17 Worst Habits for Your Heart

Everyone wants to have a healthy heart. Still, cardiovascular disease affects more than 1 in 3 adults in the United States.

The good news is that some simple, everyday habits can make a big difference in your ability to live a healthy lifestyle.

Here are the 17 worst habits for your heart, and how to avoid them.

Watching TV

Sitting for hours on end increases your risk of heart attack and stroke, even if you exercise regularly.

“Intermittent exercise doesn’t compensate for the time you sit,” says Harmony R. Reynolds, MD, associate director of the Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center at NYU Langone Medical Center, in New York City.

Why? The lack of movement may affect blood levels of fats and sugars.

Dr. Reynolds advises walking around periodically and, if you’re at work, standing up to talk on the phone.

Leaving hostility and depression unchecked

Are you feeling stressed, hostile, or depressed? It can take a toll on your heart.

While everyone feels this way some of the time, how you handle these emotions can affect your heart health.

 “Those likely to internalize stress are in greater danger; research has shown a benefit to laughter and social support,” Dr. Reynolds says.

“And it’s helpful to be able to go to someone and talk about your problems.”

Ignoring the snoring

More than a minor annoyance, snoring can be a sign of something more serious: obstructive sleep apnea. This disorder, marked by breathing that is interrupted during sleep, can cause blood pressure to skyrocket.

More than 18 million Americans adults have sleep apnea, which increases the risk of heart disease. People who are overweight or obese are at higher risk for sleep apnea, but slim people can have it too.

If you snore and often wake up feeling tired, talk with your doctor; there are easy ways to screen for apnea, says Robert Ostfeld, MD, associate professor of clinical medicine at Montefiore Medical Center, in New York City.

Not flossing

While the exact reason is unknown, there is a strong link between gum disease and heart disease, Dr. Ostfeld says.

If you don’t floss, sticky, bacteria-laden plaque build up over time, which can lead to gum disease. One theory is that these bacteria trigger inflammation in the body.

“Inflammation promotes all aspects of atherosclerosis,” Dr. Ostfeld says. Treating gum disease can improve blood vessel function.

Withdrawing from the world

It’s no secret that on some days, other human beings can seem annoying, irritating, and just plain difficult to get along with.

However, it makes sense to strengthen your connections to the ones you actually like. People with stronger connections to family, friends, and society in general tend to live longer, healthier lives.

Everyone needs alone time, but you should still reach out to others and keep in touch whenever you can.

You’re either all or nothing

Call it the Weekend Warrior Syndrome.

“I see so many people in their 40s and 50s dive into exercising with good intentions, hurt themselves, and then stop exercising all together,” says Judith S. Hochman, MD, director of the Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center at NYU’s Langone Medical Center.

With exercise, it’s wise to aim for slow and steady. “It’s more important to have a regular exercise commitment,” says Dr. Reynolds. “Be in it for the long game.”

Drinking (too much) alcohol

Sure, studies suggest a small amount of alcohol may be good for your heart. Alas, too many over-imbibe.

Excess alcohol is linked to a greater risk of high blood pressure, high levels of blood fats, and heart failure. In addition, the extra calories can lead to weight gain, a threat to heart health.

If you drink, stick to no more than two drinks per day for men, and no more than one a day for women. (One drink means a 12-ounce beer or 4-ounce glass of wine).

Overeating

Being overweight is a major risk factor for heart disease, and 72% of men and 64% of women in the U.S are overweight or obese.

Try to eat less, avoid oversize portions, and replace sugary drinks with water.

Dr. Reynolds and Dr. Hochman also suggest cutting portion sizes for high-calorie carbohydrates (think refined pastas and breads) and watching out for foods labeled “low-fat,” which are often high in calories.

Assuming you’re not at risk

Cardiovascular disease—including stroke, heart disease, and heart failure—claims more lives in the United States than any other illness, including cancer.

“Don’t assume you’re not at risk,” says Dr. Ostfeld.

High blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes, being overweight, and smoking are all risk factors that should be kept in check.

Eating red meat

It’s best to think of red meat as an occasional treat rather than the foundation of a daily diet. Red meat is high in saturated fat, and there’s also evidence that processed meat, such as bacon and hot dogs, increases your risk of cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer. Ideally, less than 10% of your diet should come from animals and animal products, Dr. Ostfeld advises.

Can’t part with the beef? Choose a lean cut of red meat and limit your intake. “People have to know that if you want a steak a few times a month, it’s OK,” Dr. Hochman says. “It’s what you’re eating three times a day that’s the issue. Be in it for the long haul. Eat a balanced diet.”

Being a health procrastinator

Check in with an MD so that you know your numbers for cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar.

If these are elevated, you’re at risk for silent killers like heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

One thought: The lifetime risk of developing hypertension, or high blood pressure, for adults in their mid-50s is approximately 90%, even with those who never had a problem before. “The general point is that just because you didn’t have it at 24 doesn’t mean you don’t have it at 54,” Dr. Ostfeld says.

Smoking or living with a smoker

Sure, you’ve heard it a million times before: Don’t smoke. But it bears repeating.

“Smoking is a total disaster for your heart,” says Dr. Ostfeld. Smoking promotes blood clots, which can block blood flow to the heart, and contributes to plaque buildup in the arteries.

It’s also a smart bomb aimed at everyone around you, Dr. Ostfeld says. In fact, about 46,000 nonsmokers who live with a smoker die from heart disease each year because of secondhand smoke.

Stopping or skipping meds

Let’s be honest: Taking pills is a pain. There can be side effects. And it’s easy to forget your meds, especially if you feel fine.

“High blood pressure is called the silent killer because you don’t feel it,” Dr. Ostfeld says. “Saying you feel fine is not a justification for stopping these pills.”

There are 30 types of high blood pressure medications, so there are choices if one isn’t working, Dr. Hochman says. “If one medication doesn’t work, we can try something else.”

Avoiding fruits and vegetables

“The most heart-healthy diet is a plant-based diet,” Dr. Ostfeld says. That means loading up on fruits and vegetables, nuts, whole grains, low-fat dairy, and protein, and keeping junk food to a minimum. In fact, new federal dietary guidelines recommend that half of each meal should be composed of fruits and vegetables.

Research has found that people who eat more than five servings of fruits and vegetables a day had about 20% lower risk of heart disease and stroke than people who ate less than three servings per day.

Ignoring physical symptoms

If you used to walk up three flights of stairs without a problem, but suddenly you’re short of breath after one flight or have chest pressure, it’s time to call your doctor—now. Never assume it’s because you’re out of shape.

Doctors say “time is muscle,” meaning the quicker you get treatment for possible trouble, the less likely you are to have permanent damage to your heart muscle.

“It’s better for it to be much ado about nothing than sitting on a heart attack for six hours,” which is not uncommon, Dr. Ostfeld says.

Being a salty snacker

The more salt you consume, the higher your blood pressure rises. One in three American adults has high blood pressure, a major risk factor for stroke, kidney failure, and heart attack.

“Steer clear of packaged junk food, read the labels for sodium content, and stick to the outer portions of the supermarket, which is where the fruits, vegetables, and (unsalted) nuts are,” Dr. Ostfeld says.

Most of us should keep sodium intake below 2,300 milligrams a day. If you have high blood pressure or are over 50, cut back to 1,500 milligrams.

Eating empty calories

Foods high in sugar, fat, and oil deliver calories, but very few—if any—nutrients your body can use.

Studies have shown that a diet full of empty calories increases the risk of obesity and diabetes.

Look for foods dense in nutrients, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, seafood, eggs, beans and peas, and unsalted nuts and seeds. Lean meats and poultry, along with fat-free and low-fat milk, are good choices as well.

Beyoncé Confirms Pregnancy On VMA Red Carpet

After years of denying endless pregnancy rumors, Beyoncé finally has some good news to share.
The "Single Ladies" singer is pregnant.

Beyoncé held her belly as she arrived at the Video Music Awards Sunday wearing a long, red dress, quite the opposite of her normal midriff-baring stage costumes.

When addressing photographers on the red carpet, Beyoncé said, "I have a surprise!" People reported.
Beyoncé's rep later confirmed the news to the magazine. "I'm happy to say it's true," the rep said, according to People.

Beyoncé also acknowledged that she was with child during her performance of "Love On Top." During the intro of the song she said she wanted the audience to "feel the love that's growing inside of me." And after she finished singing the song, she dropped her microphone, popped open her purple sequined tuxedo jacket, poked out her stomach, then rubbed it and smiled. Onlookers, Jay-Z and Kanye jumped up and down in excitement

In a June interview special on "Piers Morgan Tonight," Beyoncé said she looked forward to parenthood.
"I always said I would have a baby at 30," said the singer whose 30^th birthday is September 4.
Apparently, Beyoncé's husband Jay-Z has also had children on his mind. He and Kanye rapped about fatherhood on "New Day" from their new album, "Watch The Throne."

Irene: Wet, deadly and expensive, but no monster

NEW YORK (AP) — The storm that had been Hurricane Irene crossed into Canada overnight but wasn't yet through with the U.S., where flood waters threatened Vermont towns and New Yorkers feared a commuting nightmare as their transit system, shut down ahead of the storm, was slowly restored.

The storm left millions without power across much of the Eastern Seaboard, left more than 20 dead and forced airlines to cancel about 9,000 flights. It never became the big-city nightmare forecasters and public officials had warned about, but it still had the ability to surprise.

Many of the worst effects arose from rains that fell inland, not the highly anticipated storm surge along the coasts. Residents of Pennsylvania and New Jersey nervously watched waters rise as hours' worth of rain funneled into rivers and creeks. Normally narrow ribbons of water turned into raging torrents in Vermont and upstate New York late Sunday, tumbling with tree limbs, cars and parts of bridges.

"This is not over," President Barack Obama said from the Rose Garden.

Hundreds of Vermonters were told to leave their homes after Irene dumped several inches of rain on the landlocked state. Video posted on Facebook showed a 141-year-old covered bridge in Rockingham swept away by the roiling, muddy Williams River. In another video, an empty car somersaulted down a river in Bennington.

"It's pretty fierce. I've never seen anything like it," said Michelle Guevin, who spoke from a Brattleboro restaurant after leaving her home in nearby Newfane. She said the fast-moving Rock River was washing out the road to her house.

Green Mountain Power decided against flooding Montpelier, the capital, to save the earthen Marshfield Dam, about 20 miles up the Winooski River to the northeast. Water levels had stabilized Monday morning but engineers were continuing to monitor the situation, said spokeswoman Dorothy Schnure.

Residents of 350 households were asked to leave as a precaution.

Nearly 5 million homes and businesses lost power at some point during the storm. Lights started to come back on for many on Sunday, though it was expected to take days for electricity to be fully restored.

Only about 50,000 power customers in New York City went dark, but people there had something else to worry about: getting to work Monday.

The metropolitan area's transit system, shut down because of weather for the first time in its history, was taking many hours to get back on line. Limited bus service began Sunday and New York subway service was to be partially restored at 6 a.m. Monday, but riders were warned to expect long lines and long waits.

Commuter rail service to Long Island and New Jersey was being partially restored, but the Metro-North Railroad to Westchester County and Connecticut was suspended because of flooding and mudslides.

Airports in New York and around the Northeast were reopening to a backlog of hundreds of thousands of passengers whose flights were canceled over the weekend.

Some of New York's yellow cabs were up to their wheel wells in water, and water rushed over a marina near the New York Mercantile Exchange, where gold and oil are traded. But the New York flooding was not extensive from Irene, whose eye passed over Coney Island and Central Park.

The New York Stock Exchange said it would be open for business on Monday, and the Sept. 11 memorial at the World Trade Center site didn't lose a single tree.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended his decision to order 370,000 residents to evacuate their homes in low-lying areas, saying it was impossible to know just how powerful the storm would be. "We were just unwilling to risk the life of a single New Yorker," he said.

Irene had at one time been a major hurricane, with winds higher than 110 mph as it headed toward the U.S. It was a tropical storm with 65 mph winds by the time it hit New York. It lost the characteristics of a tropical storm and had slowed to 50 mph by the time it reached Canada.

Chris Fogarty, director of the Canadian Hurricane Centre, warned of flooding and wind damage in eastern Canada and said the heaviest rainfall was expected in Quebec, where about 250,000 homes were without power.

At least 21 people died in the U.S., most of them when trees crashed through roofs or onto cars. One Vermont woman was swept away and feared drowned in the Deerfield River.

Officials worked to repair hundreds of damaged roads, and power companies picked through uprooted trees and reconnected lines.

One private estimate put damage along the coast at $7 billion, far from any record for a natural disaster.

Twenty homes on Long Island Sound in Connecticut were destroyed by churning surf. The torrential rain chased hundreds of people in upstate New York from their homes and closed 137 miles of the state's main highway.

Authorities in and around Easton, Pa., kept a close eye on the rising Delaware River. The National Weather Service forecast the river to crest there at 30 feet, well above normal flood stage.

In the South, authorities still were not sure how much damage had been done but expressed relief that it wasn't worse.

"Thank God it weakened a little bit," said Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who toured a hard-hit Richmond neighborhood where large, old-growth trees uprooted and crushed houses and automobiles.

In Norfolk, Va., where storm surges got within inches of breaking a record, most of the water had receded by Sunday. There was isolated flooding and downed trees, but nowhere near the damage officials predicted.

"We can't believe a hurricane came through here," city spokeswoman Lori Crouch said.

In North Carolina, where six people were killed, the infrastructure losses included the only road to the seven villages on Hatteras Island.

"Overall, the destruction is not as severe as I was worried it might be, but there is still lots and lots of destruction and people's lives are turned upside down," Gov. Beverly Perdue said in Kill Devil Hills.

In an early estimate, consulting firm Kinetic Analysis Corp. figured total losses from the storm at $7 billion, with insured losses of $2 billion to $3 billion. The storm will take a bite out of Labor Day tourist business from the Outer Banks to the Jersey Shore to Cape Cod.

Irene was the first hurricane to make landfall in the continental United States since 2008, and came almost six years to the day after Katrina ravaged New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005.

100-Year-Olds Just as Unhealthy as the Rest of Us

Centenarians may have a great deal of wisdom to share, but this apparently does not include advice on how to live to age 100.

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found that many very old people — age 95 and older — could be poster children for bad health behavior with their smoking, drinking, poor diet, obesity and lack of exercise.

The very old are, in fact, no more virtuous than the general population when it comes to shunning bad health habits, leaving researchers to conclude that their genes are mostly responsible for their remarkable longevity.

But before you fall off the wagon and start tossing down doughnuts for breakfast just because your Aunt Edna just turned 102, remember that genetics is a game of chance. What didn't kill Aunt Edna still could kill you prematurely, the researchers cautioned.

The chosen few

The study, appearing Aug. 3 in the online edition of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, followed the lives of 477 Ashkenazi Jews between the ages of 95 and 112. They were enrolled in Einstein College's Longevity Genes Project, an ongoing study that seeks to understand why centenarians live as long as they do. About 1 in 4,400 Americans lives to age 100, according to 2010 census data.

A research team led by Nir Barzilai compared these old folks with a group of people representing the general public, captured in a snapshot of health habits collected in the 1970s. The people in this control group were born around the same time as the 95-and-above study group, but they have since died.

The living, old people in the study were remarkably ordinary in their lifestyles, Barzilai said. By and large, they weren't vegetarians, vitamin-pill-poppers or health freaks. Their profiles nearly matched that of the control group in terms of the percentage who were overweight, exercised (or didn't exercise), or smoked. One woman, at age 107, smoked for over 90 years.

Whatever killed the control group — cardiovascular disease, cancer and other diseases clearly associated with lifestyle choices — somehow didn't kill them. "Their genes protected them," Barzilai said.

Put down that doughnut

Barzilai said that it would be wrong to forego health advice with the assumption that your genes will determine how long you will live. For the general population, there is a preponderance of evidence that diet and exercise can postpone or ward off chronic disease and extend life. Many studies on Seventh Day Adventists — with their limited consumption of alcohol, tobacco and meat — attribute upward of 10 extra years of life as a result of lifestyle choices.

Note also that those people now age 100 lived in an era when obesity was nearly nonexistent and when daily exercise such as walking down streets or up a few flights of steps was more common. Barzilai said anyone can benefit from exercise at any age, even these indestructible old people pushing and exceeding triple digits.

The big picture for the Longevity Genes Project is to identify those genes keeping folks alive for so long and then use them as targets for drug development. For example, most people treated successfully for heart disease ultimately die well before their 90s from yet another age-related disease. This is because we "never change the aging process" with our treatments and cures, Barzilai said.

That is, we can't turn everyone into centenarians by curing one disease at a time.

"Aging is the major risk factor," Barzilai said. If researchers can figure out which genes work to slow aging and make ordinary people more resilient to chronic disease, we all will have a much better chance of reaching our 100th birthday — and have enough breath to blow out the candles.

6 Head Pains You Should Never Ignore

Remember in the good old days, when doctors made house calls? Yeah, I don’t either. But it sounds awesome: No waiting rooms. No cranky receptionists. No parade of nurses, residents, and other strangers poking you. Just you and your doctor, in the privacy of your own home.

We have the next best thing here at Men’s Health: dozens of the nation’s top doctors on speed dial. Cardiologists, neurologists, dermatologists, dentists . . . you name it. They don’t make house calls, but they will talk to us from the privacy of our own phone.

One of our most prolific top docs is T.E. Holt, M.D., a physician at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. We editors write from the patient’s perpective, but Dr. Holt writes from the doctor’s perspective. And he’s always insightful, whether he’s revealing keywords you can say to get a doctor’s attention or explaining how to spot a physician who doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Recently, Dr. Holt wrote about one of the most common ailments in the world: the headache. If you're like most people, you've probably heard of the three major types of headaches:

1. Tension headache: This is your garden-variety headache, with diffuse pain wrapping across the top of your head. These headaches often result from stress or lack of sleep. They're not usually disabling, typically fade overnight, and can be easily relieved with ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or aspirin.

2. Migraine headache: Migraines tend to hit one side of the head, and can last from several hours to several days. They’re usually marked by a sensitivity to sound and light. When a migraine strikes, you can manage it with Advil Migraine or Motrin Migraine Pain (both ibuprofen medications) or Excedrin Migraine (a combination of aspirin, acetaminophen, and caffeine).

3. Cluster headache: This one is an excruciating attack that explodes behind one eye, reaches a crescendo after about an hour, and then vanishes—only to return in a day or so. This goes on for a few weeks, and then stops for months. Numerous drugs target clusters, including some of the migraine meds.

The good news about these headaches, says Dr. Holt, is that they're all completely harmless. But not every aching head is a simple headache. Here are six that could be a sign of something serious—and potentially deadly. Watch out for . . .

The Thunderclap Headache
If head pain hits you like a bolt out of nowhere, intensifying in a few minutes into the worst headache you've ever had, call 911. The list of causes for this kind of headache isn't long (aneurysm, stroke, meningitis) but almost everything on it can be very quickly fatal, says Dr. Holt.

The Exercise Headache
If your headache comes on quickly and furiously with violent physical exertion, see a doctor right away. Chances are, the cause is benign, says Dr. Holt. But it also could be a subarachnoid hemorrhage.

The Headache that Spreads to Your Neck
Benign headaches stay in your head, says Dr. Holt. Headaches that don't can be meningitis or a hemorrhage. So yes, call 911, especially if you have a fever, are just getting over a bacterial infection, have a rash, or can't think clearly.

The Headache that Won't End
A headache that comes and goes for days—with a low-grade fever, visual disturbances, and aching in one or both of your temples—often signals an inflammation of the arteries that can leave you blind if not treated. See your doctor right away, says Dr. Holt.

The Contagious Headache
Your family is all home on a cold, rainy Saturday. As the day goes on you develop a headache that grows steadily worse. If anyone else has the same headache, move everyone outdoors immediately. There's a malfunction in your heating system and it's spewing carbon monoxide. Once you're out of the house, call the fire department. Your headache should clear up in a few hours.

The Headache that Wakes You Up
You should also be concerned if your headache has been worsening for weeks, says Dr. Holt, or if it’s present every morning when you wake up. This is the classic pattern for a slowly expanding mass. It may not warrant a 911 call, but you should see your doctor and schedule an MRI right away.

Debris From Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster Found in Texas

A piece of debris from NASA's space shuttle Columbia has been discovered in Texas, eight years after the 2003 disaster that destroyed the spacecraft and killed its seven-astronaut crew during re-entry, NASA officials confirmed today (Aug. 2).

The debris was discovered last week in eastern Texas. It is a round aluminum power reactant storage and distribution tank from Columbia, which disintegrated over Texas as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere near the end of a 16-day science mission.

The tank was discovered in an exposed area of Lake Nacogdoches, in Nacogdoches, Texas, about 160 miles northeast of Houston. 

"The only reason it's exposed is because there's a drought going on and the tank was under the lake," Lisa Malone, a NASA spokeswoman at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, told SPACE.com. "The tank itself is full of mud."

Nacogdoches police informed NASA of the find and sent pictures for identification. NASA engineers who work on the shuttle's power reactant storage and distribution systems were able to confirm the piece belonged to Columbia. 

"One of the guys had been here more than 30 years and recognized it, and said, 'That’s one of the tanks,'" Malone said.

The piece was one of 16 tanks on the shuttle that stored supercold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The spherical tank, about 40 inches (1 meter) in diameter, will eventually be shipped back to Kennedy Space Center, where NASA stores all the collected debris from Columbia in a climate controlled area in the giant Vehicle Assembly Building.

"We're working the plans and details out right now as to how we would get it shipped back here," Malone said. "We do want to collect the debris items and keep them in one place."

To date, about 38-40 percent of the Columbia orbiter's wreckage has been recovered. The remainder was either burned up during reentry or is still where it landed in Texas and Louisiana.

"From time to time throughout the year we do get phone calls and emails from people about items they think are debris," Malone said.

The 2003 disaster was traced back to a hole that was punched into one of Columbia's wings by a piece of debris from its fuel tank during launch, according to the findings of a review board that investigated the accident. The hole rendered the orbiter unable to withstand the intense heat of re-entry, causing the vehicle to disintegrate.

Discoveries of debris from the wreck can still serve to reopen old wounds.
"It always makes you think about the accident and Columbia and the crew of course," Malone said. "It always does serve as a reminder."

Columbia was carrying commander Rick Husband, pilot William McCool, mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, and Laurel Clark, payload commander Michael Anderson, and payload specialist Ilan Ramon, who was Israel's first astronaut.

Following the catastrophe, NASA upgraded equipment and processes to protect against a similar failure. All post-Columbia shuttles flew with external tanks that had been redesigned to diminish the amount of debris from their insulating foam that fell off during liftoff.

As a further precaution, recent crews conducted thorough inspections of their orbiters' heat shields once in orbit to make sure they hadn't sustained any damage that would endanger them during landing.

The Columbia accident was the second disaster in the history of the 30-year space shuttle program. It followed the 1986 destruction of the shuttle Challenger and its crew. Exceptionally cold weather at Challenger's Florida launch site that day caused a failure in an O-ring seal on one of the shuttle's solid rocket boosters that ultimately pulled apart the vehicle.

Last month NASA retired its remaining three space shuttle orbiters. The shuttle Atlantis landed July 21 to finish the 135th and final mission of the shuttle program. Now Atlantis and its siblings Discovery and Endeavour will be retired to museums, while NASA embarks on a new program to build vehicles for deep space exploration.

Crop circle creation theory: physics, not aliens

Those otherworldly crop circles may not have been caused by aliens after all. Instead, think physics: A study in Physics World points to the possibility that the patterns could be caused by Earth-bound microwaves, lasers, and GPS. Maybe.

Formations in fields have been documented more than 10,000 times in the late 20th century. They have been credited to everything from paranormal activity to human hijinks to the weather--and in some cases, even wallabies (more on that later).

Further fueling the mystery is that the farmland designs are done in secret, usually in the dark--and often by jokers who want to make it seem like Martians were at work. It wasn't until 1991 that the first pranksters admitted to have created at least some of the crop circles as a UFO hoax. What's confounded scientists is trying to explain just how the art is done without any marks left by the makers, all typically in just one night.

The question led researcher Richard Taylor of the University of Oregon to rule out at least some traditional explanations of the tools involved in creating the circles. Taylor contends that in the modern age, planks and ropes (to flatten plants) and even bar stools to jump from one area to another undetected, are just too cumbersome to produce results in the comparatively brief period of their creative incubation.

Instead,  he argued that latter-day crop-circle auteurs use high-tech gadgets such as GPS monitors to place the shapes and magnetrons (tubes that use electricity and magnetism to generate intense heat) to cause the crop stalks to fall over at high speed.

Can any of this speculation be proven? Not really--at least not until a certified crop-circle fabricator steps forward to claim responsibility and reveal the various tricks of the trade. But as Matin Durrani, editor of Physics World, put it, at least Taylor gives us an explanation that doesn't hinge on the hadiwork of alien life forms. Taylor "is merely trying to act like any good scientist--examining the evidence for the design and construction of crop circles without getting carried away by the side-show of UFOs, hoaxes, and aliens," Durrani writes.

Fair enough. Still, some crop circles have a fairly reasonable explanation. The Harry Potter "maize maze" was designed by a York, England, farmer, not little green men.

Meanwhile, some formations in Australian poppy fields have been blamed on wallabies. Yes, those kangaroo-like animals apparently eat the legally grown opiate, become "high as a kite," and hop around to create their own circle work.

But all the speculation over the origins of these works of art designed for the aerial viewer shouldn't obscure the central nature of their achievement: They are, in a word, crop-tastic.

Five symptoms a man should not ignore

When it comes to doctors, men are more likely to drag their heels, unless they are convinced it is a medical emergency.

Women tend to be more cautious and pragmatic about health matters, and can exert a positive influence on the man in their life.

Indeed, a recently published study has found that married men are more likely to survive a heart attack, thanks to their partner getting them to the hospital sooner.

We compiled a guide to symptoms a man, and the women close to them, should not ignore.

Chest pain

Men might dial 999 for a crushing chest pain, but what about "heartburn" or "indigestion," along with sweating or shortness of breath?

Heart attacks strike more than 120,000 people every year, but not all symptoms are easily recognised.
The most common symptoms of a heart attack include pain in the centre of the chest which may spread to the arms, neck or jaw; chest pain and feeling sick or sweaty, or chest pain with shortness of breath.

Less common symptoms which could indicate a heart attack include dull pain, ache, or 'heavy' feeling in the chest; a mild discomfort in the chest that makes you feel generally unwell; a pain in the chest that can spread to the back or stomach; chest pain that feels like a bad episode of indigestion, and feeling light-headed or dizzy along with chest pain.

Chest pain can vary from mild discomfort in the centre of the chest to severe pain which is often described as a heavy pressure, crushing or tightness. Either way, it needs to be dealt with immediately.

Problems with "the waterworks"

A man may put it down to age, or drinking too much coffee or alcohol, but if he's having to get up several times during the night to go to the loo, it might be time to point him in the direction of the GP.
Needing to go to the toilet often and especially at night, difficulty starting to pass urine, a weak flow, straining, needing to rush to the toilet and a feeling that the bladder has not emptied properly could indicate a prostate problem.

This might be caused by an enlarged prostate or an infection of the prostate or even prostate cancer. It can also be a symptom of diabetes.

Blood caused by "piles"

It may be convenient to dismiss any amount of blood in stools as just piles, but that's for the doctor to decide. You should book an appointment with a male doctor if you find discussing bowel movements embarrassing.

Bowel cancer is the third most common cause of cancer in men, after lung and prostate cancer. Each year more than 20,000 men are diagnosed with the disease. As with many cancers, the earlier it is detected, the easier it is to treat.

As well as finding blood in stools, other symptoms of bowel cancer include feeling tired, anaemia, changes in bowel habits such as loose stools or diarrhoea which persist for weeks, abdominal pain or a lump in the side.

Beer belly

A man may dismiss it as nothing more than a "bit of beer belly," but research has shown that people who carry extra fat around their waist have a higher risk of developing serious health problems compared with those who carry fat on their hips and thighs.

Men with a waist circumference of 94cm (37") are at higher risk of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers, and men measuring 102cm (40") at the waist have an even higher risk.
A large waist can increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. In the early stages, diabetes is often without symptoms, when it can best be treated. Similarly high blood pressure, which increases your risk of heart disease and stroke, is usually without symptoms.

Problems down below

Erectile dysfunction (ED) or impotence is the inability to maintain an erection firm enough to have satisfactory sex. Although the symptoms are easily recognised, men are often too embarrassed to seek medical attention.

Men often write off ED as a normal part of the ageing process, but they need to know that it is a common condition. Around 50 per cent of men aged between 40 and 70 can expect to experience some level of ED in their life.

Many men are unaware that ED can also be a sign of a range of underlying psychological and physical health problems.

ED can be caused by the narrowing of the blood vessels into the penis. If the penis is affected in this way, it's likely the vessels supplying blood to the heart and brain are also affected.
ED can therefore be an early sign that the man is at risk of having high cholesterol, and at risk of heart disease and stroke. It can also be a symptom of diabetes.

Men should visit their doctor if they are experiencing any degree of ED, not only to improve their quality of life, but to get help with any other health conditions they are unaware of.

Bareilly baby boy with 34 fingers and toes sets new Guinness record

Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh), July 20 (ANI):  Akshat, a baby boy over the age of one, registered his name in the Guinness world records for having a total of 34 fingers and toes.
He has set the record for having the highest number of fingers and toes and hails from the Bareilly district in Uttar Pradesh.

Amrita Saxena, the mother of the child, said it was difficult for her to believe that her son broke the world record, until a family friend convinced her.

"He (family friend) read on the internet about the baby born in China with 31 fingers. Then he said that my boy has broken the record of having 34 fingers. At first, I was not convinced at all. It was hard to believe that my son has broken the record. But later, he along with my husband and my younger sister registered the data in the Internet. Then I was asked to submit certain documents after which his name was in the Guinness World Records," added Saxena.

Doctors attending to the child informed the mediapersons that it was a rare phenomenon and diagnosed it as polydactyly.

"The person who is diagnosed with it is polydactylic. It is due to certain defects in the bone development of the uterus. The reason behind this defect can be either developmental congenital formation or chromosomal anomalies, which is due to maternal infection or drugs," said Dr. Parul Gupta, a gynaecologist.

Gupta further explained that this congenital physical anomaly could be easily cured by performing a surgery.

"Yes, it is absolutely curable. Mostly people go for plastic surgery. And sometimes when polydactyly is minimal, it can be cured normally, without an operation. And if there is a major problem, then people prefer to go for a plastic surgery," added Gupta.

Meanwhile Saxena was a little worried for her son's future. She aspires for her son to lead a 'normal' life and wants him to undergo proper treatment for it.

Lopez And Anthony Showed Signs Of Marital Problems,

Now that Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony have announced their plans to end their seven-year marriage, insiders are recalling signs that may have indicated that the couple was having problems.

 

Us Weekly reports that Anthony wanted to select Lopez's wardrobe last year during a photo shoot for her Style Icon Of The Decade spread.

Anthony urged the magazine not to use a photo of Lopez he considered to be "too sexy and unbecoming for a 40-year-old mother of two," an unnamed source told Us.

"He would make her feel terrible about herself if she wanted to wear something sexy," added another source. "He likes her to dress in a demure, ‘wife' style. He hated the fact that she was a sex symbol."

Marc was described as generally being "very dominating" by yet another insider. "He wants to control everything Jennifer does."

A spokesperson for Anthony did not respond to Yahoo! by press time.

On July 2 -- 13 days before Lopez and Anthony released a statement about their impending divorce --

Lopez appeared on HSN to promote her new fragrance, Love And Light.

TV Guide made a montage of video clips of Lopez discussing love and relationships -- including Anthony -- during her network visit.

When commenting about the couple's chemistry during their performance on the "American Idol" finale, the HSN host Diana Perkovic described the pair as "in love." Lopez responded with a polite correction, "Yes, we do love each other."

Lopez told Perkovic the concept of her 2010 perfume, Love And Glamour, was about "love and your relationship and your glamorous life, and everything sorta outside of you."

Lopez said Love And Light takes a different focus. "I wanted to go to the core of who you are and what is really inside you," she said.

In a separate interview with HSN's Colleen Lopez, the entertainment mogul said, "Really the most important relationship that you have is with yourself. Life is really about change. And sometimes that can be scary. But the truth is, you have to do that. You have to push yourself so you can breakthrough your own boundaries and try new things and do new things."

People magazine reported that Lopez and Anthony made their last public appearance together on June 7 at the Samsung Hope For Children Gala in New York.

Anthony did not join Lopez when she met the royal couple Prince William, Duke Of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess Of Cambridge, on July 9. Lopez's mother, Guadalupe, joined her instead.

Fears about debt send gold price to record

NEW YORK (AP) — Gold's reputation as a safe place for your money sent it above $1,600 for the first time.

Investors are worried about debt problems on both sides of the Atlantic. So they bid gold up $12.30 an ounce Monday to settle at $1,602.40. That's a record for the market price for gold, but below its 1980 peak after adjusting for inflation. An ounce of gold at that time cost $850, or about $2,400 in today's dollars.

Gold is looking better by the day because debt problems in the U.S. and Europe are making two other so-called safe havens, the dollar and the euro, seem shaky. The U.S. could default on its debt on Aug. 2 if Congress and the White House don't agree to raise the country's borrowing limit. In Europe, investors worry that Greece may default. Countries including Italy, Spain and Ireland are also struggling to pay their bills. Defaults could mean losses for the banks that own bonds issued by those countries, and that could trigger widespread disruption in financial markets.

Why own gold? It's because gold has a long history as a way of preserving wealth, said Tom Winmill, portfolio manager of the $96 million Midas Fund. The fund owns gold and stocks in gold mines. "In 6,000 years, gold is one of the very few assets that have never gone to zero." Winmill expects gold to rise to $1,800 by the end of 2012.

Investors believe gold is safe because it doesn't depend on a government's ability to repay a bond, like a Treasury or a Greek note. Neither do other commodities like crude oil, which has the added use of powering automobiles. "But it's much easier to pick up a bar of gold than a swimming pool of oil," said James Steel, an analyst with HSBC.

Gold rose 21 percent in dollar terms in the 12 months through June 30, according to the World Gold Council, an industry group. It rose against other currencies, too: up 2.2 percent in euros, 10.4 percent in Japanese yen and 16.5 percent in Indian rupees. But gold fell 5.5 percent against the Swiss franc, which is seen as one of the world's safest currencies.

Gold's rise has accelerated in the last two weeks: Monday was its 10th straight day of gains after it closed at $1,482.60 July 1. Gold has also steadily risen since the start of 2009, when it cost $880. The Federal Reserve has kept short-term interest rates at a record low of nearly zero since December 2008. Low interest rates weaken the appeal of the dollar, and that in turn sends gold higher.

Investors are behind much of the increase in the price of gold. Demand from investors rose 26 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to industry data. Demand for gold from dentists for crowns and from companies for use in electronics was flat. Demand for gold in jewelry rose 7 percent.

The amount of gold held by exchange-traded funds and similar investments is at a record, according to Barclays Capital. Exchange-traded funds, also known as ETFs, trade like stocks and are a way for investors to own gold without having to store and insure actual gold bars or coins.

But much of that demand has been from speculative investors, such as hedge funds, said Jon Nadler, senior metals analyst with Kitco Metals. Gold could plunge — if investors regain their confidence that the U.S. won't default and that the 27-nation European Union won't be threatened by the region's debt problems.

The Loch Ness Monster of Alaska?

Move over, Montauk Monster. Step aside, Nessie. There's a new sea creature in town--maybe. Footage of a 20- to 30-foot long creature caught on tape by fishermen suggests we have an Alaska bonafide marine-creature mystery.

The black and white footage from 2009 is by no means definitive. It is taken on a rainy day with a shaky camera, which make it all the more confounding. But you can check out the testimony of people who say they witnessed the creature's appearance in the video above.

The Alaska-dwelling creature has been labeled a "Cadborosaurus wallsi," which means "reptile" or "lizard" from Cadboro Bay, British Columbia, where it was originally spotted centuries ago. Called "Caddy" for short, it has a "long neck, a horse-like head, large eyes, and back bumps that stick out of the water," according to a report on MSNBC.

Though the tape captures the most recent sighting, tales of beholding the creature in the North Pacific have circulated for 200 years. In 1937, scientists thought they might have uncovered physical evidence when what was thought to be a sea serpent was found inside the stomach of a whale. Still, the creature is classified as part of Cryptozoology, i.e., a creature not formally recognized by the scientific community.

One true believer today is  Andy Hillstrand, a veteran of the reality-TV show "Deadliest Catch," who tracks the creature in his new show, "Hill stranded." The seaman reports that he saw "a big, long white thing moving in the water. We chased it for about 20 minutes. Spray came out of its head. It was definitely not a shark…I've never seen anything like it before."

Brawny "Captain America" saved by "Skinny Steve"

Brawny "Captain America" saved by "Skinny Steve"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The story of Captain America is well covered in comic book lore: a scrawny, bullied orphan named Steve Rogers is chosen for a top secret government project during World War II in which he becomes a test subject for a super serum.

 The serum transforms him into a strong and able soldier named Captain America, and he leads the U.S. Army in its fight against the Nazis.

Actor Chris Evans, who plays the title character in Friday's release of "Captain America: The First Avenger," put on 15 lbs. of muscle to play the role.

The problem: he got too big for Steve Rodgers. Solution: "Skinny Steve."

Having literally built Evans into what the film's director Joe Johnston called "the perfect human specimen," the movie makers had to figure out how the 6 ft. tall actor with the muscled-up physique could convincingly portray the pre-serum Steve Rogers, a scrawny kid of a mere 90-something lbs.

Hollywood has dealt with on screen body changes in many ways over the years. The cast and crew of the 2000 film "Cast Away" took a year-long break so its star, Tom Hanks -- who first gained 50 lbs. for the role -- could drop weight to look like he'd been stranded on a tropical island for years.

One option for "Captain America" was to superimpose Evans' head on a skinny body double, much like the technology employed by filmmaker David Fincher in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" when Brad Pitt had to age backward.

Last year Fincher employed the same technique in "The Social Network," in which Armie Hammer played Tyler Winklevoss and identical twin brother Cameron Winklevoss, which meant digitally putting Hammer's head on actor Josh Pence's body.

'SKINNY STEVE' TO THE RESCUE

On "Captain America," there was no way to take a year off because its backers at Marvel Studios have been on a tight schedule rolling out their superheroes one by one -- including the recent "Thor" -- so audiences will be familiar with most of them when they join forces in next summer's "The Avengers."

Like Fincher in "Social Network," director Johnston initially hired a body double and used the head replacement system in a scene where Steve Rogers was lying on a table. But he quickly realized it wouldn't work for other sequences.

"Chris moves in such a unique way; he doesn't move like anybody else," Johnston told Reuters. "The body double could not move like him. As hard as he tried to watch Chris and duplicate the movements, it just wasn't the same."

That was perfectly fine with Evans, who was not keen on having another actor involved in creating the iconic role.

"The beginning part of the movie is so crucial to get the audience invested in who Steve is, I didn't want to share that part of the performance with another actor," Evans, 30, told Reuters. "I talked to Joe about it and thankfully, he agreed."

Instead of the body double/superimposed head, the filmmakers used a "shrinking" technique and computers to basically erase portions of Evans' strong physique on screen.

"We filmed over 250 shots of Chris and used digital technology to 'shrink' him down to what we called 'Skinny Steve,'" said Johnston.

"It's pretty amazing," added Evans. "They took shape out of my jaw line, they shrunk my skeleton and they made my shoulders less broad."

While it may sound easy, it wasn't. Each time Evans' body went through the digital nips and tucks, it created empty space in the background which needed to be filled in.

Multiple shots had to be filmed with green screens just to superimpose the scenery that would normally have been there had bulky Evans really been little, scrappy Steve Rogers.

"It was a very arduous process," said Johnston. "It took all of pre-production and most of production to do all 250 shots."

William And Kate Move Into New Digs, Formerly The Home of Princess Diana

Fresh from their North American tour, William and Kate -- er, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge -- have moved into their first official apartment at Kensington Palace in London.

According to People.com, the apartment is not exactly tricked out with Versailles-level square footage: it consists of just two bedrooms and one bathroom. (Something we have in common with the Royal newlyweds: one bathroom. Except ours doesn't have a sink.)
Kensington Palace -- quite an upgrade from the flat they once shared with college friends at St. Andrews -- has provided shelter for members of the Royal Family since the 17th century. Most notably, the estate was the primary residence of Princess Diana from 1981 until her death in 1997, when thousands of mourners laid heaps of flowers by the palace gates.

Prince Charles and young princes William and Harry look at tributes to Diana at the Kensington gates in 1997. Anwar Hussein/Getty Images
 
Previously, William and Kate shared a suite of rooms with Prince Harry -- not the worst thing in the world -- at Clarence House, Harry's preferred London stomping grounds. (CBS Moneywatch recently compiled a nice roundup of Royal residences from which the couple can choose. Fun fact: Buckingham Palace contains 600 rooms, and its own police station.)

Last week, William and Kate took two days to settle into the new Kensington digs; they're now stationed at their main abode in Anglesey, North Wales, where the Prince works as an RAF Search and Rescue helicopter pilot.

Like any couple, they like to spend downtime at the movies. On Saturday, the pair caught a double feature of "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2" and "Bridesmaids."

FBI raids suspected Anonymous hackers in 10 states, from New Jersey to California

Internet "hacktivist" group Anonymous was the target of a bevy of early morning raids conducted at homes in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio. FBI agents used search warrants to obtain computers and other electronics from the residences and arrested a total of 16 individuals with ages ranging from teens all the way to early 40s. Along with legal names, the indictment also notes screen names and internet monikers used by the group to communicate anonymously.

These arrests were just part of a total of 35 search warrants which were executed today as part of the ongoing investigation into the security-threatening hacking activities of the Anonymous collective. Among its various exploits, the brigade of cyber spies has been implicated in attacks on everyone from Sony to the federal government. The group has also executed web-based attacks on major credit card companies including Mastercard and Visa.

According to a press release from the Department of Justice, today's arrests focused primarily on Anonymous members who waged a cyber war on PayPal. Anonymous was allegedly inspired to hack the online payment company in "Operation Avenge Assange" after Paypal refused to accept donations for Wikileaks, the well-known whistleblower site headed by Julian Assange.

Anonymous' hacker cohorts, LulzSes, have taken aim at the CIA, as well as the Arizona Police Department in an effort to expose racial discrimination. Yesterday, LulzSec took credit for an attack on Rupert Murdoch's U.K. tabloid The Sun. A website redirect sent readers to a fake Sun page announcing the embattled media mogul's death from a drug overdose.

Murdoch's media empire has come under fierce scrutiny after it was revealed that journalists at the News of the World tabloid hacked into the voicemail accounts of prominent U.K. citizens. In addition to assailing one of the News Corp. sites head-on, LulzSec also claims to have a bounty of sensitive emails that will shed further light on the organization's less-than-honest tactics.

It wasn't immediately clear whether any of today's arrests also included members of LulzSec, but the group's Twitter feed appears to be as lively as ever. Today's actions clearly show that the federal government is no longer content to sit by while hackers have their run of the internet, but it's likely that Anonymous will respond in short order.

Bahrain eyes bigger partnership with Filipino soccer team

Impressed by the huge turnout in the friendly pitting the Philippines and its Under-23 Olympic team, the Bahrain Football Association (BFA) is eyeing a bigger partnership with the Azkals, including more training camps here and the possible staging of a four-nation tournament.
About 10,000 people, most of them overseas Filipino workers here, turned up in the first of the two Bahrain-Philippines friendly matches that ended with Bahrain winning, 2-1, at the National Stadium in Riffa Saturday night (July 16).

"The Philippine team is always welcome here," BFA technical affairs head Hassan Ismael told the Inquirer Sunday night during a dinner tendered by the football association. "We saw the loyalty of Filipinos to their team and it's a quality that people in Bahrain share with them."

The Azkals are scheduled to play the Bahrain Under-23 team again Monday night in the friendly matches sponsored by AMA International University and Dr. Amable Aguiluz.

The Azkals are gearing up for their second-round World Cup qualifying duel against Middle East powerhouse Kuwait on July 23 and 28.

Ismael said that they could help stage a four-nation tournament featuring neighboring Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates and the Azkals next year.

The Bahrain squad came within a win of reaching the 2010 World Cup.

Lead organizer Edith Fuentes of Creator Marketing and Consultancy said the match marked one of the biggest gatherings of Filipinos here. Bahrain is home to 46,000 OFWs.

Azkals manager Dan Palami welcomed the partnership.

"A closer cooperation with the Bahrain Football Association will be very beneficial to the Philippines ... considering the level and quality of football here," said Palami.

Filipino lawmakers visit disputed isle, defy China

PAG-ASA ISLAND, South China Sea (AP) — A group of Filipino lawmakers flew Wednesday to a Philippine-occupied island in the disputed South China Sea to assert their country's claim to the potentially oil-rich region in defiance of China's protest that the visit threatens regional stability.

Even though the daylong visit upset China, which has been trading accusations with the Philippines and Vietnam over recent territorial spats in some of the world's busiest sea lanes, a senior Chinese diplomat at a meeting of Asian security officials in Bali, Indonesia, said that his country has agreed to draft guidelines for behavior in the disputed region with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Chinese diplomat Liu Zhenmin called it a "milestone document."

For years, Beijing has resisted calls for a binding code of conduct that would require disputes in the South China Sea to be solved peacefully and without threats of violence.

Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also have conflicting territorial claims in the Spratly Islands, which are believed to be rich in oil and natural gas. In recent months, the Philippines and Vietnam have charged that Chinese vessels were disrupting their energy exploration and sought the backing of the U.S., which said it wants to keep international maritime traffic free from interference.

China, which claims the entire South China Sea, acknowledges some of the incidents took place in what it said were its waters.

On Wednesday, dozens of Filipino troops and sunburned villagers welcomed the four-member congressional delegation on Pag-asa Island. Although tiny and a large part of it made up of a single gravel airstrip, the island is the biggest in a cluster that the Philippines claims as it own and calls Kalayaan group of islands.

"This is a historic moment for the congressional delegation. This is Philippine territory," Rep. Walden Bello told a small crowd of residents, government officials and troops who greeted him in the intense tropical heat.

Bello carried two new Philippine flags for the island. He and the others sang their national anthem during a flag-raising ceremony in front of a small one-story town hall on the 91-acre (37-hectare) island, which also has a military camp and a small civilian community of about 60 people.

Pag-asa, internationally called Tithu Island, lies in the South China Sea about 300 miles (480 kilometers) west of the western Philippine province of Palawan. Kalayaan municipality was established in 1978.

Chinese Embassy spokesman Ethan Sun said Tuesday that China would relay its "great concern" to the Philippine government over the lawmakers' trip. He said it goes against the spirit of a 2002 accord between China and ASEAN, which is nonbinding.

The trip "serves no purpose but to undermine peace and stability in the region and sabotage China-Philippine relationship," Sun said in a statement.

Philippine presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Wednesday the lawmakers "were not doing anything in violation of international law" in visiting a Philippine territory.

Bello said that the trip, which his party calls a "sovereignty mission," aims at peacefully asserting the Philippines' claim to Pag-asa and surrounding territory.

"We come in peace," he said in a speech on the island. "We support a diplomatic solution, but let there be no doubt in anybody's mind, in any foreign power's mind that if they dare to eject us from Pag-asa, if they dare to eject us from our rightful territories, Filipinos will not take that sitting down. Filipinos are born to resist aggression. Filipinos are willing to die for their soil."

Despite diplomatic progress at the Bali meeting, Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said Manila had told Beijing it plans to take the territorial dispute to a U.N. tribunal to resolve the conflicting claims peacefully.

China last week rejected the Philippine proposal and reiterated its long-held position to solve its disputes through bilateral negotiations with Manila and the other claimants.

Philippine colonel calls for president's ouster

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine navy chief ordered a marine colonel restricted to quarters after he called in a video for President Benigno Aquino III's government to be ousted.

Col. Generoso Mariano, deputy commander of the Naval Reserve Command, will be confined to his quarters at the marine headquarters pending formal investigation, Vice Adm. Alexander Pama said Friday. Mariano is set to retire Sunday when he reaches the retirement age of 56.

Pama said there are no indications of dissatisfaction within navy ranks. However, part of the probe will focus on Mariano's actions and whether he has supporters.

In the video clip, Mariano criticized the current leadership, saying every Filipino has a duty "to replace the government" if it is unable to address poverty and to save the lives of the majority.

The video dated July 3 shows Mariano reading a statement while seated at a table with a microphone. The clip was sent to journalists and reportedly distributed in military camps.

The 120,000-strong Philippine military, which has been battling Muslim and communist insurgencies for decades, has been wracked by restiveness since late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown in 1986. More than a dozen coup attempts since then have undermined civilian rule.

Aquino, the son of late democracy icon and former President Corazon Aquino, has kept his approval ratings high — between 60 percent and 70 percent. His landslide election victory last year is credited to his clean image, family legacy and a program to uplift the poor through a vigorous anti-corruption drive in the bureaucracy and greater budget allocations for social services.

Davao girl, 12, becomes youngest to contract HIV thru sex

DAVAO CITY -- A 12–year-old girl from this city has become the youngest person to become infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) through sexual intercourse, a city health official said.

Dr. Josephine Villafuerte, City Health Office (CHO) chief, said the girl is the youngest since the city started monitoring HIV cases in 1993.
 "Naay mga bata na karon na naga-engage na sa sex at a very young age (There are children now who engage in sex at a very young age)," Villafuerte said.

She said 22 new cases of persons living with HIV, 21 of them are males, have been recorded between January and March this year. The new cases have brought the number of persons living with HIV in the city to 140.

Villafuerte said 39 new cases have been recorded in the city in the whole of 2010.

Although the figure shows that HIV is prevalent among men, Villafuerte said it is not yet conclusive that the highest incidence in the city is indeed men having sex with men.

HIV is the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Aids). Aids is the late stage of the chronic disease, which is caused by HIV infection.

"Even if they are positive with HIV, there is still hope. There are free medicines we can provide for them," Villafuerte said.

Villafuerte said HIV must not be associated with death since there are advancements, which can now prolong the lives of persons living with HIV.

Less than 20 people have died of HIV infection in the Davao City since 1993, she said.

St. Anthony’s stolen religious relic sparks searches

A 780-year-old treasure honoring St. Anthony of Padua has been stolen from a Southern California Catholic church.

The relic, which is normally kept under lock and key, was brought out by the Rev. Jose Magana because he thought it might help his parishioners regain their faith during the difficult economic climate. In a bit of bitter irony, St. Anthony is known as the patron saint of lost things. Following news of the theft, web searches on "st. anthony stolen" and "who was st. anthony" both surged.

The relic was taken at some point on Monday, "the feast day of the church's namesake." According to a buzzy article from the AP, the relic was likely stolen at some point between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. When the parishioners realized the relic had been taken, there was an audible gasp in the church.

A police lieutenant said "the relic is housed in a 16-inch reliquary case with angel-shaped handles made of gold and silver on either side." The reverend called the relic invaluable," according to the AP.

Of course, this isn't the first time thieves have stolen historical artifacts. In fact, the FBI has an entire team dedicated to art theft. Sometimes the pieces are found, sometimes they aren't. In 2002, thieves stole two paintings by Vincent Van Gogh from his museum in Amsterdam. The paintings, which were never recovered, are valued at around $30 million. Law enforcement is still pursuing leads.

Perhaps the most brazen theft came in 1911, when Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was stolen right off the wall at Louvre in Paris. Believe it or not, it took authorities a day to even realize the painting had gone missing. Soon after, a huge search was conducted. The painting was recovered in 1913 after two years.

"The Scream," the world-famous masterpiece by Edvard Munch, has been stolen multiple times. The most recent theft occurred in 2004 when armed criminals marched into Oslo's Munch Museum and left with the painting. It was recovered in 2006. Just last year, a pre-Columbian figure went missing from Mexico before being recovered in California by Customs and Border Protection.

According to TIME magazine, a huge heist occurred in 1990 when two crooks dressed as Boston cops tied up museum guards and took several paintings valued at $300 million. The artworks were never recovered, leading some to call it the biggest art heist ever, and others wondered if the thieves destroyed the art in an effort to hide their guilt.

Hopefully, with some help from St. Anthony, the relic won't stay missing for long.

10 Symptoms He Shouldn't Ignore

Whenever I get sick, I have a conversation with my wife, Rachelle, that goes like this:

Her: “How are you doing?”
Me: “Fine.”
Her: “Are you sure?”

She just doesn’t trust me when I tell her nothing is wrong—a lack of faith she claims dates to an illness early in our marriage. “You wouldn’t take aspirin because you wanted to see how high your temperature could go,” she recalls. “It was the stupidest reason you ever gave me for not taking care of yourself.”

It wasn’t the last time I put off going for an exam. Recently, a blotchy growth on my hairline went unchecked until its increasing size, nudges from Rachelle and “eww”s from my teenage daughter finally compelled me to see my doctor. It turned out to be an easily treated benign lesion—but the doc made it clear to me that it could have been cancer and really should’ve been checked sooner.

Like a lot of men, I have a thing about doctors. I’m not against them— I just figure medical care is for other guys. “Men like to think they’re indestructible,” says Alan Shindel, MD, codirector of the Men’s Health Program in the department of urology at the University of California, Davis.

We’re not total idiots about health, though. For example, men are more likely than women to get screened for colorectal cancer, and we understand it’s wise to get checked for serious conditions like heart disease and prostate cancer. It’s the out-of-nowhere aches, pains and oddball growths that we tend to blow off. One survey found that a quarter of men who were sick or in pain would wait as long as possible to see a doctor, and 17 percent would wait at least a week.

I finally went to the doctor about the spot on my scalp after I did some online research to assess the odds that it was something serious—and wasn’t reassured by what I read. Men like to be rational. Giving him the facts—as scary as they may be—may turn on a logic switch that makes it difficult to defend dodging his doctor.

Experts agree that not every symptom warrants a trip to the doctor, but some seemingly minor signs shouldn’t be toyed with (in men or women). We asked physicians to tell us the most serious symptoms that often go ignored—and why they shouldn’t be.

1. Feeling Tongue-Tied
He’s thinking: I’m having a senior moment.
But it could be: A stroke. When a clot, injury, narrow blood vessel or other problem restricts blood flow to the brain, the result can be a TIA—a transient ischemic attack, which impairs brain function and can make speech difficult. It’s different from the tip-of-the-tongue reaching for an elusive word. “He might find that words can’t come out at all, or he’ll speak words that are different from the ones he intended or mumble things that don’t make sense,” says Steven Kaplan, MD, director of the Iris Cantor Men’s Health Center now under construction at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Such symptoms warrant an immediate call to the doctor or trip to the ER. Mini-strokes usually last a few minutes and symptoms typically disappear within an hour, but having a TIA means you’re at immediate risk of a more massive stroke. Men have a slightly higher risk of TIAs than women, and risks go up with age, especially after 55. Photo: Stockbyte

2. Shortness of Breath
He’s thinking: I’m really out of shape.
But it could be: An impending heart attack. Shortness of breath with exertion such as walking up a flight of stairs could be a sign that the heart muscle isn’t getting enough oxygen—a hallmark of coronary heart disease, which men age 55 and over are at an increased risk for.

“Any condition that makes breathing a struggle, including asthma and allergies, is exacerbated by exertion,” Dr. Shindel says. “But if shortness of breath seems to be getting worse each time, we worry about the heart.” Breathing that’s labored and doesn’t improve warrants a call to 911. An electrocardiogram or EKG (which measures the electrical activity of your heart), a sonogram or ultrasound of the heart, and chest X-rays can help diagnose or rule out a heart problem. Photo: Jupiterimages

3. Persistent Pain On One side of the Abdomen
He’s thinking: I probably pulled a muscle.
But it could be: A kidney stone or tumor. One-sided pain that goes away probably is a side stitch or pulled muscle and nothing to worry about. “But if a dull ache is persistent, it should be evaluated by a physician,” says Dr. Kaplan. “It could be many things, but a tumor is one of the first possibilities we consider.” An ache from a tumor won’t likely move around, and may get better if he takes an over-the-counter pain reliever—but will keep coming back. “Any abdominal pain that doesn’t resolve within three days deserves to be checked out.”

Sharp, excruciating pain that hits suddenly and doesn’t improve within an hour warrants a trip to the ER. “If it’s a kidney stone, the pain will radiate from a specific point and can be intense enough to make you vomit,” Dr. Kaplan says. “I’ve had one myself, and it’s so horrible it makes you want to die.” The problem could also be appendicitis, a perforated ulcer or a hernia, so it’s important to get checked out. Photo: Shutterstock

4. Toilet-Time Blood
He’s thinking: Must be something I ate.
But it could be: A kidney stone or bladder cancer if blood is in urine; colon cancer if blood is in stools. Bright red spots on tissue after wiping are likely from hemorrhoids. But blood in stools that have become narrower and thinner than usual (like the width of a pencil) could be a sign of cancer. Black, tarry stools might also indicate stomach bleeding from an ulcer. His doctor will likely examine the GI tract via a colonoscopy or upper endoscopy to nail down the problem.

Blood in urine may show up as a subtle pink hue, but he shouldn’t dismiss minuscule amounts or chalk it up to eating beets. “You’d have to eat a whole lot for that to happen,” says Mark Pochapin, MD, director of the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. Assume any reddish color is blood: One drop can turn the bowl pink. “Even microscopic amounts are a warning,” says Martin Miner, MD, codirector of the Men’s Health Center at The Miriam Hospital and clinical associate professor at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. “If he can actually see red color, he should definitely be evaluated.” Photo: iStockphoto

5. Trouble Down Below
He’s thinking: There’s a pill for this.
But it could be: An early warning of cardiovascular disease. “The latest studies find that men in their 40s and 50s with erectile dysfunction may be two to five years away from a cardiovascular event like a heart attack,” Dr. Miner says. A recent study at the Mayo Clinic found that men who had ED in their 40s were 50 times more likely to have heart trouble down the road than men who didn’t. The artery leading to the penis is about half the diameter of the one feeding the heart, so experts think that restricted blood flow from atherosclerosis shows up early down below. An EKG or stress test can identify cardiac problems and a Doppler ultrasound (usually from a urologist) can test blood flow in penile blood vessels.

“The first sign of ED is usually trouble maintaining an erection during sex or not having normal morning erections,” Dr. Miner says. The good news is that the onset of ED, if it’s caused by cardiovascular disease, suggests your man may have a window of opportunity to treat heart disease before it becomes a serious problem. Photo: Jim Arbogast/Thinkstock

6. Daytime Fatigue
He’s thinking: I should go to sleep earlier.
But it could be: Obstructive sleep apnea. Spending more time in bed won’t help if fatigue is due to this condition, in which the airway narrows or is blocked during sleep, cutting off breathing and disrupting slumber five to 30 times an hour. “Everyone has a night here and there when he doesn’t sleep well. But if the fatigue doesn’t go away even when he can catch up on rest, sleep apnea could be putting him at risk for health problems such as heart attack, arrhythmias, stroke or even heart failure,” Dr. Shindel says. A sign he’s chronically tired: falling asleep while doing activities during waking hours. “It’s not normal to fall asleep during usual waking hours just because you’re in a dark room,” Dr. Shindel says. Sleep apnea is especially common in overweight men and heavy snorers, but can be treated with breathing devices such as a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), an apparatus that you wear at night to keep airways open. Losing weight and surgery to widen the airway can also help. Photo: Stockbyte

7. Constant Grumpiness
He’s thinking: I’m just under a lot of stress at work.
But it could be: Depression. Feeling cranky and low because of work hassles or difficult times is normal, but it should dissipate within a few days. With clinical depression, downbeat irritability lasts weeks at a time. “It’s different from run-of-the-mill blues and time for him to talk to his doctor if you’re saying to him, ‘You haven’t been acting like the person I think you really are for weeks’ or he’s lost interest in activities he used to enjoy or isn’t performing at work,” Dr. Shindel says.

Talk therapy and antidepressant medication are the options his doctor will likely suggest first. But if he has symptoms such as fatigue, low sex drive and loss of muscle mass, Dr. Shindel advises getting a blood test for low testosterone, which is sometimes the root cause of depression, especially in men over 40. Testosterone replacement in the form of gel, skin patches or injections can reverse the symptoms, but he should first talk to his doctor carefully about his medical history and the potential risks of testosterone therapy. Photo: Ditigal Vision

8. Frequent Urination
He’s thinking: I’m drinking too much coffee.
But it could be: Type 2 diabetes or an enlarged prostate. It might be the coffee—when he’s actually drinking it. But if he often gets up to go twice or more during the night, his body could be trying to get rid of excess blood sugar that’s built up because it can’t get into cells—the problem that defines diabetes. He should first try adjusting what or when he drinks at night to see if that leads to fewer wee-hour trips to the bathroom. “If he still urinates more than he did a month ago, he should get his blood sugar checked, especially if he also has increased thirst, another red flag for diabetes,” Dr. Miner says. Diabetes can usually be controlled with changes in diet and exercise, often combined with medication.

If he’s also feeling like he can’t empty his bladder completely and/or is having a slow or weak stream, dribbling and having trouble getting urine flow started, the problem may be a growing prostate. This small gland surrounds the tube that carries urine out of the bladder, so an increase in size can put the squeeze on urine flow—a common problem in middle-aged and older men. (In men under 50, symptoms could be due to a urinary tract infection.)

Though painless, an enlarged prostate can eventually get worse and lead to acute urinary retention, where he suddenly can’t urinate at all, which is an emergency that often leads to surgery. Treatment ranges from exercises to strengthen muscles in the pelvic floor to medications that relieve symptoms or shrink the prostate. Prostate cancer is also a possibility, especially for men over 50, and if the doctor suspects that, he’ll do a rectal exam and draw blood to check PSA (prostate-specific antigen) levels; higher-than-normal results may indicate prostate enlargement, an infection or cancer. Photo: Thinkstock

9. Yellowish Skin
He’s thinking: What yellow skin?
But it could be: Liver trouble. Yellow skin, or jaundice, suggests the liver isn’t functioning right. Possible causes in adults include liver disease, gallstones, pancreatic cancer or a viral hepatitis infection, which causes swelling of the liver.

“Hepatitis A isn’t a disease people think of, but it’s a virus found in contaminated shellfish and can be passed on by people who prepare food and don’t wash their hands,” Dr. Pochapin says. In fact, hepatitis A is one of the most common infectious diseases that’s preventable with a vaccine— worth considering for anyone who hasn’t been inoculated. Symptoms like jaundice, fever, upset stomach and fatigue usually show up within two to six weeks of exposure and get better on their own with a few weeks of rest. (And the virus doesn’t stay in your body after that.) But have him check in with his doctor, who’ll most likely want to run some tests to figure out exactly what’s going on. Photo: Jupiterimages

10. A New Spot—Mole, Freckle, Red Patch— On the Skin
He’s thinking: It’ll go away.
But it could be: Skin cancer or seborrheic keratoses— warty, waxy benign lesions that become more common in middle age. Any time a new skin growth appears or an existing one changes in size, color or shape, he should see a doctor. Be especially concerned if a spot or mole gets darker, bleeds, itches or feels irritated—all of which are possible signs of skin cancer, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. The differences in appearance between a benign growth and skin cancer—especially melanoma, the deadliest type—can be subtle. So your physician may want to take a biopsy to make a definite ID.

I know all this from firsthand experience— and when I understood what the dangers may have been, I was glad I saw my doctor. After all, nobody’s indestructible forever. Photo: Jupiterimages

Why he doesn’t want to go to the doctor...and how to get him there

Every woman has that man in her life— her father, husband, brother, boyfriend, friend—who just won’t go to the doctor. Indeed, research shows that men are 24 percent less likely to have seen a physician in the past year than women.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that men are more likely to be hospitalized for a preventable condition than women. What drives their avoidance? Research shows that it has a lot to do with men wanting to feel, well, manly. A study of 1,000 men found that those who have a more traditional view of masculinity—thinking that a “real” man doesn’t complain about pain, for example—were half as likely to get preventive care as those who didn’t agree with such stereotypes.

And let me tell you what else is going on: denial. Many people use it as a coping mechanism to deal with fear. So he’s probably thinking something like: “If I ignore this, it will go away” or “I don’t like needles and being prodded, so I’d rather just skip it” or “It’s either nothing or something too scary to know about, so I don’t want to go.”

So how can you help your man see the doctor? Talk to him about it. Sit down and have a chat, telling him that getting regular checkups is the best way to catch any potential illness before it becomes harder to treat and possibly life-threatening. Emphasize how important it is for him to be there—and healthy—for his family. Research shows this is the strongest motivator for men to see the doctor, probably because it appeals to their traditional sense of what their roles are. To help him address a symptom, the best dialogue I can suggest is something along the lines of: Let’s agree to tell each other when we’re feeling or seeing something that’s unusual or new for us—no matter how embarrassing—so we can help each other figure out what to do. I’m going to tell you if I have a stomach, gynecological or other issue and get it taken care of so I can stay healthy for you, and I want you to do the same for me.

Asking him to go to the doctor, and, if need be, arranging the visit shows that you’re taking his health (and symptoms) seriously, which can propel him to as well. It also helps remove the stigma he may feel about asking for help. Beforehand, help him organize his questions and concerns in writing and, if he’d like, be there with pen and paper in hand (or send him with a tape recorder) so you can both discuss the doctor’s responses later. When people are anxious, they often don’t hear or process the information they’re given in the moment. Don’t worry about being overbearing: A little nagging can go a long way in helping him protect his health. Photo: Shutterstock