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CHICAGO -- Living to 100 is easier than you might think. Surprising new research suggests that even people who develop heart disease or diabetes late in life have a decent shot at reaching the century mark.

"It has been generally assumed that living to 100 years of age was limited to those who had not developed chronic illness," said Dr. William Hall of the University of Rochester.

Hall has a theory for how these people could live to that age. In an editorial in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine, where the study was published, he writes that it might be thanks to doctors who aggressively treat these older folks' health problems, rather than taking an "ageist" approach that assumes they wouldn't benefit.

For the study, Boston University researchers did phone interviews and health assessments of more than 500 women and 200 men who had reached 100. They found that roughly two-thirds of them had avoided significant age-related ailments.

But the rest, dubbed "survivors," had developed an age-related disease before reaching 85, including high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes. Yet many functioned remarkably well -- nearly as well as their disease-free peers.

Overall, the men were functioning better than the women. Nearly three-fourths of the male survivors could bathe and dress themselves, while only about one-third of the women could.

The researchers think that may be because the men had to be in exceptional condition to reach 100. "Women, on the other hand, may be better physically and socially adept at living with chronic and often disabling conditions," wrote lead author Dr. Dellara Terry and her colleagues.

Rosa McGee is one of the healthy women in the study who managed to avoid chronic disease. Now 104, the retired cook and seamstress is also strikingly lucid.

"My living habits are beautiful," McGee said in an interview at her daughter's Chicago apartment. "I don't take any medicines. I don't smoke and I don't drink. Never did anything like that."

Until late 2006, when she fell in her St. Louis home, McGee lived alone and took care of herself. Now in Chicago, she is less mobile but still takes walks a few times weekly down the apartment building hallways, with her daughter's help.

McGee credits her faith in God for her good health. She also gets lots of medical attention -- a doctor and nurse make home visits regularly.

Genes surely contributed -- McGee's maternal grandparents lived to age 100 and 107.

But while genes are important, scientists don't think they tell the whole story about longevity.

A second, larger study of men in their 70s found that those who avoided smoking, obesity, inactivity, diabetes and high blood pressure greatly improved their chances of living into their 90s. In fact, they had a 54 percent chance of living that long.

Their survival decreased with each risk factor, and those with all five had only a 4 percent chance of living into their 90s, according to Harvard University researchers.

Those who managed to avoid lifestyle-related ailments also increased their chances of functioning well physically and mentally two decades later.

The study followed 2,357 men for about 25 years or until death, starting in their early 70s. About 40 percent survived to at least age 90. Among survivors, 24 percent had none of the five risk factors.

"It's not just luck, it's not just genetics. ... It's lifestyle" that seems to make a big difference, said lead author Dr. Laurel Yates of Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital.

"It's get your shoes on, get out there, and do some exercise," she said. "These are some things you can do" to increase the chances of a long life.

Yates said it's never too late to adopt a healthier lifestyle, though the findings don't address whether waiting until age 70 to stop smoking, lose weight and exercise will increase longevity.

Hall noted that the United States has more than 55,000 centenarians, and that Americans 85 and older are the country's fastest-growing group of older adults.

He said the new research underscores how important it is for doctors to become adept at treating the oldest of the old, who are "becoming the bread and butter of the clinical practice of internal medicine."

The cost of diagnosing and treating back and neck problems rose substantially over the past decade, but Americans might not be getting their money's worth, a study suggests today.

Back and neck problems are among the main reasons for doctor visits, the authors write in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In a 2002 survey of U.S. adults, the authors write, just over a quarter of respondents said they'd had lower back pain in the previous three months.

The researchers analyzed data from an annual government survey of a representative sample of the U.S. adult population. Participants were asked to report all health conditions, including back and neck problems. The researchers also used data from related surveys of doctors and pharmacists to estimate how much money was spent on various health conditions.

From 1997 through 2005, the average medical expenditure for respondents who said they had spine problems was 73% greater than that of those who didn't, the authors write.

After adjusting for inflation, medical expenditures by Americans with back or neck problems rose an estimated 65% from 1997 through 2005, more rapidly than health expenditures by Americans overall, the authors write. Yet, they say, the estimated proportion of people with spine problems who reported having physical function limitations rose from 20.7% to 24.7% during that same period.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: MRIs | School of Medicine | Americans | Spending

"As we're spending a lot of money on spine problems, we would expect that that investment would be commensurate with improvements in spine problems," said lead author Brook Martin, a research scientist in orthopedics and sports medicine at the University of Washington.

Alan Hilibrand, speaking for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, challenged Martin's conclusion that spending on spine problems has outpaced overall medical spending. Hilibrand, an orthopedic surgery professor at the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, pointed out that the difference in health care expenditures for people with spine problems and those without was 72% in 1997 and 73% in 2005.

In 2005, most of the differences in expenditures between those reporting spine problems and those who did not were in three areas: outpatient services, inpatient services and prescription drugs, the researchers write. The greatest rise in absolute dollars from 1997 through 2005 was for outpatient visits, which accounted for $30.8 billion — 36% — of spine-related medical expenditures in 2005.

Other increases might be a result of such factors as medical imaging and diagnostic tests, spinal injections and spinal fusion surgery, the authors write. They concluded that the USA might be able to safely reduce spending for spine problems without harming Americans' health.

"I think the article is timely," University of Pittsburgh geriatrician Debra Weiner said. "When I saw it, I said, 'Yep, this is what people need to hear.' "

In a study published in 2006, Weiner and her co-authors concluded that doctors were increasingly ordering often unnecessary MRIs for Medicare patients with lower back pain. "Doctors are not taught in medical school or their post-medical school training about how to evaluate people with back pain," says Weiner, director of the Older Adult Pain Management Program at her university. "Because they are not taught, the fallback position is often advanced imaging, like MRIs."

Yet, she says, older people who don't have back pain often have MRIs that look similar to those of back pain patients who end up having surgery.

Says Martin: "Nobody has a good answer for how much is too much" treatment for spine problems.

After 100 days, WGA members vote overwhelmingly to go back to work

The strike is over.

Hollywood's costly 100-day walkout came to a widely welcomed end Tuesday after members of the Writers Guild of America voted overwhelmingly to go back to work.

More than 90% of the 3,775 writers who cast ballots in Los Angeles and New York voted to immediately end the work stoppage, capping the entertainment industry's most contentious labor dispute in recent history.

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"Rather than being shut out of the future of content creation and delivery, writers will lead the way as TV migrates to the Internet and platforms for new media are developed," said Patric M. Verrone, president of the WGA, West.

On Feb. 25, writers are expected to ratify a new three-year contract that ensures them a stake in the revenue generated when their movies, television shows and other creative works are distributed on the Internet. Whether the benefits from the new contract will be enough to offset the income writers and others lost because of the strike is a matter of debate.

Steven Beer, an entertainment attorney at Greenberg Traurig, predicted that working writers may have fewer opportunities as studios use the strike as a means to cut programming budgets, greenlight fewer pilots, reduce fees and limit the number of production deals on their lots.

"Writers got hard-fought and well-earned improvements, but it could be tougher sledding for the rank and file in the future," he said.

Other experts believe the writers won a victory that transcends any financial gains.

"It was a defining moment," said economist Harley Shaiken, a professor at UC Berkeley who specializes in labor issues. "It showed that a very disparate group of individuals could act with real solidarity -- and that packed real economic power."

The walkout, which began Nov. 5, proved to be far more economically damaging than the studios had expected, shutting down more than 60 TV shows, hampering ratings and depriving the networks of tens of millions in advertising dollars.

Labor experts said the crippling effect of the strike helped writers achieve gains they might not have otherwise attained.

The new contract gives them residual payments for shows streamed over the Internet and secures the union's jurisdiction for programming created for the Web.

"They successfully faced down six multinational media conglomerates and established a beachhead on the Internet," said Jonathan Handel, former associate counsel for the Writers Guild of America, West and an attorney at TroyGould. "When you consider what they were initially offered and the enormous odds they faced, that's quite an achievement."

Handel noted that studios had originally balked at writers' demands for new-media residuals, proposing a multiyear study instead.

Yet the new contract falls short of what writers were initially seeking.

"It's a good deal but not a great one," said Handel, adding that both sides made key compromises.

For example, writers received guarantees that any guild member hired to create original shows for the Web would be covered under a union contract. But the tentative contract enables studios to hire nonunion writers to work on low-budget Internet shows, giving them the flexibility they sought to compete in the burgeoning world of Web entertainment.

The writers agreement was largely patterned after a recent deal studios made with directors. Writers, however, got some important improvements, especially in pay for shows that are streamed on advertising-supported websites.

Writers were unsuccessful, however, in their efforts to shorten the 17-to-24-day window that studios have to stream their shows for promotional purposes without paying residuals. Many writers complained that most viewers watched repeats online within days after a program was initially broadcast.

With the strike now over, economists are tallying up the cost to the industry and the Los Angeles region. Measuring the financial losses is inherently difficult and estimates vary widely.

Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., estimates the walkout cost the local economy more than $3 billion. Of that total, an estimated $772 million came from lost wages for writers and production workers, $981 million from various businesses that service the industry, including caterers and equipment rental houses, and $1.3 billion from the ripple effect of consumers not spending as much at retail shops, restaurants and car dealers.

Still, the total is relatively small considering that the L.A. economy generates $1.3 billion a day.

The entertainment industry employs about 250,000 in the Los Angeles region, including thousands who are self-employed.

Orlando (dbTechno) - International Space Station astronauts were quite busy on Sunday getting ready for the first spacewalk since the arrival of the NASA space shuttle Atlantis, which brought with it the European Space Agency module Columbus. The spacewalk had to be delayed due to health issues with German astronaut Hans Schlegel.

Schlegel has been replaced by Stanley Love.

Love and Rex Walheim will perform tasks to get the International Space Statioin and the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory ready for installation.

They will have to install the Power Data Grapple Fixture on Columbus, as well as other tasks.

Schlegel and Pilot Alan Poindexter will coordinate the spacewalk from inside the orbiting complex according to NASA.

The European Sapce Agency stated that the current health condition of Schlegel is “not life or mission threatening in any way, but that could affect his efficiency during a spacewalk.”

It is possible that Schlegel will rejoin Rex Walheim for a second spacewalk. NASA has not given any further information though on the matter.

American and European astronauts inaugurated the Columbus science laboratory, the newest addition to the International Space Station and Europe’s largest contribution. The 14-ton module, which cost about $2 billion, was delivered last weekend and installed Monday during a spacewalk. It will expand the range of zero-gravity experiments aboard the station. NASA also said a section of thermal blanket that pulled free during the shuttle’s climb to orbit last week did not need repair and would adequately protect the shuttle during re-entry next week.

Yahoo on Tuesday introduced a new service called oneConnect, which will combine e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging, and social networking in one mobile platform.

The company plans to roll out oneConnect as part of Yahoo Go 3.0 -- an all-in-one mobile offering -- and Yahoo's new mobile home page in the second quarter of this year. In the meantime, Yahoo is showcasing oneConnect at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona this week.

One of the more impressive features of oneConnect is a socially-connected address book, which will allow users to transfer activities from social networks, professional networks, and communities to their address book. For example, users will be able to stay on top of when a contact updates their status or uploads a photo to their profile.

Yahoo will also offer integrated mobile messaging. That means any messaging service provider will be able to use Yahoo's application program interfaces to integrate with oneConnect's messaging feature, according to the company. Yahoo said it will use an open communications platform to give users the freedom to send e-mail, instant messages, text messages, and access social networks through a single application.

Users may potentially be able to access both their personal and work messaging services. Yahoo also said it's in discussions with DataViz, which specializes in mobile access to Microsoft Exchange e-mail accounts and Microsoft Office documents. The two would team up to develop widget versions of DataViz's RoadSynch and Documents To Go applications.

Other features in oneConnect include the ability to set up messaging shortcuts to get in touch with people more quickly; a social contact card for collecting relevant information about contacts; and a location-sensing capability for locating, chatting, and exchanging information with nearby oneConnect users.

Yahoo expects oneConnect to support hundreds of mobile devices and mobile browsers worldwide.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Barack Obama easily swept Democratic presidential contests in three states on Saturday, striking the latest blows in a bruising back-and-forth battle with Hillary Clinton for the party's nomination.
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama applauds at the end of his speech at the Virginia Democratic Party Jefferson Jackson dinner in Richmond, Virginia February 9, 2008. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

Among Republicans, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won contests in Louisiana and Kansas over front-runner John McCain, highlighting conservative discontent with the Arizona senator two days after he essentially sewed up the nomination.

Obama scored decisive wins in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington to gain a small dose of momentum in a deadlocked, state-by-state fight with Clinton for Democratic convention delegates who will choose the party's presidential nominee in the November election.

"Today, the voters from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast to the heart of America stood up to say yes, we can," Obama said at a party dinner in Richmond, Virginia, a state that votes on Tuesday.

"We won in Louisiana, we won in Nebraska, we won in Washington state, we won North, we won South, we won in between, and I believe that we can win Virginia on Tuesday if you're ready to stand for change," the Illinois senator said.

The wins by Huckabee, a Baptist minister whose campaign has been fueled by support from religious conservatives, came in states with big conservative voting blocs and did not change McCain's daunting advantage in the Republican race.

McCain managed to hold off Huckabee and the third candidate in the Republican race, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, with a narrow victory in Washington state, according to the two major newspapers in Seattle, the state's largest city.

McCain has more than 700 of the 1,191 delegates needed to capture the Republican nomination at this summer's convention. He virtually clinched the race on Thursday with the withdrawal of his chief rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

But Huckabee said he would not give up, telling a conference of conservative activists in Washington, D.C., he would continue his shoestring campaign until McCain mathematically won the nomination.

McCain still faces widespread opposition from conservatives unhappy with his views on immigration, tax cuts and other issues.

"I did not major in math, but I majored in miracles, and I still believe in them," Huckabee said at a rally at the University of Maryland in College Park.

Huckabee won about 60 percent of the vote in Kansas, more than double McCain's total. He narrowly beat McCain in Louisiana.

EASY WINS

Obama cruised to easy wins in Nebraska and Washington, doubling Clinton's tally by capturing more than 60 percent of the vote. He comfortably beat Clinton in Louisiana, winning more than half of the vote. Obama also won easily in the U.S. territory of the Virgin Islands.

Clinton, a New York senator, and Obama are about even in pledged delegates after contests in more than half of the U.S. states, but both are well short of the 2,025 needed to win the nomination.

Democratic rules allocate delegates on a proportional basis statewide and in congressional districts, meaning even the loser in each state can win big blocks of delegates. There also are another 796 "super-delegates," elected officials and party insiders, who can switch their support at any time.

It was not immediately clear how the delegate count would break down in Saturday's vote, with a combined 161 pledged delegates. The Obama camp said it won just more than 100 of those delegates up for grabs.

Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, had been the favorite in all three contests. In Louisiana, he benefited from a high percentage of black voters, his strongest supporters.

Exit polls showed blacks made up about half of the turnout in the state, and Obama won four of every five of their votes. Clinton captured about 70 percent of whites, with Obama taking about one-quarter of their vote.

The contests in Nebraska and Washington were caucuses, which require voters to turn up at specific times and typically attract more motivated voters. Obama has focused on caucus states, where his advantages in organization and grass-roots enthusiasm come into play.

Obama and Clinton will square off again on Sunday in Maine, a caucus state, before they head into Tuesday's round of contests in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's five major daily newspapers republished on Wednesday one of the 12 drawings of the Prophet Mohammad which angered Muslims around the world, as a protest against a plot to murder one of the cartoonists.

A Danish citizen of Moroccan descent and two Tunisians were arrested on Tuesday in western Denmark for planning to murder 73-year-old Kurt Westergaard, a cartoonist at Jyllands-Posten, the Danish paper that originally published the drawings in September 2005.

The five newspapers -- Jyllands-Posten, Politiken, Berlingske Tidende, BT and Ekstra Bladet -- on Wednesday republished Westergaard's cartoon, which depicts the founder of Islam with a bomb in his turban.

It was the cartoon that caused the most controversy when the original drawings sparked outrage among Muslims, most of whom consider any depiction of the Prophet as offensive.

Three Danish embassies were attacked and at least 50 people were killed in rioting in 2006 in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Several young Muslims have since been convicted in Denmark of planning bomb attacks, partly in protest at the cartoons.

An editorial in left-leaning Politiken called the murder plot "shocking and troubling."

"Their plans to kill Kurt Westergaard... are not just an attack on Westergaard but an attack on our democratic culture," the editorial said.

"Regardless of whether Jyllands-Posten at the time used freedom of speech unwisely and with damaging consequences, the paper deserves unconditional solidarity when it is threatened with terror," it said.

"That is why Politiken today... prints the drawing, even though at no time have we sympathized with Jyllands-Posten's provocation."

(Reporting by Gelu Sulugiuc; Editing by Dominic Evans )