Boost health with 15 minutes daily
Fifteen minutes a day of moderate exercise such as walking may be even better for some people than an intense workout such as jogging, Duke University researchers have found. In tests on 240 overweight, middle-aged people, moderate exercise significantly improved their levels of blood fat, whereas vigorous exercise didn't, Reuters reports. And the duration rather than intensity of the exercise boosted levels of so-called good cholesterol. The bad news for confirmed couch potatoes: those who remain sedentary grow even fatter.
Alzheimer's link to glaucoma
British researchers have found that a protein that damages brain tissue of Alzheimer's sufferers is also the main cause of glaucoma - which may lead to better treatments for both diseases. 'This is the first time anybody has provided evidence that the same protein in Alzheimer's causes retinal nerve cell loss,' says Francesca Cordeiro of London's University College. Scientists don't know what causes glaucoma, which affects about 65 million people worldwide, Reuters reports.
Adults prefer beer for bingeing
Beer is the tipple of choice for binge-drinking adults, whereas teenagers prefer the hard stuff - and it's probably largely a matter of convenience, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reports. About 15 per cent of American adults, mostly male, are binge drinkers (defined as having had five or more alcoholic drinks on one occasion within the past 30 days). Binge drinking is said to be responsible for 750,000 deaths a year in the US, AP reports. Of 14,000 adult binge drinkers surveyed, three out of four drank mainly or exclusively beer, probably because it's cheap and easy to find. Of 4,000 high school students surveyed, as many as 49 per cent drank liquor, probably because it's easier to hide or disguise, or to pilfer from their parents' supplies.
Pollution cuts life expectancy for cops