In today’s world, although there is a few hundreds of weight loss pill available on the market and while they are all likely to be successful, yet, most of the dieters don’t get what they want. Meanwhile, it has been reported that obesity can decrease the life expectancy up to ten years, which I find this very alarming. Though diet/supplement business is a multi-billion dollar industry, hence, we are still seeing obesity rates increasing in scope and magnitude. Thus, there is no question that obesity is now an epidemic and so something should have been done to preempt and or minimize, if not eradicate it.
Decreasing Life Expectancy
October 27, 2009 By
Aerobic Exercise No Big Stretch For Older Adults But Helps Elasticity Of Arteries
October 25, 2009 By
Just three months of physical activity reaps heart health benefits for older adults with type 2 diabetes by improving the elasticity in their arteries – reducing risk of heart disease and stroke, Dr. Kenneth Madden told the 2009 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress, co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.
Dr. Madden studied adults between the ages of 65 to 83 with controlled Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high blood cholesterol to see how increased activity might affect stiffness of the arteries.
“The theory is that aerobic activity makes your arteries less stiff and makes artery walls more elastic,” says Dr. Madden, a geriatric specialist at the University of British Columbia.
An improvement was seen in the elasticity of the arteries of the group that performed the activity compared to those who didn’t exercise. “There was an impressive drop in arterial stiffness after just three months of exercise. In that time we saw a 15 to 20 per cent reduction.”
The subjects were divided into two groups to either receive three months of vigorous physical activity (one hour, three times per week) or to get no aerobic exercise at all. Subjects were classified as sedentary at the beginning of the study but gradually increased their fitness levels until they were working at 70 per cent of their maximum heart rate, using treadmills and cycling machines. They were supervised by a certified exercise trainer.
Dr. Beth Abramson, spokesperson for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, stresses the importance of lifestyle factors on heart health, especially with our aging population. “Almost everyone can benefit from active living,” she says. “The Foundation recommends that, like adults of any age, older adults – with the consent of their physicians – need 30 to 60 minutes of moderate activity most days of the week.”
Dr. Madden says that the exercise requirements may be viewed as controversial because of the age of the participants but the exercise level was safe and well tolerated. “There seems to be a knee-jerk reluctance to getting these older adults to exercise yet we used a vigorous level of activity and didn’t have any trouble keeping participants in our study. They enjoyed the activity,” Dr. Madden says. “People always underestimate what older adults can do.”
Dr. Madden notes that realistically, seniors need someone to help them get started. “We need to learn how to do it effectively and how to do it safely,” he says. “It could mean visiting your family doctor to find out about provincially funded programs, or joining programs for seniors that are offered at many local community centres.”
Dr. Abramson recommends that seniors choose activities they enjoy, such as walking, gardening, golfing, dancing, or joining a yoga or tai chi class. If weather is a barrier, she suggests climbing stairs at home, joining a mall-walking group, or strolling the halls of their apartment building or retirement residence.
In his next project, Dr. Madden wants to find out if there is a less expensive but equally effective way to reduce the stiffness of arteries in older adults. “Our first step was to prove that it was at all possible for older adults to have reduced narrowing in their arteries due to exercise,” he says. “Now we want to find out just how rigorous the levels of activity need to be to demonstrate the same results. The next step is to try studying a home-based walking program using pedometers. This is something easy for doctors to prescribe and cheap and easy for participants.”
The HeartWalk Workout, a special activity program developed by the Heart and Stroke Foundation to help people with cardiovascular problems get regular, healthy physical activity is available online at heartandstroke.ca. It helps people slowly build up exercise tolerance until they can walk at least 30 minutes, five times a week.
Statements and conclusions of study authors are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect Foundation or CCS policy or position. The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society make no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or reliability.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation (heartandstroke.ca), a volunteer-based health charity, leads in eliminating heart disease and stroke and reducing their impact through the advancement of research and its application, the promotion of healthy living, and advocacy. Canada Newswire.
Cherry Juice Can Treat Pain, Inflammation After Exercise
October 23, 2009 By
A glass of unsweetened cherry juice can work like common non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, used by millions to treat pain and inflammation after exercise, say experts.
In the US study, Oregon Health and Science University researchers found that runners who drank the juice before training for a long-distance relay had 23 per cent less muscle pain than those on an artificial fruit drink.
After analyses, boffins discovered that the juice of tart cherries contains flavonoids, naturally occurring antioxidants with anti-inflammatory powers, reports The Daily Express.
Dr Kerry Kuehl, a sports medicine specialist at the university, said: “Our research suggests that tart cherry juice may work like common non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, used by millions to treat pain and inflammation after exercise. “Also, drinking tart cherry juice may help people avoid negative side effects of these drugs.” Newstrack India
Eating Dairy Products Helps Fight Obesity
October 22, 2009 By
Five helpings of dairy products every day, instead of the three now recommended, can help keep heart disease and diabetes at bay. New research has shown that a higher intake of dairy products on a reduced calorie diet can help fight obesity, besides cutting down risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
As part of her doctoral research, Wendy Chan She Ping Delfos from Curtin’s School of Public Health (CSPH) compared three serves of dairy with five serves of dairy within a reduced calorie diet prescribed for obese participants over a 12-week weight loss trial.
Participants who consumed five daily dairy serves were found to have higher mean levels of weight loss; higher mean levels of fat mass loss; greater drop of systolic blood pressure; and greater total percentage abdominal fat loss, according to a CSPH release.
”Many people commonly believe that when trying to lose weight dairy products are key foods that they have to cut out of their diet as they are high in fat,” Chan Delfos said.
”Participants who had five serves of dairy and engaged in resistance exercise had similar health benefits to participants consuming five serves of dairy only,” she said. Khaleej Times.
Smoking Bans Cut Down On Heart Attacks For Everyone, Study Finds
October 16, 2009 By
Bans on smoking in public and in workplaces can sharply reduce the number of heart attacks among both smokers and nonsmokers, according to a report issued Thursday by the Institute of Medicine. The report provides strong support for the anti-smoking laws in effect in 21 states and the District of Columbia and is likely to bolster efforts to pass such laws elsewhere.
“It’s clear that smoking bans work,” said Dr. Lynn R. Goldman of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who led the panel that produced the report. “Bans reduce the risk of heart attacks in nonsmokers as well as smokers.”
“There’s no question that secondhand smoke has an adverse health impact in workplaces and public environments,” said Dr. Clyde Yancy, president of the American Heart Association. “We must continue to enact comprehensive smoke-free laws across the country to save lives and reduce the number of new smokers.”
Nearly 440,000 Americans die each year from smoking-related illnesses — more than one-third from heart disease — according to the heart association. About 38,000 of those deaths are related to secondhand smoke, which has many characteristics of other types of air pollution linked to heart disease. The association between illness and secondhand smoke was reinforced by a 2006 report by the U.S. surgeon general on the consequences of exposure to environmental smoke.
Among the report’s conclusions: While heavier exposure to secondhand smoke is worse, there’s no safe level. It also cited “compelling” if circumstantial evidence that even less than an hour’s exposure might be enough to push someone already at risk of a heart attack over the edge.
That’s because within minutes, the smoke’s pollution-like small particles and other substances can constrict blood vessels and increase blood’s propensity to clot — key heart attack factors. Yet many people don’t know they have heart disease until their first heart attack, making it important for everyone to avoid secondhand smoke, said Dr. Neal Benowitz of the University of California, San Francisco, who co-wrote Thursday’s report.
“Even if you think you’re perfectly healthy, secondhand smoke could be a potential threat to you,” he said.
Still, bans on smoking have remained controversial, in part because of fears that they might keep customers away from bars and restaurants. Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention commissioned the Institute of Medicine to study the evidence. Some of the members of the panel initially were skeptical about the benefits of such bans, according to statistician Stephen E. Fienberg of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, but they quickly changed their minds when they began reviewing the evidence.
The panel examined 11 studies of heart attacks in areas where bans were implemented and found a decrease in heart attacks in every study, ranging from a low of 6 percent to a high of 47 percent, depending on how the study was conducted.
“Such consistent data confirms for the committee that smoking bans do, in fact, decrease the rate of heart attacks,” they wrote. One study, for example, found that hospitalizations for heart attacks in Pueblo dropped 41 percent in the three years after the city banned smoking in the workplace.
In most of the studies, it was difficult to isolate the benefits for nonsmokers from those for smokers, but two of the studies showed a very clear benefit for nonsmokers.
The committee also surveyed the evidence from laboratory studies in animals and concluded that these results supported bans. By Thomas H. Maugh II, Denver Post.
Can Fish For Dinner Lead To Diabetes?
October 15, 2009 By
Making sure fish ends up on your dinner plate a couple of times a week may be a good way to cut your risk for developing heart disease, but it may not do the same for diabetes, new study findings hint.
In the study, researchers found no evidence of reduced risk for diabetes among adults who ate more fish, or the essential omega-3 fatty acids obtained primarily from seafood.
Rather, their findings suggest that eating 2 or more servings of fish a week may slightly increase diabetes risk.
Diet is a key factor in preventing the onset of diabetes in adults, but how omega-3 fatty acid intake impacts diabetes risk is still unresolved, Dr. Frank B. Hu, at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues explain in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
They examined ties between fish and omega-3 fatty acid intake and the development of diabetes among 152,700 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study and 42,504 men enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.
Overall, 9,380 cases of adult-onset diabetes developed among these healthcare workers during up to 18 years of follow up.
After adjusting for lifestyle and other dietary factors, plus body weight, family history of diabetes, and menopausal status and hormone use when applicable, Hu’s team noted increased diabetes risk “in all cohorts” consuming higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids.
Diabetes was 1.17 times more likely among people who ate fish 2 to 4 times a week, and 1.22 times more likely among those who ate fish 5 or more times a week, relative to those who ate lesser amounts of fish.
Dr. Hu and colleagues emphasize that numerous studies have demonstrated beneficial effects of fish and omega-3 fatty acids on multiple risk factors associated with diabetes, and on heart disease — the major sequelae of diabetes.
They say further study is needed to figure out the “clinical relevance” of the current findings and determine the mechanisms behind their observation that high fish intake may raise diabetes risk. Yahoo Daily News.
Day Care Next Frontier In Fighting Kids’ Obesity
October 13, 2009 By
Grilled chicken replaced the hot dogs. Strawberries instead of cookies at snack time. No more fruit juice — water or low-fat milk only. This is the new menu at a Delaware day care center, part of a fledgling movement to take the fight against obesity to pudgy preschoolers.
Day care is the next frontier: New Harvard research shows few states require that
child-care providers take specific nutrition and physical activity steps considered key to keeping the under-5 crowd fit.
And while years of work now have older kids starting to get healthier food in
schools, more and more kindergarteners show up their first day already overweight or obese.
“We’ve got to start really early. Elementary school is too late,” Dr. Lynn Silver
of the New York City Health Department — a leader in anti-obesity standards for day care — told a recent meeting that brought child-care specialists together with federal and state health authorities to start learning how.
This isn’t about putting youngsters on a diet. It’s about teaching them early, before
bad habits form, how being active and eating healthy can be the norm — and that junk food, including the chicken nuggets-type fare that we call “kid food” — should be a rare treat.
“This is a whole new way of eating for our kids,” says Maria Matos, who heads the
Latin American Community Center in Wilmington, Del., and has overhauled what she now knows wasn’t an ideal preschool menu even though it fully complied with day care regulations.
It took some adjustment. Matos started serving Latino dishes with brown rice instead of white. The mac-and-cheese got a wheat makeover, too. Many of her youngsters had never even seen honeydew and kiwi, and had to be coaxed to try it.
“You have to get people used to this different type of eating,” she says. “Some
are there, and some are still getting there.”
Two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese, and it starts shockingly
early. Research last April found almost one in five 4-year-olds already was obese. Rates are highest among American Indian, Hispanic and black children, but the problem affects every demographic.
Nearly three-fourths of children ages 2 to 5 spend at least part of their day in
child care, about half in formal day-care centers.
That makes day care a vital next front, says Debbie Chang of the Delaware nonprofit Nemours Health & Prevention, which helped push that state to adopt a list of new child-care licensing requirements to do just that.
“Everybody is always pointing fingers at us parents saying, ‘You should do better.’
A lot of other people are feeding our kids,” agrees nutrition specialist Margo Wootan
at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Such mandates aren’t common. Harvard researcher Sara Benjamin compiled a top-20 list of nutrition and physical activity regulations that health specialists call key. They include:
—At least 60 minutes of structured physical activity and 60 more minutes of active
free play.
—Not letting children sit for more than 30 minutes at a stretch.
—Only 1 percent or fat-free milk for kids 2 and older.
—No more than 6 ounces of 100 percent juice a day.
—No sugar-sweetened beverages.
As of last January, Benjamin found Idaho and Louisiana with the fewest such
requirements and Delaware, Georgia, Alaska and Nevada with the most.
Among Benjamin’s most disappointing findings: Parents may describe this as the age of ants-in-the-pants, yet an average day included less than an hour of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Her team visited one Rhode Island day care last fall where the kids didn’t get to run around at all when it rained.
Most states merely require that children “be active throughout the day. What does
that mean?” she asked the recent Nemours meeting.
Massachusetts last summer imposed a 60-minute activity rule. Now Benjamin’s team is testing how day cares implement that change.
Training providers is key, says Nemours’ Chang. Many simply don’t know, for instance, that whole milk is unnecessary extra fat for preschoolers while low-fat costs the same.
How much should a preschooler eat? An easy-to-use Web site gives specifics:
http://www.mypyramid.gov/preschoolers. Generally, a preschool serving size is about 1 tablespoon of each food type for every year of age. Proper portion sizes were a surprise to Maria Matos, who bought serving spoons pre-measured for preschoolers so they can dip while teachers tell how a colorful plate is a healthy plate.
Matos says the changes cost a bit more; she hired an extra part-time cook to make more from scratch, and fresh foods can cost more than processed. Chang and Wootan say day cares can make many cheap changes — swapping water for juice, for instance. But it’s an issue that Nemours is pushing Congress to tackle as it reauthorizes the Child Nutrition Act later this year, which helps fund food at low-income day cares. By Lauran Neergaard, Asbury Park Press.