The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Survey names Oslo the world’s priciest city Posted: 14 Sep 2012 07:00 AM PDT  Oslo has the world's highest average wages and the biggest purchasing power. — Reuters pic The annual survey of 72 cities by Swiss bank UBS found its own hometown had the world's highest average wages and the biggest purchasing power. The study examined the price of a basket of 122 goods and services, adjusted for currency fluctuations. The cost of living index was calculated by dividing the price of goods by the weighted net hourly wage in 15 sectors. "In Tokyo, it takes nine minutes of work to earn enough to buy a Big Mac, while in Nairobi, it takes 84 minutes," it said. Zurich residents must work 13 minutes for the hamburger, but other goods were relatively cheaper than in Tokyo, putting the Swiss city top of the purchasing power index. "Workers in Zurich can buy an iPhone after 22 hours work; in Manila, by contrast, it takes around 20 times longer," UBS said. Workers had to toil 42 minutes in Istanbul and 29 minutes in Shanghai for a Big Mac, while in New York and Hong Kong just 10 minutes were required. The cheapest places to live were Delhi and Mumbai. New York was the sixth most expensive, Moscow came in at number 40 and Shanghai at 49. The survey also looked at working hours and found the shortest were in Paris, Lyon and Copenhagen. Workers in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America toil the longest, at over 2,000 hours per year, it found. — Reuters |
| Acupuncture may help with chronic pain Posted: 14 Sep 2012 02:44 AM PDT  Researchers find acupuncture is an effective treatment for chronic pain. — Picture courtesy of ©Bork/shutterstock.com In a study released online in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York looked at more than two dozen studies involving 17,922 patients with back, neck and shoulder pain, osteoarthritis or chronic headaches. Results found that both acupuncture and "sham" acupuncture treatments, in which the needles weren't placed properly, worked to lessen pain compared to no acupuncture. The study's findings, according to TakePart health blog, mean in real terms that on a scale of 0 to 100, the average pain score at the start of a study might be 60. At the end of the study, the no-acupuncture group average score might be 43, while the sham group would be 35 and the true acupuncture would be 30. "Many clinicians consider acupuncture to be merely a potent placebo and feel uncomfortable referring their patients to an acupuncturist," researcher Andrew Vickers said. "But our findings suggest that the effects of acupuncture go over and above the placebo effect." The study follows another from 2009 that found that the pain-relieving effects of acupuncture compared with placebo are small and seem to lack clinical relevance. The findings were published in the British Medical Journal. — AFP-Relaxnews |
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