Exercise in a Pill? Not So Fast. It's a new TV season — but here's why you might want to look away. It's late September, time for many adults to settle in for a new season of prime-time drama, comedy, sports, reality competition and the occasional three-hour political debate.
But as you get comfy on your sofa, you might want to consider this: Your TV habit might be killing you. A growing body of evidence links not just sitting in general but TV viewing in particular with all sorts of health problems. Those include obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and, yes, premature death. Effect of Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity on All-Cause Mortality in Middle-aged and Older Australians. HIIT vs. Continuous Cardiovascular Exercise. Source: Laursen 2010.
In this model calcium-calmodulin kinase (CaMK) and adenosine monophosphate kinase (AMPK) are signaling pathways that activate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-g coactivator-1alpha (PGC-1 alpha). PGC-1alpha is like a “master switch'' that is believed to be involved in promoting the development of the skeletal muscle functions shown. High-volume training appears more likely to operate through the CaMK pathway and high-intensity training appears more likely to signal via the AMPK pathway. HIIT vs. Do Sporty Teen Girls Live Longer, Healthier Lives? FRIDAY, July 31, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Women who exercised or played sports as teens have a lower risk of premature death from cancer or any other cause much later in life, new research shows.
The study of thousands of Chinese women aged 40 and older found that those who exercised roughly 80 minutes a week as teenagers had a 16 percent lowered risk for death from cancer and a 15 percent lowered risk for death from all causes. Participation in team sports during the teen years had almost as strong an effect. "Adolescent exercise participation was associated with reduced risk of mortality in later life regardless of adult lifestyle or socioeconomic factors," said lead researcher Sarah Nechuta, an assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville.
For the study, researchers used data on nearly 75,000 women, aged 40 to 70, who took part in the Shanghai Women's Health Study. Standing Better than Sitting for CV Risk Factors. Sitting was associated with higher fasting plasma glucose, triglycerides, and cholesterol compared with standing, researchers have found.
Investigators attached a monitor to nearly 700 participants over 7 days and found that each additional 2 hours per day spent sitting was significantly associated with higher body mass index (risk ratio 1.03, 95% CI 1.01-1.05; P<0.001), waist circumference (Beta=2.12, 95% CI 0.83-3.41, or around 2 centimeters; P<0.001), fasting plasma glucose (about 1%), total/high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol ratio (5%), triglycerides (12%), 2-hour plasma glucose (4%), and with lower HDL cholesterol (0.07 mmol/L).
The study was led by Genevieve Healy, PhD, at the University of Queensland, in Australia, and appeared on Thursday in the European Heart Journal. Treadmill performance predicts mortality. Analyzing data from 58,000 heart stress tests, Johns Hopkins cardiologists report they have developed a formula that estimates one's risk of dying over a decade based on a person's ability to exercise on a treadmill at an increasing speed and incline.
Several exercise-based risk scoring systems already in use are designed to measure short-term risk of dying but do so strictly among patients with established heart disease or overt signs of cardiovascular trouble. Such scores factor in multiple variables and incorporate results from additional tests, including electrocardiograms (EKGs). By contrast, the new algorithm, dubbed the FIT Treadmill Score and described in the March 2 issue of the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings, can gauge long-term death risk in anyone based solely on treadmill exercise performance.
"Stress test results are currently interpreted as 'either/or' but we know that heart disease is a spectrum disorder," Ahmed says. Mobile.nytimes. Photo Phys Ed Gretchen Reynolds on the science of fitness.
New Research Finds More Reasons To Exercise At Work. Feeling that midday slump?
Ignoring Exercise May Be Twice as Lethal as Obesity. Lack of exercise may be responsible for twice as many deaths as obesity, according to a study showing the benefits of as little as 20 minutes of brisk walking a day.
Using the most recent available data on deaths in Europe, 337,000 of 9.2 million fatalities over a 12-year period were attributable to obesity, scientists led by epidemiologist Ulf Ekelund at the University of Cambridge said in a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition today. About double that number could be explained by physical inactivity, they said. A lack of exercise is the fourth leading risk factor for premature death after smoking, excessive drinking and obesity, according to the World Health Organization. It’s the cause of at least an estimated 3.2 million deaths globally per year.
The Proven Way to Lose Your Gut. A new study from Harvard reveals that the best way to burn belly fat is not through running, swimming, or cycling.
While cardiovascular exercise is important to ensure whole-body health, it turns out the true ticket to a trim waistline is daily strength training. After analyzing the fitness habits of 10,500 healthy men aged 40 and up, the researchers discovered that the guys who lifted weights for at least 20 minutes per day, every day accumulated half as much belly fat over 12 years than those who did only cardio. Although the men in the study who did both kinds of exercise staved off the most amount of fat gain as they aged, when the effects of one type of workout were compared directly to the other, it became clear that weight training trumps aerobic exercise in its ability to keep off excess fat.
The researchers assessed fat gain by measuring the men's waist circumferences, which they say provides a far more accurate picture of health than body weight does. Exercise Increases Nuclear AMPK α2 in Human Skeletal Muscle. Doctors Dole Out Prescriptions for Exercise - WSJ. Patients are coming out of the doctor’s office with prescriptions for physical activity in addition to drugs, doctor referrals and follow-up protocols.
Doctors are working exercise counseling into office visits and calling exercise a “vital sign” to be measured when they take readings like pulse and blood pressure. Rather than just explain the dangers of inactivity, they suggest the right amount of exercise, and in some cases refer patients to certified trainers or physical therapists who can design regimens for different medical conditions such as asthma and diabetes that might limit certain activities. The efforts stem from Exercise is Medicine, a program overseen by the American College of Sports Medicine, which encourages primary-care doctors and other health-care providers to include physical activity when designing treatment plans for patients.
Some large health systems are already seeing the benefits of prescribing exercise. Dr. Mr. Mr. Federal judge approves NFL concussion settlement. A federal judge on Monday granted preliminary approval to a landmark deal that would compensate thousands of former NFL players for concussion-related claims. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Anita Brody in Philadelphia came about two weeks after the NFL agreed to remove a $675 million cap on damages. Brody had previously questioned whether that would be enough money to pay all claims. "A class action settlement that offers prompt relief is superior to the likely alternative - years of expensive, difficult, and uncertain litigation, with no assurance of recovery, while retired players' physical and mental conditions continue to deteriorate," Brody wrote.
Body Composition. Chronic Disease. Endocrine. Genetics. Injury Prevention.