Women's problem areas:The tummy

This is the third and most interesting chapter of our healthy guide handling ladies’ problematic areas. We talked about the upper body, toning muscles without bulking up and losing femininity, with a 20 minute workout. We followed with an article about the lower body and hips, with another workout. Now, with the following workout for the torso and middle area, we have a full hour of exercises to achieve the body you dream of.

But first, remember not to do tummy exercises if you recently had a baby, are pregnant or think you could be. Talk to your doctor before beginning. We will soon provide a full article on fitness during pregnancy, so stay tuned.

US heart disease costs to triple by 2030

WASHINGTON - THE costs of treating heart disease in America, where one in three people has some form of the disease, are expected to triple by 2030 due to the growing population, researchers said on Monday.

While current costs of medical care for heart disease are around US$273 billion (S$349.7 billion) per year, that figure will skyrocket to US$818 billion by 2030, the study said.

The findings came from an expert panel that estimated future costs based on current disease rates, and expanded those costs according to projections from US census data about approaching shifts in the population. The researchers assumed that no new discoveries would be made between now and 2030 to stem the tide of heart disease, said the study published in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association.

Kids who misbehave face trouble as adults: Study

WASHINGTON - CHILDREN who are over-active, cannot concentrate or act impulsively as early as age three tend to become troubled adults unless they learn self-control along the way, said a study on Monday.

An international team of researchers examined young children in New Zealand and Britain and found that the low-scorers on measures of self-control as kids faced more financial, health and substance abuse problems as they aged.

Measures of low self-control in the study of 1,000 New Zealand children included 'low frustration tolerance, lacks persistence in reaching goals, difficulty sticking with a task,' said the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Other indicators were 'over-active, acts before thinking, has difficulty waiting turn, restless, not conscientious.' The children who scored lowest on those counts faced a host of problems as adults, 'things like breathing problems, gum disease, sexually transmitted disease, inflammation, overweight, and high cholesterol and blood pressure,' the study said.

'Rogue gene' discovery could brake cancers

PARIS - SCIENTISTS on Monday said their discovery of a 'rogue gene' could stop the spread of most late-stage cancers, providing one day the right drug is found.

Known as WWP2, the gene controls an enzyme which attacks a natural inhibitor that prevents cancer cells from spreading. Researchers at the University of East Anglia in eastern England found that by blocking the action of WWP2, levels of this inhibitor are boosted and cancer cells cannot reproduce.

Lead author Andrew Chantry said that the work threw open new avenues of investigation into stopping metastastis, or when cancer starts to spread aggressively, especially in breast, brain, colon and skin tissues.