Are you sick of your commute to work? Bad news: It might actually be making you sick. According to a new study in three car-centric Texan cities, the longer your daily commute, the more likely you are to have high blood pressure, an oversized waistline, and other health problems that increase your risk for chronic diseases. “Long commutes really get under the skin in terms of affecting people’s h... (read more)
A new study published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine shows that only half of children in the country are receiving regular daily outdoor activity. This may not come as a surprise to many working parents, who are often too busy and stressed to provide an adequate amount of outdoor physical activity for themselves or their children, but the effects on children can be drastic and long lasting. ... (read more)
An Oregon State University researcher has reviewed the body of evidence around weight loss supplements and has bad news for those trying to find a magic pill to lose weight and keep it off -- it doesn't exist. Melinda Manore reviewed the evidence surrounding hundreds of weight loss supplements, a $2.4 billion industry in the United States, and said no research evidence exists that any single product results ... (read more)
Vitamin D may be helpful in protecting highly active pre-teen and teen girls, such as those who play sports, from stress fractures, researchers reported Monday. The study was surprising because calcium has long been considered the nutrient most vital to bone health in children. But, in developing children, vitamin D intake may matter more. Researchers analyzed data from 6,721 girls ages 9 to 15 at the start ... (read more)
Active video games are often touted as ways to help kids be more physically active—but don’t toss the basketball and jump rope just yet. A study finds that having active video games in the home may not translate into more exercise. The study, released Monday in the journal Pediatrics, tested video games among 78 children ages 9 to 12 with a body mass index between the 50th and the 99th perce... (read more)
The Mediterranean diet has been linked to a host of health benefits, including a lower risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. A study finds that the diet may also be associated with a decreased chance of small vessel damage in the brain. The diet, popular in Mediterranean countries, includes little red meat but lots of fresh vegetables and fruit, lean proteins, whole grains and healthy monosaturate... (read more)
The ancient Chinese art characterised by slow controlled movements helped Parkinson's patients with balance and control and resulted in fewer falls, when compared with other exercises it was found. The findings were published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Lead author Dr Fuzhong Li, from the Oregon Research Institute, found a tailored program of twice-weekly Tai Chi training... (read more)
Exercise has been touted as a good way to help prevent certain diseases and conditions, but can it be useful after the fact? Yes, says a study, which suggests that a fitness regimen can enhance the health of patients following treatment. The paper analyzed 34 studies that looked at the effect of exercise on patients who had breast cancer, as well as other types of cancer, such as prost... (read more)
Everyone knows that it can feel really good to get a massage. Now scientists may have figured out why, by identifying how massage switches genes on and off, thus reducing inflammation and coaxing muscle adaptation to exercise. The discovery provides strong evidence that massage merits further study as a treatment for injuries and chronic disorders, said Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, a researcher at McMaster Un... (read more)
Quantifying how sore a person is after a long workout is a challenge for doctors and researchers, but scientists from Loma Linda and Asuza Pacific Universities think they may have figured it out. Their research article describing a new technique to measure muscle soreness will be published in the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE). Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) or exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) is ... (read more)
Fat people have less than thin people. Older people have less than younger people. Men have less than younger women. It is brown fat, actually brown in color, and its great appeal is that it burns calories like a furnace. A new study finds that one form of it, which is turned on when people get cold, sucks fat out of the rest of the body to fuel itself. Another new study finds tha... (read more)
Yoga is one of the hottest fitness trends and a style known as "hot yoga" is gaining in popularity. Hot yoga refers to yoga practiced in a heated environment, with the room temperature generally reaching 90 to 105 degrees. The theory behind it is that hot yoga helps the body to sweat out toxins while allowing the practitioner to safely achieve deeper poses. Bikram is a common form of hot yo... (read more)
A hormone naturally found in muscle cells that triggers the calorie-burning benefits of exercise, may have potential as an obesity drug, according to Harvard University scientists. The researchers found that the hormone, called irisin, rises during exercise, converting white fat into brown fat, a substance whose primary function is to generate body heat, according to a study published today in ... (read more)
It’s one of the more puzzling ironies of exercise — tragic news of people dying during or after completing a marathon. In 2009, four runners died during half-marathons in San Jose, Cal. and Detroit, and last year, two runners died at the Philadelphia Marathon, one at the finish line and another about a quarter-mile from completing the race, all from apparent sudden heart attacks. Isn’t running supposed to improve your fit... (read more)
Potential playground hazards, a focus on classroom learning and boring play equipment have children spending too little time being physically active at daycare, according to a survey of staff members at child care centers in Ohio. "Physical activity is essential for kids in this age group for preventing obesity and for development," said lead study author Dr. Kristen Copeland, a professor at Cincinnat... (read more)
How well children perform in the classroom could be linked to how physically active they are, suggests a Dutch review of previous studies. Writing in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, researchers said they found strong evidence of a link between exercise and academic performance. The review looked at 14 studies involving more than 12,000 children. Exercise may help by increasing bloo... (read more)
Happy new years! It's that time of year to feel guilty enough to make pledges to get off your bum and improve your health. Will this year be a success? I'm going to take the plunge as well. 1) Exercise 2) Eat healthy 3) Get Vitamin D (eg. sunshine!)
Most of us are all too familiar with how much we weigh — but how many of us know how fit we are? And which matters more? When it comes to lowering our overall risk of death and dying from heart disease, fitness may be just as important, if not more so, than weight. That's what researchers concluded after studying fitness, weight and mortality among 14,345 middle-aged men in an 11-year study. Most studies... (read more)
As cold winter weather sets in and daylight hours dwindle, many older Chicagoans with arthritis tend to sit idle, missing out on the daily dose of physical activity they need to improve their health, according to a Northwestern Medicine study. "We found that there's a huge difference in trying to get these patients to be active in the winter and trying to get them to be active in the summer," said ... (read more)
When Dr. John Fryer and Dr. Huda Zoghbi prescribed mild exercise for mice with a neurodegenerative disorder called spinocerebellar ataxia 1 (SCA1), they did not know what to expect. Fryer, then a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Zoghbi who co-discovered the gene for the disorder, was disappointed when the exercise did not affect the mice's gait or walking ability. However, he and Zoghbi decided to put them back... (read more)
Symptoms of Depression along with unhealthy habits are common amongst individuals with asthma, a telephone survey conducted in Israel found. Aviva Goral, MSc, of the Unit of Mental Health Epidemiology and Psychosocial Aspects of Illness in Tel Hashomer, and colleagues surveyed 9,509 Israeli adults. Their results suggest that even mild depressive symptoms, with no accompanying diagnosis of clinica... (read more)
Weekly yoga classes eased pain and improved functioning in some people with chronic lower back pain -- but the yoga sessions weren't any better than regular stretching classes, according to a new study. Researchers found that participants in both types of classes had better functioning and fewer symptoms after three months than back patients who were only given a book with advice on preventing and managing ... (read more)
Despite concerns that water pressure and other stresses might promote headaches, professional scuba divers may actually get fewer of the painful attacks, overall, than other healthy people, say Italian researchers. Published in the journal Headache, their study compared the number of "cephalalgia attacks" -- headaches of all kinds -- experienced by 201 male professional divers and a control group of heal... (read more)
They've been trained to focus for weeks at a time on a single goal. They know how to clearly identify obstacles and form step-by-step plans to overcome them. They're obsessed with improving specific skills but judge success only by overall progress made in the world they've decided to conquer -- as realistic or fantastical as it may be. It's precisely these traits that make video-gamers great bodybuilders. Take... (read more)
Regular aerobic exercise worked just as well as relaxation therapy or the antiepileptic drug topiramate in preventing migraine headaches in a Swedish trial. "This non-pharmacological approach may therefore be an option for the prophylactic treatment of migraine in patients who do not benefit from or do not want daily medication," wrote Dr. Emma Varkey and her colleagues from the Institute of Neur... (read more)
Physical exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness. It is performed for various reasons including strengthening muscles and the cardiovascular system, honing athletic skills, weight loss or maintenance, as well as for the purpose of enjoyment. Frequent and regular physical exercise boosts the immune system, and helps prevent the "diseases of affluence" such as heart disease, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity. It also improves mental health, helps prevent depression, helps to promote or maintain positive self esteem, and can even augment an individual's sex appeal or body image, which is also found to be linked with higher levels of self esteem. Childhood obesity is a growing global concern and physical exercise may help decrease the effects of childhood obesity in developed countries. Health care providers often call exercise the "miracle" or "wonder" drug - alluding to the wide variety of proven benefits that it provides.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise
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