Leading South African sports scientist Tim Noakes has some not-so-sweet news: He reckons sugar may be more harmful to our health than tobacco.

Noakes said the similarities between smoking and consuming sugar-based products included addiction and the fact their producers deny their negative health effects.

The tobacco industry misled the whole world because they knew nicotine was addictive,” he told the Sunday Times. “The carbohydrate [companies] know that refined carbohydrates are addictive. They know that it’s toxic.”

He claimed the sugar industry funds most dietetic organisations so few dieticians would speak out against it. Noakes also railed against the medical profession, which he said was complicit in promoting sugar, silobreaker.com noted.

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Could you give up sugar? Share your thoughts by commenting below.

While studies have long shown the role that birth order plays in a person’s personality, new research suggests it also helps shape individuals’ financial makeup.

A study by CouponCabin confirmed birth order theorist Alfred Adler’s beliefs that firstborns are likely to be power-hungry conservatives, highly responsible and organized, as they’ve been expected to lead by example during their formative years.

Read more here (via The Huffington Post)

A new birth control procedure shows promising signs of becoming another viable option for people who don’t want children now, but may want them some day.

Techcitement points out that the procedure, which is in advanced clinical trials in India, has been found to be 100 percent effective.

The whole procedure takes about 15 minutes and lasts ten years or more and is more easily reversible than a vasectomy.

Read more here (via The Huffington Post)

Suleika Jaouad, a writer and recent college graduate, is chronicling her experiences as a young adult with cancer in a new weekly column.

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Did you or someone you know suffer from cancer in their 20s? Share your stories with us.

While HIV/AIDS and cancer loom large on South Africans’ awareness radar, most people give little thought to the world’s number one killer: cardiovascular disease.

(more…)

The Christmas and New Year festivities are a thing of the past, and overindulgence over this period may have left many of us with a few extra bulges around the belly or bum.

But a worrying 61% of South Africans are either overweight or obese – this is when your body mass index (BMI) is more than 30. Are you one of the statistics? We’ll show you how to calculate your BMI or your body adiposity index (BAI), which determines your body fat percentage.

CALCULATING YOUR BODY MASS INDEX:

To calculate your BMI, divide your current weight in kilograms by the square of your height in metres.

For example: A woman who weighs 50kg and is 1,64m tall will have a BMI of 18.6

50kg divided by (1.64 x 1.64) = 18.6 BMI

HOW HEALTHY ARE YOU?

People with BMI’s of 25 to 29.9 are considered overweight, while those with BMI’s of 30 and above are considered obese. Those with BMI’s of 18.5 or less are considered underweight.

It is important to note that the following factors may lead to an  inaccurate reading:

• You are under 18 years of age
• You are pregnant or breastfeeding
• You are a competitive athlete or a body builder
• You are convalescent or elderly

CALCULATING YOUR  BODY ADIPOSITY INDEX:

Your body adiposity index is a measure of the percentage of your total body mass that is composed of fat (as opposed to fat-free mass which includes everything else other than fat that makes up the body).

To calculate your BAI, divide your hip circumference in centimetres by your height in metres to the power of 1.5 and subtract 18, or click here.

 BAI = (hip circumference in centimetres) / (height in metres)^1.5 − 18

For example: A woman with a hip circumference of 87cm and is 1.65m tall will have BAI of 23%

Note: Hip circumference measurements should be made by placing tape measure around the hips so that it passes over the greatest protrustion of the buttocks as viewed from the side.

To read more about the increasing obesity pandemic in South Africa, pick up a copy of the latest NewsNow and continue reading page 12.

Information sourced from ShapeSense and Health24.

Getting hitched before you’re legal could up your chances of developing a mental disorder later on – a new study has revealed.

According to Time Magazine, the psychology journal Pedriatrics recently published a study that has linked early marriage to problems such as depression, bipolar disorder and substance abuse, among others.

Read the full story here.

Necessity is the mother of invention? Not always, it seems.

Next week, the makers of blu Cigs electronic cigarettes are scheduled to release a new charging pack that “will allow customers to find other blu Cig users when they are within 50 feet (when voluntarily activated),” a blu Cig PR rep emailed us.

Read the full story here (via LA Times)

The makers of Nurofen Plus recalled the tablets tonight and confirmed sabotage was suspected in packets of the painkillers.

Five reported cases of other manufacturers’ medicines were discovered in boxes of Nurofen Plus with a spokesman for manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser (UK) Ltd saying: “Sabotage is suspected and we are working with the police on a formal investigation to find the person or persons responsible.

Read the full story here (via The Telegraph)

Jane Fonda was right! Elderly women really do age better if they have active sex lives

Elderly women with active sex lives are healthier, happier and cope better with ageing, reseachers have discovered.

Read the full story here (via The Telegraph)

Our national health minister Aaron Motsoaledi has enraged us here at IOL Lifestyle.

We carried a report from the news agency AFP, quoting him as saying that the country will no longer distribute free infant milk to public hospitals and clinics.

Read the full story here (via IOL)

Patients with the rare form of cancer suffered by Apple Inc’s Steve Jobs face a tougher battle if the disease recurs, because of the methods used in fighting it.

Jobs said on Wednesday that he could no longer be chief executive of the company he co-founded. He had gone on medical leave in January for an undisclosed condition after years of fighting a rare type of pancreatic cancer and other health issues.

Read the full story here (via Reuters)

New research suggests that taking medicine for ear infections might be related to a reckless appetite.

Antibiotics have done wonders for extending human life by killing off deadly pathogens. But they target “a particular disease the way a nuclear bomb targets a criminal, causing much collateral damage,” says Karen Kaplan in the Los Angeles Times.

Read the full story here (via The Week)

Do you eat when you’re stressed? This new study knows why.

A new Canadian study has pinpointed how stress can temporarily rewire the nerve cells in the brain to ramp up hunger pangs. The findings finally put some science behind what people have thought for years.

Read the full story here (via The Globe and Mail)

Shining a light on curvaceous women has been applauded as a positive movement in the fashion industry.

But could it be as unhealthy as the skinny models are?

Read the full story here (via News24)

Tougher action – including taxing junk food – is needed by all governments if the obesity crisis is going to be tackled, experts say.

The international group of researchers, who have published a series of articles in The Lancet, said no country had yet got to grips with the problem.

Read the rest of this article here (via BBC News)

Looking at  responses to the green paper on National Health Insurance, one is reminded of the saying “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”

If they are to be believed, South Africa is facing potentially disastrous times, with not just hell but damnation awaiting the architects of the insurance scheme and those who might try to implement it. Read the rest of this article here. (via Mail and Guardian)

In a finding suggesting powerful psychiatric benefits for a component of fish oil, a study published Wednesday has linked military suicides to low levels of docosahexaenoic acid and found that service personnel with higher levels of DHA in their blood were less likely to take their own lives.

Read the rest of this article here (via The Week)

Why does one person die younger and another survive to old age?

Lifestyle and genetic factors play a role, but argues Prof David Barker, a better predictor of future health is our birthweight and what it tells us about our development in the womb.

Heart disease, cancer, diabetes. These are some of the chronic diseases that determine lifespan.

Read the rest of this article here (via BBC News)

Growing up starved of calories may give you a higher risk of heart disease 50 years on, research suggests.

Researchers in The Netherlands tracked the heart health of Dutch women who lived through the famine at the end of World War II. Those living on rations of 400-800 calories a day had a 27% higher risk of heart disease in later life.

Read the rest of this article here (via BBC News)