Following on from my last post which recommended we should all eat more eggs, a study from the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, has suggested that exercise may improve academic performance in children, as it increases the blood flow and therefore oxygen to the brain. There is of course no reason why this shouldn’t have the same effect on adults. This is good news as my aim for the new year is to get fit again, as I have a little Xmas indulgence weight to lose, and my fitness regime has definitely slipped in the past couple of years.

My other aim is to finally learn Spanish, so I’m hoping exercise WILL improve MY academic performance. I will be running up the beach in the sunshine, with my Spanish lessons flowing through my ear-phones. That’s the idea anyway!

The traditional time to eat an egg for the British is still I think at breakfast, although the idea of an ‘all-day’ breakfast is catching on, but as recent research suggests eggs are an indirect ‘stimulant’, we should maybe be looking at incorporating them much more into our daily diets.

I used not to eat eggs at all, certainly as a child, but I have slowly come to like omelettes, scrambled eggs and even hard boiled eggs in salads. This started for me with trips to the US where I got more into cooked breakfasts and brunches while on holiday. I do however still prefer fruit and cereal for breakfast, which is why I find it easier to eat eggs in Spain. Here eggs definitely feature more, and throughout the day. Tortillo’s are everywhere, even as a filling for a tostada, eggs always appear in salads, and are normally on the starter menus of traditional Spanish restaurants, often with seafood mixed in.

Why is this so good? Because it seems that eggs really are good for you. We all know that sugar base carbohydrates are not good for anyone, and that we should opt for alternatives that are slower burning and more nutritious, but it seems that egg whites have a particular property that may help to keep us alert, so are a great lunch option. A recent Cambridge university study has looked at how different nutrients affect our brain cells. A mixture similar to the protein in egg whites was shown to activate these cells into producing the stimulant Orexin.

Sounds good to me. Just wish I REALLY liked them!

Sympathy? Nope! Stick with what god gave you and make the most of what you have!

Up to 30,000 French women and perhaps tens of thousands more around the world may need to have defective breast implants removed after several suspicious cancer cases, officials said on Tuesday.

A decision on whether to order the removal of the implants, produced by the Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) company, will be made by the end of the week, after a report from the National Cancer Institute on December 23.

“Today, we’re in the process of evaluating these breast implants because of the apparent cancer risk,” said government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse.

“The government will announce its action plan between now and the end of the week,” she added in an appearance on the LCI television news network.

A health ministry official said no “causal link” between the implants and cancer had yet been established and that “there is no urgent health risk”.

Quoting several senior medical officials, French newspaper Liberation reported Tuesday that the decision had already been made and that health authorities will order the implants to be removed.
It was not immediately clear how many foreign women have been given PIP products but the firm was once the world’s third-largest producer of silicone implants, producing 100,000 per year and exporting 80 percent of its output.

Liberation said 300,000 women around the world had received PIP implants.

PIP was shut down and its product banned last year after it was revealed to have been using non-authorised silicone gel that caused abnormally high rupture rates of its implants.

Health officials said last week that eight cases of cancer, mainly breast cancer, had been reported in women who had received the PIP implants.

“It is urgent for all women who have PIP implants to return to see their surgeons,” Pecresse, the French government spokeswoman, told LCI television, adding that costs of removal would be covered by state health insurance.

She said that, before the government announces its action plan this week, “we must first of all proceed with a census of women who received these implants and are potentially in danger.”
Prosecutors in Marseille, near the firm’s home base of Seyne-sur-Mer, have received more than 2,000 complaints from women who received the implants and have opened a criminal investigation into the firm.

Laurent Lantieri, one of France’s best-known cosmetic surgeons and a member of a health department committee on the issue, told Liberation there was no choice but to order the implants’ removal.

“We all agree on the necessity of this decision,” he said.

“We are facing a health crisis linked with a fraud. The entire profession is aware of this.

There is no urgency but we no longer have any choice — all these implants must be removed.”
So far 523 women who received PIP implants have had them removed, Liberation said.

The newspaper quoted France’s director general for health, Jean-Yves Grall, as saying that while the state would cover the costs of removing implants, it would not pay for implanting new ones unless the women involved had reconstructive surgery following a mastectomy.

“This does not shock me,” Lantieri said. “It is not up to society, in a time of crisis, to pay for a new implant for aesthetic reasons.”

Via AFP

This is just so wrong! Times are tough without question, but I just hope that all those that are threatening to strike this winter because they aren’t getting a pat rise take time out to reflect on how selfish they are being!

Almost 100 battered womens’ centres in Spain will have to close due to crisis spending cuts.

The governmental Woman’s Institute said in a statement that authorities in the central Castilla-la-Mancha region in the new year will have to close 85 assistance centres and 13 shelters that have room to house 96 victims of domestic violence.

“We are faced with a tough and unjust situation which amounts to an attack on women’s rights,” the institute’s director Teresa Blat said in a statement, branding the move “a serious step backward”.

A spokeswoman for the institute, which is under the authority of the health ministry, told AFP the regional government had written to the centres telling them their subsidies will not be renewed from January.

“This measure is going to affect 96 places for victims of domestic violence and about 400 professionals who work in these centres with these women”, Blat said.

She said the region had proposed an unspecified “new legal measure” to replace the services provided by the centres, private institutions which benefit from public subsidies. Regional officials were not available to comment.

Spain’s regions are under pressure to cut spending as part of national efforts to lower the country’s public deficit. Cuts are hitting healthcare and education in some regions.
Castilla-la-Mancha has announced plans to save 2.15 billion euros ($2.8 billion).
The new conservative national government due to take office next week has promised further cuts.

Original Source

What can I say! Have been banging on about the issue of obesity for years. For me it is the worst of all illnesses and it is the most preventable and the young ‘victims’ are exposed to a lifetime of bad health by the neglect of their parents and the authorities.

Obesity has risen slightly in children aged 10 and 11 in England, according to new data.

NHS figures for the past year show 19% of children in their final year of primary school were classed as obese, compared with 18.7% the previous year.

But obesity fell to 9.4% in children going into reception, down from 9.8% the previous year.

Original Source

Couldn’t agree more with this recent Telegraph Article as top medics war that “pocket-money prices” on booze is costing thousands of lives.

A group of 19 top doctors and academics urged the Government to take “bold action” and follow the lead of Scotland by bringing in minimum prices for drinks.

Another sign of the times here in Spain, but unfortunately not a good one, as abortion rates are climbing, indicating no doubt a change in attitude amongst the younger Spaniards.

113,031 voluntary abortions were performed in Spain in 2010, a 1.3% rise (or 1,550 more) compared with 2009.

The increase has occurred despite the fact that a new law on sexual and reproductive health was brought in on july 5th this year, which had as one of its fundamental aims a reduction in the number of abortions performed in Spain.

Original Source

Would like to say I was surprised but I am not! Ever since the UK decided it really wanted to part of America the whole country has got more obese, and with the ‘ladette’ culture still live and kicking absolutely no surprise to learn that The UK has more obese women than any other country in Europe, according to European Union figures.

Not to be outdone the British male comes second in the obesity tables after Malta.

From the report on the BBC

A person is defined as obese if their body mass index (BMI), the result of a calculation involving weight and height, is above a certain level.

The BMI correlates fairly well with body fat.

Statisticians found the share of overweight and obese people increases with age in all of the 19 member states that data was available for.

The data come from the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) and was published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Its figures for the UK were based on data from England, although surveys suggest the percentage of obese adults in Wales and Northern Ireland is similar and Scotland’s latest health report put the figure at 28%.

After the UK, the countries with the highest levels of female obesity were Malta, with 21.1%, and Latvia, where 20.9% fulfilled that criteria.

Meanwhile, after Malta and the UK, the countries with the highest instances of male obesity were Hungary – where 21.4% fall into that category – and the Czech Republic, where 18.4% are classed as such.

The UK’s high levels of obesity are in stark contrast to those in countries such as Romania, where just 8% of women were classed as obese along with 7.6% of men.

Obesity levels were also found to be low in Italy, Bulgaria and France.

In Italy, 9.3% of women were found to be obese and 11.3% men.

Meanwhile, in Bulgaria levels of obesity for women and men were found to be 11.3% and 11.6%, with levels of France identified as being 12.7% and 11.7% respectively.

The figures suggested that the proportion of women who are obese or overweight falls as the educational level rises.

Last month, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley launched a bid to reduce obesity levels in England by 2020.

The minister said people need to be honest with themselves about how much they eat and drink.

He said that, overall, Britons should be eating five billion fewer calories a day than at present.

Read the above headline recently and assumed it meant that people were going to the Costa del Sol to give birth but it seems that what is actually happening is that people are going to the local clinics for the procedure of artificial insemination.

Seems that the level of service fully complies with European Standards and the laws in assisted reproductive technologies are not as strict as in places like Germany who have banned pre-implementation genetic diagnosis of embryos.

I have ever smoked. Never seen the point of it, even before I was aware of the health risks. I know a lot of girls growing up thought it was glamorous and grown up, but even then they just looked idiots with a white stick in their mouths.

I was probably helped by the fact that neither parent smoked as there is certainly a drect correlation between those whose parents smoked and smoke themselves:

More than half of young smokers (aged between 12 and 20) say that their parents allow them to smoke – 64.5% say they have their mother’s permission and 52% claim they have their father’s.

thinkSPAIN have a good article on the latest study from the Pfzer Foundation.

Both youngsters (84.2%) and their parents (77.7%) felt the anti-smoking laws were a good thing and, in both cases, a third believed that the laws had contributed to a reduction in tobacco consumption amongst young people.

Almost 30% of the kids interviewed were either smokers or former smokers, but almost half of parents were unaware of this fact.

The average age for starting smoking came out at 13.9 years, earlier for boys than for girls, although parents put the age closer to 15, and smoking multiplied by five from the age of 16 onwards, and the figure was even higher amongst girls.

45.6% wanted to give up smoking and 36.5% hoped to have cut down within the year, especially in the case of girls. A large proportion of parents (44.5%) don’t think their kids will cut down.

Despite this, only one in four wanted any help in either cutting back or giving up cigarettes altogether.

The influence of a person’s social circle was given as the main reason for starting smoking, especially the influence of friends according to 52.9% of those interviewed. 50.5% of those who wanted to give up said it was because they didn’t like it, 40.3% because it was bad for their health and 17% to save money.

Intrestingly, only 3.6% say they started smoking because their parents smoke.

Both the kids (86.8%) and parents (72.9%) agreed that consumption would increase if cigarettes were cheaper.

Amongst those who have never smoked, 56.3% admitted that it had appealed at one time or another and 42.9% don’t smoke for health reasons.

More than half the young people interviewed shared their home with at least one smoker and almost three in ten were exposed to cigarette smoke in the family home. 42% of them said they didn’t like the fact that smoking was allowed at home.

As far as parents who let their kids smoke are concerned, there is much greater permissiveness amongst mothers, especially where sons are concerned. Almost 40% of parents make it a condition that their children do not smoke in the house.

Nine out of ten youngsters say they have enough information about the dangers of smoking (heart and lung complaints, cancer, even for passive smokers) from their parents, schools, colleges, media, the internet and social networks.

Nevertheless, one in seven believe that the risks are exaggerated, a quarter believe that it helps them to lose weight and that it’s not dangerous if only done occasionally. 40% believe cigarettes are only bad for you if you carry on smoking for many years.