Work is good for your health?
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| Mon, 05-15-2006 - 5:25am |
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=43421
Working Mothers Healthier Than Full-time Housewives
Main Category: Women's Health / OBGYN News
Article Date: 15 May 2006 - 1:00am (PDT)
According to new research carried out in Britain, working mothers enjoy better health than full-time housewives. Despite the stress working mothers face by holding down a job, dealing with childcare, housework and striving to keep the family happy.
It appears that working mothers, when compared to full-time housewives, are less likely to become overweight, have a better level of health and a healthier relationship. The study also found that single mothers experience worse health than working mothers who have a partner and children.
You can read about this study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Team leader, Dr. Anne McMunn, University College London, said that women who combine work with children and marriage do seem to have better health than full-time housewives. Even though they may experience high levels of stress sometimes.
It is not a question of chicken-and-egg either. Dr. McMunn said it is the experience of work plus having a family that brings on the better health, not the fact that only healthier mothers decide to carry on working.
The researchers examined data on women born in 1946 from the Medical Research Council's National Study of Health and Development. The data registers their health from 1946 until they are 54. Women's health was examined, with the help of a questionnaire at the ages of 26 through to 54. Every decade, the questionnaire collects data on each woman's work history, whether she is/was married, has children, her height and weight.
The healthiest women were the ones who had all three of the following:
-- A Partner
-- Children
-- A job
Those reporting the worst health were stay-at-home mothers, followed by childless women and single mothers.
38% of stay-at-home mothers were obese when they reached their 50s, for working mothers the percentage was 23%.
Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today

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Edited 6/7/2006 3:41 am ET by sild
Apparently Stonethrow is OK with the government snooping in her business, since she is doing nothing wrong. Presumably, she would be OK with some kind of permanent, ongoing surveillance, like security cameras and the like as well, as long as it helped keep us safe. She also seems to have no problem with her own government telling her where she can and can not travel. I imagine she is also in favor of the PATRIOT act, which allows the government to detain people without cause and without habeas corpus protections for indefinite periods of time. I imagine that is OK, because they are probably bad people and the government knows better after all.
But Castro is an evil dictator and a threat to the US.
LOL, maybe only the places where Stonethrow does not feel comfortable going are threats. That is the thing I did not understand about the argument. If one American feels uncomfortable going to Cuba, then Fidel is a threat to every American, or do we need some critical mass of vacation-strikers before a country becomes a threat to us?
We are talking about going to Syria before it is too late. I am a chicken though, I won't go to Egypt or Israel.
WTF?
Awwwwww now, shame on you.
Try to keep up, sild.
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