December 31, 2006

• Well, ain’t this a kick in the head?

  From BBC comes a startling claim:
  Housework cuts breast cancer risk

  Women who exercise by doing the housework can reduce their risk of breast cancer, a study suggests.
  

  The research on more than 200,000 women from nine
  European countries found doing household chores was far more cancer
  protective than playing sport.
  

  Dusting, mopping and vacuuming was also better than having a physical job.
  

  The women in the Cancer Research UK-funded study spent
  an average of 16 to 17 hours a week cooking, cleaning and doing the
  washing.
  

  [snip]

  The latest study looked at both pre- and post-menopausal women and a range of activities, including work, leisure and housework.
  

  All forms of physical activity combined reduced the breast cancer risk
  in post-menopausal women, but had no obvious effect in pre-menopausal
  women.
  

  Out of all of the activities, only housework
  significantly reduced the risk of both pre- and post-menopausal women
  getting the disease.
  

  Housework cut breast cancer risk by 30% among the pre-menopausal women and 20% among the post-menopausal women.
  

  Well, dang.

  And here’s another “well, dang”…..Charles called this morning and we missed it! Hadn’t yet hauled our carcasses out of bed, and don’t have the telephone ringer turned on in the bedroom (a habit born back when the girls were teenagers with friends who would call in the middle of the night). He’s in Cyprus, and said he’d call back “shortly”, an adverb of indeterminate meaning.

  EDIT: He called!

  He’s in Limassol, having arrived there yesterday:

  

  So far there’s been no liberty, and they shan’t be there long.  It looks to be a beautiful city, though, so I hope he has a chance to visit it:

  
  
  
  This is the first time a U.S. sub’s been at that port in eight years, he says.
  

  • 11:53 am
  • 1 Comment