Categories
News on Health & Science

An Hour Exercise for 5 Days a Week to Loose Weight

Women who want to lose weight and keep it off need to exercise for almost an hour, five days a week, according to a new study from the University of Pittsburgh.

CLICK & SEE

Researchers found that a 55-minute regime was the minimum needed to maintain a 10 percent drop in weight.

During the four-year study, 200 overweight and obese women were told to eat between 1,200 and 1,500 calories a day, and do one of four different exercise programs, which varied in intensity and variety.

After six months, all of the women lost up to 10 percent of their body weight, but only a small percentage was able to maintain it. Those who did keep the weight off were those doing more exercise — about 275 minutes a week, on average.

Research points to a combination of exercise and calorie control as having the best chance of success in weight loss. This latest research once again confirms that plenty of exercise is a key ingredient.

Sources:
BBC News July 29, 2008
Archives of Internal Medicine July 28, 2008;168(14):1550-1559

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Categories
Featured

Running ‘Can Slow Ageing Process’

[amazon_link asins=’B019BQNTL0,1449482317,B004PAF6M8,B00U31JK2U,B00ZCEP9G4,014312319X,B01MSZ02D6,B0176M1A44,B008HFCSQE’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’6f8fc104-096c-11e8-a9c5-5f4983f9b4db’]

Running on a regular basis can slow the effects of ageing, a study by US researchers shows.

Elderly joggers were half as likely to die prematurely from conditions like cancer than non-runners.

They also enjoyed a healthier life with fewer disabilities, the Stanford University Medical Center team found.

Experts said the findings in Archives of Internal Medicine reinforced the importance that older people exercise regularly.

Survival of the fittest

The work tracked 500 older runners for more than 20 years, comparing them to a similar group of non-runners. All were in their 50s at the start of the study.

Nineteen years into the study, 34% of the non-runners had died compared to only 15% of the runners.

Both groups became more disabled with age, but for the runners the onset of disability started later – an average of 16 years later.

The health gap between the runners and non-runners continued to widen even as the subjects entered their ninth decade of life.

“If you had to pick one thing to make people healthier as they age, it would be aerobic exercise“.…..Says.. Lead author Professor James Fries

Running not only appeared to slow the rate of heart and artery related deaths, but was also associated with fewer early deaths from cancer, neurological disease, infections and other causes.

And there was no evidence that runners were more likely to suffer osteoarthritis or need total knee replacements than non-runners – something scientists have feared.

At the beginning of the study, the runners ran for about four hours a week on average. After 21 years, their weekly running time had reduced to around 76 minutes, but they were still seeing health benefits from taking regular exercise.

Lead author Professor James Fries, from the University of California at Stanford, said: “The study has a very pro-exercise message. If you had to pick one thing to make people healthier as they age, it would be aerobic exercise.

“The health benefits of exercise are greater than we thought.”

Age Concern says many older people do not exercise enough.

Figures show more than 90% of people in the UK over 75 fail to meet international guidelines of half-an-hour moderate intensity exercise at least five times a week.

Gordon Lishman, director general, said: “This research re-confirms the clear benefits of regular exercise for older people.

“Exercise can help older people to stay mobile and independent, ensure a healthy heart, keep weight and stress levels under control, and promote better sleep.

“While younger people are barraged with encouragement to lead healthier lifestyles, the health needs of older people are often overlooked.”

Sources: BBC NEWS:August 11,’08

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Categories
Featured

Sunlight Can Cut Your Risk of Death in Half

[amazon_link asins=’B00GB85JR4,B00JGCBGZQ,B0032BH76O,B004U3Y8OM,B0179785OO,B004XLRTUQ,B0037LOLKY,B000A0LE6O,B004GJYTF8′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’4bbf5d10-f7ab-11e7-b43e-2b178095307c’]

Having low vitamin D levels has been linked with deaths from heart disease and other causes, adding to growing evidence about the “sunshine” vitamin’s role in good health.

click & see

People with the lowest blood levels of vitamin D were about two times more likely to die from any cause during an eight-year period than those with the highest levels. The link with heart-related deaths was particularly strong in those with low vitamin D levels.

The study involved over 3,000 men and women in southwest Germany. Participants were aged 62 on average, and their vitamin D levels were checked in weekly blood tests.

It’s estimated that at least 50 percent of older adults worldwide have low vitamin D levels, and a significant number of younger people may also be affected. Low vitamin D levels may result from spending less time outdoors, air pollution and a decline in your skin’s ability to produce vitamin D from the sun as you age, the researchers said.


Sources:

* USA Today June 23, 2008

* Archives of Internal Medicine June 23, 2008;168(12):1340-1349

Zemanta Pixie
Categories
News on Health & Science

Miracles of Vitamine ‘D’

[amazon_link asins=’B01E4JIODM,1514875535,B008S0LH6K,1500528137,B016X6MJGM,1491243821,0399594442,0060984368,B00DKF7XPW’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’e5482c5b-f7ab-11e7-96e8-25d473280400′]

US researchers have discovered that Vitamin D protects not just against rickets, osteomalacia and osteoporosis but also against heart diseases, cancer, diabetes and other ailments.

CLICK & SEE

Medical researchers are homing in on a new wonder drug that can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and many other diseases — sunshine
.

A recent study found that men who are deficient in the “sunshine vitamin”, vitamin D, have more than double the normal risk of suffering a heart attack. Another study last week found that low levels of vitamin D increase the risk of diabetes, and a study last month linked deficiencies to an increased risk of dying from breast cancer.

The new findings join a growing body of evidence indicating that an adequate level of the vitamin, which most people can get from 20 daily minutes in the sun, is crucial to maintaining good health.

Not every scientist agrees, and there is controversy about what should be considered an adequate level of vitamin D in the blood. But sentiment gradually is shifting toward a higher intake.

“We don’t have a cause-and-effect relationship here yet,” said biochemist Hector DeLuca of the University of Wisconsin, in the US, to prove that higher doses of vitamin D prevent these diseases. DeLuca was the first to demonstrate how the vitamin interacts with the endocrine system, which manages the body’s hormonal balance.

But the links are so suggestive “that we have to pay attention to keeping blood levels up where they will protect,” he said. Until the protective effect is proved, he added, “what’s wrong with keeping an adequate level of vitamin D in the blood in case it is?”

Until recently, vitamin D was viewed primarily as a protective agent against diseases of the bone, such as rickets, osteomalacia and osteoporosis. Recommendations for the vitamin are based on preventing these disorders and call for a relatively small intake — a minimum of 400 international units (IUs) per day and perhaps twice that for elderly people, who don’t get outdoors much.

The vitamin is produced from natural precursors in the body by exposing skin to ultraviolet B in sunlight. Caucasian sunbathers can get 20,000 IUs in 20 minutes at noon in summer. But any additional exposure simply damages the skin.

Darker skinned people need three to five times the exposure to produce the same amount. Sunblock interferes with production by screening out ultraviolet light.

The primary sources of vitamin D in the diet are milk, which is fortified to yield about 100 IUs per glass, and oily fishes, which have a high content. To have an adequate intake, most people must take supplements or spend more time in the sun — a recommendation that dermatologists generally oppose because of the risk of skin cancer.

Current guidelines call for blood levels of about 30 nanograms per millilitre. By that definition, perhaps 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the white US population and 50 per cent of the black population is deficient in summer, with levels rising in winter when there is less sunlight.

Many researchers now say we should be striving for average blood levels of 50 to 60 nanograms per millilitre, at which level the bulk of the US population would be considered deficient.

Most researchers in the field take supplements of at least 1,500 IUs per day. Most recommend taking no more than 4,000 IUs because of potential toxicity.

Experts attribute the vitamin D deficiency, in part, to modern lifestyles. Video games and computers have brought children indoors, minimising their exposure to sunlight. Fear of cancer and increasing use of sunblock also might have contributed.

In the new analysis, Dr Edward Giovannucci of the Harvard School of Public Health and his colleagues studied 18,225 men enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-Up study, a subgroup of a much larger ongoing study. The men submitted blood samples when they enrolled in the study, mostly in 1993 to 1995, and the samples were stored.

In 10 years of follow up, the team identified 454 men who had a nonfatal or fatal heart attack. They matched these men with about 900 other study members who did not have an attack, then measured vitamin D levels at study entry.

They reported in the current issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine that men with blood levels below 15 nanograms per millilitre had two and a half times the risk of having an attack or dying. When they controlled for all other possible factors, such as hypertension, obesity and high lipid levels, the risk was still twice as high as it was for the controls.

Men with levels between 15 and 29 nanograms per millilitre also had an increased risk. Unfortunately, Giovannucci said, there were not enough men in the group with levels above 35 nanograms per millilitre to determine whether higher levels are more protective.

The findings are “not out of left field”, he said. Many epidemiological studies have found a lower rate of heart attacks at higher latitudes, at lower altitudes and in winter — all of which correlates to decreased exposure to sunshine.

“They certainly have made the link between diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” said Dr Mason Weiss, a cardiologist at Centinela Hospital Medical Centre in Inglewood, California, who was not involved in the study. “Now the research must be on what the mechanism is.”

Giovannucci speculated that several mechanisms could be responsible for the observation. Previous studies have suggested that low vitamin D levels lead to a build-up of calcium in atherosclerotic plaques on the walls of arteries, increasing the risk of heart attacks.

It also could affect blood pressure or the functioning of heart muscles, making them more susceptible to arrhythmia.

“We obviously need to understand the mechanism better,” Giovannucci said. “But that requires randomised trials, which is a big undertaking.”

Weiss joined the chorus of researchers calling for changes in federal guidelines to reflect the new data.

“The next time they review the daily requirements, they should look at all these articles,” he said. Increasing the recommended intake of vitamin D “could have a significant health benefit,” he said, and would be a very cost-effective change.

Sources: LOS ANGELES TIMES

Zemanta Pixie
Categories
News on Health & Science

Exercise Makes You Younger By 9 Yrs

Exercise may hold the key to youth, according to a study published on Monday, which showed people who keep fit are up to nine years biologically younger than those who do not.

The study of 2,401 twins found that a sedentary lifestyle raises the risk of a range of problems from heart disease to cancer and appears to play a key role in the ageing process.

It all boils down to the length of structures called telomeres   which protect the DNA on the chromosomes, the researchers from King’s College London wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Many studies have shown telomeres get shorter over time, suggesting the cells are ageing or dying. The study, which extracted a DNA sample from their volunteers, found people who exercised more each week had longer telomeres.

Exercise lowers the risk of a range of problems such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer, the researchers said.
“It is not just walking around the block. It is really working up a sweat,” said Tim Spector, a genetic epidemiologist who led the study, in a telephone interview.

The study found people who exercised vigorously 3 hours each week had longer telomeres and were biologically 9 years younger than people who did under 15 minutes. Spector’s team, who also adjusted for body weight, smoking, economic status and physical activity at work, also said moderate exercise for 1-1/2 hours each week provided a four-year advantage.’

Sources: The Times Of India

css.php