Issue Date: April 29, 2007
Get your sleep to avoid adding 2 pounds a year
Shut-eye can help stave off weight gain.
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Lack of sleep has been linked to everything from heart disease to a weakened immune system to a bad mood. And now a 16-year study on sleep has added weight gain to the list.
Research that tracked the sleep habits of nearly 70,000 women found that those who slept five hours or less a night were 32% more likely than those who slept seven hours or more to experience a major weight gain of 33 pounds or more -- about 2 pounds a year.
"Although 1 to 2 pounds per year doesn't seem likea lot, over 10 years this really adds up," says Sanjay Patel, M.D., lead researcher of the study and assistant professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. "And even a weight gain of 10 pounds has a large effect on increasing your risk of developing diabetes and other complications related to obesity, like high blood pressure and heart disease."
So what's a healthy amount of sleep? Get at least seven to eight hours of shut-eye every night and maybe even a little bit more in order to optimize brain function.
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Relive a Civil War battle
Even though the Civil War ended 142 years ago, the patriotic sounds of mortar fire and rifle shots live on via re-enactments performed every year across the East, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and South.
These "battles" are painstakingly re-created by passionate history buffs known as re-enactors. They carry period weapons and wooden canteens, and they dress in uniforms that can be accurate down to the buttons. They eat the food that was served to Union and Confederate soldiers in the 1860s, and they sleep as those soldiers did -- outdoors, and usually without a tent. The most authentic re-enactments imitate the original battles, at or near the original battlefields.
Your ticket ($10 to $22 for a one-day adult pass) lets you get a taste of Civil War infantry tactics and weapons, and the thunder of artillery. You also can watch the re-enactors cook and sing, and even "die" in battle.
Here are some re-enactments you could catch this year:
The Battle of New Market Reenactment in New Market, Va., May 19 to 20.
The Annual Gettysburg Civil War Battle Reenactment in Pennsylvania, July 6 to 8.
The Battle of Cedar Creek in the Shenandoah Valley town of Middletown, Va., Oct. 20 and 21.
Everett Potter is an award-winning travel writer.
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Read this before trading stocks online
Thinking about getting into online trading? "Doing it yourself" can be appealing. But before you log in, check out the results of J.D. Power and Associates' 2006 Online Investor Satisfaction Study of eight investment and trading firms.
THE LEADER: Vanguard got the highest marks from online investors for its investment performance, customer service, website functionality and information resources. Although Vanguard is best known for its mutual funds (you can invest for as little as $1,000), you can open a brokerage account with Vanguard for a minimum investment of $3,000 and execute online trades for $25 per trade or $.025 per share, whichever is greater.
THE RUNNERS-UP: Scottrade, with the top rating for cost and trade execution, came in second. (Trades are $7, with a minimum $500 initial investment.) Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab were above the industry average. You can see the study at jdpower.com/finance/ratings/online_investment/.
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Sugar boosts cancer risk
Eating too much sugar can boost your risk of pancreatic cancer, one of the most deadly cancers, say Swedish researchers. They found that men and women who ate the most sugar (added to foods such as coffee, tea and cereal) were 69% more likely to develop pancreatic cancer than those who ate the least amount of sugar. Even worse: Drinking more than two soft drinks a day, the main source of sugar for Americans, nearly doubled the odds of getting pancreatic cancer.
Researchers explain that sugar is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream, driving up glucose and insulin levels. Excess glucose can actually poison and kill pancreatic cells, increasing cancer risk. Too much insulin results in insulin-like growth factor, which is thought to promote cell proliferation and cancer.
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