Global Burden of Cancer Attributable to High Body-mass Index in 2012: a Population-based Study

This study found that in 2012, about 3.6% of cancer cases in adults worldwide were attributable to high BMI. These findings suggest that by reducing obesity rates, we can also reduce the cancer burden.

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Hours Spent Watching TV May Shorten Life Expectancy

Watching television for many hours a day was associated with an increased risk for premature death in a study of healthy young adults, while computer use and time spent driving showed no significant association with higher mortality. Study participants who reported watching 3 or more hours of television daily had a twofold increased death risk over 8 years of follow-up, compared with participants who said their viewing time did not exceed 1 hour a day (incidence rate ratio [IRR] 2.04, 95% CI 1.16-3.57), researcher Miguel Angel Martinez-Gonzales, MD, PhD, of the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, and colleagues wrote in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

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Diagnostic Performance of Body Mass Index to Identify Obesity as Defined by Body Adiposity in Children and Adolescents: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

This meta-analysis found that BMI failed to properly categorize children and adolescents with excess body fat over 25%of the time.

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Putting a Number on Smoking’s Toll

It is often said that smoking takes years off your life, and now a new study shows just how many: Longtime smokers can expect to lose about 10 years of life expectancy.

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Exercise (Even a Little) to Live Longer

Even fairly low levels of physical activity can translate into longer life expectancy, says a new study from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Using data from more than 650,000 people, mostly over age 40, researchers found that people who participated in leisure-time physical activity added as much as 4.5 years to their lives.

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Study: Excessive Sitting Cuts Life Expectancy by Two Years

Over the past few years, health experts have warned that spending an excessive amount of time sitting—regardless of whether one gets sufficient exercise or not—can kill. Now, a study released Monday puts a number on it: two years. An analysis of five large-scale studies following about 2 million people in several different countries found that the life expectancies of people who said they spent more than three hours a day sitting were two years less than people who spent less than three hours sitting daily.

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