thelancet.com today - Thursday June 16 2005
Early Online Publication: Smoking and obesity accelerate ageing
People who smoke or who are obese are biologically older than slim individuals and non-smokers, suggests a Research Letter. The study shows how telomere length decreases steadily with age; the telomeres of obese women and smokers were much shorter than those of lean women and never-smokers. The difference in telomere length between being lean and
being obese corresponded to 8·8 years of ageing, and
smoking (previous or current) corresponded to 4·6 years of ageing. >>
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http://www.thelancet.com/
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These are the numbers:
fatties face twice the risk of smokers.
Wishful thinking and political correctness are in display in yet another field, this time relating to "racism"; being "black" is a risk factor by itself in all statistics, but federal law prohibits charging blacks higher premiums than whites. Now medication proven to help black patients only is in danger of being blocked on the absurd grounds that:
"...By approving a drug for one race, "
you are giving biological reality to
a cultural prejudice, and that can be dangerous," said Gregory Dorr, an expert in the history of medicine at the University of Alabama. "The last time something was labeled for blacks, it was water coolers and restrooms.""
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bidil16jun16,0,4834657.story?coll=la-home-business
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Numbers don't lie. If blacks and fat people would rather die than admit they are at much higher risk than the remaining population they're free to do so - they're hurting nobody but themselves and are helping the insurance industry (which goes by the numbers, not political correctness)
rake in profits based on the myths they propagate.