Features

By Nancy Clanton 

Want to make your parents happy? Move out.

New research suggests people with kids are happier in their later life than people without children, but only if their children have left the nest.

Scientists at Heidelberg University in Germany used data on 55,000 people ages 50 and older in 16 European countries. The information came from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe database.

The results, published in journal PLOS One, suggest that parenthood makes people happier as they age. One reason could be that parents see their grown children as a form of social support that “may become important in the later states of a person’s life”.

Past surveys have focused on parents whose kids still live at home. These often show that people with kids aren’t as happy as their childless peers because they have less free time, sleep and money.

But Christoph Becker and his team found that “when children grow up and move out, they provide social enrichment to their parents minus the day-to-day stress of looking after them”. Grown children may also give something back by providing care and financial support to their parents, he said. “Hence, children’s role as caregivers, financial support or simply as social contact might outweigh negative aspects of parenthood.”

Becker told CNN that “having a social network corresponds to greater life satisfaction, but that doesn’t have to come from children”.

People without children can get enough social satisfaction from close relationships with friends or family members.

CNN wrote that Becker plans to track happiness for the same people over many years to study how well-being changes as people age.

“Literature has suggested that there might be U-shaped connection between age and happiness: people become less happy in middle age, but more happy in older age,” Becker told CNN. “We want to test if we find a similar relationship in our data, depending again on parenthood and social networks.”

Does your Android smartphone run on Oreo or on pie? Which is yummier? Does your car model have a name or a number? Does it matter at all?

It is interesting to observe how the industry identifies a product, sometimes with a number and at other times with a name. This reflection was recently triggered by Google’s announcement just a few days ago that the upcoming version of its globally used Android mobile operating system (OS) will simply be known as Android 10.

This is a frank departure from the pattern the company has been following for many years now, ever since the very first Android OS was launched, and that has always consisted of labelling the product with a known confectionary name, be it a common noun or a trade mark. It started with cupcake in 2009, to be followed by donut, KitKat, and then in more recent years by marshmallow, nougat, Oreo, all the way to today’s pie, the current version of the system. True, officially each name was also associated with a number, but users would only remember the name, and most documentation, reviews and articles found on the web would only speak of the name.

Microsoft Windows versions have generally been known by numbers, like the current Windows 10 for example, with the exception of Windows Millennium (in 2000) and Vista (in 2006). Strangely, both exceptions were unpopular, short-lived versions! Any causal connection in that?

In the automotive world, on the other hand, we find that each manufacturer has long decided to go with either the naming or the numbering system, and has always been true to its initial choice. Peugeot and Mercedes, for instance, like numbers: Peugeot 508, Mercedes 200. Whereas, as other examples, Toyota, Honda and Kia prefer giving a name to their models: Camry, Accord and Cerato.

Do consumers care at all if their car or OS have a name or a number? Does the choice made by the manufacturer have any impact, be it technical or commercial, on the result, on sales?

It all seems like both systems have made manufacturers or makers equally successful. Obviously, the popularity and the global reputation and adoption of brands like Mercedes and Toyota, that go without saying, have little to do with the naming or the numbering systems. It is more a matter of style, and probably well-established habits – a sort of commercial acquired taste by the consumer.

It is also understood that naming instead of numbering a car model or a software product has zero effect on the technical aspect of the production and the final quality of the product.

This being said, there are differences. By giving a dessert or confectionary name to its Android OS version, Google was seen as a cool, modern company, one that is young and that does not do things like the other older player in the game, namely Microsoft in this very case. The naming system may well have served Google this way. Again, it is all about style.

There is also the “humanising” factor of manufactured things. Some consumers may find it pleasant to refer to their car using a name instead of a number: “I am driving my Camry” may sound better than “I am driving my 200”. At some point it can get very personal between a person and their car. Didn’t the great Shania Twain sing “I can’t believe you kiss your car good night” [That don’t impress me much]? But perhaps as many consumers would find the above totally ridiculous.

On the other hand, and given that software operating systems are frequently, not to say too frequently, updated and upgraded, referring to them using numbers is not only easier and faster, but allows you to keep better track of the history of updates and upgrades. Besides, few people would like to talk to their computer the way others would talk to their car. Then again, some might…

A smart, hybrid approach is sometimes adopted. It consists of giving a name and a number. Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones belong in this category: iPhone 5, 6, 7, or Galaxy S8, S9, S10, etc… for instance.

Both system work and both are valid. Let us see if Android 10 will be as popular as its sweetly-named predecessors. According to theverge.com it was launched on September 3, on Google Pixel smartphones models.

WASHINGTON — Google’s YouTube agreed on Wednesday to pay a $170 million fine and limit ads on kids’ videos to settle claims that the company violated children’s privacy laws.

The world’s largest video-sharing site agreed to pay the fine, which is a record for a children’s privacy case, to the US Federal Trade Commission and New York State for failing to obtain parental consent in collecting data on kids under the age of 13, the FTC said. Starting in four months, Google also will limit data collection and turn off commenting on videos aimed at kids, YouTube announced at the same time, moves that will hamstring its ability to sell advertisement against a massive portion of its media library.

The settlement under the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, represents the most significant US enforcement action against a big technology company in at least five years over its practices involving minors. Washington is stepping up privacy and antitrust scrutiny of the big internet platforms that have largely operated with few regulatory constraints.

“The $170 million total monetary judgement is almost 30 times higher than the largest civil penalty previously imposed under COPPA,” FTC Chairman Joe Simons said in a joint statement with fellow Republican Commissioner Christine Wilson. “This significant judgment will get the attention of platforms, content providers and the public.”

The commission’s two Democrats broke from its three Republicans, however, saying the settlement did not go far enough to fix the problems. Some consumer advocates have slammed earlier reports of the fine as an insufficient deterrent, given the size of the company.

YouTube said it will rely on both machine learning and video creators themselves to identify what content is aimed at children. The algorithms will look at cues such as kids’ characters and toys, although the identification of youth content can be tricky. Content creators are being given four months to adjust before changes take effect, the company said.

The company will also spend more to promote its kids app and establish a $100 million fund, disbursed over three years, “dedicated to the creation of thoughtful, original children’s content”, Chief Executive Officer Susan Wojcicki wrote in a blog posting.

“Today’s changes will allow us to better protect kids and families on YouTube,” Wojcicki wrote in the blog, which acknowledged the rising chances that children are watching the site alone. “In the coming months, we’ll share details on how we’re rethinking our overall approach to kids and families, including a dedicated kids experience on YouTube,” she said.

YouTube has already begun plans to strip videos aimed at kids of “targeted” ads, which rely on information such as web-browsing cookies, Bloomberg has reported. The company violated COPPA with data collection to serve these ads, the FTC alleged. Some consumer advocates say the move away from targeted ads would do little to stop tracking of kids when they watch content aimed at general audiences, and that relying on video creators to make the changes could hurt compliance.

The FTC has been cracking down on firms that violate COPPA. It fined the popular teen app now known as TikTok $5.7 million in February to resolve claims the video service failed to obtain parental consent before collecting names, e-mail addresses and other information from children under 13. The agency is also planning to revamp its rules around children’s online privacy.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google doesn’t break out sales for the video site, but the company has reported that YouTube is its second-largest source of revenue behind search advertising. Research firm Loup Ventures estimates that 5 per cent of YouTube’s annual revenue, or roughly $750 million a year, comes from content aimed at children.

YouTube had long maintained that children under 13 don’t use its site without parental supervision, as its terms of service stipulate, but according to the FTC, it touted young users in advertising materials. There’s ample evidence these young viewers flock to the site, and consumer groups complained last year.

The site has already made tweaks as it tries to create a safer destination for children. In recent months, it changed its algorithm to promote what it called “quality” kids’ videos, a shift that alarmed many of its video creators. Wojcicki said the newest transitions “won’t be easy for some creators” and the company would work with them and provide resources to navigate the changes.

The company also introduced more parental controls for YouTube Kids, the app it launched in 2015 to offer a smaller selection of YouTube’s massive library, and created a web version of the app. The service is far smaller than YouTube’s primary audience of more than 2 billion monthly visitors, and data show the main site is used by more children than the kids app.

Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, who was a key force behind the passage of COPPA, wrote in a June 25 letter that besides deleting kids’ data, the FTC should make YouTube start a campaign to warn parents about minors’ use of the platform, create ways to identify users under 13 and prohibit it from launching new kids’ services without the approval of independent experts.

Google isn’t the only big internet platform facing pressure for its practices with minors. Children’s advocacy organisations have filed complaints with the FTC accusing Facebook Inc. of tricking children into making purchases while playing games on the social network. The company recently disclosed it has discussed its children’s chat app with the FTC, although it’s not clear whether there was a formal probe. Kids advocates have also alleged that Amazon.com Inc.’s Echo kids smart speaker violates privacy law.

Google and other tech giants have faced fines over their practices involving children before. In 2014, Google agreed to refund at least $19 million to settle with the FTC for failing to get parental consent for charges racked up by children playing games on mobile devices. Apple Inc. also agreed in 2014 to refund at least $32.5 million and change its billing practices after similar complaints. Yelp Inc. previously said it paid $450,000 for allegations it failed to test the age-registration feature on its applications and collecting names and e-mail addresses from children as young as nine years old without the consent of their parents.

By Ben Brody and Mark Bergen

Consumption of soft drinks, whether they’re sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners, may raise the risk of premature death, new research suggests. 

In a study that followed more than 400,000 European adults for more than 16 years, the risk of premature death was heightened in those who consumed 2 or more glasses per day of soft drinks, according to the report published in JAMA Internal Medicine. 

“Our results for sugar-sweetened soft drinks provide further support to limit consumption and to replace them with other healthier beverages, preferably water,” said study coauthor Neil Murphy a scientist at the International Agency for Research on Cancer. “For artificially sweetened soft drinks, we now need a better understanding of the mechanisms that may underlie this association and research such as ours will hopefully stimulate these efforts.” 

The soft drinks themselves might not be at the root of the association, Murphy said. The new findings don’t mean that soft drinks cause early death, because “in these types of studies [observational epidemiology] there are other factors which may be behind the association we observed”, Murphy added in an e-mail. “For instance, high soft drink consumption may be a marker of overall unhealthy diet.” 

To take a closer look at a possible link between soft drinks and premature mortality, Murphy and his colleagues turned to the data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition, a multinational study that recruited participants from 1992 through 2000.

The study assessed diet at the start, including soft drink consumption. Participants also filled out lifestyle questionnaires that asked about factors such as educational level, smoking habits, alcohol intake and physical activity.

After excluding participants who already had conditions such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes at the study’s start as well as those without data on soft drink consumption, the researchers were left with 451,743 participants, who stayed in the study for an average of 16.4 years. The average age at the start was about 51 years. During the study, 41,693 participants died.

When the researchers analysed their data, accounting for factors that could increase the risk of death, such as body mass index and smoking, they found that participants who consumed two or more glasses of soft drinks per day were 17 per cent more likely to die early compared to those who drank less than a single serving of soft drinks per month.

Those who consumed two or more glasses of sugar sweetened soft drinks per day were 8 per cent more likely to die early compared to those who drank less than a glass a month and those who consumed two or more glasses of artificially sweetened soft drinks a day were 26 per cent more likely to die prematurely compared to those who drank less than a glass per month.

The researchers allow that there were differences between the two groups of study participants that went beyond soft drink consumption.

“High soft drink consumers had higher BMI and were also more likely to be current tobacco smokers,” Murphy said. “We made statistical adjustments in our analyses for BMI, smoking habits and other mortality risk factors which may have biased our results and the positive associations remained. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that these factors were influencing our findings, hence we cannot say the associations we observe are causal.”

Studies like Murphy’s can indeed be biased by other lifestyle factors, said Dr Bruce Y. Lee. an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University.

“There are only so many things you can account for when it comes to different types of factors,” Lee said. “These are very complex systems.”

It’s possible that soft drink consumption could be a marker for some other lifestyle factor or behaviour, Lee explained.

Studies like the new one “are helpful but if you really want to go after a better understanding on how eating and drinking affect health you have to dive deeper”, Lee said.

In the meantime, the best course “is to stick to natural foods with minimal processing”, Lee said.

By Linda Carroll

BEIJING — No cash, no cards, no wallet, and no smartphones: China’s shoppers are increasingly purchasing goods with just a turn of their heads as the country embraces facial payment technology.

China’s mobile payment infrastructure is one of the most advanced in the world, but the new systems — which require only face recognition — being rolled out nationwide could make even QR codes seem old-fashioned.

Customers simply make a purchase by posing in front of point-of-sale (POS) machines equipped with cameras, after linking an image of their face to a digital payment system or bank account.

“I don’t even have to bring a mobile phone with me, I can go out and do shopping without taking anything,” says Bo Hu, chief information officer of Wedome bakery, which uses facial payment machines across hundreds of stores.

“This was not possible either at the earliest stage of mobile payment — only after the birth of facial recognition technology can we complete the payment without anything else,” he explains.

The software is already widely used, often to monitor citizens — it has been credited with nabbing jaywalkers and catching criminals. 

But authorities have come under fire for using it to crack down and monitor dissent, particularly in China’s surveillance-heavy region of Xinjiang.

“There’s a big risk... that the state could use this data for their own purposes, such as surveillance, monitoring, the tracking of political dissidents, social and information control, ethnic profiling, as in the case with Uighurs in Xinjiang, and even predictive policing,” says Adam Ni, China researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney.

“This is certainly one of the more contentious aspects of the gathering of facial recognition data and the usage of them.”

Enormous growth

Despite the concerns over data security and privacy, consumers seem unperturbed as facial recognition payment hits the high streets. 

Alipay — the financial arm of ecommerce giant Alibaba — has been leading the charge in China with devices already in 100 cities. 

The firm is predicting enormous growth in the sector and recently launched an upgrade of its “Smile-to-Pay” system, using a machine roughly the size of an iPad.

Alipay will spend 3 billion yuan ($420 million) over three years on implementing the technology.

Tencent, which runs the WeChat app with 600 million users, unveiled its new facial payment machine called “Frog Pro” in August, while a growing number of start-ups are trying to tap into the burgeoning industry.

“[Facial payment] certainly has the potential to become popular with the wide push from major mobile payment players,” says Mengmeng Zhang, an analyst at Counterpoint.

“Alipay is spending [billions] to popularise facial payment technology through giving out subsidies for vendors and rewards for consumers that use facial payment,” she adds.

At the IFuree self-service supermarket in Tianjin, a 3D camera scans the faces of those entering the store — measuring width, height and depth of the faces — then another quick scan again at check-out.

“It’s convenient because you can buy things very quickly,” says retiree Zhang Liming after using facial payment for her groceries. 

“It’s different from the payment in the traditional supermarket, in which you have to wait in the checkout line and it’s very troublesome,” she argues.

Vanity trumps privacy

Bo Hu says 300 of his bakeries have facial payment systems, and he plans to introduce them in 400 more.

He believes it makes the checkout process more efficient, but concedes the numbers using the new technology are still modest.

The new technology also offers a way to collect more data.

“Much of the smart retail trend is company-driven for two ends in particular: to prevent shoplifting and to get better data on consumer preferences for analytics and marketing,” says Jeffrey Ding, researcher at the Centre for the Governance of AI at Oxford University.

The technology also feeds into a broader state drive in China for smart tech and Artificial Intelligence.

“Implementation [of facial payment technology] at scale would fit with government’s broader plan to develop facial recognition as one of the pillars of the AI industry by providing tech companies with huge amounts of data — the faces themselves and use cases,” says Adam Segal, director at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Supporters of the technology wave aside privacy concerns.

“The facial recognition technology helps to protect our privacy,” explains IFuree Engineer Li Dongliang. 

“In the traditional way, it’s very dangerous to enter the password if someone stands beside you. Now we can complete the payment with our faces, which helps us secure our account,” he insists.

But for many consumers, it is vanity rather than privacy that puts them off using such systems.

A poll by news portal Sina Technology found that over 60 per cent of respondents said scanning their faces for payments made them feel “ugly”. 

In response Alipay pledged to introduce “beautifying filters” into all the Alipay cameras.

The tech giant says: “Now your face will be more beautiful than using a beauty camera!”

A new study offers some advice for doctors poking around the heart to reopen a clogged artery that has caused one type of heart attack: Come back again to finish the job. 

The study found that when doctors also open other arteries that are dangerously narrow — either while the patient is still hospitalised or after a month or so — those patients are half as likely to die from heart problems, have a heart attack or need repeat surgery due to chest pain than patients given conventional medical therapy. 

The results of the study, known as COMPLETE, are likely to transform the way some heart attack patients are treated, specifically when doctors stumble upon other narrowed heart arteries likely to cause a future heart attack, chief author Dr Shamir Mehta, director of interventional cardiology at McMaster University in Ontario, told Reuters Health in a telephone interview. 

The benefit “is very clear”, he said. The will result in “a sweeping change in practice across the world. It helps us solidify how patients with multi-vessel disease should be treated”. 

The findings also show that doctors don’t have to do the second procedure immediately; patients can be brought back to the hospital up to 45 days later to have the remaining narrowed arteries reopened with stents. 

“When the patient is in the throes of a major heart attack, there’s no need to rush in and do a second procedure and put the patient at risk,” said Mehta. “You can do it the next day if the patient is stabilised and there are no other medical issues. But if they’re frail or have kidney disease, you may want to give them time to recover.” 

The team, which reported its findings on Sunday at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Paris and online in The New England Journal of Medicine, calculated that for every 13 patients given the more-aggressive therapy, one heart-related death, heart attack or repeat surgery would be prevented over the course of three years. 

The question of whether doctors should also open up the narrowed arteries they find while unclogging an artery that is causing a heart attack has been debated for years. 

In the COMPLETE study, when doctors only fixed the clogged artery, the incidence of bad outcomes at the three-year mark was 16.7 per cent among 2,025 volunteers. But when doctors returned and reopened narrowed arteries that might cause problems in the future, the rate dropped to 8.9 per cent for the 2,016 patients in that group. 

Both groups of patients had roughly the same risk of major bleeding, stroke, kidney injury or having a clot appear in a stent. 

“This is really a compelling result,” said Dr Gregg Fonarow of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, who was not involved in the research. “I think this will be embraced and taken into clinical practice across the world.” 

The study showed that the follow-up procedure is safe and works if done within the 45-day window , which “opens the door to maximal flexibility”, he said. 

The findings only apply to a type of heart attack known as an ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, which accounts for about 30 per cent of heart attacks, said Fonarow. 

In those patients, another narrowed artery is discovered in about half the cases, which would make them eligible for the follow-up stenting. 

The volunteers were treated at 140 centres in 31 countries. All received standard non-surgical therapy. 

By Gene Emery

Better known for their small hatchbacks and SUVs, tiny Japanese city Kei cars and motorcycles, the compact Ciaz is, however, one of Suzuki’s few saloon cars.

Built by the Japanese manufacturer’s Indian Maruti Suzuki subsidiary, the Ciaz is the brand’s gambit at a world car, using a three-box four-door saloon body style to better appeal to developing tastes and preferences in the developing world.

With a more upmarket and conservative connotation from its saloon body style, the Ciaz is, however, developed to be affordable, attainable and uncomplicated.

First introduced in 2014 and face-lifted for the 2019 model year, the Ciaz plays down the typically feisty, fun and playful characteristics of many a Suzuki, and instead has a more neutral, understated and mainstream design sensibility. 

A more mature Suzuki to better suit more mature and conservative clientele, the Ciaz is nevertheless a handsome compact saloon, with a flowing profile and roofline, and has been revised with a sportier and more assertive look that includes more prominently textured surfacing and bigger more aggressive side intakes and bumper design.

Smooth and willing

A hungrier looking car than the one it replaces, the revised Ciaz also receives a narrower, yet, wider full-length grille between its headlights, with classier top and bottom chrome strips in place of chrome slats. 

And under its raised bonnet, the Ciaz is powered by a slightly enlarged naturally-aspirated 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine in place of the outgoing 1.4-litre. Driving the front wheels through a four-speed automatic gearbox, the Ciaz’s new engine develops 103BHP at 6,000rpm and 102lb/ft at 4,400rpm and quoted to return frugal 5.5l/100km combined cycle fuel efficiency. 

Progressively eager and with a distant high rev snarl subdued by more sound insulation than its Baleno hatchback sister model, the Ciaz’ 1.5-litre engine is smooth and willing. Its eager to rev nature is just as well given that with just four — albeit slick shifting — speeds, one often tend to work the Ciaz’ little engine hard to make quick progress. 

Responsive to throttle input from standstill and with adequate mid-range versatility, the lightweight Ciaz is estimated to accelerate through 0-100km/h in around 11.5-seconds and to be capable of approximately 175km/h.

Light and forgiving

A lightweight 1,027kg car with a more mature feeling suspension set-up, the Ciaz feels heavier and more insulated when cruising or pottering around town, like a bigger car. 

However, pushed slightly harder, it feels relatively nimble, with quick and tidy turn-in, reassuring grip and a good level of driver-car communication and feel. Compact and with good front and side visibility, the Ciaz is easy to manoeuvre and place on the road, through traffic and when parking. 

Meanwhile its light steering is well-damped but quick and offers decent road feel through corners.

Narrow and with high sidewalls at 185/65R15, the Ciaz’ tyres improve steering feel and make it more comfortably forgiving in better absorbing shocks from lumps, bumps and cracks than sportier low profile tyres. 

Gliding smoothly over imperfections, the Ciaz tall tyres are also less prone to damage from potholes and kerbs, and are better suited to rougher roads. 

And as a car for developing markets, the Ciaz’ somewhat high 160mm ride height serves it well whether driven through dirt roads or the bigger bumps and potholes often encountered on Amman’s roads.

Small yet spacious

Best in blue with a dark interior as pictured in right-hand-drive guise for its home Indian market, the driven left-hand-drive version’s bronze and beige combo did not play best to the Ciaz’ design strengths inside or out. 

Uncluttered, business-like and pleasant as pictured with metallic trim, the driven car’s uninspired beige upholstery and obviously faux wood trim just seemed to try too hard to emphasise a conservative character. Otherwise, the Ciaz’ cabin offers a good driving position and good front and rear room, and generous 510-litre luggage volume.

Competing with other uncomplicated, comfortable, conservative yet reliable and well-equipped compact saloons with an eye on developing markets, like the Peugeot 301, Renault Logan and the Honda City, the Ciaz is at priced at the attainable end of the market. 

At JD15,250 on road, without insurance, it is just JD750 more than the smaller and less powerful, but more fun and better looking Suzuki Baleno hatchback. 

Equipment for the driven GL specification meanwhile includes ABS brakes, electronic stability control, central locking, electric windows, air conditioning, security alarm and USB-enabled sound system.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.5-litre, transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 74 x 85mm

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, multi-point injection

Gearbox: 4-speed automatic, front-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 103 (105) [77] @6,000rpm

Specific power: 70.45BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 100.29BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 102 (138) @4,400rpm

Specific torque: 94.39Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 134.37Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: approximately 11.5-seconds (estimate)

Top speed: 175km/h (estimate)

Fuel consumption, combined: 5.5-litres/100km (estimate)

Fuel capacity: 43-litres

Length: 4,490mm

Width: 1,730mm

Height: 1,475mm

Wheelbase: 2,650mm

Tread, F/R: 1,495/1,505mm

Ground clearance: 160mm

Kerb weight: 1,027kg

Doors/seats: 4/5

Luggage volume: 510-litres

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning circle: 10.8-metres

Suspension: MacPherson struts/torsion beam

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/drums

Tyres: 185/65R15

Price, JD15,750 (on the road, excluding insurance)

You can run away from your fat genes, and you can waltz right on by a hereditary risk of gaining weight. But it’s a little less clear that mimicking funky moves in front of a video game console will protect you from a genetic vulnerability to becoming obese.

So finds a new study that identifies six ways people with unlucky bits of DNA can stave off the accumulation of excess kilogrammes.

Years of research have revealed that inheritance — the fine print transmitted in our DNA — accounts for somewhere between 21 per cent and 84 per cent of the average person’s propensity to become obese. So if there is one takeaway from genetic studies of obesity, it’s this: Even if your parents saddled you with a passel of fat genes, there’s still plenty you can do to counter their influence.

But what, besides a lifetime of ascetic eating, actually works?

The new study finds that exercise does — and it gets very specific about which forms of regular exercise can ward off obesity in those with more than their fair share of the gene variants that make excessive weight gain more likely.

Combing through a trove of data maintained by Taiwan’s central Biobank, researchers found that fat-prone residents who jogged regularly were the most likely to overcome their inherited vulnerability to obesity. They also found that mountain climbing, long yoga sessions, ballroom dancing, “exercise walking” and even plain-old walking helped ward off a body-mass index that defines obesity.

The results were recently published in the journal PLOS Genetics.

The researchers, from National Taiwan University, collected genetic data, a wide range of health measures and self-reported exercise patterns from 18,424 Taiwanese citizens between 30 and 70 years old. Roughly 58 per cent of them said they did not exercise regularly, while 42 per cent reported routine exercise.

While variants of nearly 100 genes have been linked to obesity in people of European descent, those risk factors might not apply to Taiwan’s Han Chinese population. So the researchers used a panel of 50 obesity-related gene variants and divided their subjects into four groups, ranging from those least genetically prone to pack on fat to those with the greatest vulnerability.

Even after accounting for other powerful influences on body size and fat mass — including educational attainment, gender and age — a habit of exercise was powerfully protective. At every point along the continuum of vulnerability, those who said they exercised regularly had a lower BMI, waist circumference, hip circumference and proportion of body fat than did those who did not exercise.

Jogging, an activity reported by only 12 per cent of the large study’s 7,652 physically active participants, had the added benefit of helping to keep participants’ ratio of fat-to-lean tissue mass in check, and it had a significant effect in reducing their average hip circumference.

Not so effective, the researchers found, were a variety of exercise regimens that are popular in Taiwan. Those included swimming, bicycling and stretching, as well as tai chi, qigong and “Dance Dance Revolution.”

That jogging and mountain climbing countered a genetic vulnerability to become fat may not be such a surprise. But the results about “Dance Dance Revolution” are likely to disappoint its legions of devoted fans.

In 2012, the company behind “DDR” — Japan’s Konami Entertainment — launched a classroom edition of its video game, which lets up to 48 students dance in unison to the same song on wireless controller mats that judge the execution of their moves.

In collaboration with United Healthcare, Konami introduced “DDR” to American classrooms in Florida, Georgia, Texas and Southern California to get kids up and moving. A 2013 study found that “exer-games” such as “DDR” could help young children, at least, meet government recommendations for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

Konami did not return calls or emails to discuss the new findings.

By Melissa Healy

Women who develop preeclampsia, a form of dangerously high blood pressure during pregnancy, are five times more likely to develop end-stage kidney disease later in life than women who have normal blood pressure during pregnancy, a Swedish study suggests. 

Preeclampsia has long been linked to an increased risk of events like heart attacks and strokes years later, and some previous research also suggest that this form of high blood pressure might also be one reason why women are more likely to develop advanced kidney disease than men. 

For the current study, researchers examined data on almost 2.67 million births among 1.37 million women between 1982 and 2012. A total of 67,273 women, or 4.9 per cent, developed preeclampsia during at least one pregnancy, and 410 women developed end-stage kidney disease. 

Women who had preeclampsia in two pregnancies were more than seven times more likely to develop end-stage kidney disease than mothers who never had preeclampsia, the study found. 

“This study shows that pre-eclampsia is a sex-specific, independent risk factor for the subsequent development of end-stage kidney disease,” said lead study author Ali Khashan, a public health researcher at University College Cork in Ireland. 

“However, the overall end-stage kidney disease risk remains small, and women with a history of preeclampsia should not be overly concerned,” Khashan said by e-mail. 

Women who develop preeclampsia earlier in pregnancy — before the halfway point — are more than nine times more likely to develop end-stage kidney disease than mothers with normal blood pressure during pregnancy. 

The challenge with preeclampsia is that women often don’t experience symptoms until they have a life-threatening problem, especially when they’re otherwise healthy and have uncomplicated pregnancies. 

Kidney failure, also called end-stage kidney disease, is most commonly caused by diabetes or high blood pressure. Other causes can include autoimmune diseases and genetic disorders or chronic urinary tract problems. 

With kidney failure, people require an organ transplant or dialysis. 

The connection between preeclampsia and kidney failure in the study persisted even after researchers accounted for other factors that can impact maternal health like age, education, and pre-pregnancy health problems like existing kidney disease or cardiovascular disease. 

Women in the study who had preeclampsia were older on average and had a higher body mass index. 

Among women with no preeclampsia in the first pregnancy, 14.2 per cent were overweight and 4.9 per cent were obese. Among women who did develop preeclampsia in their first pregnancy, 20.1 per cent were overweight and 11.8 per cent were obese.

The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how preeclampsia might lead to kidney failure later in life.

It’s possible that risk factors like obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes contribute to both preeclampsia and kidney failure down the line, researchers note in PLoS Medicine. It’s also possible that some women who had preeclampsia might have had undiagnosed kidney problems at the time.

“We were able to account for maternal obesity and comorbidities such as diabetes, and the reported results are independent of these factors,” Khashan said. “However, these factors cannot be ruled out completely as potential mediators between preeclampsia and end stage kidney disease.”

By Lisa Rapaport 

By Dr Tareq Rasheed 

International Consultant and Trainer

Life is too short to waste hesitating and letting others decide for us. Why do so many people fear taking risks? Why do most people not achieve their life’s dream? And why do we usually regard risk as a threat rather than an opportunity?

Fear of failure

People fear failure. There are around three hundred types of fear. We are born with two; fear of falling and fear of noise. So, where do other types of fear come from?

These other fears come from the surrounding environment, how we are raised, other people, circumstances in our lives and culture, just to name a few. One of the top ten types of fear is the fear of failure.

Once we fear failure, we will never achieve success. Failures we face are lessons from which we learn to modify our success. Thomas Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked: “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” Each trial was a lesson. Imagine the darkness we would be in without Edison’s drive to succeed and never give up.

What kind of risk taker are you?

These three risk categories describe different types of people: 

1. Risk Averse People fear of taking risks and stay in their comfort zone, convinced that what they have achieved in life is enough. They believe proverbs like “Close the door that brings in the wind”. These are about 70 per cent of adults.

2. Risk Takers believe in seizing opportunities that come. They open the door that brings in the wind and they choose to fly with the wind to achieve success. In other words, they take a calculated risk. These are about 20 per cent of adults.

3. Risk Seekers do not wait for the opportunity to come; they create the opportunity. These adventurers are five per cent of the adult population. 

Model of success

Risk seekers tend to follow the pattern of TEFCAS:

• Trial: Any new idea or project starts with a trial Event: The trial becomes a real event

• Feedback: This trial will give feedback

• Check: We check the result of this trial upon certain criteria for success

• Adjust: Based on this check, you adjust and try anew until you reach… 

• Success

One of my favourite slogans by one of the largest international companies in the world is this: “Let’s welcome our failures”. 

Without failure, we will never reach success. We live only once, so let’s achieve our dreams in life by embracing risk.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine