Very Large Waist Could Double a Person’s Risk of Death From Any Cause, Study Finds

Men and women who are very large around the middle are at much greater risk of dying from any cause than people with thinner waists, a new study says.

Eric J. Jacobs, PhD, and colleagues at the Atlanta-based American Cancer Society, examined associations between waist circumference and the risk of death in 48,500 men and 56,343 women aged 50 and older.

They found that people with very large waists — 47 inches or more for men and 42 inches and more in women — were about twice as likely to die, compared to thinner people, and not just from weight-related problems.

All participants had completed a mailed questionnaire about demographic, medical, and behavior factors and provided information about weight and waist circumference during the 1990s. Over a nine-year follow-up period, 9,315 men and 5,332 women died.

A larger waist was associated with a higher risk of death across all measures of BMI, or body mass index, including people of normal weight and people who were overweight and obese.

A somewhat surprising finding was that among women, the risk association between waist size and death was strongest for those with a normal […]

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The annual report of the Social Security Trustees is the sort of rich compendium of facts and analysis that has something for everybody, like the Bible.

In recent years, during which conservatives have intensified their efforts to destroy one of the few U.S. government programs that actually works as intended, the report’s publication has become an occasion for hand-wringing and crocodile tears over the (supposedly) parlous state of the system’s finances.

This year’s report, which came out Thursday, is no exception. Within minutes of its release, some analysts were claiming that it projected a ‘shortfall’ for Social Security this year of $41 billion.

Before we get to the bogus math behind that statement – which doesn’t actually appear in the report – let’s look at the encouraging findings by the agency’s trustees, who include the secretaries of Labor, the Treasury, and Health and Human Services.

The trustees indicated that the program has made it through the worst economic downturn in its life span essentially unscathed. In fact, by at least one measure it’s fiscally stronger than a year ago: Its projected actuarial deficit over the next 75 years (a measurement required by law) is smaller now than a year ago.

The old age and disability […]

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Stephan:  Over 10 years ago I made the decision to begin Schwartzreport, and as a discipline to do it every day, seven days a week, no matter where in the world I was. With one break of two weeks two summers ago, when I cruised down from Alaska to Seattle on a dear friend's boat, and a 10 days this summer when I again was invited to go cruising, and except for one or two nights each year when the net was not available, or equipment had failed, that is what I have done. SR has been published from some very strange places. From beneath Red Square in Moscow, in an internet café that looked like something from The Matrix, all long leather coats, and those cool sunglasses. It has gone out from the back of Pakistani curry shop. From a cave in Turkey, and from numberless hotels and, for several nights, from an 18 foot open boat huddled under a tarp while in a driving rainstorm, bobbing off a Canadian island trying to stay linked to an open net from a deserted house. Through it all SR has gone out. I began it as my contribution to the good, and determined that I would not allow advertising, and would not permit myself to be influenced in that way. I couldn't think of an economic model that would work without compromise, and so just bore the costs and committed the time. Over the years a number of readers have suggested that I charge for the subscription, but I thought that would change its nature. I wanted it to be free to anybody who could use the information. Recently however, several readers have urged me to let them support SR, asking me to just put up a 'Support SR' button and let people contribute as they thought best. After meditating on this for several weeks I have decided to do this. I am going to continue to publish SR, and it will continue to be free. However, I would certainly appreciate the support and, if you would like to offer it, and to help me make SR better, I would be very happy to have your assistance. Thank you. -- Stephan

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SPIRITWOOD, N.D.-A hulking yellow machine inched along Old Highway 10 here recently in a summer scene that seemed as normal as the nearby corn swaying in the breeze. But instead of laying a blanket of steaming blacktop, the machine was grinding the asphalt road into bits.

‘When [counties] had lots of money, they paved a lot of the roads and tried to make life easier for the people who lived out here,’ said Stutsman County Highway Superintendant Mike Zimmerman, sifting the dusty black rubble through his fingers. ‘Now, it’s catching up to them.’

Outside this speck of a town, pop. 78, a 10-mile stretch of road had deteriorated to the point that residents reported seeing ducks floating in potholes, Mr. Zimmerman said. As the road wore out, the cost of repaving became too great. Last year, the county spent $400,000 on an RM300 Caterpillar rotary mixer to grind the road up, making it look more like the old homesteader trail it once was.

Paved roads, historical emblems of American achievement, are being torn up across rural America and replaced with gravel or other rough surfaces as counties struggle with tight budgets and dwindling state and federal revenue. State money for local roads was […]

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MUNICH and TUBINGEN, Germany — In the past 30 years, the Vatican has moved strongly to reassert the authority of a traditional, even orthodox Roman Catholicism – to bring the notion of a ‘one true church’ to Europe and then the larger world. The intent was to reverse the ‘open’ or liberalizing trend of the church represented by Vatican II.

In the past three decades, the Vatican has cracked down on liberation theology, affirmed traditional sexual morality, and is now quietly supporting ultradevout Catholic groups such as Opus Dei and the Legions of Christ – while curbing ecumenical outreach and describing Protestant churches as not authentic.

The most constant, diligent, and serious champion of these moves is a shy but brilliant German theologian, Josef Ratzinger – now Pope Benedict XVI.

Princeton University Renaissance scholar Anthony Grafton, not a Catholic, says Pope Benedict is ‘probably the greatest scholar to rule the church since [Pope] Innocent III,’ in the 13th century.

‘There is no great issue, no direction in Catholic theology, not dominated by Ratzinger over the past three decades,’ says Hermann Häring, a liberal Jesuit theologian who studied with Ratzinger and has written a book about his theology.

Yet a grand effort to restore authority and […]

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