By Allison Cross, Canwest News Service

Obesity is now a bigger overall threat to people’s health than smoking, according to results of the longest ongoing health study of adults in the United States. Photograph by: Tony Melville, ReutersBy Allison Cross, Canwest News Service

Obesity is now a bigger overall threat to people’s health than smoking, according to results of the longest ongoing health study of adults in the United States.

Obesity causes as much or more disease than tobacco, says the study, conducted by researchers from Columbia University and the City College of New York. It adds that while smoking rates are starting to decline, obesity now shortens as many or even more healthy lifespans than tobacco use.

“Health impacts of obesity are, in many ways, much larger, than the health impacts of smoking,” said Dr. Arya Sharma, chairman for obesity research and management at the University of Alberta. “(Smoking) in the end, is limited to heart disease and cancer.”

The study, conducted over 15 years, was based on interviews with more than 3.5 million people and calculations of the number of “quality-adjusted life years” (QALYs) lost to obesity and smoking.

Quality-adjusted life years are a measurement of the quality and quantity of a life lived, and assign higher scores to perfect or good health, and lower scores to illness, injury and death.

Between 1993 and 2008, smoking in American adults declined by 18.5 per cent, while the proportion of obese people increased by 85 per cent, the study says.

Overall, smoking caused more deaths but obesity has a greater impact on illness, said the researchers.

The results of the study support what doctors and researchers have been saying for many years in the U.S. and in Canada, said Sharma.

There’s nothing to indicate the results of the study aren’t mirrored in the Canadian population, he said.

Obesity is a complex disease that can lead to diabetes, liver disease, heart disease, sleep apnea, joint replacement and other problems, said Sharma, who added that the effects of obesity are often treated, but not the obesity itself.

"It hits people at young ages now. We’re looking at an epidemic of childhood obesity,” Sharma said. “None of the prevention methods that are being implemented are showing any signs of working. To be effective, they would have to be pretty drastic.”

A study presented in October at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Edmonton said obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are affecting Canadian teens at alarmingly high rates and are increasing over time.

Sharma said the study demonstrates that anti-smoking campaigns have been effective, but the same approach can’t necessarily be taken to combating obesity.

“The factors causing obesity are so entrenched in our Western lifestyle, from everything starting from how we build our cities and our food policies,” he said. “It’s not just about going out and eating healthy or exercising more. It is, in fact, very difficult for people to eat healthy and exercise more given the lifestyle that most of us currently have.”

Social stigma is no longer an excuse not to speak openly about the dangers of obesity, said Dr. David Lau, president of Obesity Canada and a medical professor at the University of Calgary.

“In 2004, the U.S. surgeon general already announced that obesity has overtaken tobacco as the No. 1 public health enemy, but now we have data to support it,” Lau said. “I think it’s very timely after the Christmas holiday, when we’ve all put on a few pounds, to be more alerted to the fact that obesity is not something to be dismissed.”

The diabetes epidemic in Canada has been fuelled by an obesity epidemic and children and young adults have become susceptible to diseases that normally afflict people in their 40s and 50s, Lau said.

“Of course, we have to talk about genetic predisposition but, be that as it may, the major driver for Type 2 diabetes is not genetic. It has to do with our eating habits,” he said.

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

By Elizabeth Cohen, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent

CNN) — On a recent flight from San Francisco, California, to Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Julie Gerberding was thrilled to get bumped up to first class. The thrill, however, quickly disappeared: As she did her victory walk to the front cabin, she noticed that the woman in the seat next to hers was hacking up a lung.

“She was on her cell phone, saying, ‘I feel miserable. I just know I have swine flu,’ ” Gerberding remembered. “I thought to myself, ‘Oh, great.’ “

For the duration of her transcontinental flight, Gerberding played viral roulette as she sat shoulder-to-shoulder next to Ms. Sneezy in a confined space.

Gerberding, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had a few strategies for avoiding this woman’s germs, some of which you can use on planes, trains, automobiles and anywhere else if you get stuck next to Typhoid Mary — or, in this case, H1N1 Mary.

Gerberding’s first step was to point the air vent in the ceiling toward the sick woman and away from herself.

“That helped point the germs towards her and away from me,” she said.

She then pivoted her body — she was sitting on the aisle seat — away from Ms. Sneezy.

“There wasn’t much else I could do. At some point, I just crossed my fingers,” Gerberding said.

Actually, Gerberding realized later there was one more thing she could have done.

“I could have approached a flight attendant and said, ‘The person sitting next to me has swine flu. Could you please offer her a mask?’ In retrospect, I wish I had done that.”

On airplanes, you’re most likely to catch an illness from the people sitting in your row and in the row behind you, according to researchers at Purdue University, who developed an animation showing how germs move around an airplane.

“The bad news is if you’re in that strike zone, you’re at risk,” Gerberding said. “If someone sitting right near you has the flu, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll get it. Flu is very transmissible.”

Watch how easily germs spread.

Gerberding adds that you probably won’t catch the flu from someone sitting several rows away, since circulating air on planes goes through a HEPA filter.”

The good news is, if you’re not right in that strike zone, you’re probably at low risk,” she said.

Whenever you’re out in public, you can catch a germ from anyone within about six feet of you; that’s how far some germs can travel, according to Dr. Rhonda Medows, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Health.

“Air droplet spray actually comes into your body. You’re inhaling it. You’re breathing those respiratory droplets,” Medows said.

Another way you can catch a germ from someone is if you touch something a sick person has touched. For example, think about a busy escalator handrail.

“You and millions of others have touched it,” Medows said. “And they could be sneezing, wiping their nose, coughing in their hands, and then they touch the handrail.”

Watch secret — and not so secret — sources of germs

If you’re healthy, your immune system should be able to fight off most of what’s on a germy handrail, but even if you’re in tip-top shape, chances are you have no immunity to the H1N1 virus, since it’s so new.

Medows’ strategy: After you touch something like a handrail, make a conscious effort not to touch your eyes, nose or mouth, and use hand sanitizer as soon as you can.

The National Institutes of Health offers more advice about preventing the spread of germs.

Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona known as “Dr. Germ,” says his research shows that another potential bastion of germs are water fountains. Some schools have actually shut down their water fountains for the duration of flu season.

But you don’t have to avoid water fountains. Gerberding says that if you want to drink from a fountain, follow these simple steps: Don’t let your lips touch the spout, and before taking a sip, let the water run for a few seconds to flush away germs. Also, wash or sanitize your hands afterward, since the bar or button that turns on the fountain has probably been touched by many other hands before yours.

Watch what you can do to avoid germs

You might be wondering why Gerberding didn’t go back to her seat in coach or ask for another one when she saw she’d be sitting next to Ms. Sneezy in first class.

“It was a full flight ,so someone else would have had to sit next to her,” she explained. “And I’m healthy, so I figured if someone had to be near her, better me than someone who’s immune-compromised in some way.”

By the way, Gerberding didn’t get sick from Ms. Sneezy on that long flight from San Francisco to Atlanta. She says she doesn’t know whether it’s because of her germ-prevention strategies or just dumb luck.

CNN’s Sabriya Rice, Caitlin Hagan, Sharisse Scineaux and Matt Sloane contributed to this report.

Officials are urging college students to get vaccinated for the H1N1 flu before heading home for the holidays.

Washington (CNN) — Chris Edwards’ fever spiked at 104 degrees this fall before he was sent home from Frostburg State University in western Maryland to recuperate from the H1N1 flu.

“It scared most of my family more than it scared me,” the freshman information technology major told CNN in a telephone interview Thursday. “For me, it was regular sick.”

He is one of many students at U.S. colleges who have tested positive for H1N1 — also known as swine flu — in recent months. To help cut down on the spread of the disease, the U.S. Department of Education has begun encouraging college students to get vaccinated.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that officials would like to see college students inoculated before they head home for Christmas break. And if exam schedules make that impossible, students should try to get the vaccine while they are at home, he said.

As another tactic to cut down on the spread of H1N1, Duncan said his department is urging college teachers to be flexible with students who get sick, so they are not afraid to miss classes.

“If you are sick, this is highly contagious and we really need you home getting well before you return to class,” Duncan told a group of college newspaper reporters.

Edwards can attest to how difficult that can be. After missing a week of school, he said, “It took me a long time to catch up.”

The Department of Education said its most recent check of elementary and secondary schools found none were closed because of the H1N1 virus. That’s a big change from a peak in late October of more than 450 schools closed, affecting over 350,000 students across the United States.

However, officials warn it is too soon to relax.

“Although flu is going down, it’s far from gone,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden said Monday, pointing out that flu season lasts until May.

“Only time will tell what the rest of the season will bring,” he said. “There are still lots of kids who are sick and lots of people who are at risk of getting influenza and end(ing) up getting severely ill from it.”

Related Topics:

• Swine Flu
• College Life
• U.S. Department of Education