Features

SAN FRANCISCO — Jeff Bezos is officially the richest person on the planet thanks to the success of Amazon — but his bold vision extends to space and even time itself.

With Amazon’s share price up nearly 60 per cent during the past year, the personal wealth of the company’s 54-year-old founder has doubled to more than $110 billion.

Bezos leapt past Bill Gates this week to the top spot on an annual Forbes magazine list of billionaires, relegating the Microsoft co-founder to second place with a net worth of about $90 billion.

He has gone on record with a formula for success that includes taking bold bets, riding change and rebounding from setbacks.

“You need to be nimble and robust so you need to be able to take a punch and you also need to be quick and innovative and do new things at a higher speed, that’s the best defence against the future,” Bezos said in an interview published in Vanity Fair magazine last year.

“You have to always be leaning into the future. If you’re leaning away from the future, the future is gonna win, every time.”

Tinkering toddler 

Bezos’s penchant for experimenting reportedly dates to a young age — with one widely-recounted story telling that he tried to dismantle his own crib as a toddler.

His mother was a teenager when she gave birth to Jeff in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on January 12, 1964. 

She remarried when her son was about four years old and he was legally adopted by his Cuban immigrant stepfather, who worked as an engineer at a major petrochemical company.

His mother’s family were settlers in Texas, where Bezos spent many a summer working at a ranch owned by a grandfather retired from a job as a regional director at the US Atomic Energy Commission.

Bezos was enchanted by computer science when the IT industry was in its infancy and he studied engineering at Princeton University.

After graduating, he put his skills to work on Wall Street, where by 1990 he had risen to be a senior vice president at investment firm D.E. Shaw.

He surprised peers by leaving his high-paid position about four years later to open an online bookseller called Amazon.com, which according to legend was started in a garage.

Jeffrey Preston Bezos went from being a boy with a love for how things work to being the man who built Amazon.com into an internet powerhouse.

Amazon grew to dominate commerce and become a formidable contender in cloud computing and artificial intelligence with its digital assistant Alexa.

The Seattle-based company was worth about $750 billion based on the price of its shares on Thursday.

Long-term thinking

Bezos has such a proven track record for shaking up the business sectors he enters that he has been dubbed “disruptor-in-chief”.

Like his company, Bezos has also transformed with time, shaving his head and bulking up his body with exercise. The results were immortalised in a series of photos taken at a conference last year.

And, he seems to be growing more comfortable being in the public eye, according to recent portrait piece in The New York Times.

A fan of science fiction and in particular the British author Iain Banks, Bezos has passions other than Amazon.

Bezos called Banks “a huge personal favourite” in a tweet last month while announcing that Amazon Prime video service was working on a television series based on one of the author’s novels.

Bezos has invested some $42 million in the building a 150-metre-tall clock designed to keep time for 10,000 years. Built inside a mountain in Texas, the clock will be powered by geothermal energy.

“Humans are now technologically advanced enough that we can create not only extraordinary wonders but also civilisation-scale problems,” Bezos said in a blog post devoted to the clock project.

“We’re likely to need more long-term thinking.”

Bezos is also behind private space exploration operation Blue Origin, into which he usually invests money from selling Amazon shares.

Blue Origin has outlined plans to build a spaceship and lunar lander capable of delivering cargo to the moon, perhaps to support colonies there.

With the purchase of The Washington Post in 2013, the Internet entrepreneur added a prestigious news operation to his investments.

The Washington Post, and Bezos himself, have been targeted by US President Donald Trump. An open critic of Trump, Bezos has jokingly offered to send him into space.

Bezos is married to Mackenzie Bezos, and they have four children.

Launched late last year, the latest iteration of Audi’s luxury flagship A8 model promises cutting edge technology, comfort and safety. Initially offered with a single 3-litre engine and available in two lengths, the statuesque new A8’s design cues and technology has already begun filtering down to other models. Offering the world’s first level 3 autonomous driving system in a production car, the full extent of A8’s artificial intelligence and automated features are, however, being rolled out as and when legislation in various markets catches up.

Detailed design

Built on a light yet stiff platform incorporating aluminium, steel, carbon-fibre and magnesium content the new A8’s rigidity in enhanced by 24 per cent for improved safety, comfort and handling. Yet given the high levels of luxury and equipment, it nevertheless weighs in at a substantial 1945kg, unladen, for the more accommodating long wheelbase A8 L 55 TFSI version. Proportionally, the new A8 is longer and taller, yet is narrower and with a more rakishly coupe-like roofline that doesn’t sacrifice rear headroom. The L version offers particularly generous rear legroom.

Statuesque and imposing, the new A8’s design focus is its vast new haexagoal single-frame grille design, which is flanked by slim and browed headlights with bisected LED elements. Seemingly dwarfing its predecessor’s, the new A8’s grille lends a meaner and more dramatic look, but would have looked even better from some angles were the wheelarches wider or more prominent. Its body features extra attention to detailed surfacing and includes sharper ridges and creases, full-length rear lights add to its perception of width, but make it slightly colour sensitive from the rear.

Efficient ability

Available with a single petrol engine option presently — with V8 and W12 engines available soon — the driven A8 L 55 TFSI’s turbocharged direct injection 3-litre V6 engine. Producing 335BHP at 5000-6400 and 368lb/ft throughout a wide 1370-4500rpm mid-range plateau, the 55 TFSI may be the entry-level model but is nevertheless quick and confident, with 0-100km/h acceleration delivered in 5.7-seconds for the long wheelbase model and a 250km/h top speed. Quick spooling, the 55 TFSI’s turbo proves responsive at launch and with versatile mid-range and seamlessly willing to redline.

Refined and efficient, all A8s drive through a slick and smooth shifting 8-speed automatic gearbox with a broad spread of ratios for performance, consistency, flexibility and efficiency. Incorporating a mild hybrid system across the range, the A8 features a 48V battery and electric system, charging via regenerative braking. Separate from driveline components, it powers ancillary systems and switches the engine off for brief coasting at 55-160km/h. 

It also allows traffic stop/start system operation from 22km/h, and contributes to a 0.7l/100km fuel consumption reduction, and restrained 7.8l/100km combined consumption.

Smooth and stable

Also powered by the A8’s 48V system is optional electromechanical suspension, with electric motors controlling each wheel’s travel independently in response to road texture changes, and when the system is fully deployed to production models, it will also predict textures and pre-empt them. 

Driven in reactive and predictive guises on pre-production models, the A8’s electromechanical suspension goes a long way towards making it feel and handle like a smaller, sportier car, without sacrificing comfort, and also serves as a safety system that raises the car in anticipation of a collision.

However, as driven in A8 L 55 TFSI form without optional electromechanical suspension, the A8 still handles well and rides with terrific comfort owing to its standard adaptive five-link air suspension. 

An improvement of its predecessor model’s air suspension, the new A8 has a more supple ride and seems to more subtly and fluently adapt to road imperfections, while remaining resolutely stable and settled at speed, and buttoned down on vertical rebound. Becoming tauter through corners to well contain body roll, the long wheelbase model drives well and with precision.

Reassuring and refined

If not as sharp, precise and crisp and agile on turn-in as A8 models fitted with electromechanical suspension, or standard wheelbase variants through narrow and winding mountain routes, it is nevertheless tidy, controlled and nimble for a full-size long wheelbase luxury car. 

With standard Quattro four-wheel-drive for reassuring all-weather road-holding, the A8 can distribute power front and rear as necessary for added agility. Available with a host of safety and driver assistance systems, these, along with optional Audi AI self-driving functions, are operating through is “zFas” computer brain and numerous sensors, cameras and radars.

Activated via the Traffic Jam Pilot system, the A8’s self-driving functionality will be rolled out as and when legislation allows in different markets, and differs from other systems in that it doesn’t require constant monitoring and can stop, start, steer and brake to 60km/h under the right conditions. 

Luxuriously appointed with fine materials, the A8’s tasteful, spacious and refined cabin features a horizontal design emphasis. 

Uncluttered and clean, it also features a configurable digital instrument panel and haptic feedback touch buttons and surfaces, while a long list of options will also include self-parking capability.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 3-litre, turbocharged, in-line V6-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 84.5 x 89mm

Compression ratio: 11.2:1

Valve-train: 32-valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, four-wheel-drive

Ratios: 1st 4.714; 2nd 3.143; 3rd 2.106; 4th 1.667; 5th 1285; 6th 1.0; 7th 0.839; 8th 0.667

Reverse/final drive: 3.317/3.076

Drive-line: self-locking centre differential, optional limited-slip rear-differential

Power distribution, F/R: 40 per cent/60 per cent

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 335 (340) [250] @5000-6400rpm

Specific power: 111.8BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 172.2BHP/tone (unladen)

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 368.8 (500) @1370-4500rpm

Specific torque: 166.9Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 257Nm/tone (unladen)

0-100km/h: 5.7-seconds

Top speed: 250km/h (electronically governed)

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 10.3-/6.4-/7.8-litres/100km 

CO2 emissions, combined: 178g/km

Fuel capacity: 72-litres

Length: 5302mm

Width: 1945mm

Height: 1488mm

Wheelbase: 3128mm

Track, F/R: 1644/1633mm

Approach/departure angles: 14°/13.7°

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.27

Luggage volume: 505-litres

Unladen/kerb weight: 1945/2020kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning Circle: 12.9-metres

Suspension: Five-link, adaptive air dampers

Brakes: Ventilated & perforated discs

Tyres: 265/40R20

Dad’s looks are best. For a baby’s health, that is.

A study found that infants living with single mothers who have similar facial features to their fathers tend to be healthier after one year. That is because a youngster who closely resembles his or her dad is more likely to spend time with him, a factor that can improve a child’s well-being.

The research, titled “If looks could heal: Child health and paternal investment” and published in the Journal of Health Economics, looked at 715 mothers and fathers who did not live together. These single parents were interviewed just after birth and then again just less than a year later. The information collected included the frequency of asthma attacks and the number and length of emergency room visits, according to the study published in January.

“Fathers are important in raising a child, and it manifests itself in the health of the child,” Solomon Polachek, a professor at New York’s Binghamton University and one of the authors of the study, said in a statement.

“Those fathers that perceive the baby’s resemblance to them are more certain the baby is theirs, and thus spend more time with the baby,” he added.

The analysis, which Polachek did with Marlon Tracey from Southern Illinois University, found that the single fathers spent an average of two-and-a-half more days per month with their babies than those who did not resemble their offspring.

“It’s been said that ‘it takes a village’,” Polachek concluded, “but ... having an involved father certainly helps”.

The Kindness of Enemies
Leila Aboulela
New York: Grove Press, 2017
Pp. 338

Like in her previous novels, the role of faith is the overarching theme in Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela’s newest book, “The Kindness of Enemies”, but she also explores hybrid identities, divided loyalties and difficult choices — between resistance and adaptation, between war and peace.

These themes gain nuance and depth by being pursued in widely divergent settings. There is much excitement and suspense, as dramatic events unfold from Scotland in 2010, to the Caucasus, Georgia and Russia in the mid-19th century, with a brief but crucial interlude in Sudan. 

The real focus, however, is the characters’ inner lives — emotional and spiritual — which Aboulela describes subtly yet poignantly.

The link between the modern plot and the historical one is Natasha Wilson, born Natasha Hussein to a Russian mother and a Sudanese father, who narrates the now-time chapters. Leaving her Muslim, Sudanese background behind after her parents divorced, she is now a university professor who seems to have adapted to life in Scotland. But small, random things elicit memories of a former life, a different life she might have led. “I was usually restrained, keeping back the shards and useless memories. I had worked too hard to fit in… Many Muslims in Britain wished that no one knew they were Muslim.” (p. 6)

Arriving in London in 1990, just as Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, she changes her surname. But despite her outward success, one feels she is lonely and missing something. Perhaps that explains her choice of research topic: Imam Shamil, a Sufi who led the struggle, or jihad, against Russian domination in the Caucasus from 1830 to 1859. 

Natasha’s narrative highlights the psychological state of siege experienced by Muslims in the West due to the post-9/11 “war on terror”, while the historical chapters vividly depict the harsh Russian military siege to which the people of the Caucasus mountains were subjected for decades, until Shamil surrendered.

Both narratives pose the question of whether jihad means war or an internal struggle, and the comparison explains why, in Natasha’s words, “the founders of Political Islam… never took Shamil as a role model.” (p. 227) Yet, as she discovers, Shamil holds attraction for some young Muslims in Britain.

One of her students tells her: “If Shamil were here today, he wouldn’t have sat back and let Muslim countries be invaded. He wouldn’t have given up on Palestine and he wouldn’t have accepted the two-faced wimps we have as leaders.” (p. 10)

Aboulela’s aim seems to be more than eliciting sympathy for Muslims under siege; she interrogates the choices they make. In her telling, Shamil stands out as an intelligent, charismatic hero, a compassionate man of principle who believes that his struggle will succeed if God wills it so. Thus, when faced with defeat — his followers starving, their homes and hideouts destroyed and his commanders defecting — he can no longer ignore the judgement of his Sufi mentor who views jihad as the non-violent struggle with one’s self. 

Gradually, Shamil becomes more than a research topic for Natasha. Speaking as a historian, she says, “We, staunchly secular and sure of ourselves, plunged into politics and economics, ideology and warfare, power and pressures, then hit against the faith of the characters we were studying.” (p. 227)

Other characters face life-changing circumstances and choices, and Natasha is not the only one to choose adaptation. Shamil’s oldest son, Jamaleldin, is kidnapped by the Russians, made the tsar’s godchild and trained as a Russian military officer.

By the time Shamil is able to capture a hostage important enough to exchange for his son, Jamaleldin has forgotten his native language, no longer practices his religion, and dearly loves the music, dancing, culture and advancement of Russian city life. 

Though he wants to see his family, he returns to the spartan life in the Caucasus only out of a sense of duty, and in hopes of convincing his father of the advantages of suing for peace. Yet, it seems tantamount to betrayal.

The hostage for whom Jamaleldin is exchanged is Princess Anna, whose native Georgia charted a different course than the Circassians, Chechens and Dagestanis. By ceding Georgia to Russia, they attained peace and prosperity. 

Yet, Anna is so impressed by Shamil that she begins to ponder what Georgia lost in the process. Jamaleldin and Anna both experience “the kindness of enemies”, as does Shamil after his surrender, but Aboulela makes it clear that it is conditioned on abandoning resistance, but not necessarily one’s integrity or beliefs.

Aboulela tells a fascinating story with political, psychological and spiritual implications. From the first page, she plunges the reader into unexpected situations with no background descriptions, which heightens the impact of the plot. Memories and dreams alternate with hard reality. 

Her prose is lyrical and evocative but never flowery, and she deftly switches style from chapter to chapter in step with changes in the setting and turn of events. This is both an enlightening historical novel and a bold intervention in the very current debate on the interplay between politics and religion.

By Rania Kudsi

Human Resource Management

Consultant & Entrepreneur

Bullying leads to a negative, toxic work environment. It becomes an unbearable environment that zaps employees’ energy and positivity and distracts all employees, including the bully, who’s more focused on putting his or her colleague down than working.

What can workplace bullying look like? 

• Taking away responsibility from someone or replacing it with more unpleasant tasks

• Ignoring and belittling someone’s opinions 

• Persistently criticising and undermining someone’s work

• Spreading gossip or rumours about someone

• Ignoring or excluding someone at work

• Hinting to someone that they should quit their job

• Excluding or isolating someone socially Intimidating a person

• Withholding necessary information or purposefully giving the wrong information

• Making jokes (verbally or written) that are obviously offensive

• Intruding on a person’s privacy by pestering, spying or stalking

• Yelling or using profanity

What are main causes of workplace bullying? 

Most people assume that the targets of bullies are weak. On the contrary, bullies in the workplace often will choose a competent, successful, dedicated staff member who is liked by their managers and colleagues, is trustworthy and does not engage in gossiping. The bully considers the high performance of others at work a threat, so they start to bully in an attempt to hide their own incompetency, inadequacy and insecurity. 

How can bullying affect  employee? 

• Shock

• Anger

• Frustration

• Anxiety

• Loss of self estee

• Inability to concentrate

• Family tension and stress

• Low morality and productivity

• Stomach pain, headaches 

How can bullying affect the workplace?

Promote absenteeism, increased turnover increased stress, gossiping, rumours, lower productivity and motivation, reduced professionalism create a hostile work environment 

How can my company prevent and deal with workplace bullying?

Bullying is a serious issue that can not be ignored and can not be solved unless dealt with properly. Not taking action sends the message to your staff that aggressive, abusive, offensive behaviour is acceptable at your workplace. This encourages bullies and can prompt others to seek employment elsewhere. Here are steps you can take: 

• Publishing an anti-bullying policy and distributing it to all employees 

• Treating complaints about bullying seriously and strictly

• Clearly defining jobs and providing workers with the resources, information and training they need to carry out their responsibilities

• Implementing workplace bullying reporting and response procedures

• Providing awareness training for managers and staff about bullying and a healthy workplace environment

• Handling inappropriate behaviours before they escalate

• Addressing the problem with the bully, working on a development plan and guiding them in feeling more secure at work

What can I do as victim of workplace bullying?

• Checking if your workplace has a bullying policy and reporting procedure you can follow. The policy should outline how your organisation will prevent and respond to workplace bullying

• If you feel comfortable and safe, confronting the bully and telling them to stop and that their behaviour has a negative impact on you and the workplace

• Seeking advice from your manager, supervisor, staff care, human resources or a colleague you trust at work

• Reporting it officially it and asking for immediate action. If not dealt with, workplace bullying usually escalates and will lead to negative outcomes for you and the workplace as a whole

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

Older adults with heart disease who regularly exercise, even a little bit, may live longer than they would without any physical activity, a Norwegian study suggests. 

Researchers examined three decades of data on 3,307 adults who had been diagnosed with coronary heart disease after a heart attack or an episode of severe chest pain, known as angina, caused by inadequate blood supply to the heart. By the time half of the patients had been in the study for at least 15 years, 1,493 of them had died. 

Compared to people who were inactive, participants who consistently got the minimum recommended amount of exercise for adults were 36 per cent less likely to die during the study. If these very active people scaled back their workouts over time, they were still 26 per cent less likely to die than sedentary individuals. 

And even a little exercise was tied to a longer life. 

People who consistently exercised, though less than the average, were still 19 per cent less likely to die than sedentary participants. And if these less active individuals stopped exercising during the study they were still 18 per cent less likely to die than people who never exercised at all. 

“This is important as most individuals tend to change their levels of activity over time,” said lead study author Trine Moholdt, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. 

“The take-home message for patients is that they should keep on moving,” Moholdt said by e-mail. “And even if they have been inactive so far, it is never too late to start.” 

The World Health Organisation recommends that adults aged 18 to 64 get at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise or at least 75 minutes of intense activity every week. Ideally, each exercise session should be at least 10 minutes long. 

Moderate activities can include things like walking, gardening, ballroom dancing, water aerobics, or taking a leisurely bike ride. Vigorous exercise includes things like jogging, lap swimming, and cycling at a pace of at least 16 kilometres an hour, according to the American Heart Association. 

When participants joined the current study, they were typically in their late 60s. Almost half of them were inactive, and many were overweight or obese. 

Losing weight didn’t appear linked to better survival odds, researchers report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 

Instead, people who lost weight were 36 per cent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease during the study. Gaining weight wasn’t associated with higher odds of premature death. 

One of the study’s limitations is that researchers lacked data on whether any weight loss was intentional or related to health problems. 

The analysis wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how changes in activity levels or weight might impact longevity.

“We have known for decades that maintaining a healthy weight and being physically active were independently associated with lower risks of experiencing a coronary heart disease event or of dying from any cause,” said Claude Bouchard of the Pennington Biomedical Research Centre in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

This study offers fresh evidence that it matters how people lose weight, Bouchard, author of an accompanying editorial, said by e-mail.

“There is no doubt that weight loss or weight maintenance programmes that incorporate exercise are healthier than programs based solely on caloric restriction, even though the latter carries also multiple health benefits,” Bouchard said.

Trapped in the rigid structure of diamonds formed deep in the Earth’s crust, scientists have discovered a form of water ice that was not previously known to occur naturally on our planet.

The finding, published on Thursday in Science, represents the first detection of naturally occurring ice-VII ever found on Earth. And as sometimes happens in the scientific process, it was discovered entirely by accident.

Ice-VII is about one and a half times as dense as the regular ice we put in our drinks and skate on in winter, and the crystalline structure of its atoms is different as well.

In normal ice, known as ice-I, the oxygen atoms arrange themselves in a hexagonal shape. In ice-VII these atoms are arranged in a cubic shape.

Oliver Tschauner, a professor of geoscience at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, explained that there are actually several known phases of water ice that form under different pressure and temperature conditions.

That’s unusual. Generally, when you subject a solid phase of matter to increasing amounts of pressure, the space between the chemical bonds will decrease a little, and the bonds will tilt slightly toward each other, said Tschauner, who led the new work. That’s called compressibility.

But water ice has very low compressibility. When it gets subjected to too much pressure, the atoms don’t scooch together. Instead, they rearrange themselves into different patterns.

For example, if you press down hard enough on ice-I, it will transform into ice-II, which has a rhombohedral structure. Increase the pressure once again and the atoms will rearrange themselves into ice-III, then IV, V, VI and VII.

Unlike the other phases of ice, however, ice-VII remains fairly stable even as the pressure increases.

Scientists believe that ice-VII may be found in great abundance in the solar system, perhaps in the interior of ice moons like Enceladus and Europa, or as part of the ocean floor of Titan. But they did not think it could naturally occur on Earth.

The pressures ice-VII requires to form can be found on our planet, but they exist only deep in the mantle where the temperature is too warm for this form of ice to be stable.

Previous work has shown that ice-VII can be synthesised in the lab, but the new study revealed that small amounts of the material can also form naturally here on Earth, thanks to the peculiar properties of diamonds.

Diamonds can form very deep in the Earth’s mantle, as much as 643 kilometres beneath the crust. As part of their formation process they will occasionally encapsulate teeny bits of the chemical environment around them in what are called inclusions.

The natural convection of the mantle will eventually transport a portion of these diamonds to the surface of the Earth. When that happens, they also bring up other deep-Earth materials in the form of these inclusions.

What’s special about inclusions in diamonds is that the material entrapped within them remains under the same pressure as it was during the time it was encapsulated.

“The diamond lattice doesn’t relax much, so the volume of the inclusion remains almost constant whether it’s in the Earth’s mantle or in your hand,” Tschauner said.

Because of this property, diamonds are the major source of samples from the deep Earth, said George Rossman, a mineralogist at Caltech who worked on the study.

“Usually the extremely deep minerals that come up to the surface are not stable once they experience low pressures,” Rossman said. “They crack and whatever inclusions they had in them are lost. But if a diamond comes up fast enough, it doesn’t change.”

Diamonds that form in the Earth’s mantle don’t originally capture ice-VII. As you’ll recall, the mantle is too warm for ice-VII to exist.

However, as the authors discovered, diamonds can trap small bubbles of extremely dense pressurised water when they form. Then, as the diamond moves up through the mantle, the water inclusion is subjected to cooler temperatures while remaining under the same pressurised conditions. In that very specific case, ice-VII can occur.

Tschauner candidly admits that he and his team did not intentionally set out to look for ice-VII in diamonds. Instead, they were hunting for an unusual phase of carbon dioxide.

But while they were scanning the diamonds with high intensity X-rays, they saw something else: The first conclusive evidence of ice-VII on the planet.

“We were all very excited about that,” Tschauner said.

Thanks to their discovery, ice-VII has been recognised for the first time as a mineral by the International Mineralogical Association.

Rossman said that finding ice-VII, even by accident, was a thrill for the whole team.

“Water in diamonds is not unknown, but finding this very high pressure form of water ice intact, that was really fortuitous,” he said. ‘That’s what you call discovery.”

Women with asthma who use short-acting inhalers to control symptoms may take longer to conceive than women without asthma, a recent study suggests.

Researchers examined data on 5,617 women during their first pregnancies, including 1,106 who said they had been diagnosed with asthma. The women had babies between 2004 and 2011 in New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and the UK.

Compared with non-asthmatics, women with current asthma who used only short-acting “rescue” medications like albuterol were 15 percent less likely to have conceived in any given monthly cycle, the study found. Women on rescue medications were also 30 percent more likely to have taken more than 12 months to conceive.

“While we found that asthma was linked with reduced fertility, the most striking finding was that this relationship was only observed among the group of women relying on short-acting asthma relievers alone to manage their asthma,” said lead study author Dr. Luke Grzeskowiak of the University of Adelaide.

“No relationship between the use of long-acting preventer asthma medications and fertility was seen,” Grzeskowiak said by email. “This provides reassuring evidence that women using long-acting asthma medications, to prevent asthma symptoms and maintain good asthma control, should continue to take these when trying to conceive.”

Long-acting asthma medications such as inhaled corticosteroids work by reducing inflammation in the lungs. Inflammation is a key step in triggering narrowing of the airways, which makes it more difficult for those with asthma to breathe.

While short-acting asthma medications can help relax the airway to treat asthma symptoms, such as wheezing, they are not able to reduce the underlying inflammation and therefore cannot prevent future symptoms.

Several studies have linked asthma to reproduction-related problems in women, but results have been mixed and the connection is poorly understood.

The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how asthma or short-acting asthma drugs might directly cause infertility. It’s possible that some women might struggle to conceive if their asthma was poorly controlled with short-acting medications.

Another limitation is that researchers relied on women to accurately recall and report on any current or prior asthma diagnosis. Researchers also lacked data on asthma control and lung function during pregnancy.

But it’s possible that inflammation may play a role in making it harder to conceive, and the findings suggest that women with asthma should take steps to manage symptoms before trying to conceive, researchers note in the European Respiratory Journal.

“It has been hypothesized that asthma reduces uterine blood supply and increases infiltration of inflammatory cells into the (uterine lining), which impairs implantation and fertility,” said Dr. Eyal Sheiner of Soroka University Medical Center and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel.

“Preventer medications may play a protective role in improving asthma control and reducing associated systemic inflammation which may drive impaired fertility,” Sheiner, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

Poorly controlled asthma during pregnancy can increase the risk that women will develop a severe form of high blood pressure known as preeclampsia, and it can also lead to restricted fetal growth and preterm deliveries as well as underweight infants.

Like many medications, long-acting preventive asthma drugs and inhaled corticosteroids haven’t been tested in pregnant women or proven safe for use during pregnancy. Doctors often advise women with asthma to get regular lung function tests during pregnancy, and to take medications if they have severe symptoms.

“Safety concerns may lead to poor adherence and discontinuation of asthma medications during pregnancy, with negative impacts on asthma control and pregnancy outcomes,” Sheiner said. “It is important to know that these medications improve pregnancy outcomes, and also fertility.”

People who consume mostly packaged foods and drinks with lots of unpronounceable ingredients may be more likely to develop certain cancers than people who subsist mostly on whole foods found in nature, a French study suggests. 

Researchers examined data from dietary surveys completed by nearly 105,000 adults who did not have cancer. By the time half the participants had been in the study for at least five years, 2,228 cancer cases had been diagnosed — including 739 breast cancers, 281 prostate cancers, and 153 colorectal cancers. 

Every 10 per cent increase in the amount of heavily processed foods and drinks people consumed was associated with a 12 per cent higher risk of developing all cancers and an 11 per cent higher risk of developing breast cancer during the study, researchers report in The BMJ. 

“Consumers should not be alarmed at this stage, as these results need to be confirmed,” said lead study author Bernard Srour of the French Institute of Health and Medical Research INSERM in Paris. 

But based on other research linking certain additives and chemicals in processed foods to an increased risk of cancer and other health problems, consumers should be cautious about what they eat and drink, Srour said by e-mail. 

“Ultra-processed foods and beverages contain some food additives for which carcinogenic effects are suspected such as titanium dioxide, a white food pigment which can be found in some confectionaries, chewing-gums, and biscuits,” Srour added. “Ultra-processed foods are also often packaged in plastic which might contain contact materials having controversial effects on health, such as bisphenol A [BPA].” 

Study participants reported their dietary habits based on their recollection of what they ate and drank over a 24-hour period in surveys administered every six months. Over the first two years of follow-up, people typically completed at least five surveys. 

Compared with people who generally avoided heavily processed foods, individuals who consumed lots of ultra-processed foods tended to be younger, current smokers and less active with limited education. 

People who consumed the most heavily processed foods typically drank a lot of sodas and other sugary beverages and ate lots of sugary, fatty and starchy foods, the study found. 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how certain dietary habits might directly cause cancer, and it was also too brief to diagnose some tumours that might be slow-growing and take years to develop. 

Participants were also generally more health-conscious and with higher income and education levels than the typical person in France, making it possible that results from this group might not represent what would happen with other people. 

It is also not clear what it is about processed foods that might lead to cancer, noted Martin Lajous, author of an accompanying editorial and a researcher at the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico City and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. 

While more research is needed to verify the connection between processed foods in cancer, it is possible that food additives, certain nutrients or contaminants from packages or other factors might have contributed to malignancies that developed, Lajous said by e-mail.