Risk

• During the appointment they measure your waist.
• GPs and health professionals commonly measure waist circumference as a vital sign for health.
• Men are at greatly increased risk of health issues if their waist circumference is greater than 102 centimetres.
• More than two-thirds of Australian adults have waist measurements that put them at an increased risk of disease.

How much is too much?

• A ratio of 0.6 or more places a person at the highest risk of disease.
• This can kick off a discussion about their risk of chronic diseases and how they might address this.
• For women, hormone levels begin changing in mid-life and this also stimulates increased fat levels particularly around the abdomen.
• Finally, your family history and genetics can make you predisposed to gaining more abdominal fat.

Why the waist?

• Visceral fat surrounds and infiltrates major organs such as the liver, pancreas and intestines, releasing a variety of chemicals (hormones, inflammatory signals, and fatty acids).
• These affect inflammation, lipid metabolism, cholesterol levels and insulin resistance, contributing to the development of chronic illnesses.

• In addition to the direct effects of hormone changes, declining levels of oestrogen change brain function, mood and motivation.
• These psychological alterations can result in reduced physical activity and increased eating – often of comfort foods high in sugar and fat.
• And importantly, the waist circumference (and ratio to height) is just one measure of human health.

Muscle matters

• On current evidence, it is equally or more important for health and longevity to have higher muscle mass and better cardiorespiratory (aerobic) fitness than waist circumference within the healthy range.
• So, if a person does have an excessive waist circumference, but they are also sedentary and have less muscle mass and aerobic fitness, then the recommendation would be to focus on an appropriate exercise program.
• Conversely, a person with low visceral fat levels is not necessarily fit and healthy and may have quite poor aerobic fitness, muscle mass, and strength.

Getting moving is important advice

• Exercise can counter a lot of the negative behavioural and physiological changes that are occurring during midlife including for people going through menopause.
• And regular exercise reduces the tendency to use food and drink to help manage what can be a quite difficult time in life.
• Measuring your waist circumference and monitoring your weight remains important.

Rob Newton receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council, the Medical Research Future Fund, Cancer Council Western Australia, Spinal Cord Injuries Australia and the World Cancer Research Fund. Rob Newton is a board member of The Healthy Male.

• “It could be the death of the museum,” says renowned mammalogist Tim Flannery, a former director of the museum.
• “To say research isn’t important to what a museum does – it’s sending shock waves across the world,” she says.

What’s the plan?

• According to the museum’s website, this skeleton crew will focus on “converting new discoveries and research into the visitor experience”.
• Others have tackled global questions such as the evolution of birds from dinosaurs, how eyes evolved in Cambrian fossils, and Antarctic biodiversity.

What’s so special about a museum?

• Their remits are different, says University of Adelaide botanist Andy Lowe, who was the museum’s acting director in 2013 and 2014.
• Unlike universities, he says, the museum was “established by government, to carry out science for the development of the state”.

• “They’re crucial for what goes on above; you need experts not second-hand translators,” says University of Adelaide geologist Alan Collins.
• He wonders what will happen the next time a youngster comes into the museum asking to identify a rock.
• The museum’s Phillip Jones now uses this collection in his research, delivering more than 30 exhibitions, books and academic papers.

Continuity and community

• Without attentive curation and the life blood of research, the collections are doomed to “wither and die”, says Flannery.
• That raises the issue of continuity.
• In Flannery’s words, the job of a museum curator:
  is like being a high priest in a temple.

• Over Jones’ four decades at the museum, his relationships with Indigenous elders have also been critical to returning sacred objects to their traditional owners.
• Besides the priestly “chain of care”, there’s something else at risk in the museum netherworld: a uniquely productive ecosystem feeding on the collections.
• Here you’ll find PhD students mingling with retired academics; curators mingling with scientists; museum folk with university folk.
• In the year ending 2023 for instance, joint museum and university grants amounted to A$3.7 million.

DNA and biodiversity

• The museum has also declared it will no longer support a DNA sequencing lab it funds jointly with the University of Adelaide.
• “No other institute in South Australia does this type of biodiversity research,” says Andrew Austin, chair of Taxonomy Australia and emeritus professor at the University of Adelaide.
• “It’s the job of the museum.” The cuts come while the SA government plans new laws to protect biodiversity.

Elizabeth Finkel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• As dentistry scholars, we believe Koop also deserves credit for something else.
• Americans who rely on the traditional Medicare program for their health insurance get no help from that program with paying their dental bills aside from some narrow exceptions.
• This group includes some 24 million people over 65 – about half of all the people who rely on Medicare for their health insurance.

‘Medically necessary’ exceptions

• The list of circumstances that would lead patients to be eligible is short.
• Some examples include patients scheduled for organ transplants or who have cancer treatment requiring radiation of their jaws.
• But we believe that dental care is necessary for everyone, especially for older people.

Chew, speak, breathe

• While many working Americans get limited dental coverage through their employers, those benefits are usually limited to as little as $1,000 per year.
• And once they retire, Americans almost always lose even that basic coverage.
• Rich Americans with Medicare coverage are almost three times more likely to receive dental care compared to those with low incomes.

Connected to many serious conditions

• Having diabetes makes you three times as likely to develop gum disease because diabetes compromises the body’s response to inflammation and infection.
• At the same time, treating diabetes patients for gum disease can help control their blood sugar levels.

Chemo can damage your teeth

Many cancer treatments can damage teeth, especially for older adults. As a result, Medicare has started to reimburse for dental bills tied to tooth decay or other oral conditions after they get chemotherapy or radiation treatment.

More than nice to have

• Doctors and dentists are educated separately, and doctors learn very little about dental conditions and treatments when they’re in medical school.
• Most dental electronic health records aren’t linked to medical systems, hindering comprehensive care and delivery of dental care to those in need.
• Medical insurance was designed specifically to cover large, unpredictable expenses, while dental insurance was intended to mainly fund predictable and lower-cost preventive care.

Medicare Advantage plans

• Until Medicare expands coverage to include preventive dental services for everyone, alternative plans such as Medicare Advantage, through which the federal government contracts with private insurers to provide Medicare benefits, serve as a stopgap.
• In 2016, only 21% of beneficiaries in traditional Medicare had purchased a stand-alone dental plan, whereas roughly two-thirds of Medicare Advantage enrollees had at least some dental benefits through their coverage.

Frank Scannapieco is affiliated with The Task Force on Design and Analysis in Oral Health Research, and consults for the Colgate-Palmolive Company. Ira Lamster is a member of the Santa Fe Group. He currently receives consulting fees from Colgate, and research support from the CareQuest Institute.

• Following Iran’s barrage of drone and missile attacks on April 13, Israel has retaliated and conducted a strike attack near the city of Isfahan in southern Iran.
• Both sides have now matched each other in striking targets within each other’s national border.
• However, details of the extent of any damage done by Israel’s strike are disputed and are being played down by Iran.

The politics of status

• Domestic issues can play an important role here, in how the political and military elites of both states decide to react.
• Despite the majority of the Israeli public being in favour of the campaign to eradicate Hamas in Gaza, he remains unpopular.
• Hence there are good reasons for him to respond military to the challenge posed by Iran.

Regime forged in war

• Historically, the trauma of war has been used by the Islamic Republic to foster nationalism among the population.
• Following the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, the loss of Iranian life, which totalled in the hundreds of thousands, played a huge role in cementing “the formation and empowerment of the Islamic Republic”.
• Militarily contesting Israel can be perceived as a means of solidifying the regime’s position internally and enhancing the country’s image within the region.
• At present, neither side has the ability to send an expeditionary force into each other’s territory.

Ben Soodavar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.