Heading into the weekend, when we’ll all probably be gorging on leftover Valentine’s Day chocolate, here’s another study that shows keeping the weight down is important.

Being overweight may increase your risk of developing up to a dozen types of cancer. European researchers tracked subjects matching their body mass index with incidents of cancer. The research, published in The Lancet, found that an average weight gain of 33 pounds in men increased their risk of esophageal cancer by 52 percent, thyroid cancer by 33 percent, and colon and kidney cancers each by 24 percent. In women, a weight gain of 29 pounds increased the risk of uterine and gall bladder cancer by nearly 60 percent, esophageal by 51 percent and kidney by 34 percent. The link was weaker for bone and blood cancers.

Need another reason to get walking? What if a stroll was enough to charge your cell phone? Researchers at Simon Fraser University say it works.

They’ve come up with a brace that harnesses the energy produced by the movement of the knee joint. Just 1 minute of walking on a treadmill is enough to power a cell phone for 10 minutes. The device could also be used to work portable GPS locators and power things like motorized artificial limbs or implanted drug pumps. Pretty cool!

Some people really go overboard cleaning their ears. You know the type that zip through the cotton tip swabs, constantly trying to get the wax out (gross topic, I know..). Well, a Quebec coroner is repeating a warning sounded often by doctors and probably by your mother, too. Stop poking at your ears!

A Montreal man died as the result of an infection that the coroner says was linked to the man’s constant ear cleaning. He eventually ruptured his ear drum because he was jamming the swabs in so deep. The coroner wants more graphic warnings on the packaging of the swabs. He thinks a picture of an ear with a big red bar through it would be a good start.

Why can’t people just read the written warnings and get the message? Some of the things they have to put on the packaging of some products are just ridiculous.

Now this is breaking the odds!

A Nova Scotia couple has had quadruplets and they’re made up of two sets of identical twins. Someone’s calculated the chances of that combination in quads as 1 in 70 million. Or as the father says: “It has been described as hitting a hole in one on a Par 5 in a thunderstorm while getting hit by lightning three times and the draw of your 6-49 numbers are winning.”

The couple already had a 2 year old son. Wow! They’ll be looking at a very busy household. The babies were born prematurely at 29 weeks and are still in hospital. They’ll probably stay there for at least a couple more months. Hopefully, all goes well.