Modern women 'piling on the pounds due to lack of
household chores'
Lack
of household work for modern women might be contributing to obesity, a new
study has claimed.
According to researchers, since the 1960s, more women have
taken desk jobs
and cut back on physical activity like household chores.
In
1965, the average women spent nearly 26 hours per week on chores like cooking,
cleaning and doing the dishes. Women today allot about half that time for
chores, the study revealed.
'What
we were trying to find is what has changed in our environment that has led to
obesity,' study leader Edward Archer, a researcher at the University of South
Carolina, told the New York Daily News.
What changed, he said, is that more women went to work
at sedentary jobs and fewer engaged in physical activity — like
housework.
Obesity
rates have been increasing steadily in past decades. In 2004, 32 percent of Americans
were obese, compared to 13 percent in the 1960s, according to research from the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
For
Archer's study, researchers looked at the time and amount of energy women
expended on "household management" over a 45-year span.
Non-working
women spent 33.1 hours per week on housework in the 1960s, compared to 16.5
hours in 2010. Working women spent 17.1 hours on housework in the 1960s,
compared to 10.4 in 2010.
By
2010, women were devoting 25 percent more time to 'screen-based media use' —
watching TV or on the computer.
The
study is published in the science journal PLOS One.
Source:
www.indianexpress.com
04.03.2013
Vitamin
D deficiency high in Indians
Despite ample sunlight, people
in India are deficient in vitamin D which is leading to problems like weaker
bones, the Rajya Sabha was informed.
The Indian Council of Medical
Research (ICMR) has reported that surveys carried out in India indicate that
despite ample sunlight, people are deficient in vitamin D, Health Minister
Ghulam Nabi Azad said while replying to a question by nominated member HK Dua
this week.
The prevalence of vitamin D
deficiency is in the range of 10% to 90% across all age groups, he said.
The synthesis of vitamin D in
the body is dependent on multiple factors like duration and time of exposure to
sunlight, latitude, atmospheric pollution and skin pigmentation.
The studies have also shown that
the vitamin D deficiency may be associated with low bone mineral density,
leading to weaker bones and fracture risk, Azad said.
Source: http://health.india.com
04.03.2013
Now watch movies, get a spa and fine
dine in hospitals
A full-fledged movie lounge, a spa, a gym and
fast food outlets – a multi-speciality hospital has geared itself up to cater
to the demands of its patients and their attendants apart from providing the
latest in medical treatment.
Corporate hospitals in big Indian cities,
particularly in the National Capital Region (NCR), are no longer concentrating
on providing only health services to the patients but are also aiming at
providing value-added services to patients and their attendants.
“During long surgeries, the stressed out
attendants of patients don’t wish to leave the premises of the hospital and at
that moment watching a movie or having some good food without having to step
out can be a positive distraction,” said Dilpreet Brar, Regional Director of
Fortis Hospital in Gurgaon. The Gurgaon-based Fortis, apart from having a huge
shopping arcade, a bakery, a spa, gym and a host of fast food outlets, has come
up with a 36-seater movie theatre inside its premises that was opened on Jan 19
to screen free film shows for the patients and their attendants.
Perhaps the first such movie theatre in India, it
is located on the ground floor and shows the latest blockbusters. The visitors
to the hospitals desire for good quality and hygienic food. Thus, express
outlets offer a range of heavy finger foods like sandwiches, hot-dogs, burgers,
doughnuts and much more, Brar added.
Columbia Asia in Gurgaon has started its own
chain of cafes rather than giving space to an outsider. The sprawling Columbia
Cafe at the Columbia Asia Hospital also conducts cooking classes and regular
food festivals along with food promotion activities. “Not just the patient’s
families, even customers from the neighbourhood come in for a meal at our
hospital considering the international standard of our food maintained
throughout our chain of hospitals,” said Madhur Varma, Area General Manager of
Columbia Asia.
Max Hospital in Gurgaon has given quality space
to Whole Foods, while Max in Saket in south Delhi has The Kwality Express, Cafe
Coffee Day, Sagar Ratna and Subway outlets for its visitors.
Source: http://health.india.com
04.03.2013
There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the
right direction
No comments:
Post a Comment