November 09, 2007

Random Friday



Afraid this Friday is even more random than usual, folks, if that's possible. And don't worry, we won't spend too much time on anything educational!

Good News: Being Overweight May Not Kill You After All.

At least if you're not obese. (This study probably merits an entire post, which Crabby swears she'll try to get to before too long).

So as you may have noticed: there seems to be at least one dire health warning every day about the dangers of carrying even a few extra pounds. So you would think all this Horrible Dangerousness would add up to a much shorter life expectancy, wouldn't you?

Well, no, as it turns out it, it doesn't.

According a CDC study (summarized here), people with a BMI of 25-30 (overweight but not obese) were actually less likely to die of a bunch of things, like emphysema, pneumonia, injuries, and infections. And they were not any more likely to die of heart disease or cancer than folks who were not overweight.

Surprising, huh?

Of course health experts had to jump in almost immediately and say, well, extra weight may not kill you faster but it's still bad for your health, blah blah blah. Crabby wants to spend a little more time surfing the web, giggling over funny videos studying the issue thoroughly before she posts her thoughts on this. She's always skeptical about studies that contradict what we've been hearing forever so there's probably something wrong with it, but, well, in the meantime...

Cupcake, anyone?


Seriously?

"Hide Your Old Pills in Poop, Government Says" is the actual headline to this Reuters safety advisory, though they might as well have called it: "Crabby, You Have to Post About This!" because how could she possibly resist?

So why should you be putting prescription drugs in your pet's poop? Because if you flush unused prescription drugs down the toilet, the fish get poisoned, and if you just throw them in your trash you might tempt your friendly neighborhood junkie.

(Fortunately, Crabby can safely ignore this rather unsavory public service announcement. She hasn't scored anything interesting enough to tempt a junkie since her wisdom teeth were yanked a quarter of a century ago, and she finished those nice pills all up. So sorry, junkies!)


And Speaking of Somewhat Unsavory Health Warnings:

You know all those recent recalls of dangerous toys made in China? Well, it's not just toys for kids that are affected. This amusing article warns of the dangers of toxic, well, lets just keep calling them "toys" shall we?


Making A Beer Gut Look Suddenly More Appealing...

Via the reliably awesome Fitness Fixation, Cranky Fitness has been alerted to an elective cosmetic surgical procedure that makes even this one look really reasonable. Check out the before and after picture showing surgically sculpted "six pack abs" that guys are paying to have etched in their torsos.

Hot? Or not? Whaddya think?

(Also, Kelly helpfully supplies this awesome link: find out about an Extremely Tempting Recreational Opportunity).

So, abandoning for now all pretense of being a "health and fitness" blog...


Musical Cranky Fitness!

If Crabby could carry a tune, you can bet she'd run right out and sign up for one of these nifty Complaint Choirs. What an awesome idea! Grumblers like Crabby gather in communities around the world to bitch, moan, and whine to music. About everything!

Crabby could sing you a song right now about how embedded YouTube videos never work for her, but instead she'll direct you to a handy video page . Once there, you can pick a choir and hear folks from different nations complaining that their beer costs too much, that their exes are sleeping with their flatmates, and that their mascara is all smudgy.


And Happy Anniversary, Jon Carroll!

Who is Jon Carroll? Well, he's not just the guy who brought the Complaint Choirs to Crabby's attention, he's also her very favorite newspaper columnist of all time. He writes for the San Francisco Chronicle, and apparently this week is the twenty fifth anniversary of his column! Crabby has read practically every single one of them since the very beginning, and has so much admiration for the guy she could practically burst. (She saw him in person once, at a garage sale in Berkeley, and kind of stalked him for a few minutes. She feigned interest in some used books and considered approaching him to complement him on his wit and intelligence and humor but chickened out, which was probably just as well. Crabby blushes and babbles when she's nervous and would have made a huge mess of it).

Anyway, Jon's been web savvy since before blogs were invented--so you don't have to live in San Francisco and pick up a Chron to read him. You can check him out at the above links and subscribe to his column, just as though he were an obscure blog like Cranky Fitness! Oh, and special bonus, at least for some of us: he sometimes writes about his cats.


Speaking of Animals...

So this isn't exactly an animal "exercise" link (a Friday tradition) unless you consider hunting a sport. But hunters think hunting is a sport, and that's good enough for Cranky Fitness. Crabby tends to avoid stories about hunting because she doesn't like to hear about animals getting shot. When dogs shoot hunters, however, she finds herself quite willing to read all about it. (Via Weird Its).

But don't worry; no guns in this amazing video--it's really quite inspirational (though a bit long; Crabby bailed once the talk show part started.)


Got anything on your minds?



Please tell us all about it in the comments, and have a great weekend!

20 comments:

  1. As for the 'new' overweight is OK study, my only comment is: "it's still bad for your health, blah blah blah." I guess it's just me being true to my nature.
    I think the author's said that if you are overweight, you do better with the major operations you will need and respond better to the multiple medications you are on for your metabolic syndrome. I will await Crabby's analysis, however, before taking sides.
    Dr. J

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  2. Another great random round-up, Crabby. And I have the whole weekend to try to get the toxic sex toy article out of my mind.
    Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.

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  3. Dogs shoot hunter...Ok, I know it's not good for anyone to get shot but there was still that little voice in the back of my head saying "Wonder how he likes it?"...Ugh. Just can't understand the appeal of going out and killing something.

    As for the new study about being overweight, I was yammering about that yesterday in my blog as well...I know it's not good to be overweight, but at the same time if you are making an effort to live a healthy lifestyle, I think that should count for something.

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  4. Dr. J--Hmm, smart physician with medical education who probably actually read the study versus sloppy blogger who just skimmed the news, saw JAMA, and said, cool? Gosh, whose initial reaction should we pay more attention to?

    I really do intend to take another look, as the result is counter-intuitive... but I do find it interesting.

    And Leah--between that and the pet poop, it was kind of a gross roundup wasn't it?

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  5. javachick--I had the same reaction! I don't really get the "pleasure" in killing. And will have to check out your take on the study as I really did just skim!

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  6. Hideing pills in poop? Wouldn't that involve like touching the poop? And if a junkie is a true junkie I don't think some chunks of cat poop cryalized by kitty litter are going to deter them! Hmmm...I guess this applies more to walking your dog in public places and having to pick up the hot poo with a bag. Ewww...ours is trained to just go at home and in one certain spot...and I'm not bagging his poo just to hide pills in it! Thanks for the randomness ; )

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  7. Whhhyyyy did I click on that think? Need some brain bleach, please! :-)
    I think the weight issue is over emphasized...the emphasis should be on being HEALTHY. Just because you are overweight does not mean you are unhealthy, and just because you are thin certainly does not mean you are automatically healthy!!
    *off soapbox*

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  8. I wish I could blog half as good as you do, Crabby! You gave me my first chance and now I'm trying to improve with my weekly, "Dr. J will see you now column" on Calorie Lab. Thank you!

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  9. Dr. J, -- yeah, but exactly which horrible, life-threatening ailment (necessitating multiple surgeries and lots of drugs, even) do you know of that affects overweight-not-obese people in such great numbers? It was always my understanding that the real (statistically significant) health risks started at obesity and for most people, overweight is a red flag more than anything else.

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  10. Okay, the Bag Lady is glad she didn't risk looking at the toxic sex toy article (sex - *shudder* toys) -- the fake six-pack abs story was enough for her.
    Heard the "dog-shoots-owner" story on the radio a day or two ago and fell down laughing. Poetic justice.
    The Bag Lady is not going to comment on being *healthily* overweight, except to say that she can only wish...

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  11. Well, there's some good news for the junkies in today's news. They don't need to go looking through used kitty litter for drugs-- they can just buy Aqua Dots!

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  12. Crabby, good post, your stat counter is going to be really high as I am doing laundry and keep going back and forth. Love the hunting story; why didn't they do anything about his saggy tits; I return my pills to the pharmacy, thanks; loved the cat story from your journalist; if I wasn't fat and hadn't been walking, I think my chemo (and two surgeries)would have been much harder. Haven't read about the "toys" or some of the others yet.

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  13. So I was actually here at like 9 this morning. But of course have been clicking away on all these links and have gotten completely lost on some totally random site, more than once. heehee.

    But my ABSOLUTE favorite link was the cardboard tube-fighting. I just saw those pictures and thought, I love this. hilarious.

    (That was so hard. I actually left an entire comment with no exclamation points.)

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  14. Arrgh, I seem to have broken my feed again! Or else half of my subscribers dropped off (again) because of something dumb I said; always a possibility.

    It could be a general problem with feedburner (happened last Sat too) or it could be I did something when resetting my feed address this morning to www.crankyfitness.com, or I could have gotten some weird code in there somehow.

    Anyway, please let me know if anyone is having trouble getting the feed and I'll get more aggressive about trying to figure out what's wrong.

    And thanks for more great comments! You guys really do crack me up.

    Oh, and FYI: Dr J mentioned he has another guest post; here's the link at calorie lab.

    (And anyone who has dealt with a 'managing editor' feed validation error with Feedburner who has any hints, feel free to pop in and give advice!)

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  15. Information on the recent study for Chicken Girl from the authors of the study. I have no personal investment here. I just try to see the information behind the "Sound Bite" and my take is, overweight people have MORE illness and major operations, which they recover better from. I would rather just skip the illnesses and operations, thank you:
    A new US study suggests that while the link between weight and causes of death
    varies considerably, being modestly overweight may actually lower death risk in
    a number of circumstances by providing the body with essential nutritional
    reserves during recovery from illness and major operations...

    "Overweight is not strongly associated with increased cancer or CVD risk, but
    may be associated with improved survival during recovery from adverse
    conditions, such as infections or medical procedures, and with improved
    prognosis for some diseases. Such findings may be due to greater nutritional
    reserves or higher lean body mass associated with overweight," they added.

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  16. Dr. J -- "I just try to see the information behind the "Sound Bite" and my take is, overweight people have MORE illness and major operations, which they recover better from."

    But that doesn't jibe with what you quoted. If overweight people get sick more often, then their death rate overall should be higher, not lower. And if they don't have an increased risk for cancer or cardiovascular disease, what ARE they at risk for that's making them so sick all the time? (That they magically recover from so well that their death rate is lower. It makes no sense!)

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  17. Ms. McSlacker, the only trouble I see with your blog is that it is dangerously time-consuming. I've spent far too much time clicking on links and snickering, when I should be out there stomping my feet aerobically.
    Thanks!

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  18. I am sooooooo ready for Carboard Tube Fighting as an exercise!! Do I get to pick my opponent?

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  19. Oh, Crabby! Your blog is chock full of so much useful(and amusing)information that I fear I will be forced to subscribe to the feed.

    I can testify that the studies about the "new" overweight are true. When the results of my annual checkups at the doctor come in, I inevitably get the look of incredulity from him because I have no high cholesterol, blood pressure, triglicerites, or even diabetes. I am a medical mystery!

    As for the pills...whatever happened to throwing them in the trash can?


    P.S: Amy tells me that it is an honor to get a blog comment from you, so THANK YOU! I am suitably impressed and humbled. (More, please!)

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  20. What a great blog you have here! Tomorrow (Sunday Nov 11) at the All Substances Carnival I'm going to be talking about a fixation on Hoodia, maybe you've already discussed it here. But you might want to chime in.

    And I love the CAT! It's so good that you're Crabby. If you weren't they'd have to make you up. :)

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