10 Healthy Habits That May Help You Live to 100

The biggest factor that determines how well you age is not your genes but how well you live. Not convinced? A new study of 20,000 British citizens published in the British Medical Journal shows that you can cut your risk of having a stroke in half by doing the following four things: being active for 30 minutes a day, eating five daily servings of fruit and vegetables, and avoiding cigarettes and excess alcohol.

While those are some of the obvious steps you can take to age well, researchers have discovered that centenarians tend to share certain traits in how they eat, move about, and deal with stress—the sorts of things we can emulate to improve our own aging process. Of course, getting to age 100 is enormously more likely if your parents did. Still, Thomas Perls, M.D., M.P.H., who studies the century-plus set at Boston University School of Medicine, believes that assuming you've side-stepped genes for truly fatal diseases like Huntington's, "there's nothing stopping you from living independently well into your 90s." Heck, if your parents and grandparents were heavy smokers, they might have died prematurely without ever reaching their true potential lifespan, so go ahead and shoot for those triple digits. Follow these 10 habits, and check out Perls' lifetime risk calculator to see how long you can expect to live.

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Drinking milk could help prevent Alzheimer's

Drinking two glasses of milk a day could help protect against Alzheimer's disease.

Oxford University scientists believe that vitamin B12, which occurs in milk, can reduce the brain damage that leads to dementia.

They found that elderly patients with low levels of B12 suffered from twice the amount of brain shrinkage as those with higher levels.

Prof David Smith, whose team's findings are published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, said: "There are 550 people who come down with dementia every day in the UK - it is a major epidemic.

"It is unlikely we are ever going to find ways of repairing that damage. We have to look at preventing it in the first place."

IPOD Earpieces 'FULL OF BACTERIA'

iPOD earpieces are a breeding ground for bacteria and could lead to painful ear infections, experts said yesterday.

Doctors have long warned that listening to music at high volumes on iPod buds could lead to hearing loss but now they claim the earpieces are also rife with germs.

A study published in the Online Journal of Health and Allied Sciences has revealed that frequent use of earphones significantly increases bacterial growth in the ear.Researchers at Manipal university in India also found that bacteria could transfer from one person’s ear to another’s.

Harmful bacteria was found on 92 per cent of ear swabs taken from people who regularly shared their earphones with friends, compared with only eight per cent of those who shared less frequently.

Dr Chiranjay Mukhopadhyay, who led the research, said: “It is better not to share or else to clean the earphones thoroughly before sharing.”

A second study into airplane audio headsets, published in the medical journal Laryngoscope, discovered that, after an hour’s use, the number of bacteria increased from 60 micro-organisms to 650. The Daily Express

Experts draw link between tainted milk, kidney stones

SCIENTISTS in China and Hong Kong have established for the first time in a study that consuming the plastic-making chemical melamine can cause kidney stones in people.

At least six children died and 290,000 fell ill in China last year after consuming milk formula tainted with melamine, which was added to cheat protein tests. But the causal link between melamine and kidney problems the children suffered was never scientifically established until now.

The experts studied urine samples of 15 mainland Chinese toddlers with kidney stones and compared those taken from 20 children in Hong Kong who also consumed tainted milk but who did not develop stones. Read more.....

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Gym Concept Car Inspires You to Exercise

The concept car design by Coventry University design student Da Feng is something that is far more than just a fragment of imagination. Made from carbon fiber frame, GYM as this concept car is called as a single seat concept car. This concept car is designed by being inspired by a gym as the car is more like a mini gymnasium. The adjustable seat and pedal are placed in a manner that the usage of the same makes the driver feel as if he is in a gym. So if you missed your morning exercise routine, then do it on the way to your office!

XE Tricycle Bike, Health and Fun Are Combined In One Unique Experience

The new concept tricycle which uses the XE experience is both an electric bike while being an exercise-cycle. The overall design just like the thought is quite innovative as one need to exercise using the cycle which charges the batteries to be able to utilize the services of the tricycle. So one can say that this is quite a green concept, as in doing this change over there has been no pollution and the unique shape encourages to keep using/exercising extensively, thus, having fun on the drive. The production costs are also quite low and the easy design makes it an easy companion to carry. All in all a very comfortable buy.

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Be careful Chinese New Year oranges

I think we'd better just stay away from China foodstuff, just to be safe!!!