Is there a reason people feel the internal pressures that spur them to obesity? Scottish researchers believe people who live in areas littered with trash and graffiti and with few green areas are more prone to obesity than those who live in neighborhoods with an abundance of open space.

Scientists analyzed existing data on health and housing conducted in eight European cities in 2002-03, including body mass index, age, social status and physical activity. Afterward, a team of surveyors evaluated the residential environment of those cities, including the amount of street trash, graffiti and green space.

Not surprisingly, people who lived in areas with more green space were three times more likely to be physically active and about 40 percent less prone toward being obese. Conversely, residents who lived in neighborhoods where trash and graffiti were common had a 50 percent greater chance of being less physically active and obese.

Although surroundings can make a difference, especially when it comes to your emotions, you have the ability to alter that perspective and your health for that matter, just as I believe you can affect the expression of your genes to the positive.

If our emotions had no effect on our genes, we'd be powerless to do anything at all about your health, which isn't true at all.

British Medical Journal, Vol. 331, No. 633, September 17, 2005: 611-612 Free Full Text Article

News-Medical.Net August 21, 2005