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News
Doctors will be told to avoid “fat-
shaming” patients under new obesity
guidelines from the health watchdog.
GPs should ask patients’ permission
before discussing their weight in order
to “reduce the substantial stigma asso-
ciated with obesity”, according to draft
plans from the National Institute for
Health and Care Excellence (Nice).
“The substantial stigma associated
with obesity has negative effects on
people’s mental and physical health,
which can lead to further weight gain
and make people less likely to engage
with healthcare practitioners,” it said.
Nice also recommends using lower
body mass index (BMI) thresholds for
people from Asian, Chinese, Middle
Eastern and black backgrounds —
groups more prone to carrying weight
around their middle.
The main recommendation, how-
ever, is to measure waist and compare
it to height. Tam Fry, from the National
Obesity Forum, said: “Nice has finally
endorsed a measurement that obesity
specialists have advocated since 2015.”
The best way of measuring obesity
has long been a matter of controversy.
At present, the NHS mainly relies on
BMI, calculated by dividing height in
metres by weight in kilograms.
Since the early 1980s, BMI, expressed
in the units kg/m^2 , has been used in
western societies as the standard meas-Sandstorm High winds hit Britain yesterday but Raich Keene and Raphael visited the beach at Exmouth, Devon. Sunny spells are forecast for today Weather, page 59
Drink-driver avoids jail
A rugby league player who was
twice over the drink-drive limit
when he hit a police car head on
was given a 12-month suspended
sentence. Bradley Takairangi, 32,
of Hull KR, was driving his
Mercedes A200 at 70mph on the
wrong side of the A63 near Hull
on January 2. The city’s crown
court ordered him to pay £2,
to an officer hurt in the incident.Teacher killer absent
The murderer of the 28-year-old
teacher Sabina Nessa refused to
leave his cell for the first day of
his two-day sentencing at the Old
Bailey. Koci Selamaj, 36, a garage
worker from Eastbourne, East
Sussex, bludgeoned Nessa in a
random, sexually motivated attack
in Cator Park, near her home in
southeast London, in September.
Her sister said he was a coward.Phone mast error
Residents of a Bournemouth
suburb are furious after an
“administrative error” by the
council led to the erection of a
60ft 5G phone mast outside their
homes despite the refusal of
planning permission. The council
failed to tell the network Three of
its decision within the 56-day
notice period and has no power
to have the mast removed.Former lover’s plot
Sophie George, who planned to
torture and kill a man with whom
she had a fling after he slept with
other women, has been jailed for
13½ years by Lewes crown court
after admitting attempted murder
and possession of an offensive
weapon. George, then 18, bit
Adam Yiosese’s finger to the bone
as he tried to call 999 when she
pulled a knife on him in 2020.Met to ‘root out’ racists
The Metropolitan Police will
“root out” those who don’t belong
in the force to boost public
confidence, said Bas Javid, the
deputy assistant commissioner.
He confirmed the Met has
accepted 15 recommendations for
zero tolerance on racism,
misogyny and bullying after an
Independent Office for Police
Conduct inquiry into police
officers sending inappropriate
messages in WhatsApp groups.
The inquiry centred on Charing
Cross police station in London.ABCCCCCC
DDE E F I I I
I MMM N O O O
ORTUUVVWSolve all five clues using each
letter underneath once only1 Brightly colourful (5)2 Imitate (5)3 Pupa’s protective casing (6)4 Salad ingredient (8)5 Duplicitous (3-5)Quintagram®No 1284
Solutions MindGames in Times
Cryptic clues every day onlineNIDPOR/STOCKIMONEWS/ALAMY LIVE NEWSCleopatra is said to have bathed in
asses’ milk to preserve her complexion
but researchers have found a new way
to reverse ageing skin cells.
They have developed a method of
making cells “younger” by 30 years
without losing their function, a study
suggests. Scientists conducted experi-
ments that simulated a skin wound and
found partially rejuvenated cells
showed signs of behaving more like
youthful cells, according to the study in
Waist-to-height ratio is
best warning on obesity
ure of recording obesity levels. A
healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 25.
Anything above 25 puts someone in the
overweight category and a BMI over 30
classifies a patient as obese.
Yet the measurement comes with sig-
nificant limitations, mainly because it
fails to take into account body fat levels.
A fit and muscular rugby player may,
for example, have the same “obese”
BMI as a large and sedentary type 2
diabetic but would not be at risk of com-
plications such as heart disease and
diabetes.
Because BMI does not take into ac-
count body composition, it also means
that as people age and lose muscle they
may be classed as healthy despite carry-
ing excess fat.
Waist-to-height ratios are seen by
many experts as a more accurate way of
determining if people are dangerously
fat. This is because storing a lot of fat
around the stomach is an accurate pre-
dictor of heart disease, type 2 diabetes
and stroke, even in people with a
“healthy” BMI.
The obesity guidelines will be open to
public consultation until May 11.Eleanor Hayward
Health Correspondent
Do you measure up?
Place a tape
measure around your
middle, between
your hips and ribsPull so it’s tight,
but not digging
into your skinBreathe out
naturally and take
the measurementAim to keep your
waist circumference
less than half of
your height123Weighty
discovery
for physics
Tom Whipple Science EditorIt is the smallest of discrepancies but
the W boson, a fundamental particle,
appears to be one thousandth too
heavy. In that tiny mass difference may
lie the crack through which entirely
new kinds of physics can emerge.
A team from Fermilab, the US parti-
cle accelerator, has produced the most
precise ever measurement of the parti-
cle responsible for the weak nuclear
force, one of the four fundamental
forces that describe the universe.
In a paper inScience, the team reveals
the mass is not what it should be. It de-
viates consistently from the mass pre-
dicted by the equations underpinning
our understanding of the subatomic
world, known as the Standard Model.
The scientists found the particle to
have a mass of 80.434 gigaelectron-
volts, but expected it to be 80.379. This
tiny difference could have momentous
consequences if others can prove it.
If true, then studying the W boson
could be the way to find methods to
resolve the most significant problem in
modern physics.
The Standard Model has proven
extraordinarily successful at describing
the subatomic world, but it is incompat-
ible with gravity and cannot explain
dark matter, the substance that makes
up the bulk of the universe.
Professor Mark Lancaster, from
Manchester University, one of the team
who worked on the result, said: “This
result is the culmination of 30 years of
honing the measurement techniques.”
Other physicists will join in checking
their findings. Claudio Campagnari,
from the University of California Santa
Barbara, and Martijn Mulders, from
Cern, said “extraordinary claims
require extraordinary evidence”, and
scientists at the Large Hadron Collider,
which found the Higgs Boson in
2012, will now conduct their own
experiments.Skin ageing can be reversed, claim scientists
eLife. Experts suggest that the findings
could revolutionise regenerative medi-
cine, especially if it could be used in
other cell types.
Professor Wolf Reik, a group leader
in the Epigenetics research programme
who recently moved to lead the Altos
Labs Cambridge Institute, said: “Event-
ually we may be able to identify genes
that rejuvenate without reprogram-
ming, and specifically target those to
reduce the effects of ageing.”
One of regenerative biology’s tools is
to create induced stem cells but thisprocess essentially wipes the cells of
their function and gives them the
potential to become any cell type.
The new method, based on the Nobel
prizewinning technique scientists use
to make stem cells, overcomes the prob-
lem of erasing cell identity and finds the
balance between reprogramming cells
to make them younger yet still keeping
their specialised cell function.
The team observed that their method
had an effect on genes linked to age-
related diseases, such as that associated
with Alzheimer’s disease.George Sandeman