"Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little coarse and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice? Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble. "


Posts tagged with 'smoking'

Preventing cancer through life style choices

12th April 2009

In 2001 the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) WCRF/AICR set themselves the task of systematically assessing all good research on diet, physical activity and cancer and publishing a report that would be the largest study of its kind with conclusions that would …

Recent research: seven studies on diet, supplements & smoking

27th November 2008

Here are a couple of studies on smoking, a couple on B vitamins, a couple on vitamin D, and an intriguing study on iron. The smoking papers underline the varieties of damage this habit produces. So the Pasco et al study shows that, for women, being a smoker is associated …

Vegged out & fruitless: lifestyle & health

18th October 2008

Last month's BMJ published another in the long line of research articles that highlight the huge importance of lifestyle choices for our health: Dam, R. M. v., T. Li, et al. (2008). "Combined impact of lifestyle factors on mortality: prospective cohort study in US women." BMJ 337(sep16_2): a1440- [Free Full …

Would you like to be 14 years younger – it’s largely a matter of choice!

3rd October 2008

Back in January I wrote a blog post entitle "Does a healthy lifestyle really make a difference? " I highlighted that it makes a hell of a lot of a difference. At around that time another major study was published that hammered this point home even more thoroughly and I've …

Recent research: exercise, diet, and smoking

4th September 2008

There are a series of interesting recent research studies here highlighting the drastic reduction in physical exercise taken by young people as they move into their teenage years, the fascinating protective association between muscular strength and mortality in men even allowing for cardiorespiratory fitness and other potentially confounding factors, the …

Recent research: exercise & mental function, mindfulness, smoking, fatigue, and lots on depression

23rd June 2008

Here are some articles - mostly published in May - that I found particularly interesting: Angevaren, M., G. Aufdemkampe, et al. (2008). "Physical activity and enhanced fitness to improve cognitive function in older people without known cognitive impairment." Cochrane Database Syst Rev(2): CD005381. [PubMed] Exercise seems to improve cognitive function …

Healthy and unhealthy behaviours can be 'infectious'

15th June 2008

There was an interesting study of over 12,000 people published in the New England Journal of Medicine recently (Christakis and Fowler, 2008) looking at the way that stopping smoking seems to help those around us stop smoking as well. So if I stop, the chances of my spouse smoking decrease …

Does healthy lifestyle really make much difference?

8th January 2008

In an earlier post (January 3, 08), I looked at how common sense isn’t common, at least for healthy behaviours. Only about 3% of the population are ticking all the right boxes for non-smoking, alcohol use, exercise, weight and diet. This is interesting and maybe surprising, but does it really …

Common sense isn’t common

3rd January 2008

Common sense isn’t common, at least with healthy behaviours. The vast majority of us know that we should eat sensibly, be a reasonable weight, exercise regularly, not abuse alcohol, and avoid smoking. Do you know what percentage of people actually follow all this obvious advice? A survey (Reeves and Rafferty …