Goody is christened with sons in hospital

British Reality TV star Jade Goody, who is terminally ill, was christened along with her two sons at a ceremony at her west London hospital on Saturday.

The 27-year-old and her two sons, Bobby, 5, and Freddie, 4, were christened in a “very short and emotional service” at the Royal Marsden Hospital, according to her publicist and friend Max Clifford.

Goody, who has been told she has only weeks to live, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in August 2008. She had been informed about her cancer diagnosis while she was taking part in Bigg Boss, the Indian version of Big Brother reality TV show. More than 20 people, including her former boyfriend Jeff Brazier, who is father of her two sons, new husband Jack Tweed, her family and friends attended the ceremony, Clifford added.

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Eat chips to avoid cancer

It has long been shunned as junk food, but now, a new study claims that the humble chip can battle cancer. Chips are rich in vitamin C, which boffins consider could fight the deadly disease.

It is thought the vitamin tackles dangerous free radicals, which are associated with cancer growth, reports the Daily Star.

By eating a portion of chips — which contains five times more vitamin C than a bunch of grapes — people may keep cancer at bay. And those already suffering with cancer could even shrink the size of their tumours with a vitamin C rich, deep-fried potato diet, the researchers said.

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Local charity makes ailing 8-year-old's dream come true with playful wedding

Khouloud, an 8-year old battling life-threatening cancer, was given her "dream wedding" on Sunday by Tamanna Lebanon, a non-profit association that grants the wishes of children with chronic illnesses.

Established in 2005,Tamanna helps children between the ages of 3 and 18 realize their dreams. The foundation exists to provide joy, strength and hope to Lebanon's critically ill children, granting their fondest wishes, regardless of nationality, religion, and socioeconomic or cultural background.

More than 100 family members and friends of Khouloud and her young "bridegroom," Karim, 12, attended the playful two-hour ceremony at the Dunes New Ballroom in Beirut.

Khouloud and Karim met at the hospital where they receive medical treatment for cancer.

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The real deal?

Jade Goody had barely joined the Bigg Boss house before she was being flown back to the UK, after a shocking revelation that she had cervical cancer.

The British reality TV star's inclusion in Bigg Boss hosted by former rival Shilpa Shetty has been making headlines across the country for the past week.

Less than 48 hours into the show, Goody learnt that she had cervical cancer.According to a leading UK newspaper's Jade was called into the Diary Room where she spoke to her consultant in UK by phone. She was reportedly hysterical as she announced to her housemates. "I have cancer".

The timing has got people questioning what really went on behind the scenes before the announcement which will undoubtedly push up the show's ratings. "You know the way the world is. People will go to any length to get duplicity but at the same time I feel sorry for Jude Goody" said designer Nainika Karan.

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Tips for a long, healthy life

Dan Buettner hasn't discovered the fountain of youth, but he has some pretty good clues on living a longer, healthier life after years of studying what he calls "blue zones" -- areas of the world where longevity and health go hand in hand.

Along with a team of demographers and scientists, Buettner spent seven years studying places where people were living longer and better, as outlined in his book, The Blue Zones. That research, funded in party by the National Institute on Aging, found that people in these four zones are more likely to see their 100th birthday. Many of them also manage to avoid diseases of lifestyle and aging.

Buettner's blue zones are located in four very different parts of the world: Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica ; and among the Seventh Day Adventists in Loma Linda, California. (A fifth blue zone may be announced in the fall, he told Reuters in an interview.) These four areas are marked not only by a long life expectancy, with a high concentration of centenarians, but also by a long healthy life expectancy. Simply put, people living in the blue zones are living longer without the years of decline marked by illness like heart disease and cancer that many older North Americans face.

Unfortunately, these areas are not part of a new trend. They are the remaining zones where people are living long, healthy lives in a world where globalization has rapidly spread the western diet and lifestyle, along with its associated health problems. "I think these pockets of longevity are disappearing," Buettner said.

Buettner's exploration of longevity began in Okinawa, Japan. He was planning a series of expeditions to solve ancient mysteries, and was directed to Okinawa by the country's government, which has been studying the notable health and longevity of Okinawans since the mid-1970s. The World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/en/) had discovered that Okinawa had the world's longest disability-free life expectancy and Buettner found that a mystery worth investigating.

Okinawa not only has a high number of people who live to 100 and longer, these elderly residents are also in great health for their age. Okinawans show one-fifth the rates of breast and colon cancer and one-sixth the rates of heart disease seen in North America, where those two factors will account for the deaths of about 80 percent of people 65 and older, Buettner said. Obesity rates are also very low, and physical mobility remains good even into advanced ages.

"Something is happening with their lifestyle that is yielding these incredible numbers," Buettner said. Okinawans eat a largely plant-based diet, which includes at least eight times the fermented soy as North Americans. But they also have a culture that supports the health of the elderly. The concept of moai explains the extended support network that people have throughout their lives, and elders are venerated in Okinawan society.

Also, Buettner explained that in Okinawa, people live with a defined sense of purpose -- ikigai or "the reason for which you wake up in the world." "It's very easy to trivialize a sense of purpose," he said, "but it's a very important determinant of longevity." People who don't know why they wake up in the morning probably live seven or eight years less than those who do, he said, making a sense of purpose key, especially in middle age. The two most lethal years of life are the year you're born and the year you retire, he pointed out.

The other three blue zones feature their own keys to longevity. Elders are also revered in Sardinia, and two glasses a day of heart-healthy red wine are standard. On Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula, the average diet of black beans, fruit, and lime-soaked, antioxidant-rich corn hasn't changed much over the past few millennia.

Loma Linda has the highest concentration of Seventh Day Adventists in the world, Buettner said, making it truly a cultural blue zone. Adventists eat a plant-based diet taken from the Bible, have strong faith and family networks, and strictly observe the Sabbath, taking a day to distress and recharge once a week. The Adventist Health Study completed by the National Institutes of Health showed that this lifestyle earns Adventist women in Loma Linda an extra nine years of life than their American peers, while men average 11. "Once again," he said, "you have a heterogeneous population vastly outliving their cohorts for one and one reason alone: their lifestyle."

Though the blue zones are found in four very geographically and culturally different parts of the world, there are nine characteristics common to all of them that are portable to any location and can be used to make healthy lifestyle changes, Buettner said. They include making low-intensity physical activity part of one's daily routine, building good relationships with friends and family, eating a diet lighter on meat and excess calories and heavier on plants, and finding a purpose for and sense of meaning in your life.

Buettner worked with the University of Minnesota over three years building his vitality compass test, which he says has tested to be the most accurate life expectancy calculator of its kind and is featured on his website. The test asks questions about your health and lifestyle, and the results include your life expectancy, your healthy life expectancy, and your body's current age (as opposed to its chronological age). It also identifies particular areas where care is required, he said, and where simple changes based on the nine longevity characteristics, like making your home a bit less convenient to increase daily movement or eating on smaller plates to cut portion sizes and calories, can start to make an impact on your health.

"Adopting any one of these nine will immediately improve your life expectancy at any age," Buettner said. "It's never too late to start."

Cancer doesn't "just happen"

What people eat and how fast they grow are both significant causes of cancer, but many Americans still incorrectly believe that factors such as pesticides on food are bigger causes, experts reported on Wednesday.Breastfeeding reduces the risk of cancer for mother and child, and tall people have a higher risk of cancer than shorter people, the report found."We need to think about cancer as the product of many long-term influences, not as something that 'just happens,'" Dr. Walter Willett, a nutrition expert at the Harvard School of Public Health in Massachusetts, told a news conference.The report, released jointly by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research, is the result of five years of study by nine teams of scientists.They reviewed 7,000 studies on diet, exercise, weight and cancer.

Most of what they recommended is in line with what health experts, including governments and the World Health Organization, have long been advising -- that diets based on fruits, vegetables and whole grains and that go easy on red meats, dairy products and fats protect against heart disease, diabetes and cancer.They found evidence that factors such as hormones that cause the body to grow quickly may be involved in some cancers."We found that tallness is also probably linked to increased risk for ovarian, pancreatic and pre-menopausal cancer as well," said Willett. He stressed that tall people are not destined to get cancer but should take care to maintain healthy habits.The groups make keeping a healthy weight their No. 1 recommendation to reduce the risk of cancer.
AS LEAN AS POSSIBLE:
"Be as lean as possible within the normal range of body weight," the 400-page report reads. That means keeping a body mass index, they said, of between 21 and 23. BMI is a calculation of height to weight, and the normal range is usually considered to be 18 to 25, with anything over 25 being overweight.Exercise is also key. "Be physically active as part of everyday life," is the second of 10 recommendations made by the expert panel. The recommendations also include eating mostly plant foods, such as fruits, vegetables and grains, avoiding calorie-dense foods such as sugary drinks, and limiting red meat, alcohol and salt.The American Institute for Cancer Research also released a survey of 1,000 U.S. adults that show most do not understand these risks. Only 38 percent knew of the link between cured and processed meats and cancer, 49 percent knew that diets low in fruits and vegetables raised the risk of cancer and 46 percent knew that obesity was a well-documented risk.But 71 percent thought that pesticide residue on produce was a cause -- something that has never been shown; 56 percent thought stress causes cancer, again not proven; and 49 percent believed hormones in beef cause cancer.

"Americans are increasingly likely to attribute cancer to factors over which they have no control, and for which no proven links to the disease exist," the report reads."This reflects an 'everything causes cancer' mindset," it adds.The meat industry quickly denounced the report."WCRF's conclusions are extreme, unfounded and out of step with dietary guidelines," said American Meat Institute Foundation Vice President of Scientific Affairs Randy Huffman.

image and article source:www.reuters.com