Tall teens have an edge, study says

The taller the teen, the bigger the paycheck.

A University of Michigan economist says that each additional inch of height at age 16 translates to an additional 2.7 percent in wages for American men.

Professor Dan Silverman looked at men's heights at ages 7, 11, 16 and 33 and found that only the height at age 16 had a correlation with higher wages as an adult.

The study, published in the Journal of Political Economy, showed that participation in extracurricular and other social activities as a teenager might be the difference, since both are also linked to higher salaries.

Shorter teens are less likely to participate in social activities such as athletics, school clubs and dating that help teens hone their social skills - skills that will eventually help them secure good jobs as adults - Silverman says.

Greener pastures prescribed for the obese

When it comes to obesity, the writing's on the walls.

A study has found that people who live in urban areas rife with graffiti are more likely to be obese than those who live around vegetation. British researchers found that people who live in greener environments are three times more likely to be physically active and 40 percent less likely to be overweight and obese than people who live around graffiti and litter.

The study, published in the online British Medical Journal, looked at data about height, weight and activity from a large housing and health survey conducted in eight European cities in 2002 and 2003.

Factors such as age, sex and social status were also taken into account.

Baby boomers see spike in arthritis

Ballooning baby boomers are suffering from more obesity-related arthritis than their parents.

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found that the number of such cases increased sixfold from 1971 to 2002.

"Baby boomers are just approaching the age when arthritis rates begin to rise dramatically," says researcher Suzanne Leveille. "Many of them have lived with obesity much of their lives. We can expect to see the health and functional consequences of this epidemic in the coming decades."

The study appears in the September American Journal of Public Health.

Women on pill should boost dietary calcium

Women on birth-control pills need to take calcium to help save their bones.

A Purdue University study compared 135 oral-contraceptive users with non-users from the ages of 18 to 30 by feeding them one of three daily diets: less than 800 mg calcium, 1,000 to 1,100 mg calcium and 1,200 to 1,300 mg calcium.

At the end of the year, women on the pill who consumed the medium- or high-dairy diet gained significantly more bone-mineral density in their hips and spines than the low-dairy group. Researchers say the results suggest that young women taking birth-control pills can reduce their risk of osteoporosis by 3 percent to 10 percent over a year by making sure they get enough dietary calcium.

The study, funded by the American Dairy Association/National Dairy Council, was published in the July issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.