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BBC News / January 8, 2008

Healthy living ‘can add 14 years’
Flats on an estate
All social classes are at risk from an unhealthy lifestyle
Taking exercise, not drinking too much alcohol, eating enough fruit and vegetables and not smoking can add up to 14 years to your life, a study says.

Research involving 20,000 people over a decade found those who failed on all criteria were four times more likely to have died than those who succeeded.

The findings held true regardless of how overweight or poor they were.

The Public Library of Science Medicine study suggests many could increase their lifespan through simple changes.

The research was carried out by the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council in the English county of Norfolk between 1993 and 2006.

Participants were aged between 45 and 79. They were socially mixed although overwhelmingly white, and as far as they were aware at the time, did not have cancer or any heart problems.

Taking off the years

A point was awarded for each of the following: not currently smoking, consuming between one and 14 units of alcohol per week (the equivalent of between half a glass and seven glasses of wine), eating five servings of fruit and vegetables each day and not being inactive.

It means a large proportion of the population really could feel health benefits through moderate changes
Professor Kay-Tee Khaw
University of Cambridge

This last category was defined as either having a sedentary occupation and taking half an hour of exercise a day, or simply having a non-sedentary job like a nurse or plumber.

Not only did the team find that those with four points were significantly less likely to have died over the period than those with none, they also found that a 60-year-old person with a score of zero had the same risk of dying as a 74-year-old with the full four points.

“We’ve known that individually, measures such as not smoking and exercising can have an impact upon longevity, but this is the first time we have looked at them altogether,” said Professor Kay-Tee Khaw, who led the research.

“And we also found that social class and BMI – body mass index – really did not have a role to play.

“It means a large proportion of the population really could feel health benefits through moderate changes.”

BEHAVIOUR AND LIFESPAN
Impact of behaviour on health
The chart above shows survival rates during the follow-up study
Cumulative survival was about 75% for those who did none of the four health behaviours
People who undertook all four behaviours reached 95%

It was in the reduction of deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease where the findings were most pronounced, with those scoring zero five times more likely to succumb than those scoring four.

But there was also a relationship between score and cancer deaths.

While the main analysis excluded people with known disease, the researchers found that those with serious conditions fared better the higher they scored than those who scored lower.

Health campaigners welcomed the study.

“This is good news and shows that by living a healthy life, people can reduce their risk of dying from heart and circulatory disease,” said Judy O’Sullivan of the British Heart Foundation.

“By not smoking, drinking alcohol in moderation, taking regular physical activity and eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, people can improve their chances of living longer.”

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “Everyone has responsibility for their own health, which was highlighted last year when we kickstarted the Small Change, Big Difference initiative to show people that there are simple changes they can make in their lives that will have a direct impact on their health.”

Hey guys, just heard of something cool. Yahoo Maps India just released driving directions for India. Something unique about these directions is that they are structured in the “indian directions” way meaning they use landmarks more than street names, etc.

Try it out here and see what you think:
directions from goregaon to andheri

This is the first launch, so the directions may not be the best (you guys probably know more), but take a look and see what you think!

PS – if you are not going to drive, they even tell you an estimated rickshaw fare!

hey guys, most of you probably know about this by now, but i came across an interesting article about it during my lunch break.
India's President!
~Veer

Here’s one IQ test i found really intriguing.
It’s a flash game. Open above attachment in Internet Explorer or Firefox.
http://mamania.org/random/Takagism.swf
There are 13 items hidden in this room in order to let you get out of this room.

If you find:
0-6 items, your IQ is very low
6-8 items, Low IQ
9-10 items, u r normal
11-12 items, your IQ is high, above the average.
13 items, get out of the room and consider yourself very rare!

I could find 12 items, i am still searching for the 13th item to get out of the room. But, try it out. It will keep your mind occupied and it’s fun

Check out this video of the new type of computer that Microsoft and a few others are working on, we should start seeing it in places like interactive restaurant menus right on the table and some casinos by the end of 2007, and of course in our homes soon after that.

Since some of you may be wondering, here is my understanding of why DST saves energy. You can add to the comments if you feel I have been unclear or left out something

To understand why DST saves energy, we have to examine two cases:

1) In the Winter (this is “normal” time, before Daylight savings was invented), we set our clocks back. Meaning, if yesterday sun rose at 7am, today it would rise at 6am. Since the days get smaller naturally in the winter, this change helps us save energy in the morning, by not having to turn on the lights when we wake up because the sun is rising earlier now. This however, also causes our days to END earlier. This is OK in the winter however, because the days are smaller anyway and the weather is not suitable for out doors. Thus, losing an hour in the evening doesn’t really matter as we would stay indoors anyway.

2) In the summer (the actual “Daylight Savings Time” period), we spring forward and the sun rises and sets an hour LATER. Meaning, if the sun was going to rise at 5am yesterday, it rises at 6am today. This causes us to lose an hour in the morning but gain one in the evening as now the sun sets an hour later. Because the sun sets later in the day in summer, this encourages people to go outdoors more, and this in turn saves energy (from lights, TV, maybe AC). The reason losing an hour in the morning is OK in the summer is that the summer sun tends to rise earlier than in Winter anyway, so losing an hour of sunlight in the morning doesn’t hurt us much.

Now we come to, what has changed in 2007?

In 2007, we extended the summer time (the 2nd case) by 1 month. Where the DST used to last from start of April to end of October, it now lasts from Mid March to Mid November (adding two weeks to each end of the old DST period). This is essentially done to prolong the evenings and encourage people to go out more in hopes that that will save energy.

Will this ploy to save energy by congress actually work? Thats to be seen I guess. All I know is that at Yahoo we went crazy for the past few weeks trying to fix up all our software to handle DST changes gracefully (this is a bigger deal than it sounds…kind of like another Y2k).