A modern day world record is set.  A small Russian city just got a really big addition: a 17-pound, one ounce baby whose mother had already delivered 11 other children.   Tatiana Khalina, 42, delivered the girl by caesarean section at a maternity clinic in Aleisk, a town of 30,000 people in the Altai region in southern Siberia, a nurse at the clinic said Thursday.

Nurse Svetlana Gildeyeva also said the Sept. 17 birth went smoothly, and mother and the child were fine. She said the baby, Nadezhda, was transferred from the small clinic to a maternity hospital in Barnaul, a larger city.  The girl was feeling well and developing normally, said Irina Kurdeka, a doctor at the hospital in Barnaul.

The Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper quoted the local social services chief, Marina Alistratova, as saying the family had modest means. She said Khalina’s husband was on contract with a local military unit.   “We have presented them with a good washing machine, a food package and a card,” Alistratova told the newspaper. “We will keep supporting them in the future.”

An average weight for newborn babies is around 7 pounds, one ounce, according to international statistics.   Guinness World Records says the heaviest baby ever was born in the United States in 1879. It weighed 23 pounds, 12 ounces and died 11 hours after birth. Guinness says they heaviest surviving baby was born in 1955 in Italy, weighing in at 22 pounds, eight ounces.   The only thing I could think of was OUCH!

Biggest Loser’s Biggest Changes

Here are some interesting new ways to kick that dirty habit:

Short bursts of activity: A new review in the journal Addiction says a quick dose of exercise — as little as 30 minutes of brisk walking or stretching, for instance –quells cravings.

Internet groups: Groups like Quitnet can offer round-the-clock encouragement from fellow quitters and counselors. This kind of support can double your success, studies say.

Innovative medication: Chantix, the newest stop-smoking drug, short-circuits nicotine’s ability to activate the pleasure centers in the brain, so lighting up is less enjoyable. According to the National Cancer Institute, more stop-smoking drugs (and possibly even a vaccine that makes nicotine unappealing) could hit the market within five years.

A new way to use the patch: A study in Nicotine and Tobacco Research suggests that smokers who start the patch two weeks before they quit may double their success rate. (Talk to your doctor, because this trick risks exposing your body to a dangerous amount of nicotine if you smoke a lot while wearing the patch.)

Smoking ‘will’ kill ya, so give these methods a try.

A look at health news headlines from around the world:

-Research from the University of Texas found large waist measurements, relative to hip size, were linked to early signs of heart disease.  This confirms other research that waist size, rather than overall body weight, is a key indicator of heart disease. The study of 2,744 people suggests that a waist size of 32ins (81cm) for a woman and 37ins (94cm) for a man represents a “significant” raised risk.  Time for me to cut back on the beer.

-The Department of Health (DoH) advises people not to drink more than five single espressos - roughly seven instant coffees - a day, although individuals vary in their sensitivity and reactions.  The highest natural caffeine content is found in filter coffee, a mug of which contains about 120mg of caffeine. Instant coffee contains roughly 75mg and espresso 107mg.

-Carrying too much weight while pregnant increases the risk of complications for mother and baby, including birth defects, labor and delivery problems, fetal death and delivery of large babies, according to the March of Dimes. A revision is long overdue, said Dr. Raul Artal of the Saint Louis University School of Medicine. “The reality is for too long we are telling pregnant women to take it easy during pregnancy, be confined and to eat for two,” he said. “This has been one factor in causing the epidemic of overweight and obesity that we see in our country.”

I wanted to take a quick moment to welcome this great new health portal to the web and wish the webmaster lots of luck.

A report to be released by the Japanese governement’s education reform panel was put on hold because some felt it contained to much meddling.  The report advised Japanese mothers to breast feeed and sing lullabies to their children.  It recommended that families turn off the telivision sets during meal time and that children avoid the internet and mobile phones because they help spread evil.  The report sounds like common sense to me, except the part about the phone and Internet being evil.

Seem to be the newest thing, women who helped deliver their own baby by caesarean.

I have been working out for the past 12 months and have went through many stages of developing my own regiment. For the past few months I have been looking into alternative health supplements in order to help me lose some weight. I found a very useful resource and would recommend it to anyone who wants to find alternative health information. Drop in and do some of your research there, you won’t be disapointed.