Designer dogs: What is a breed anyway?
They come in a huge range of shapes and colours and sizes, from the tiny Chihuahua to the Great Dane.
In the animal world this much variation usually means different species, but not for dogs — so where did they all come from?
And what role did Victorian-era rats play in the development of 'breed standards'?
Featuring:
Joyce Sullivan, papillon breeder
Joyce Sullivan, papillon breeder Wayne Douglas OAM, Afghan Hound breeder
Wayne Douglas OAM, Afghan Hound breeder Esther Joseph, all breeds judge
Esther Joseph, all breeds judge Michael Worboys emeritus professor the University of Manchester
Michael Worboys emeritus professor the University of Manchester Professor Greger Larson, evolutionary genomics at the University of Oxford
Professor Greger Larson, evolutionary genomics at the University of Oxford Dr Angela Perri, zooarchaeologist, Chronicle Heritage
Dr Angela Perri, zooarchaeologist, Chronicle Heritage Dr. Elaine Ostrander, geneticist at National Institutes of Health (US)
Dr. Elaine Ostrander, geneticist at National Institutes of Health (US)
Dr Heidi Parker, geneticist at National Institutes of Health (US)
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The Australian
15 hours ago
- The Australian
How body fat distribution could be leading to illnesses like psoriasis
The distribution of fat in the body has been shown to affect our risk of everything from brain ageing to type 2 diabetes. The belly is renowned for being the most damaging area to store it, with countless studies showing an association with inflammation and metabolic disease. In fact, the wider your waistline, the greater your risk of general disease: a review of 72 studies in the BMJ suggests that those with 'apple shapes' are at higher risk of early death from all causes than those whose fat is distributed elsewhere. In a new study, researchers at King's College London (KCL) also found a relationship between fat and psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory skin condition that affects about 1.8 million people in the UK and is characterised by flaky, scaly red patches known as plaques. Drawing on data from the UK Biobank, Catherine Smith, a professor of dermatology, and a research team from KCL's St John's Institute of Dermatology, examined 25 measures of body fat, using body measurements and advanced imaging techniques. Their findings, published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, identified belly fat as an independent risk factor for psoriasis, and the association is stronger in women. The link remained consistent regardless of any genetic predisposition to psoriasis. 'As rates of obesity continue to rise globally, understanding how different patterns of body fat influence chronic inflammatory conditions such as psoriasis is important,' Smith says. 'The total amount of body fat is one key determinant of health, but the distribution of fat is also important,' says Javier Gonzalez, professor at the centre for nutrition, exercise and metabolism at the University of Bath, concurs. 'Relatively high amounts of fat on the abdomen are associated with increased risk of cardiometabolic diseases such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.' Upper body fat, including that around the waistline, 'is more easily stimulated by your own stress hormones to release the fat to the rest of the body compared with lower body fat,' says Fredrik Karpe, a professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Oxford. Once in the bloodstream, these fatty acids can wreak havoc. 'When subcutaneous or visible fat has reached its storage capacity, any excess fat spills over to organs including the liver and pancreas,' Gonzalez says. 'When there is too much fat in these organs, they stop working effectively.' How to tell if your body shape could be harming your health Can I tell much about my body fat by looking in the mirror? 'It is actually a reasonable start to assessing body fat,' Gonzalez says. 'The apple-shape body tends to represent more fat in the abdomen, which is higher risk, whereas a pear shape tends to represent the more protective type of fat storage in the thighs, and is a lower risk.' Karpe and Gonzalez recommend the waist-to-hip ratio as a measure of whether you are carrying too much weight around your middle. Using a tape measure, record your waist circumference in centimetres at the widest point and your hip circumference at the hip bones. Divide the waist measurement by that for the hips to find the ratio. For example, if a person's waist measurement were 50cm and their hip one 60cm, their ratio would be 0.83. A ratio of more than 0.85 for women and more than 0.90 for men places a person at increased risk of some conditions. To assess how much fat you store centrally relative to the rest of your body, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence recommends using the waist-to-height ratio. Measure your height using a piece of string, cut it, then cut this length in half and wrap that section around your waist. If the half-length of string doesn't reach around your middle, it is a sign you are carrying too much abdominal fat. Should I have a Dexa scan? Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scans are used in most large studies, including those of the UK Biobank. 'A Dexa scan measures internal visceral fat but also tells you much more accurately about your upper and lower body fat,' Karpe says. 'The results tell you about your bone mineral density as well as lean to fatty tissue. So there's lots of health-related information from having them.' I am slim but am I storing fat? You could be, Karpe says, especially if you drink more than the recommended limit of 14 units of alcohol a week. 'Alcohol is the big villain here and it can specifically increase dangerous internal visceral fat that settles around the organs – even in slim people,' Karpe says. 'We are preparing to publish a study of 5000 people and there is a clear dose response between alcohol consumed and an increase in visceral fat.' Only a Dexa scan will be able to determine clearly your levels of hidden fat. Do I need to worry about having a meno-belly? Men and women naturally store fat differently during their reproductive years. 'Men tend to store fat around their middle, and it links back to our ancestors who responded well to the stress hormones it releases as it kept them running and able to hunt for food,' Karpe says. 'In contrast, the natural female fat depot in the lower body is sluggish to respond and, in evolutionary terms, sits there until needed to mobilise energy when they need to breastfeed.' After the menopause, when oestrogen levels drop, women undergo a rapid transition. 'They don't tend to lose lower body fat but they gain quite a lot of visceral fat and fat around the middle,' he says. 'Around the menopausal age you also lose muscle – the part of the body that burns fat – so if you continue eating the same, you will put on weight often around the middle.' This shift in fat storage raises the risk of metabolic disease for many women. The good news is that if you lose weight – whether through diet and exercise or weight-loss drugs – the fat will disappear more rapidly from your middle than from elsewhere. 'Fat around the middle is normally the fat with the highest turnover,' Karpe says. Are bigger arms bad news? In isolation, they are not a significant risk factor for metabolic disease. 'But when the fatness of arms is part of a very substantial overall obesity, it is an added indication,' Karpe says. A 2024 study published in the journal Neurology tracking people from middle age found that those with arm fat were 18 per cent more likely to develop neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's, other forms of dementia and Parkinson's disease than than those with higher levels of leg fat. High amounts of belly fat raised the risk by 13 per cent. However, having strong muscles – including in the arms – reduced the risk by 26 per cent, suggesting that working on your biceps and triceps is worth the effort. Last year researchers from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens looked at the distribution of fat beneath the skin in 83 men and women aged over 50, none of whom had been diagnosed with the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis. At the European Congress of Endocrinology they reported that those with fatter upper arms were more likely to have lower bone quality and were most at risk of spinal fracture later in life. 'Surprisingly we identified, for the first time, that the body composition of the arms – in particular the fat mass of the arms – is negatively associated with the bone quality and strength of the vertebrae,' said Professor Eva Kassi, a senior author of the report. What about thighs? A pear shape is a sign that you are to some extent protected against disease: fat around the thighs is metabolically superior to belly fat. 'Whereas fat around the abdomen is strongly associated with fat in the liver and pancreas, leg fat stores behave differently,' Gonzalez says. 'Leg fat seems better able to 'hold on to' and store fat, whereas centrally located fat is more sensitive to hormones such as adrenaline and will release the fat more readily into the bloodstream.' Scientists at Rutgers University found that adults with fatter legs were less likely to have high blood pressure than those with a lower percentage of fat tissue in the thighs. They considered hypertension rates in relation to the percentage of fat tissue in the legs of people mostly in their 30s and 40s, and discovered that those who had higher proportions of leg fat were 49 per cent less likely to have high blood pressure where both numbers were elevated. And men and postmenopausal women with higher leg-fat levels were found to be at lower risk of osteoporosis in another study at the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University in China. Can slim legs be a bad sign? 'Slim legs on a slim body are not risky,' says Karpe, who is researching the composition of lower body fat. 'But if you have too much weight around the waistline and a distinct absence of fat in the hips and legs, it is a potentially risky situation.' The thighs are key a site for storing fat that comes directly from the liver, Karpe says. 'When it is not possible to store fat in the thighs effectively, the liver may need to retain an excess of fat. That comes with substantial health risks including fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes and liver cirrhosis.' What can neck fat indicate? Research suggests that men with a neck circumference of more than 17in and women with a measurement of 14in or more are at increased risk of various health concerns. Neck fat, says Karpe, carries 'a very high risk' for metabolic disease. It stores a significant amount of free fatty acids that are released into the bloodstream where, according to a 2024 study in the Science journal, they are implicated in the onset of inflammation and metabolic disease. A study of 4093 midlifers by researchers at the University of Boston School of Medicine showed that high levels of fat in the neck were associated with atrial fibrillation, which causes erratic heart beats. 'The larger your neck circumference, the more likely you are to have sleep problems, partly because the pressure of fat stored there obstructs breathing and leads to issues such as sleep apnoea,' Karpe adds. The Times Read related topics: Health
News.com.au
a day ago
- News.com.au
‘Dark spots': COVID jab tied to rare health symptom
New research is calling for further study on a possible link between COVID-19 jabs and long-term vision issues. While vaccines have been vital in fighting the pandemic, emerging data could mean we're not out of the woods yet. Between January 2021 and January 2023, 20 peer-reviewed studies looked into eye problems reported by 243 people aged 18 to 84 who had received COVID-19 vaccines. Almost half of these patients - 42 per cent - had the Pfizer-BioNTech jab, which was the main vaccine rolled out in Australia, the USA, the UK, and much of Europe. What jumps out is inflammation. Nearly half of the patients reported experiencing ocular inflammatory conditions like uveitis, an irritation deep inside the eye. Another 24 per cent were said to have suffered optic neuritis, a swelling of the optic nerve that can cause pain and threaten vision. Herpetic eye disease, caused by the herpes virus attacking the eye, showed up in 14 per cent of cases, triggering redness, pain, and discomfort. About 10 per cent documented retinal circulation issues - blockages in the eye's arteries or veins that can trigger sudden vision loss. And there were also a few rare cases where patients were noted to exhibit retina-related problems causing 'dark spots' or 'blind patches'. But the most notable observations come from a recent Turkish study that tracked 64 patients before and after their two mRNA vaccine doses. Using detailed eye scans, researchers found an 8 per cent drop in the cornea's endothelial cell count - the cells responsible for keeping the cornea clear. These cells don't regenerate, and losing too many can permanently impair vision. To put that into perspective, healthy adults usually have between 2000 and 3000 of these cells per square millimetre. After vaccination, the average dropped from 2597 to 2378. While these numbers are still considered safe for most, the decline could be a warning sign for people with pre-existing eye conditions or those who have had eye surgeries like LASIK, cataract removal, or corneal transplants. Researchers also noted that corneas thickened by around 2 per cent after vaccination - a sign of possible swelling. The honeycomb shape of the endothelial cells became distorted, and the size differences between individual cells increased, which are both signs of cellular stress. Though none of the study participants reported immediate vision problems, experts warn that long-term structural changes to the cornea could lead to lasting damage, especially in vulnerable patients. Dr Fatma Sümer and Sevgi SubaÅŸi, authors of the study published in Ophthalmic Epidemiology, stressed the need for careful observation: 'The endothelium should be closely monitored in those with a low endothelial count or who have had a corneal graft.' According to Healthline, eye complications after vaccination are rare and appear to be driven by an overactive immune response. Symptoms can include blurred vision, light sensitivity, redness, eye pain, shingles around the eye, or reactivated herpes infections. In even rarer cases, the immune system may reject a previously transplanted cornea, risking vision loss and graft failure. This means the transplanted cornea loses its clarity and function, leading to impaired vision and the potential need for further treatment or surgery. These findings are not conclusive, and experts do not advise people to skip their COVID vaccine shots — far from it. But they are urging doctors and patients to not ignore these subtle warning signs. Those who have had prior eye surgery, suffer from chronic eye disease, or notice persistent blurry vision after vaccination are advised to be checked, because even small changes inside your eyes can have big consequences down the road According to safety reports from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), 'vaccination is the most effective way to reduce deaths and severe illness from infection.' Like all medicines, the TGA notes, 'COVID-19 vaccines may cause some side effects. 'The most frequently reported include injection-site reactions (such as a sore arm) and more general symptoms, like headache, muscle pain, fever and chills.' The TGA closely monitors reports of adverse events to the COVID-19 vaccines and emphasises that 'the protective benefits of vaccination far outweigh the potential risks.'
ABC News
6 days ago
- ABC News
Jeremy Leggett wins US$500,000 Blue Planet Prize
This award is presented by the Asahi Glass Foundation of Japan for outstanding achievement in helping provide solutions to global environmental problems. Jeremy Leggett of the UK, has pioneered the production of solar technology for ordinary households, and now leads the rewilding of vast areas of the Scottish Highlands in tandem with local residents and farmers. His efforts have shown how carbon emissions can be drastically reduced and how such moves can be an excellent money-making investment, not as is sometimes claimed, a drain on the economy. Blue Planet Prize Guest Jeremy Leggett CEO Highlands Rewilding Presenter Robyn Williams Producer David Fisher
