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Expat wanderer

Crash Diets ‘May Reduce Life span’

I started to file this under Mating Behavior, and then I had to stop and think . . . do women crash diet to be more attractive to men, or because they are comparing themselves to other women?

From BBC Health News:

Scottish scientists have found that binge eating and crash dieting may significantly reduce life expectancy.

Researchers from Glasgow University observed that fish given a “binge then diet” food regime had a reduced lifespan of up to 25%.

Their study compared the growth rate, success of reproduction and lifespan of stickleback fish.
They believe the findings could have implications for teenagers and children who follow extreme patterns of dieting. This is because they are still growing.

The study was conducted by researchers in the University of Glasgow’s faculty of biomedical and life sciences.

The findings are published in the journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

May 3, 2008 Posted by | Diet / Weight Loss, Experiment, Family Issues, Health Issues | 13 Comments

Not your Kuwaiti Dust Storm

This is from Thursday’s Arab Times. Although it is not new news, it contains information I didn’t know – that the sand, full of allergens, was not Kuwaiti dust, and we can expect another storm Tuesday and many through the summer, due to lack of rainfall.

Storm you can ‘taste’
KUWAIT CITY : The sandstorm that raged in parts of Kuwait Wednesday afternoon was carried by Southwesterly winds blowing from North of Saudi Arabia and South of Syria and Iraq at speeds of 55 km/hr, says Musaed Al Hammad, head of Mirzam Observatory. He was talking to the Arab Times soon after his observatory conducted studies on the storm. Musaed said “In Kuwait City and Ahmedi the wind speed was 36 km/hr. The visibility in most parts affected by the dust storm was about 100 m, while in the Kuwait City it was reduced to zero. The sandstorm forced airport authorities to divert incoming flights to neighboring countries, operations manager at Kuwait International Airport, Issam Al Zamel told a news agency.
. . . . . . .

Mirzam Observatory sent samples of the dust to a laboratory, and tests revealed that the dust particles were not from the deserts of Kuwait, and contained cement particles and allergy-causing germs, the astronomer said.

Musaed added breathing in such particles is potentially risky for people prone to bronchitis and other respiratory illnesses. “This finding could open new vistas in the treatment of allergies in Kuwait. “Dust storms arising out of Kuwaiti deserts are usually very slow and linger for a long time, unlike the one that hit Kuwait like a flash on Wednesday. “The visibility was reduced to very low levels because as the storm arrived in Kuwait the wind lost steam and the dust particles gathered in the atmosphere,” Musaed noted. . . . .

As the rainfall was scant this year, all wind conditions in summer will likely turn into dust storms, Musaed said. “So we can expect more dust storms in the future.” Mirzam Observatory has forecasted another dust storm next week on Tuesday. “However, it will not be as bad as Wednesday’s. The dust storms in future will be much milder.”

May 3, 2008 Posted by | Community, ExPat Life, Health Issues, Kuwait, Living Conditions, Weather | 5 Comments