New Program Aims To Improve Childhood Fitness

New Program Aims To Improve Childhood Fitness

The American Heart Association has applauded a federal government program that makes it easier for schools to promote physical fitness. The AHA called the new Physical Education for Progress (PEP) program "an important step to improving the overall health and fitness of the nation's youth by allowing local physical education programs the opportunity to better promote physically active lifestyles and appropriate disease prevention activities."
The PEP program establishes grants to help schools start, expand, and improve physical education (PE) programs for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. They can use the funds to buy equipment, hire or train PE staff, and support other programs to help students participate in PE activities.
The new guidelines emphasizing PE come at a time when government data show that 10% of children are overweight or obese and 1 in 5 children is at risk of being overweight. The number of overweight children has doubled over the past 15 years, and 70% of overweight children will be overweight and obese adults. Most of the increase has taken place in recent years; only 5.8% were overweight in the early 1970's. Studies show that this trend is associated more with low levels of physical activity than with increased food consumption.

Practical Steps to Healthy Aging

Practical Steps to Healthy Aging

As the US population ages, there is risk of a growing number of the problems traditionally associated with "old age," including heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, cancer and osteoporosis. However, there is increasing evidence that a healthy lifestyle can prevent or delay many of the illnesses of aging.
Here are suggestions from the Johns Hopkins Medical Letter to help you do that:

• Get some exercise - It slows the loss of muscle strength, maintains better heart and respiratory function, increases bone mass, and limits the risk of diabetes. An effective exercise routine includes endurance training (walking, jogging, cycling) and two or three strength training sessions a week. 
• Don't smoke - It's never too late to quit, which lowers the risk of stroke, cancer and emphysema. Five years after stopping, ex-smokers have about the same risk of developing heart disease as someone who never smoked. 
• Eat a healthy diet - Regular consumption of fruits and vegetables cuts the risk of colorectal cancer in half and reduces the risk of heart disease and diabetes. Switching to a low-fat diet can reduce total cholesterol and lower blood pressure. 
• Use supplements wisely - A standard multivitamin and a calcium supplement for women can help block deficiencies that are common in older people. 
• Drink enough water - Dehydration is common among older people, especially in warm weather. Experts recommend drinking 6 to 8 glasses of clear fluids daily. 
• Avoid excessive sun exposure - As we age, we lose protective pigment, leaving skin and eyes vulnerable to sun damage. 
• Reduce stress - Stress and anxiety impair our immune system, leaving us more susceptible to illness. Techniques such as meditation, yoga and exercise have been shown to help reduce stress. 
• Challenge your mind - Three key factors can help preserve mental function: strong social support, belief in your abilities and regular physical activity. Even with declines in short-term memory and reaction times, aging people can learn new skills and maintain old ones. 
• Limit alcohol consumption - Alcohol metabolism slows with age, so the effects are more pronounced in older adults. Still, drinking one glass of wine or spirits a day has been recommended and may provide some cardiovascular benefit. 
• Cultivate satisfying relationships - Positive social interaction, including sexual activity, lowers the level of stress hormones, helps preserve cognitive function and prevents depression. 
• Practice preventive medicine - Certain drugs can help prevent some medical problems associated with aging. Hormone replacement therapy can reduce the risk of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Drug therapy can lower blood pressure and high cholesterol. Low-dose aspirin is recommended for many adults to decrease the risk of heart disease. 

http://www.lifeclinic.com/focus/nutrition/articleView.asp?MessageID=1304

Jogging Builds Strong Bones

Jogging Builds Strong Bones

A new government study has found that men who jog have stronger bones than those who do not. And the more often they jogged, the stronger their bones.
The findings are based on questionnaires completed by more than 4,200 men and x-rays of their hipbones as part of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Researchers found that men in their 30's who jog at least nine times a month develop bone density that is at least 5% higher than that of men who jog less frequently. The bone density of joggers was almost 8% better when compared with men who do little or no exercise.
The study's authors noted that this information shows that it doesn't require marathon-like running to build strong bones - even casual jogging can benefit in building stronger bones. While osteoporosis is most often associated with older women, it is not uncommon in men

Physical Activity Keeps the Mind Sharp

Physical Activity Keeps the Mind Sharp

Two recent studies have found that elderly women who are physically active are less likely to suffer from cognitive decline, that is, their minds remained sharper than others' who were sedentary.
Italian researchers measured the mental status of 1,200 70- to 75-year-old women and then followed up 12 years later with 364 who were still living. They defined a high level of physical activity as walking at least 2 km (about 1-1/4 miles) a day.
They found that women with low levels of physical activity at the beginning of the test were more than twice as likely to experience mental decline during the 12 years of follow-up. Cognitive decline occurred in 16.7% of the high-activity women but in 39.5 percent of those with low activity levels.
Additional research will be needed to clarify why this is so. But meanwhile, findings such as these are another good reason to keep physically active.

Health Benefits of Physical Fitness

Health Benefits of Physical Fitness

Regular activity has a number of proven, positive health effects, especially on heart health. Vigorous exercise strengthens the heart as a pump, making it a larger, more efficient muscle. Even moderate activity can boost HDL ('good') cholesterol, aid the circulatory system, and lower blood pressure and blood fats. All these effects translate into reduced risk for heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.
Â
Exercise can also offer other benefits, including strengthened muscles, increased flexibility, and stronger bones, which can help ward off the bone-thinning condition called osteoporosis.
Regular activity also promises mental-health benefits, like relieving stress and anxiety. It can help you sleep better and renew your energy. If exercise could be bottled, it would be a best-selling potion at the local pharmacy.
Activity is for Everyone
Virtually everyone can get health benefits from activity. But every few years, surveys confirm the well-known fact that most people aren't active enough. Unfortunately, we pay for it. The American Heart Association attributes about 250,000 deaths a year in the US - about 12 percent of total deaths - to lack of regular physical activity.
The reasons for inactivity aren't hard to figure out. Most of us have jobs where we sit most of the time, so chances are limited to be physically active at work. We also rely heavily on modern, labor-saving devices - cars, appliances, and power tools - to spare us manual effort.
But there's another reason why many people, especially the overweight, avoid activity. Check out the firm, supple bodies shown exercising on television or on magazine covers. They give the impression that exercise is sweaty, strenuous work best reserved for the young, super-fit, and athletic. But the latest research is proving that picture false: Benefits can be gained even from low-intensity activity, like gardening.


Activity and Weight Management
If you burn more calories than you consume, then you'll shed pounds. For every extra 3,500 calories you spend, you'll drop one pound. Do strenuous exercise, and you'll burn calories in a hurry. And you can burn the same number of calories with gentler activity: You just have to do it longer and/or more often.


If you're not familiar with the number of calories burned during exercise, you may be discouraged when you first learn about it. For instance, if you weigh 150 pounds and go on a brisk, 1-mile walk for 20 minutes, you'll expend about 100 calories, considerably short of the 3,500 calories needed to drop a pound.


But such efforts add up. If you expend an extra 300 calories a day through activity and reduce your dietary intake another 200 calories, then by the end of a week, you'll have a calorie deficit of 3,500, comparable to a one-pound weight loss. This is precisely the kind of gradual success that experts recommend for long-term weight management.


Exercise also has other body-slimming effects. It builds muscle and displaces fat. A given volume of muscle weighs more than the same bulk of fat. So your bathroom scale may not record dramatic changes, but your clothes will be looser, and you'll have a trimmer body shape.


Because exercise builds muscle, it may also help counter a problem caused by dieting. When you reduce calories, your body metabolism may slack off and burn calories more slowly. This makes further weight loss more difficult. But some research suggests regular activity helps correct this slowdown and makes it easier to keep shedding pounds.


How Activity Affects Calorie Needs
The more active you are, the more calories you'll burn, which can help with weight loss. And exercise also promotes fat loss and builds muscle. This, in turn, increases your body's metabolic rate, the rate at which you burn calories, even after you've finished exercising.


Weight loss by reducing your calorie intake without activity can have just the opposite effect: It can cause your body to break down muscle, which ultimately lowers your metabolic rate and makes losing weight even harder.


The problem of reducing your calorie intake without exercise is compounded when people go off their diets. Because they've lost muscle, they tend to regain their weight quickly and then some.


A better approach is to increase activity, which builds muscle, at the same time that you're cutting back on excess calories from food. Physical activity can also reduce stress and regulate your appetite, making it easier to curb the urge to overeat.


The amount of energy needed for any activity, whether it's raking leaves or playing a computer game, depends on three factors: your muscle mass, your body weight, and the activity itself. The larger the muscle mass and heavier the body part being moved, the more calories you use. The duration, frequency, and intensity of exercise also count.


http://www.lifeclinic.com/focus/nutrition/fitness-benefits.asp