Best of Web: Now a 'bra' for sagging behinds...

Now, a 'bra' for sagging behinds

US: A leading US psychologist has patented a bra for the bum, which according to her, restores pertness to sagging buttocks
 
Creator Karin Hart claims that the garment, featuring straps worn around the waist and under the buttocks, instantly shapes and adds tone to the rear.
 
Hart said that she came up with the buttock-clenching idea after realising that her own bottom wasn't as pert as it used to be.
 
"The Biniki buttocks support idea came to me at a moment of personal need. One look in the mirror after some rapid weight loss showed me the unhappy truth, my bottom was sagging," the Daily Telegraph quoted her, as saying.
 
Dr Hart started developing designs for a wearable item that would do the same job as a surgical bottom lift.
 
"Trying to find a design led me to buy some self-adhesive tape. Then working with a mirror and adjusting the tape into several configurations I found one that resulted in just the right support in the right places," she said.
 
She patented her invention and now sells what she has dubbed the "butt bra" through her US-based company for about 15 pounds. 
 
Athens 'the world's most flirtatious city'

(REUTERS)

GREECE: Athens, the home of famous Greek philosophers - Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, is the world's most flirtatious city, a new study has found.

In fact, the Greek capital emerged as the world's most flirtatious city in what's being claimed as the globe's largest-ever study of online flirting carried out by popular social-networking site Badoo.com.

Moscow came in at number two on the list of nearly 200 cities around the world, while Rome took eighth place and Paris - synonymous with romance - managed only to rank 38th, according to the study.

The 'World Flirtation League' study ranked cities by the number of online flirtations initiated per month by Badoo users, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The average Athenian initiated 25.7 online flirtations per month, more than twice as many as people in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil or Prague and far more than in Paris, London, Berlin or New York.

"Athens is a seductive city, with a hedonistic lifestyle," the British newspaper quoted Victoria Kyriakopoulous, author of 'The Lonely Planet Encounter Guide to Athens', as saying.

Added British author Dr Simon Hardy: "It's probably fair to say that the Athenians perfected the art of flirtation in ancient times, especially at the time of symposia described by Plato."

The other cities to make it into the top 10 were Kuwait City, Baku in Azerbaijan, Tunis, Kiev, Beirut, Turin, and Bari in southern Italy.

 
iPhone app to make men less shy

(AP)

Melbourne: The strong, silent and possibly suffering Australian male is the target of an iPhone application that hopes to make men less shy of talking with doctors - before medical issues become medical emergencies.

Melbourne's The Alfred hospital has launched the "myHealthMate," which features a user-friendly symptom checker that allows men to match 20 areas of their body to over 50 common symptoms and receive medical advice from experts.

"The Australian male's machismo prevents him from presenting early to the local doctor, or what you would call in the States your primary care physician," said Marco Bonollo, head of Disease Management Unit at The Alfred.

"So whereas our wives, girlfriends and partners have forged very strong relationships with general practitioners..., the Australian male is a notoriously late presenter, often ignoring cardinal symptoms such as chest pain."

The result is that men are disproportionately represented among patients at the hospital, making up to 60 percent of admissions a year.

The free app features an interactive representation of the male body with red dots at various key areas, such as the chest or the elbow.

Users can click on each area to get a variety of advice about symptoms, for anything from breathlessness to tennis elbow, including when they should consult with a doctor or head in for emergency treatment.

If diagnosed with a chronic condition, the app - which also has a special feature on men's cancer - provides links to a variety of websites with information. Bonollo stressed that the app was not meant to substitute for seeing a doctor.
 
Smoking, couch-potato lifestyles boost cancer risks

PARIS: Two studies released on Wednesday highlighted the risks and benefits of lifestyle choices in combatting cancer, showing the dangers of smoking for post-menopausal women and exercise's protective effect on the bowel.

Post-menopausal women who smoke, or who used to smoke, face an up to 16-percent higher risk of developing breast cancer compared to women who have never smoked, according to a paper published online by the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

Women who have been extensively exposed to passive smoking, either as children or in adulthood, could also be at greater risk of breast cancer, it added.

However, this apparent risk does not apply to women who were only moderately exposed to second-hand smoke.

The study covered almost 80,000 US women aged between 50 and 79 who were followed for 10 years.

In a separate investigation published in the British Journal of Cancer, people with an active lifestyle were found to be up to three times less likely to develop large bowel growths, known as polyps, which are often a precursor for cancer.

The conclusion is based on an overview of 20 published studies.

"We've long known that an active lifestyle can protect against bowel cancer, but this study is the first to look at all the available evidence and show that a reduction in bowel polyps is the most likely explanation for this," said lead author Kathleen Wolin of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.

"Exercise has many benefits, including boosting the immune system, decreasing inflammation in the bowel and helping to reduce insulin levels - all factors which we know are likely to have an effect on bowel polyp risk."

Half an hour's "moderate" exercise per day - anything that leads to a slight shortage of breath - and maintaining a reasonable weight are keys to reducing the risk of bowel cancer, said Cancer Research UK, which publishes the journal.
  
Fizzy drinks pose heart risk

BRITAIN: Fizzy drinks and other cans of sugary drink push up blood pressure rates, say British researchers.

Drinking five cans a day could result in someone moving from healthy levels into the high blood pressure zone, they claim.

The 'striking' new findings from a study of over 2,500 people suggest any drink with added sugar or caloric sweeteners adversely affects blood pressure.

For every extra can of sugary drink consumed a day, systolic blood pressure went up by 1.6 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 0.8 mmHg.

High blood pressure reading is classified as more than140/90 millimetres of mercury.

The first figure, the systolic pressure, corresponds to the 'surge' that occurs with each heart beat while the diastolic reading is the pressure in the 'resting' stage between beats.

High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke.

Researchers are not clear about why sugary drinks appear to push up blood pressure.

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