Tuesday, April 28, 2009



Fat is the new smoking

Do you have a spare tire? Some bulges? Do your thighs rub together? Do you have a big gut? Well, be prepared to be ostracized.

They already did a number on smokers. It used to be you could smoke almost anywhere, from the supermarket to your workplace. And then they started passing laws until you now have to go to smoke areas which are usually outside and away from everywhere else. Even though OSHA had to admit that second-hand smoke in the workplace cannot affect people except under extreme conditions.
“Field studies of environmental tobacco smoke indicate that under normal conditions, the components in tobacco smoke are diluted below existing Permissible Exposure Levels (PELS.) as referenced in the Air Contaminant Standard (29 CFR 1910.1000)…It would be very rare to find a workplace with so much smoking that any individual PEL would be exceeded.” -Letter from Greg Watchman, Acting Ass’t Sec’y, OSHA, to Leroy J Pletten, PHD, July 8, 1997

But relentless anti-smoking ads and a successful attempt to ban smoking in most movies and TV has resulted in smokers being made social pariahs. So now they are going after fat people. The arsenal of mendacity and fraud they’re using comes in many forms. The latest broadside is to link obesity to global warming.
HIGH rates of obesity in richer countries cause up to a billion extra tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year, compared with countries with leaner populations, according to a study that assesses the additional food and fuel needs of the overweight. The finding is particularly worrying, scientists say, because obesity is on the rise in many rich nations. “Population fatness has an environmental impact,” said Phil Edwards, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “We’re all being told to stay fit and keep our weight down because it’s good for our health. The important thing is that staying slim is good for your health and for the health of the planet.”

So do China and India have less greenhouse gas emissions than Canada and Germany? After all, China and India have “thinner” people. The answer is of course, no. This is a false claim like many of those the AGW crowd makes. But making false statements didn’t stop the anti-smoking crusaders who made it seem like smoking a cigarette automatically gives you get lung cancer. And it’s gotten so bad many places are using their anti-smoker bias to deny smokers their civil rights. Using the same logic, they can start doing that to the “obese.”

Mind you, the obesity epidemic burst onto the scene when the government changed their obesity ratings by using a bogus Body Mass Index (BMI) chart so off base that muscular people like The Rock or Arnold Schwarzenegger would suddenly be rated obese. Many athletes are rated as obese under these standards. But the media naturally just ran with the press releases that claimed there was a sudden obesity epidemic sweeping the nation. And then came the articles stating it was causing health costs to soar and something must be done about it.

They are using the obese as a scapegoat for health costs. And now airlines are making fat people pay double for air fare. The reason fat people spill over into the next seat is because they keep making the seats narrower. They have been doing that for years. And suddenly, with the obesity epidemic, it “became a problem.” If you read the comments on some of the articles talking about it there are lots of rabble saying things like “Good! Make those fatties pay triple!”

Be careful what you wish for. If they get away with doing this to people out of shape, they will find some other group to target next and soon you may be in the crosshairs. Everywhere you look they are trying to ban something and make a group out to be the fault of it all. If you’re a conservative, the Obama DHS is calling you a domestic terrorist. Some in the MSM are calling you greedy racists.

As long as we let others define us as something we’re not, they will get away with it. It’s time we stop letting them do that.

SOURCE






Viagra faces minuscule rival

In one of the first medical applications of nanotechnology – the science of tiny particles – scientists have developed a fast-acting treatment for impotence that could rival Viagra. The drug’s minute particles can be absorbed directly through the skin, causing a sexual response within minutes. The treatment has so far only been tested in animals but the researchers behind it say the same approach could also benefit humans.

Viagra and other drugs have to be taken orally, meaning they take some time to be digested and then have effects throughout the body. Some users can suffer side-effects such as headaches, facial flushing and indigestion.

The nanoparticle approach, by contrast, worked in less than 10 minutes and its effects seem to be limited to the relevant parts of the body, according to the researchers. Kelvin Davies of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, who oversaw the research, said the results showed the potential for “nano-medicines”. He said the nanoparticles “can facilitate transport of erectogenic agents. It localises the therapeutic impact without the potential consequences due to systemic absorption”.

In the study, to be published today at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association, Davies and his colleagues loaded the nanoparticles with nitric oxide, a chemical that occurs naturally in the body where it makes blood vessels expand and fill with blood. They applied the particles to the skin of rats bred to suffer from impotence. They observed a rapid and strong response.

The potential market for such drugs is extensive. Viagra has become one of the world’s most popular medicines with about 40m pills prescribed in Britain alone since its launch in 1998. Many more have been obtained from online pharmacies.

Some believe such treatments benefit relationships pointing to the fact that about a fifth of marital breakdowns are at least partly linked to men suffering erectile dysfunction. Other evidence has, however, shown that such drugs give older men the confidence to start new relationships with younger women and quit the marital home.

Viagra has been cited in many split-ups, including that of of Wendy and Johnny Kidd, parents of the models Jodie and Jemma and the first marriage of the comedian Vic Reeves.

SOURCE

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