If you normally wear glasses have your optometrist coat your glasses with a UV protectant. Wear eye protection even when it's cloudy. Wear eye protection all year round. UV rays don't take time off in the winter. Sharp rises across almost every demographic category are blamed mostly on obesity, which affects almost one in five Americans.
Obesity is a major risk factor for serious illness, and no longer just a cosmetic issue.
Americans favor inactive, computer-centered lifestyles and fast food, and experts would like to see a major education program started in the schools to change these behaviors and reverse the trend. Researchers have discovered a hormone, called resistin, that fat cells release and which interferes with the activity of insulin, causing type 2 diabetes. Scientists are studying this new hormone to find the normal role of resistin. It appears to be part of the missing link between obesity and diabetes that they think may have developed during the early evolution of man as a response to periods of low food supply. Older women taking insulin for type 2 diabetes are nearly twice as likely to fracture a foot, hip or shoulder, regardless of bone density or weight.