FREAKY FACTS... A pain in the head

1) The World Health Organisation ranks migraines in the top 20 of disabling medical conditions.
2) Botox treatment for frown lines may also help prevent migraines, according to a case report in Auckland.
3) Migraines cost the American taxpayers $US13 billion ($NZ18.4b) in missed work or reduced productivity annually.
4) Spanish researchers have found that treating inflammation in the eye’s trochlea tendon can relieve migraine pain.
5) Famous migraineurs include Elvis Presley (right), Albert Einstein, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, Cervantes, Pascal, Nietzsche, Robert E. Lee and Karl Marx.

FREAKY FACTS... Weighty matters

1) Earth is getting weighed down with big people, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) figures. It says there are 1.6 billion overweight people and 400 million who are obese. If the weight-gain epidemic continues, the organisation predicts that by 2015, about 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese.
2) New Zealand adults are tipping the scales towards being too big, with 60% of men and 40% of women deemed as overweight. Of these, 20% are obese.
3) The most obese nations of the world are in the western Pacific. In Nauru, 80% of men are obese and 78% of women. Tonga is next, with 47% of men and 70% of women recorded as obese; and in Samoa the obesity rates are men (33%) and women (63%).
4) In New Zealand, Pacific island children are the heaviest with more than 60% either overweight or obese. Overall, nearly one-third of Kiwi kids are overweight (21%) or obese (10%).
5) The WHO defines overweight as having a body mass index (BMI) of more than 25, and obesity as having a BMI of 30 or more. BMI is a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of their height in metres (kg/m2).

FREAKY FACTS... the cancer epidemic

By VIRGINIA WINDER
WHILE we may one day face another flu pandemic, bird delivered or not, we are already facing a full-blown crisis.
Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the Western World, including New Zealand. It’s only surpassed by heart disease.
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in New Zealand women. For Kiwi men, prostate cancer is the No 1 foe.
But, according to the World Health Organisation and World Cancer Research Fund, we can do our best to reduce the risks.
Eating a healthy diet with five daily portions of fruit and vegetables, not smoking, staying physically active and maintaining a healthy weight, can cut the risk of cancer up to 40%.

Other scary cancer facts:
1) In 2005, more than 7.6 million people died of cancer out of 58 million deaths worldwide.

2) Based on projections, cancer deaths will continue to rise with an estimated 9 million people dying from cancer in 2015, and 11.4 million dying in 2030.
3) Child cancer patients in Third World countries have only a 20% rate of survival, while their counterparts in developed countries have an 80% chance of beating the disease.

4) There are more than 100 types of cancers and any part of the body can be affected.

5) One-fifth of all cancers worldwide are caused by a chronic infection, for example human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer and hepatitis B virus causes liver cancer.