of water a day.

Medical myths
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>> In fact, studies suggest that adequate fluid intake is often met by drinking juice, milk, and even caffeine-rich tea and coffee.Data also suggests drinking excessive amounts of water can be dangerous.

>> The belief that we only use 10% of our brains appears to be completely untrue.

Studies of patients with brain damage suggest that damage to almost any area of the brain has specific and lasting effects on mental, vegetative and behavioural capabilities.Brain imaging studies also show that no area of the brain is completely silent or inactive.

>> And the belief that hair and fingernails continue to grow after death may be an optical illusion caused by retraction of the skin after death.

The actual growth of hair and nails requires a complex interplay of hormonal regulation not present after death.

>> Again, illusion may be to blame for the belief that shaving hair causes it to grow back faster, darker, and coarser, report author Rachel Vreeman told the BMJ.

The stubble resulting from shaving grows out without the finer taper seen at the ends of unshaven hair, giving the impression of thickness and coarseness.

>> Again, expert opinion is that reading in dim light does not damage your eyes. And there is little evidence to support the banning mobile phones from hospitals on the basis of electromagnetic interference.

>> Finally, eating turkey - and the tryptophan amino acid it contains - does not make people especially drowsy.

Indeed, turkey, chicken and minced beef contain similar amounts of tryptophan.

The researchers explained: "Any large meal can induce sleepiness because blood flow and oxygenation to the brain decrease, and meals rich in protein or carbohydrate may cause drowsiness. Wine may also play a role."

Dr David Tovey, editor of Clinical Evidence journal, said: "The difficulty is it is often hard to disprove a theory."On the flip-side, absence of evidence does not necessarily mean absence of effect."Where reliable evidence becomes really important is in helping people make serious decisions about harms and risks."Many of these 'myths' are innocuous. However, we are still finding evidence that runs contrary to current practice and what we expect."He gave the example of the relatively recent U-turn in advice over sleeping positions for babies to cut cot deaths.
Experts now recommend babies are positioned on their backs when sleeping to reduce the risk of sudden infant death.