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WASHINGTON — People classified as overweight though not obese are not at a higher risk of death, according to a new study Wednesday that underscores the limitations of the body mass index (BMI), long a standard medical metric.

The findings, published in the journal PLOS ONE, come as populations in both rich and poor countries are becoming heavier. In the United States, more than 70 per cent of adults are defined as either overweight or obese. 

BMI, which was first described by a Belgian mathematician in the 19th century, is calculated by dividing a person’s weight by the square of their height. It is increasingly seen as a crude instrument for measuring individual health. 

Lead author Aayush Visaria of Rutgers University told AFP: “I think the real thing that people should get from this is that BMI by itself is just not a great indicator of health.”

Measuring waist circumference or performing a type of scan that visualises bone density, body fat and muscle mass should also be used for a more holistic interpretation, he said. Having excess fat still increases risk for a range of conditions including heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

“I’ve seen patients with the same exact BMI, but with vastly different metabolic and health implications. So I wanted to investigate this further,” added Visaria, a physician.

Older studies on the link between weight and death rates drew inconsistent and uncertain results, and were mostly focused only on non-Hispanic white adults.

In the new work, Visaria and his co-author Soko Setoguchi drew on data on more than 550,000 American adults from the 1999-2018 National Health Interview Survey and the 2019 US National Death Index. 

They calculated BMI based on the self-reported height and weight of the participants, and gathered data on demographics, socio-behavioural factors such as smoking and physical activity, underlying health conditions, and access to healthcare.

More than 75,000 people who were included in the study died during the period of research.

After adjusting for other variables, the results showed that people with a BMI between 25 and 30, which is classified as overweight, did not have an increased risk of death compared to people whose BMI was between 22.5 and 24.9.

However, the mortality risk rose markedly among people whose BMI was under 20, and those with BMI greater or equal to 30, defined as obese. 

Obesity carries higher death risk

For example, a person with “third degree” obesity, defined as a BMI of 40 or above, but had never smoked and had no history of cardiovascular disease or non-skin cancer, was more than twice as likely to die as an equivalent counterpart with BMI defined as average.

The average age of participants was 46. Half were female, and 69 per cent were non-Hispanic white. Of those included, 35 per cent had a BMI between 25 and 30, and 27.2 per cent had a BMI above or equal to 30.

“It’s a large study with a representative sample which is good,” George Savva, a biostatistician at the Quadram Institute in the United Kingdom, told AFP. “The authors have, as far as I can see, done a good job of analysing the mortality link with baseline weight status.”

He added it might be the case that diseases linked with higher weight are managed better than they once were, for example high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

“So you would expect the relationship between weight and death to change over time, which potentially is what this is showing,” Savva said.

WASHINGTON — US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly announced its experimental Alzheimer’s drug significantly slowed cognitive and functional decline, results hailed as “remarkable” by experts despite some patients experiencing serious side effects.

In an analysis of nearly 1,200 people in the early stages of the disease, donanemab slowed the progression of symptoms by 35 per cent over a period of 18 months compared to placebo.

This was measured by cognition and their ability to carry out daily tasks like managing finances, driving, engaging in hobbies and conversing about current events in a standardised index called the Integrated Alzheimer’s Disease Rating Scale.

Side effects included temporary swelling in parts of the brain, which occurred in almost a quarter of the treated patients, as well as microhaemorrhages that occurred in 31 per cent of patients on the treatment arm and 14 per cent of patients in the placebo group.

Two participants’ deaths were attributed to the side effects, while a third might have also died from the treatment.

Nonetheless, the data was widely praised by independent experts, who said donanemab had the potential, if approved, to significantly improve the lives of people suffering from the most common form of dementia.

The news comes after the US approved another Alzheimer’s drug in January, Biogen and Eisai’s lecanemab, which slowed the rate of cognitive decline by 27 per cent and was also declared a blockbuster by experts.

Biogen and Eisai had also developed aducanumab, known by the trade Aduhelm, which was given US approval in 2021, though that decision was mired in controversy and led to a damning report by Congress.

In addition to severe side effects, Aduhlem’s clinical effectiveness was ambiguous, which is so far not the case for the two subsequent drugs.

Lilly said it would rapidly submit its results to the US Food and Drug Administration as well as other global regulators.

“We are extremely pleased that donanemab yielded positive clinical results with compelling statistical significance for people with Alzheimer’s disease in this trial,” said Daniel Skovronsky, Lilly’s chief scientific and medical officer, in a statement.

Mark Mintun, a top Lilly executive in neuroscience R&D, added however that “like many effective treatments for debilitating and fatal diseases, there are associated risks that may be serious and life-threatening”.

Targeting amyloid

In Alzheimer’s disease, two key proteins, tau and amyloid beta, build up into tangles and plaques, known together as aggregates, which cause brain cells to die and lead to brain shrinkage.

Like lecanemab (also known by its trade name Leqembi), donanemab is an antibody therapy that targets amyloid beta.

Experts said that the results for both drugs validated the theory that removing amyloid beta does improve the course of the disease, and that future therapies targeting both proteins might have even better outcomes.

Nick Fox, of the UK Dementia Research Institute, said that although the full dataset was not yet available, the results announced by press release “confirms that we are in a new era of disease modification for Alzheimer’s disease”.

“This clinical trial is a real breakthrough, demonstrating a remarkable 35 per cent slowing of cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients with high amyloid beta but low tau burden,” added Marc Busche, UK Dementia Research Institute group leader at University College London.

“These are the strongest phase 3 data for an Alzheimer’s treatment to date,” said Maria Carrillo, chief science officer at the US Alzheimer’s Association. “This further underscores the inflection point we are at for the Alzheimer’s field.”

Alzheimer’s disease accounts for 60-80 per cent of dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. It progressively destroys thinking and memory, eventually robbing people of the ability to carry out the simplest of tasks.

PARIS/NEW YORK — Elon Musk spent the weekend further alienating Twitter users with more drastic changes to the social media giant, and he is facing a new challenge as tech nemesis Mark Zuckerberg prepares to launch a rival app this week.

Zuckerberg’s Meta group, which owns Facebook, has listed a new app in stores as “Threads, an Instagram app”, available for pre-order in the United States, with a message saying it is “expected” this Thursday.

The two men have clashed for years but a recent comment by a Meta executive suggesting that Twitter was not run “sanely” irked Musk, eventually leading to the two men offering each other out for a cage fight.

Since buying Twitter last year for $44 billion, Musk has fired thousands of employees and charged users $8 a month to have a blue checkmark and a “verified” account.

On the weekend, he limited the posts readers could view and decreed that nobody could look at a tweet unless they were logged in, meaning external links no longer work for many.

He said he needed to fire up extra servers just to cope with the demand as artificial intelligence (AI) companies scraped “extreme levels” of data to train their models.

But commentators have poured scorn on that idea and marketing experts say he has massively alienated both his user base and the advertisers he needs to get profits rolling.

In another move that shocked users, Twitter announced on Monday that access to TweetDeck, an app that allows users to monitor several accounts at once, would be limited to verified accounts next month.

John Wihbey, an associate professor of media innovation and technology at Northeastern University, told AFP that plenty of people wanted to quit Twitter for ethical reasons after Musk took over, but he had now given them a technical reason to leave too.

And he added that Musk’s decision to sack thousands of workers meant it had long been expected that the site would become “technically unusable”.

‘Remarkably bad’

Musk has said he wants to make Twitter less reliant on advertising and boost income from subscriptions.

Yet, he chose advertising specialist Linda Yaccarino as his chief executive recently, and she has spoken of going into “hand-to-hand combat” to win back advertisers.

“How do you tell Twitter advertisers that your most engaged free users potentially will never see their ads because of data caps on their usage,” tweeted Justin Taylor, a former marketing executive at Twitter.

Mike Proulx, vice president at market research firm Forrester, said the weekend’s chaos had been “remarkably bad” for both users and advertisers.

“Advertisers depend on reach and engagement yet Twitter is currently decimating both,” he told AFP.

He said Twitter had “moved from stable to startup” and Yaccarino, who remained silent over the weekend, would struggle to restore its credibility, leaving the door open to Twitter’s rivals to suck up any cash from advertisers.

‘Open secret’

The technical reasons Musk gave for limiting the views of users immediately brought a backlash.

Many social media users speculated that Musk had simply failed to pay the bill for his servers.

French social data analyst Florent Lefebvre said AI firms were more likely to train their models on books and media articles than social network content, which “is of much poorer quality, full of mistakes and lacking in context”.

Yoel Roth, who stepped down as Twitter’s head of security weeks after Musk took over, said the idea that data scraping had caused such performance problems that users needed to be forced to log in “doesn’t pass the sniff test”.

“Scraping was the open secret of Twitter data access,” he wrote on the Bluesky social network — another Twitter rival.

“We knew about it. It was fine.”

MERRITT ISLAND, Florida — Europe’s Euclid space telescope blasted off Saturday, kicking off a first-ever mission to shed light on two of the universe’s greatest mysteries: dark energy and dark matter.

“I can tell you, I’m so thrilled, I’m so excited to see this mission up in space,” European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Josef Aschbacher said after the launch.

The telescope successfully took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:12am local time on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Shortly after, once separated from the rocket, it emitted its first signal, as scheduled.

The ESA was forced to turn to billionaire Elon Musk’s firm to launch the mission after Russia pulled its Soyuz rockets in response to sanctions over the war in Ukraine.

“The launch was perfect,” said Carole Mundell, ESA’s science director. “Now begins that journey.”

After a month-long trip through space, Euclid will join the James Webb telescope at a stable hovering spot around 1.5 million kilometres from Earth called the second Lagrange Point.

From there, Euclid will chart the largest-ever map of the universe, encompassing up to two billion galaxies across more than a third of the sky.

By capturing light that has taken 10 billion years to reach Earth’s vicinity, the map will also offer a new view of the 13.8-billion-year-old universe’s history.

“We will unravel the mysteries of the Dark Universe,” Mundell said.

‘Cosmic embarrassment’

Scientists hope to use information gathered by Euclid to address what project manager Giuseppe Racca calls a “cosmic embarrassment”: that 95 per cent of the universe remains unknown to humanity.

Around 70 per cent is thought to be made of dark energy, the name given to the unknown force that is causing the universe to expand at an accelerated rate.

And 25 per cent is dark matter, thought to bind the universe together and make up around 80 per cent of its mass. 

“Ever since we could see stars we’ve wondered, is the universe infinite? What is it made out of? How does it work?” NASA Euclid project scientist Michael Seiffert told AFP.

“It’s just absolutely amazing that we can take data and actually start to make even a little bit of progress on some of these questions.”

‘Dark detective’

Euclid consortium member Guadalupe Canas told a press conference ahead of the launch that the space telescope was a “dark detective” which can reveal more about both elements.

Euclid, which is 4.7 metres tall and 3.5 metres wide, will use two scientific instruments to map the sky. 

Its visible light camera will let it measure the shape of galaxies, while its near-infrared spectrometer and photometer will allow it to measure how far away they are.

So how will Euclid try to spot things that cannot be seen? By searching for their absence.

The light coming from billions of light years away is slightly distorted by the mass of visible and dark matter along the way, a phenomenon known as weak gravitational lensing.

“By subtracting the visible matter, we can calculate the presence of the dark matter which is in between,” Racca told AFP.

While this may not reveal the true nature of dark matter, scientists hope it will throw up new clues that will help track it down in the future.

As for dark energy, French astrophysicist David Elbaz compared the expansion of the universe to blowing up a balloon with lines drawn on it.

By “seeing how fast it inflates,” scientists hope to measure the breath — or dark energy — making it expand.

‘Gold mine’

A major difference between Euclid and other space telescopes is its wide field of view, which takes in an area equivalent to two full moons. 

Project scientist Rene Laureijs said that this wider view means Euclid will be able to “surf the sky and find exotic objects”, like black holes, that the Webb telescope can then investigate in greater detail.

Beyond dark energy and matter, Euclid’s map of the universe is expected to be a “gold mine for the whole field of astronomy”, said Yannick Mellier, head of the Euclid consortium.

Scientists hope Euclid’s data will help them learn more about the evolution of galaxies, black holes and more.

“We are trying to determine something that escapes us enormously: Dark matter, dark energy,” Marc Sauvage, a member of the Euclid consortium, told AFP.

The first images are expected once scientific operations start in October, with major data releases planned for 2025, 2027 and 2030.

The 1.4 billion euro ($1.5 billion) mission is intended to run until 2029, but could last a little longer if all goes well.

Over the next few years, NASA also plans to launch the Nancy Grace Roman space telescope, its own project to study dark matter and dark energy.

The two missions will complement each other, said Sauvage.

“In the end, there is only one universe.”

Edging out the superb Ford Focus ST hot hatch as the iconic American manufacturer’s most compact performance vehicle in its home market and in the Middle East, the Edge ST’s 2019 arrival came soon after the brand rolled back much of its passenger car models, in lieu of a more SUV-oriented line-up in these regions.

Incrementally updated with new packages, tech revisions and improvements since, the Edge ST however occupies a similarly sporting but practical ground among crossovers as the Focus ST did among hatchbacks.

Athletic aesthetic

The Edge ST is not as sportingly agile in its handling or viscerally charged in driver appeal and engagement as the hot hatch it effectively replaces, in an outright comparison. However, it nevertheless channels and reinterprets much of the same rewardingly eager yet accessible traits that characterised much of the Ford Performance wing’s road-oriented performance products for crossover SUV service. In such a broad segment, the Edge ST is a standout model for combination of responsively nimble handling, punchy performance and user-friendly daily drive practicality. 

The sporting sister to Ford’s spacious and versatile mid-size family crossover, the Edge ST features the same scowling, slim headlights, high waistline, rakish roofline and high-set rear lights. It however adopts an athletic aesthetic with more aggressive bumpers, side skirts and dual integrated rectangular exhaust ports. Ditching the Edge’s heavy chrome detailing for black, body colour and dark brushed aluminium effect accents and body trim, the ST’s big tailgate spoiler and choice of standard 20-inch or optional 21-inch alloy wheels meanwhile lend a tauter look.

Punchy performance

A more focused take on the Edge crossover, the ST is powered by a 2.7-litre twin-turbocharged direct injection EcoBoost V6 engine positioned transversely behind its vast, hungry octagonal grille, and black honeycomb mesh. A familiar yet ever-impressive engine already deployed with luxury Lincoln brand sister models, the Edge ST’s versatile V6 develops 335BHP at 5,500rpm and 380lb/ft torque at 3,000rpm, and is mated to a smooth and quick shifting 8-speed automatic gearbox with plenty of ratios to exploit output for optimised performance, efficiency and flexibility.

Prodigious and efficient, the Edge ST’s twin-turbo 2.7 pulls confidently hard from low-end engine speeds, as it wells up to a rich, versatile and flexibly muscular mid-range sweet spot plateau. Urgent accumulating power from it abundant mid-range and through to redline, the Edge ST overtakes with effortless ease and a more resonant acoustic edge when in Sport mode. Responsive to throttle input, the Edge ST winds up to its top end with a punchy intensity that is underwritten by a deep, wide, flexible and layer of torque.

Clever composure

Consistent and quick, the Edge ST is eager and urgent reaching for its rev limit. It is however similarly responsive from standstill, and launches with muscular confidence, as short gasflow path plumbing minimises turbo lag, while all-wheel-drive provides tenacious traction to propel it through 0-100km/h in around 6.5-seconds. Driving front wheels under normal conditions, it however sends power to the rear wheels when more traction is needed over loose surfaces, or enhanced road holding is required to aggressively power out of corners with confidence and composure.

Utilising a clever independent suspension design of front MacPherson struts and a rear integral-link system, the Edge ST provides both a rigid lateral control and supple vertical compliancy for both good driving dynamics and ride comfort. A faster, firmer and more focused family crossover, it is agile vehicle next to most competitors, and drives with an eager and alert character. Tidy into corners with responsive and quick steering, it is surprisingly willing to be chucked through corners like a smaller, lighter vehicle than its 2,052kg suggests.

Comfortable cruiser

Alert and eager into corners with direct, weighty and more intuitive than expected steering, the Edge ST is committed and grippy throughout corners, and with better body lean control than expected of its weight and ride height. That said, the Edge ST excels in its settled, smooth and stable high-speed cruising capability. Dispatching textural imperfections with comfortable composure — even with optional low profile 265/40R21 tyres — the Edge ST, meanwhile, provides a refined, buttoned down and reassuring ride quality in town and on highway. 

Distinctly sporting inside with leather and Alcantara upholstery, the Edge ST’s combination of high waistline, high-set seating and low steering position initially seems unorthodox, but soon becomes second nature, with user-friendly controls close to hand and good front visibility. Spacious for front and rear passengers, and with generous luggage capacity, it is as comfortable as it is sporty. Well equipped with comfort, convenience, safety and sophisticated driver assistance features, the Edge also gained a bigger and much improved vertically-oriented tablet style infotainment screen as of its recent 2021 update.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Engine: 2.7-litre, in-line, twin-turbocharged V6-cylinders
• Bore x stroke: 83 x 83mm
• Compression ratio: 10:1
• Valve-train: 24-valve, DOHC, direct injection
• Redline: 6,500rpm
• Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, four-wheel-drive
• Ratios: 1st 4.48; 2nd 3.15; 3rd 2.87; 4th 1.84; 5th 1.41; 6th 1.0; 7th 0.74; 8th 0.62; R 2.88
• Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 335 (340) [250] @5,500rpm
• Specific power: 124.3BHP/litre
• Power-to-weight: 163BHP/tonne
• Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 380 (515) @3,250rpm
• Specific torque: 191.1Nm/litre
• Torque-to-weight: 251Nm/tonne
• 0-100km/h: approximately 6.5-seconds (est.)
• Fuel consumption, combined: 11.2-litres/100km*
• Wheelbase: 2,850mm
• Track, F/R: 1,646 / 1,643mm 
• Liftover height: 752mm
• Luggage volume, behind 2nd / 1st row, liquid, to roof: 1,111- / 2,078-litres
• Fuel capacity: 70-litres
• Kerb weight: 2,052kg
• Steering: Electric-assisted rack and pinion
• Turning circle: 12-metres (est.)
• Suspension, F/R: MacPherson strut / integral-link, anti-roll bars
• Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 345 x 32mm / 345 x 19mm
• Tyres: 265/40R21 (optional)
• *(US EPA Estimate)

By Rania Sa’adi
Licensed Rapid Transformational Therapist and Clinical Hypnotherapist

Addiction by definition is anything that takes you away from pain and towards pleasure; this includes any behaviour, not just substances. Some of the most common addictions are to drugs, nicotine, alcohol, gambling, gaming, shopping and sugar, among others. 

Stereotypes

One of the major misconceptions towards addiction in our society is that we treat it as a problem and we treat the addict as an outcast; a person who makes bad choices and wrong decisions, that led to where that person is today- a person who is weak and submits to temptations, or a person who is a criminal and deserves to be punished.

Rehabilitation centres are created on the basis of helping people get off their addictions by treating the addiction as an issue that needs to be eliminated or a behaviour that needs to be altered, instead of what it really is: “The solution”.

Escape

Behind every dysfunctional human behaviour is an attempt to escape suffering. Addictions are no different and they usually arise as a coping mechanism for something deeper.

The best way to get rid of any addiction is to understand the pain behind it. And once the root cause behind the addiction is discovered, it could be resolved easily.

Many studies show a strong correlation between addictions and childhood trauma, like abandonment, emotional, physical or sexual abuse. They usually result in beliefs like “I am not loved, not accepted, or not good enough.” And the addiction becomes a way to escape reality and survive the harsh environment.

In many cases, when a child feels disconnected from the only people who are supposed to provide for safety and security, namely parents, a child will resort to finding that connection through substance abuse or adopting unhealthy behaviours.

Guilt, shame and blame

The addiction will feel like a big hug, filling a void, masking the pain and providing instant gratification and the “feel good” sensation that is usually followed by guilt, shame and blame.

Logically, the addict knows that he has a dysfunctional habit, yet, he can do nothing about it. There’s a feeling of helplessness that keeps him stuck in that loop. The reason why this is the case is that when there is a conflict between logic and emotions, emotions always win — the unloved, unwanted, not good enough feeling, immersed in his subconscious ever since he was a small child, is too overwhelming and no amount of reasoning or logic can make it go away.

Most addicts cannot stop, because the addiction in this case is fulfilling a need. A need to feel loved and valued. Be it the workaholics who work so hard for many days and nights, neglecting family, just to “subconsciously” feel that they have value, because a long time ago they were made to believe that they had no value except when making money.

The gamer

Or the gamer who spends so many hours playing a game resulting in failure in other areas of life, just because he feels a sense of accomplishment when passing from one level to another (in the game) because in real life the gamer believes that she or he is not smart enough, and can accomplish nothing in life.

They all know consciously that it is affecting their life in a bad way, but the subconscious beliefs are what drives most of our choices in life- and it is strongly wired to our survival instinct. If I am not valued, not good or smart enough, I am dispensable and therefore I am alone and unsafe.

The rules of the mind

One of the rules of the mind is that it always takes you away from pain and towards pleasure, to survive and in this case addiction.

In other words: Don’t ask why the addiction, ask why the pain.

Finding out where the root of all these negative beliefs driving the addiction is the first step to breaking them. And once the belief driving that unhealthy behaviour disappears the addiction itself that came as a way to cope with it disappears as well.

So, the best way to help an addict is to show compassion and empathy, understand the pain behind the behaviour and avoid judgement. Let addicts know that they are worthy and deserve a better life and that help is just around the corner whenever they are ready to accept it.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine