A key government adviser on wellbeing and fairness will warn on Wednesday that cuts to children’s services at the same time as increasing taxes on the poor are of deep concern and could exacerbate already high levels of inequality.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot, whose work on health inequalities in 2010 has been incorporated into the government’s public health reforms, said: “Cutting services has a selective impact the lower down you go in the social hierarchy.

“We see increases in child poverty and are moving from direct to indirect forms of taxation, which are regressive.

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Practicing the ancient art of Tai Chi twice a week helped Parkinson’s patients improve their balance and walking ability, a new study shows.

“Tai Chi has been suggested for a while [for those with Parkinson's], but it’s not been scientifically or clinically validated,” said study author Fuzhong Li, a research scientist at the Oregon Research Institute in Eugene.

The new research is published in the Feb. 9 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke funded the study.

Li and his team compared the effects of Tai Chi with resistance training and stretching.

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The first IFBB Pro show is just under a month away and the official competitor lists have been posted on IFBBpro.com. The womens fitness line up is stacked from top to bottom. Seven out of the Fitness Olympia top ten will compete on February 18th. This will be a great show for fans to see how their favorite competitors look two weeks before the Fitness International.

The winner of the show will be qualified for the 2012 Olympia.

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Sallyanne Jones is cradling her seven-month-old baby on her lap, smiling at her little face. But how would she feel if she had to give her child up this afternoon, knowing she wouldn’t see her again for at least 18 years, and possibly never?

It’s not a question you would usually put to a new mother, but Sallyanne knows why I’m asking. She has spent the last 13 years as a social worker, much of it specialising in child protection. She’s been involved in hundreds of cases where children were removed from their parents’ care – and in cases where this led to their eventual adoption, the parents would have lost the right to see their child again until that child reached adulthood, and then only if they decided to make contact. S

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A new study finds that an active lifestyle may help protect against Alzheimer’s-related brain changes in people who have a well-known genetic risk factor. This factor is the e4 allele (version) of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene.

“The presence of an APOE e4 allele is the most established genetic risk factor for Alzheimer disease, with a higher percentage of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease having an e4 allele in comparison with the general population,” the authors write in the article published online Jan. 9 in the journal Archives of Neurology.

It’s been suggested that the presence or absence of this gene variant might affect the relationship “between lifestyle factors such as exercise engagement and risk of cognitive decline and dementia,” added researcher Denise Head and colleagues at Washington University, St.

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Well be bringing you more photos and videos this year and that include our popular series is IM A HARDBODY. As we head into the 2012 Arnold Sports Festival well feature the women competing in the invite only event. First up is one of Canadas only IFBB Bikini Pros, Justine Munro.

Justine Munro Florida.

Fingerprint’s games include parent-to-child messaging features

There is no shortage of startups providing apps for children in 2011: Toca Boca, Mindshapes, Nosy Crow, Callaway Digital… and now Fingerprint Digital.

The San Francisco-based company has launched its first five iOS apps, and is counting on a feature called Mom-Comm to help it stand out from the herd. In short, it’s like a Game Center for kids and parents, providing rewards and app recommendations for the former, and an update on their progress for the latter.

Fingerprint was founded by Nancy MacIntyre, who previously worked at electronic learning company LeapFrog Enterprises as executive vice president of product innovation and marketing. H

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