Obesity as dangerous as smoking, study shows

Being obese can be as dangerous to your health as a lifetime of cigarette smoking, a recent Oxford University study has shown.

As much as a decade of your life can be lost as a result of being severely obese, and even being "only" moderately obese can cut your lifespan by more than three years.

The label "severely obese" refers to anyone with a body mass index over 40. Moderately obese is defined as someone who has a BMI of 30 to 40.

To find your own body mass number, you can use this chart.

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Talking dirty

A recent study indicated that 95% of cellphones belonging to hospital staff were contaminated with at least one type of dangerous bacteria. Over 12% of them carried the deadly methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Almost 35 percent carried two types of bugs, and more than 11 percent carried three or more different species of bacteria, the study found.

"These mobile phones could act as a reservoir of infection which may facilitate patient-to-patient transmission of bacteria in a hospital setting," the authors of the study warned.

In 2005, MRSA infected 94,000 people and killed 19,000 in the United States alone.

Hospital workers (supposedly) wash their hands a lot, and yet still their phones are crawling with nasties. Just imagine what kind of creepy crud your phone might be harboring.

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