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As kids, I participated in a party game that I absolutely detested. It was called “passing the parcel” and was a childish version of musical chairs, where people walked in a circle till the music played, and sat down when it stopped. But because the chairs were lesser than the participants, the ones who could not find a seat, got out. In the kiddie variety, a packet was passed from one child to another and whoever was left holding the package when the song concluded, had to undertake a punishment.

The penalties were more or less the same and varied between reciting a nursery rhyme, jumping like a rabbit, pulling the ear of the person sitting next to you, sketching a mountain, etcetera. The recitation and hopping bit I disliked intensely but the moment I was awarded the “ear pulling of neighbour” punishment, I got to work immediately, and performed it with tremendous enthusiasm. Understandably, this did not make me very popular. Therefore, when the tables were turned, and I was at the receiving end, my poor ears were not spared either.

Meanwhile, the rule in my house is that if we receive a gift of chocolates or éclairs, we open the packaging, admire the contents, and then carefully repack it to pass it on to whosoever invites us next. Nobody is allowed to eat just one or two sweets, and unless one is ravenous enough to consume the contents of the entire box, one is strongly discouraged from wasting the rest.

I don’t remember exactly who made this regulation but in a parody of my childhood party game, we have successfully rotated the presents diligently, for the last several decades. I often wonder that if other people follow the same caveat, a day might arrive when the parcel, after doing the rounds of several houses, will come back to the sender.

All these memories come flooding back when I am gifted a box of gloriously golden, almond and walnut stuffed dates recently. A product of palm trees, and cultivated for centuries, it is one of the sweetest fruits around and comes in many different assortments. Even though they can be eaten fresh, dates are often dried to resemble raisins or plums. With its lower moisture content, the dehydrated version is a more concentrated source of nutrients than the fresh one.

Now, where dates are concerned, you either love them or hate them, and I belong to the former category. There are very few people who can be indifferent to them as the reaction this simple fruit invokes, can verge on the extreme.

So, when I begin to examine the heavy box, full of delicious dates that is presented to us, I have to exercise all my self control to not break the cellophane covering and eat a couple of them. With a heavy heart I put the lid back and repack the gift to pass it on to my neighbour, who has invited us for dinner.

“Aha! My favourite caramelised dates”, exclaims my friend’s husband as soon as he unwraps the parcel.

“Don’t open the seal, pass it here please”, my friend dictates.

“But you didn’t let me try the ones we got last month too”, he complains.

“Those were stuffed with almonds”, she says.

“So are these! Where did you get them from?” he asks me.

“Peter gifted me, we gifted Paul, Paul gifted you and you gifted us” he chuckles when I don’t answer.

As a more mainstream brand large comfortable, spacious and sporty large rear-drive saloon, the Dodge Charger is a rare but appreciated commodity at a time when such cars are usually the preserve of pricier premium brands.

In a state of near continuous development the current iteration of Dodge’s long-running Charger arrived in 2015 as a face-lifted model with heavily revised design, reworked interior, improved infotainment system and a standard 8-speed automatic gearbox across the range, including the mid-range 5.7-litre V8 powered R/T. 

Moody and modern

Incrementally upgraded since first arriving in 2006 based on the LX platform, developed during Dodge’s parent Chrysler brand’s association with Mercedes-Benz, the second generation arrived as an evolutionary model using an upgraded LD platform by 2012.

Sporting a more contemporary front with rounded lights, deep-set yet slim and level grille, the 2015 Charger has a distinctly more modern aesthetic than its overtly retro-influenced predecessor, but is said to be subtly influenced by the moody, dramatic and now iconic 1969 Charger coupe.

Long, wide and comparatively low, with discretely scalloped bonnet ridges, recessed grille and LED outline for its browed headlight units, the Charger has a moody and assertive presence, while a black centre bumper section lends its fascia a longer and hungrier edge in R/T spec, as driven.

Sculpted and chiselled with deeply ridged sides and a rakishly descends roofline create a sense of motion and are little changed for 2015. Meanwhile its full-length rear lights are reminiscent of the 1960s and 1970s Chargers.

Relaxed yet muscular

Offered with four engine options including a V6 and two high performance SRT and SRT Hellcat V8 units, the driven R/T is the most traditional, and the only non-SRT division V8 version. Carried over unchanged, the R/T’s muscular yet languid naturally aspirated 5.7-litre HEMI V8 engine is a compact and traditional American overhead 16-valve design. 

Robust and progressive in power delivery yet rich in torque across the range, it pulls responsively off the line, if without the jackhammer urgency and relentlessness of the SRT versions.

Charismatic and rumbling, the Charger R/T’s 5.7 Hemi is distinctly low-revving in character, with a 5800rpm rev limit and is capable of running on cheaper grade 91RON petrol (93RON is recommended). At its best in its abundant mid-range, it is flexible and muscular, if not heady and peaky. Developing 370BHP at 5250rpm and 395lb/ft, the Charger R/T is progressive and responsive, and in the absence of official figures, is estimated to carry its hefty 1934kg mass through the 0-100km/h dash swiftly in around 5.5-seconds. 

Confident comfort

With responsive throttle control and progressive delivery the Charger R/T effectively puts power down through its driven rear wheels, with less need for stability control interventions than more powerful iterations. Its smooth and slick shifting 8-speed gearbox with its numerous ratios including more aggressive lower gears and more relaxed higher gears provides improved acceleration, flexibility, refinement and efficiency. One, however, feels that the Charger R/T would have been better served with the 390BHP and 410b/ft version of the same engine as deployed its Ram 1500 stable-mate. 

A large and weighty, but well-balanced, saloon, the Charger drives with confidence and stability at speed and through corners, as demonstrated during test drive at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Formula 1 circuit.

Fitted with fixed rate “performance suspension” in Dodge-speak, the Charger R/T’s body control is good for its size and weight, but is set-up for a more comfortable ride than its more tautly set-up high performance SRT sister models, and so leans more, but feels more supple and forgiving, and less firmly buttoned down.

Refined and accommodating

Composed, compliant and more agile than its size suggests, the R/T rides on huge 245/45R20, while its electric-assisted steering is accurate and quick at 2.6-turns lock-to-lock, but isn’t into as crisp or tidily composed turning into corners as the next model up, the SRT 392, which seems to be the best resolved model in the charger range.

Highly refined inside and well insulated, the Charger R/T instils confidence and through corners feels balanced, with slight understeer on turn-in if pushed too hard. Its long wheelbase and large tyres provide good rear grip and progressive weight shift.

A vast and accommodating saloon, the Charger R/T’s cabin is hunkered down owing to its high window line, but is spacious and features very comfortable seats. In front room and visibility are good, while boot space and rear cabin width and legroom are plus points.

Rear headroom is fine, but considering its rakish roofline, the Charger’s rear seats are positioned slightly higher than ideal. Well-finished with good quality layouts, textures and high equipment levels, the Charger features an intuitive, versatile and highly capable Uconnect infotainment system.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 5.7-litre, cast-iron block/aluminium head, in-line V8-cylinders

Bore x Stroke: 99.5 x 90.9mm

Compression ratio: 10.5:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, OHV

Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, rear-wheel-drive, electronic limited-slip differential

Gear ratios: 1st 4.70 2nd 3.13 3rd 2.10 4th 1.67 5th 1.28 6th 1.0 7th 0.84 8th 0.67

Reverse/final drive ratios: 3.53/2.62

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 370 (375) [277] @5250rpm

Specific power: 65.4BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 191.3BHP/ton

Torque lb/ft (Nm): 395 (536) @4200rpm

Specific torque: 94.8Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 277.1Nm/tonne

Rev limit: 5800rpm

0-100km/h: 5.5-seconds (est.)

Top speed: 235km/h (est.)

Fuel consumption, city/highway: 14.7-/9.4-litres/100km

Fuel capacity: 70-litres

Fuel requirement, recommended (minimum): 93(91)RON

Length: 5040mm

Width: 1905mm 

Height: 1479mm

Wheelbase: 3052mm

Track, F/R: 1610/1620mm

Ground clearance: 136mm

Kerb weight: 1934kg

Weight distribution, F/R: 53 per cent/47 per cent

Aerodynamic drag co-efficiency: 0.304

Headroom, F/R: 981/930mm

Legroom, F/R: 1061/1019mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1510/1472mm

Hip room, F/R: 1428/1425mm

Cargo volume: 467-litres

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning circle: 11.5-metres

Lock-to-lock: 2.6-turns

Suspension F/R: Unequal double wishbones/multi-link

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated perforated discs 345 x 28mm/320 x 22mm

Brake callipers, F/R: 2-/1-pistons

Tyres: 245/45R20

Ambassadors in Jordan Speak Out: Foreign Policy Making in a Changing World

Edited by Marwan Asmar

Amman: Middle East Studies Centre, 2017

Pp. 102

This brief but fact-filled book offers a unique glimpse into the world of diplomacy and Jordan’s relations with five different countries — Arab and/or Asian — and Europe. It consists of lectures by the ambassadors to Jordan from Morocco, Malaysia, Sudan, Turkey, Pakistan and the European Union, delivered as part of the “World and Us” programme in 2015-16. As explained in the preface by Jawad Al Hamad, president of the Middle East Studies Centre (MESC), the “World and Us” programme “revolves around hosting foreign envoys in a seminar-based discussion to present lectures to a select group of politicians, decision-makers, activists and academics”. It aims “to create greater understanding between world countries and this crucial strategic region of the globe”. (pp. 7-8)

Marwan Asmar, political researcher and editor of the book, introduces each ambassador with a short political bio. In his view, the lectures are “invaluable because they are inevitably interdisciplinary”, tackling “issues involving economics, finance, agriculture, education, culture, administration, sociology and development”. Although these subjects are studied in academia, “the lectures expostulated by the ambassadors are different because they are practitioners of diplomacy”. (p. 101)

While all the ambassadors address questions related to stability and security in the context of the current regional turmoil, as well as issues of trade and other forms of cooperation and exchange with Jordan, each has a different emphasis.

Morocco’s Ambassador Al Hassan Abdul Khaleq devotes much of his lecture to the political and constitutional reforms enacted in his country, noting similarities in the approaches adopted by Jordan and Morocco. It is with pride that he tells of the formation of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission to handle past human rights violations, a first in the Arab world: “Moroccans took a brave step to look at themselves and their history without complications to reconcile their past and bypass its wrongs.” (p. 18)

Malaysia’s Ambassador Zakri Bin Jaafar shares his country’s development model whereby an ethnically diverse society has achieved greater equality and integration. He speaks of key economic cooperation agreements between Malaysia and Jordan, but considers the most outstanding exchange to be in education: “Malaysian students form the biggest number of non-Arab students here in Jordan, numbering over 3200.” (p. 29)

Meanwhile, almost 1000 Jordanians are studying in Malaysia. He also reminds that Malaysia has always been “very vocal and very strong on the issue of Palestine”. (p. 33) 

Sudan’s Ambassador Elsadig Bakheit Elfaki reviews the special relations prevailing between Sudan and Jordan, stressing cooperation in the fields of agriculture, education, security and medicine in particular, and giving Jordanian doctors and specialists credit for reviving the medical sector in his country. 

Turkey’s Ambassador Sedat Onal stresses commonalities between Jordan and his country “in the way they have come to represent moderation, peaceful coexistence, stability, and a positive agenda” that should be generated in the region as a whole. “We need to engage in soul-searching… to get back to the original sense of togetherness this region has lived in for centuries.” (p. 53)

Besides economic cooperation, he advocates a political solution in Syria and dealing with the refugee crisis--concerns that Turkey shares with Jordan. 

EU Ambassador Andrea Matteo Fontana speaks about Europe’s new global security strategy and Neighbourhood Policy, which includes Jordan and the Middle East. Quite candidly he acknowledges that in the past Europe set priorities regardless of whether these were really shared by its neighbours. “We would like to change that to achieve a higher degree of ownership… we are going to identify less priorities… but these are fully owned by our partners.” (p. 76)

Pakistan’s Ambassador Lt-Gen. Shafat Ullah Khan names cardinal issues of Pakistan’s foreign policy vis-à-vis China, Muslim states, Palestine and Kashmir, before proceeding to detail Pakistan’s historical relations with Jordan in the political, economic, technical, educational and military fields. He names many examples to illustrate his assertion that “Jordan and Pakistan always stand together in time of need”. (p. 88)

Taken together, the ambassadors’ words pay tribute to Jordan’s positive role in the region and the value they attach to its stability. They also reveal the difficulties of formulating policies in a changing world, as well as many parallels among these countries’ positions on settling conflicts and countering terrorism. “Ambassadors in Jordan Speak Out” can be obtained from MESC (e-mail: [email protected].)

PARIS — Weight-loss balloons swallowed rather than surgically inserted in the stomach were shown to be safe and effective in preliminary trials, according to findings unveiled on Thursday at a medical conference.

So-called intragastric balloons have been used for decades to help obese patients shed unwanted kilos. Inflated with water, the devices curb hunger and make it easier to diet by inducing a feeling of fullness.

Up to now, however, they could only be implanted in the stomach surgically, a costly procedure requiring general anaesthesia or sedation.

In a small trial led by Roberta Ienca, a researcher of experimental medicine at Sapienza University of Rome, 42 obese patients — 29 men and 13 women — were fitted with balloons that were swallowed before being inflated with liquid.

“A catheter is attached to the balloon, which is folded into a capsule,” Ienca explained to AFP.

A doctor fills the balloon via the tiny tube, which is then removed via the mouth with a tug. “This process takes just a few seconds,” she added.

The body-mass index (BMI) of the volunteers varied between 30 and 45. The threshold for obesity is a BMI — one’s weight in kilos divided by one’s height (in centimetres) squared — of 30.

The balloons remained in the stomach for 16 weeks, during which time patients were put on a low-carbohydrate, low-calorie diet.

At the end of that time, an internal release valve automatically opens and drains the balloon, which is then excreted.

On average, volunteers shed more than 15 kilos, which amounted to 31 per cent of excess weight.

No serious side effects were reported.

Seeking FDA approval

After the trial, patients were transitioned to a Mediterranean diet, heavy on vegetables and olive oil, and light on protein and starch.

The new technique “appears to be a safe and effective weight-loss method”, Ienca commented in a statement.

Because the swallowable balloon “does not require endoscopy, surgery or anaesthesia, this may make it suitable for a larger population of obese patients not responding to diet or lifestyle treatment”.

It could also lead to significant cost savings, she added.

“In itself, gastric balloons are not a long-term solution for weight loss,” Simon Cork, a researcher in investigative medicine at Imperial College London who was not involved in the study, commented after reviewing the results.

“Nevertheless, gastric balloons are still useful for some patients, and the introduction of a device which doesn’t require surgery to implant is a positive step forward.”

Developed by US-based Allurion Technologies, the system is already marketed in Europe in France, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Greece. It is also available in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The company intends to begin the FDA approval process in the United States soon, Ienca said.

The findings were presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Porto, Portugal, which ran through May 20.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — Google announced on Wednesday it was bringing its digital assistant to Apple iPhones as part of its effort to win the battle with tech rivals on artificial intelligence (AI).

At its annual developers conference at an outdoor concert-venue near its main campus in Mountain View, California, Google unveiled its vision for computing centred around artificial intelligence.

“We are now witnessing a new shift in computing: the move from a mobile-first to an AI first world,” Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said during an opening presentation.

“It is forcing us to reimagine our products for a world that allows a more natural, seamless way of interacting with technology.”

Those interactions, for Google, include using artificial intelligence to let people engage computers conversationally, have software anticipate needs, and let smartphone cameras “recognise” what they see.

“In an AI-first world, we are rethinking all of our products and applying machine learning to solve problems,” Pichai said.

Google Assistant, the centre of its AI efforts, is in a fierce battle with rivals such as Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft Cortana and Apple’s Siri to be the top choice for use in smartphones as well as connected homes, cars and a range of other devices.

“Siri’s got company, and all these other guys are pretty serious about it,” said Gartner analyst Brian Blau.

Artificial intelligence is being woven into Google’s free Gmail service, used by more than a billion people, for features such as suggesting responses to messages.

For example, opening an email containing an invitation to dinner might trigger a prompt to reply “I’m in.”

Smartphones get eyes

Google machine vision capabilities are being used to enable services such as recognising who is in pictures and what they are doing, as well as translate languages in signs viewed through smartphone cameras, demonstrations showed.

Advanced “Lens” features are being added first to the Google Photo application, which is available free.

Aiming a smartphone camera at a flower will prompt it to be identified; while aiming it at a complex password and hotspot name on a router will let it automatically log into the wireless connection.

Google also unveiled a second-generation computer chip it designed specifically to improve cloud computing capabilities in data centres.

“We want Google Cloud to be the best cloud for machine learning,” Pichai said.

He described the internet giant’s core search service and its Google Assistant as the company’s most important AI products.

Google Assistant, introduced last year, is now on more than 100 million devices, according to the team’s vice president of engineering, Scott Huffman.

“We are really starting to crack the hard computer challenge of conversationality,” Huffman said.

“Soon, with Google Lens, your assistant will be able to have a conversation about what you see.”

Google used the conference to announce a software kit that will let developers build Assistant capabilities into robots, applications, and other computerised creations.

Google also announced enhancements to its Home personal assistant, adding abilities such as hands free telephone calls and acting as speakers for wireless audio.

Android gets lean

Developers cheered when talk turned to Google-backed mobile operating system Android.

Google announced that more than two billion devices powered by Android software are used monthly in a freshly passed milestone.

The coming version of Android, referred to simply as “O” for the time being, will also have boosted artificial intelligence features along with enhanced security, executives showed.

Google is also crafting a lighter version of Android, referred to as “Go”, designed for maximum performance on low-cost, entry-level smartphones in developing countries where internet bandwidth is lean or expensive.

Google said that while it is happy with the momentum of its Daydream virtual reality platform based on using smartphone as screens in headsets, it is working with partners on stand-alone virtual reality gear.

Partners in the endeavour include Vive-maker HTC and Lenovo, according to Google virtual reality team vice president Clay Bavor.

The gathering, which attracted some 7,000 developers on site and had thousands more watching online, focused on software with little mention of hardware, noted analyst Blau.

“There is a continuing trend where devices are becoming devalued and what is on the screen is becoming more valuable,” Blau said.

“With AI, all the apps are getting upgraded so they don’t need new hardware.”

CHICAGO — Colon cancer survivors who ate at least 57 grammes of tree nuts a week — roughly 48 almonds or 36 cashews — were significantly less likely to have their cancer return or to die from their cancer than those who did not eat nuts, US researchers said on Wednesday.

The finding by Dr  Temidayo Fadelu of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and colleagues is the latest to suggest a health benefit from nut consumption.

The researchers analysed a questionnaire about dietary intake from a clinical trial of 826 patients with stage III colon cancer — a stage in which the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes but not other parts of the body.

All of the patients in the study had received surgery and chemotherapy to treat their colon cancers.

People who reported that they ate more than two ounces of tree nuts per week — about 19 per cent of the study participants — had a 42 per cent lower chance of cancer recurrence and a 57 per cent lower chance of death than those who did not eat nuts. 

The benefit applied only to tree nuts and not peanuts or peanut butters, said Fadelu, whose study was released in advance of the upcoming American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting to be held early next month in Chicago.

That may be because peanuts are legumes, which may have a different metabolic composition than tree nuts, Fadelu said.

“This study shows that something as simple as eating tree nuts may make a difference in a patient’s long-term survival,” ASCO President Daniel Hayes said in a statement. 

Hayes said basic healthy eating is often overlooked by doctors and their patients in cancer care.

The team focused on nut consumption because prior studies have shown that eating nuts can reduce the risk of obesity and diabetes — factors that also influence the risk of recurrence and death from colon cancer

Fadelu said further studies should look at whether tree nuts are associated with better health outcomes at other stages of colon cancer. 

The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes of Health and Pfizer Inc.

Children who are bullied in fifth grade are more likely to become depressed and experiment with drugs and alcohol during their teen years than their peers who weren’t victimised by other kids, a US study suggests. 

Researchers followed almost 4,300 students starting in fifth grade, when they were around 11 years old. By tenth grade, 24 per cent of the teens drank alcohol, 15 per cent smoked marijuana and 12 per cent used tobacco. 

More frequent episodes of physical and emotional bullying in fifth grade were associated with higher odds of depression by seventh grade, which was in turn linked to greater likelihood of substance use later in adolescence, the study found. 

“We drew on the self-medication hypothesis when trying to understand why peer victimisation may lead to substance use over time,” said lead study author Valerie Earnshaw, a human development and family studies researcher at the University of Delaware in Newark. 

“This suggests that people use substances to try to relieve painful feelings or control their emotions,” Earnshaw said by e-mail. “So, youth who are bullied feel bad, or experience depressive symptoms, and then may use substances to try to feel better.”

For the study, researchers examined data from three surveys conducted from 2004 to 2011 among students at schools in Houston, Los Angeles and Birmingham, Alabama.

Students were asked if they had used tobacco, alcohol or marijuana in the past 30 days and how often they had been victims of bullying by their peers in the previous year. Questions on peer victimisation touched on both physical aggression like shoving and kicking as well as emotional taunts like saying nasty things about them to other kids. 

At the start of the study in fifth grade, about 10 per cent of participants said they had been victims of bulling. This was more common among kids who had chronic illnesses, sexual minorities and boys. 

By seventh grade, almost 2 per cent of the students reported symptoms of depression. 

And by the end of the study in tenth grade, substance use was more common among the kids who had previously reported bullying and depression. 

The study isn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove that bullying directly causes depression or that mental health issues directly cause substance use. Another limitation of the study is its reliance on teens to accurately report any episodes of bullying, symptoms of depression or substance use, the authors note. 

It’s also possible that teens who are bullied may later wind up drinking or using drugs because their peer groups include many adolescents who do both of these things, whether on sports teams or among crowds of particularly aggressive kids, said Bonnie Leadbeater, a psychology researcher at the University of Victoria in Canada. 

“Being ‘trapped’ in these networks can be particularly problematic in high school, where you see the same people every day,” Leadbeater, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

“Youth with multiple networks beyond school through sports, music, art, religious activities, volunteering and work are more apt to find friends and others who see their talents, strengths and abilities,” Leadbeater added. “These strengths are often established in late elementary school.”

The trouble with bullying that leads to mental health problems is that teens with depression and anxiety are more likely to withdraw from peers and lack interest in most things.

“Young teens need to have ways of dealing with peer conflict before it becomes bullying,” Leadbeater said. “Young teens need to believe that getting help is normative and that bullying is not.”

Even though I have a pretty strong junk mail filter installed on my computer, every now and then some spam messages manage to permeate through the shield and appear in my inbox folder. And then I was hooked, because unlike other normal people who delete them immediately, I find myself scrutinising the correspondence in inordinate detail.

Out of all the various chain mails that I ended up reading, my absolute favourite were the ones that alerted me of an imminent heart attack. For instance, the recent missive I received had all the usual warning signs I should watch out for, like: shortness of breath, fullness in chest, heaviness in right arm, shoulder, jaw and so on but the primary threat, marked in block letters was, “an abrupt change in how you feel”! 

I mean, for females, especially the fifty plus types, that was one sentiment we were all too familiar with. So were we, the entire tribe of abruptly changing feelers, in the unfortunate situation of facing a potential heart failure any minute?

Another warning that caught my eye was labelled under number five, and cautioned against “a sense of impending doom”! This one universally applied to everybody in the world, particularly after the new American President was sworn in earlier this year. Therefore, were we to assume that we were jointly in the process of experiencing a collective cardiac arrest? Was that it? 

A strange thing about these messages was that the symptoms I was supposed to recognise if I was having a stroke, changed on a daily basis. Along with the tingling sensation in my toes, sometimes yawning for long periods or even sneezing without a reason would be added to it. In most cases, without even stretching my imagination, all of them could be linked to me, and I was advised to seek medical help immediately.

If I made the effort of examining these mails till the very end, they would also tell me about what happened to the people who did not heed the signs, and how losing valuable time, lost a precious life.

Now, as if the above frightening scenarios were not sufficiently scary, the senders of these spam mails stressed that I had to share the message with five hundred people in the next three minutes or a deadly calamity would befall me. Someone should have asked them, was suffering a heart attack not calamitous enough? Also, what could possibly be deadlier than that?

The writers of these chain letters love exclamation marks and the mail themselves were riddled with typos. Most people I spoke to confessed that they hit the forward button because they preferred to annoy a friend rather than take a chance at being killed by someone who was murdered but whose ghost evidently still lived in the basement. 

When the immense fortune of Bill Gates was being distributed via chain mail, I did not follow any of the instructions to double my wealth, but as soon as the tenth misspelled stroke alert, in italics, appeared in my mail notification, I became worried. 

“I might have a cardiac arrest in four hours,” I told my husband that morning. 

There was no response. 

“I didn’t forward the heart attack symptom mail to fifty people you see,” I explained. 

“That was spam and should have gone into your junk folder,” he said. 

“Maybe I will visit the heart specialist today,” I muttered. 

“I would recommend the computer specialist,” he stated.

People who do not have conditions like celiac disease tend to adopt gluten-free diets because of perceived overall health benefits, but a new study says cutting the protein from diets certainly won’t benefit heart health.

In one analysis, researchers found that gluten-free diets were tied to greater heart risk among people without celiac disease, gluten sensitivity or wheat allergies.

“I think it’s important to realise that just because there is a notion that gluten-free is healthy doesn’t make it so,” said lead author Dr Benjamin Lebwohl, of the Celiac Disease Centre at Columbia University Medical Centre in New York.

He and his colleagues write in the journal BMJ that about 1 per cent of people in the United States have celiac disease, which is an autoimmune response that damages the lining of the small intestine when the body encounters the protein gluten that is found in wheat, rye and barley.

People with celiac disease are at an increased risk of heart disease but, the researchers point out, that risk is reduced by their switching to a gluten-free diet.

Despite no evidence that people without celiac disease and similar conditions benefit from cutting out gluten, some people believe that eating the protein may increase the risk of poor health outcomes, including obesity and heart disease.

Most people who follow gluten-free diets have celiac disease, the study team notes. Still, one national survey in 2013 found nearly a third of people in the United States said they were trying to minimise or avoid gluten.

For the new study, the researchers used data collected from a group of 121,700 female nurses followed since 1976 and a group of 51,529 male healthcare workers followed since 1986.

In addition to collected data on their health, the participants filled out food questionnaires every four years between 1986 and 2010.

People were separated into five groups based on the amount of gluten in their diets. People who ate the least gluten consumed about 3 grams of the protein each day, compared with people in the who ate the highest amount, between about 8 and 10 grams each day.

Overall, there were 352 coronary heart disease events like heart attacks per 100,000 people per year among those who ate the least gluten. That compared to 277 events per 100,000 people per year among those who ate the most gluten.

After adjusting for known risk factors, the researchers write that there was no statistically meaningful difference between the two groups.

“We think this is very important, because this boom in gluten-free diets and all these claims that it’s beneficial to an individual’s health to be on a gluten-free diet are not based on science,” said Dr Peter Green, a co-author of the study and director of Columbia’s Celiac Disease Centre.

After adjusting the data to account for the amount and type of grains people consumed, the researchers did find a slightly decreased risk of heart disease events among people who ate the most gluten compared to those who ate the least.

“People who had a low-gluten diets tended to have a diet that was low in whole grains,” said senior author Andrew Chan, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. “That does have health implications.”

Specifically, the researchers write, the risk of heart attacks and other events tend to decrease as people eat more whole grains.

“If people are restricting their diet, there is always the possibility that their diets become deficient in things that we know are beneficial,” Chan told Reuters Health.

Green also said gluten-free diets may lack fibre and B vitamins and may increase the risk of heavy metal toxicity.

“If someone is on a gluten-free diet, they should be under the guidance of a registered dietician,” he said.