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"Walk two miles and call me in the morning."
That's what doctors could soon prescribe if the new leaders of two major medical groups have their way.
"We're trying to get every physician to prescribe exercise," says Robert Sallis, a California physician who recently became president of the American College of Sports Medicine. "Physicians have a moral responsibility to inform patients of the danger of inactivity and the health benefits of being more active."
That's also the message from the new head of the American Medical Association.
"We are in lockstep with them on that concept," says incoming AMA President Ronald M. Davis, who is also the director of the Henry Ford Health System's Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in Detroit. "We need to get doctors to prescribe exercise more and we need to get patients to follow that advice."

More than half of Americans fail to get the 30 minutes of physical activity recommended daily to provide health benefits, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So many Americans are inactive that some experts have coined a new term for it: sedentary death syndrome. The condition helps cut short an estimated 250,000 lives annually, according to Frank Booth, professor of physiology at the University of Missouri. Research suggests that people who are sedentary spend about $1,500 more annually on medical bills than do their more active counterparts.
"There are also studies to show that they miss more work and are not as productive," says Sallis. Research shows that regular physical activity improves health by cutting the risk of heart disease, stroke, colon cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure. Even brief bouts of activity several times a day can help control weight and relieve arthritis, anxiety and depression.
"Exercise is medicine," Sallis says. "We know that it works very well. We just don't have the proper way to administer it."
That's where the doctors come in. Sallis is leading the charge to get doctors and other health professionals to ask every patient at every office visit about their exercise habits.
It isn't just activity that doctors are being asked to encourage. Harvard Medical School and the Culinary Institute of America recently teamed up to teach physicians to cook more healthfully for their own personal consumption.
The theory is that by teaching doctors how to cook, they may be more likely to encourage their patients to do the same. Harvard also is considering establishing teaching kitchens in hospitals. The goal would be to take patients who have recently been diagnosed with diabetes, heart disease or other nutritionally related conditions, and show them how to make healthier meals.

It's no secret that fast-food places are not the bastion of healthy eating. But you can eat at a fast-food place and fare relatively well. Almost every fast-food establishment has at least one healthy (or healthier) choice. But first, let's look at the potential problems if you enter the arena of fast food mindlessly.

When you are in the "gulp-and-go" cycle, you may not give a second thought to what you put into your body. I find that even my health-conscious clients tend to fall into the all-or-none trap the moment they enter a fast-food restaurant. They rationalize, "Since I'm eating fast food, I might as well blow it." This mind-set combined with the ease of ordering combo meals and their inexpensive supersizing can quickly spell trouble. Even if you are not supersizing, some foods by themselves exceed a day's worth of fat and sodium if you eat the whole thing.

If you want to see how your favorite fast-food order stacks up nutritionally, check out appendix A, "Fast-Food Nutritional Charts." You'll find nutrition information on 22 fast-food companies, including pizza places, sandwich shops, and take-out places.

Now let's focus on the positive, that is, how to make the best out of a fast-food situation. Keep in mind that in a pinch, fast food can be better than going too long without eating, which can lead to overeating.

Here are some guidelines to help make the best of your fast-food order.

• Don't assume that because a menu item sounds healthy, it is. While a chicken sandwich sounds healthy (and it can be), if it's fried or loaded with bacon and cheese, it can be much higher in fat than a hamburger, which is particularly sad if that's what you wanted all along! For example, Arby's Market Fresh Roast Chicken Sandwich has 820 calories and 2,160 milligrams of sodium, more than one day's maximum recommended sodium.
  
• Forget supersizing. While it's tempting to get more food for mere pennies, in the long run you may pay a bigger price with your health.
  
• Opt for charbroiled or roasted sandwiches, especially chicken.
  
• Hold the mayo. Try using mustard or ketchup instead, or request light mayo, available at many places.
  
• Consider quenching your thirst with low-fat milk, orange juice, or iced tea.
  
• Have a sweet tooth? Take advantage of the frozen yogurt offered at many fast-food places.
  
• Opt for entree salads or side salads, but go easy on the dressing. Better yet, request the light salad dressing.
  
• Gotta have the fries? Then choose the smallest size.
  
• Hold the cheese. Although cheese is rich in calcium, it is loaded with saturated fat. Until the fast-food industry offers lower-fat cheeses, save your cheese eating for home or grazing times when low-fat varieties are available.
  
• Limit anything fried. This includes the healthy-sounding alternatives chicken and fish. Once these items are fried, they are not healthier choices.

What if you are in the mood for a burger? A basic small burger is really not so bad, and it can be a good source of iron, a mineral that most women and children do not get enough of. The problem is getting a basic burger, which in most fast-food places has been relegated to the children's menu, giving you the impression that it could not be enough food for an adult. Your best bet is to request a small hamburger and round it out with a side salad (most places have them) with light dressing. If you are also in the mood for fries, order the kid's meal; you'll get a small burger and small fries.

 

 

 

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People carrying excess weight who aim to ward off diabetes should try to lose the pounds before they reach middle age, Australian researchers suggest.

 

A woman's body mass index (BMI) in her late 40s was the strongest predictor of her risk of developing diabetes over the next eight years, Dr. Gita D. Mishra of the University of Queensland and her colleagues found.

 

Originally published in Diabetes Care, June 2007 and reproduced by Reuters Health.

Did you know that proper hydration can help you burn fat? Or that lifting weights can help you lose weight? Gold's Gym Senior Fitness Manager, Karyna Elizondo, provides seven simple tips and facts to help clarify some of the basics of working out and losing weight.

Set Goals - Be sure to set specific, clear and concise goals. Proper goal setting is the key to success when starting a fitness program.

Variation - Program design and exercise variation is a key component to getting results. Change up your workout routine every three to four weeks to get better results.





 

 

 

It's well known that resistance exercises improve muscle strength and function in young and old alike, but the new research suggests that strength training also affects older muscles on the level of gene expression - essentially turning back the clock on muscle aging.  

Stretching is an essential component of an exercise routine. However, recent studies reveal that most people do not incorporate enough stretching exercises into their fitness programs. Gold's Gym Fitness Institute Member, world-renowned Mind/Body Specialist, and author of Essential Stretch: Gentle Movements for Stress Relief, Flexibility and Overall Well-being, Michelle LeMay, shares her expert advice on the best stretching exercises to increase flexibility and decrease stress and tension.

Stretch before and after exercising.  Prior to working out, it is important to assess the type of fitness activity, activity level and an understanding of which body parts are tight. In general, it is important to stretch the neck, back, torso, hips and legs. Specifically, LeMay recommends performing the following stretches before working out: Spinal Rolls (straight forward and diagonal - left and right), Standing Side Sways (alternating on each side), Standing Quad Stretches and Standing Calf Stretches. "Once your workout is complete, it is extremely important to perform cool down exercises to decrease muscle tension and increase your flexibility," explains LeMay.  Sample cool down stretches include: Rocking Forward Bends, Hip Openers, Straddle Stretches and Spinal Twists.

Stretching keeps the muscles elongated.  As you workout, you put physical stress on your body to strengthen your muscles.  In that process your body can become tight and somewhat constricted.  "Treating your body to a nurturing stretch elongates and opens up your muscles to receive oxygen and blood nutrients and to eliminate waste," proclaims LeMay. "This helps keep your muscles clean, balanced, strong and healthy."

There are many health benefits associated with stretching regularly.  The benefits include: reduced stress, tension and anxiety, increased mind/body awareness, improved circulation, increased energy levels, reduced risk of injuries and improved posture, just to name a few. In addition, "Stretching makes you feel, look and move better," says LeMay.
 

Snacking before you exercise will help energize your workout. A preexercise snack has four main functions:

1. To help prevent hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) with its symptoms of lightheadedness, needless fatigue, blurred vision, and indecisiveness'-all of which can interfere with top performance
2. To help settle your stomach, absorb some of the gastric juices, and abate hunger
   
3. To fuel your muscles, both with food eaten in advance that is stored as glycogen, and with food eaten within an hour of exercise
   
4. To pacify your mind with the knowledge that your body is well fueled

Yet many people purposefully exercise on empty because they believe that exercising without having eaten beforehand enhances fat burning. True, but they assume that by burning more body fat, they will lose more body fat. False. To lose body fat, you need to create a calorie deficit by the end of the day. Whether you burn carbs or fats has less to do with losing body fat than it does with your calorie balance at the end of the day. The truth is you'll be able to exercise harder and burn more calories if you eat a preexercise snack. The harder exercise might contribute to the desired calorie deficit.

Many people are also afraid that preexercise food will result in an upset stomach, diarrhea, and sluggish performance. Of course, too much of the wrong kinds of foods can cause intestinal problems, but lack of fuel is more often the cause of sluggish performance. Morning exercisers, in particular, need to be sure they have fueled themselves adequately, even if they work out before breakfast.

Snacks Before Morning Workouts

Skipping breakfast is a common practice among people who exercise in the morning. If you roll out of bed and eat nothing before you jump into the swimming pool, participate in a spinning class, or go for a run, you may be running on fumes. You will probably perform better if you eat something before you exercise. During the night, you can deplete your liver glycogen, the source of carbohydrates that maintains normal blood sugar levels. When you start a workout with low blood sugar, you fatigue earlier than you would have if you had eaten something.

How much one should eat varies from person to person, ranging from a few crackers to a slice of bread, a glass of juice, a bowl of cereal, or a whole breakfast. If you've had a large snack the night before, you'll be less needy of early morning food. But if you've eaten nothing since a 6:00 P.M. dinner the night before, your blood sugar will definitely need a boost. Most people feel good results with 0.5 grams of carbohydrate (2 calories) per pound (1 gram per kilogram) of body weight one hour before moderately hard exercise, and 2 grams of carbohydrates (8 calories) per pound (4 grams per kilogram) of body weight four hours before-hand. For a 150-pound (68-kilogram) person this is 75 to 300 grams (300 to 1,200 calories) of carbohydrates-the equivalent of a small bowl of cereal with a banana to a big stack of pancakes (ACSM et al. 2000).

Defining the best amount of preexercise food is difficult because tolerances vary greatly from person to person. Some athletes get up an hour early just to eat and then go back to bed and allow time for the food to settle. Others have a few bites of a bagel, a banana, or some other easy-to-digest food as they dash out the door. Then there are those who habitually run on empty. If that's you, an abstainer, here is a noteworthy study that might convince you to experiment with eating a morning snack before you work out.

Researchers asked a group of athletes to bike moderately hard for as long as they could. When they ate breakfast (400 calories of carbohydrates) 3 hours before the exercise test, they biked for 136 minutes, as compared with 109 minutes with only water (Schabort et al. 1999). Clearly, these athletes were able to train better with some gas in their tank. Preexercise morning fuel will likely work for you, too!

Four hundred calories is the equivalent of an average bowl of cereal with some milk and banana; it's not a pile of pancakes. You need not eat tons of food to notice a benefit; some food is helpful but more food may not be better. Eat what's comfortable for you and learn what is the right amount to fuel your workouts but still settle well.

Snacks Before Afternoon Workouts

Joe, an afternoon runner, wondered if eating a bagel at 3:00 would provide energy for his 4:00 workout or simply sit in his stomach. I explained that, despite popular belief, the food one eats before a workout is digested and used for fuel during exercise. The body can indeed digest food during exercise, as long as you are exercising at a pace you can maintain for more than 30 minutes. Cyclists who ate 300 calories before exercise absorbed all 300 calories during the hour of moderate to somewhat hard exercise (Sherman, Pedan, and Wright 1991).

If Joe were to do extremely intense sprint activity such as a track workout or time trial, the food would be more apt to sit in his stomach and talk back to him. During intense exercise the stomach shuts down so that more blood can flow to the muscles. Therefore, you need to plan your schedule and eat a hearty lunch at noon if you will be doing a hard workout at 4:00 (with no preexercise snack because of the intensity of the workout).

Here is a second study that demonstrates the importance of eating before you exercise. In this study cyclists ate either nothing or 1,200 calories of carbohydrates (two grams of carbohydrates per pound of body weight) four hours before an exercise test to exhaustion. When they ate the 1,200-calorie meal they were able to bike 15 percent harder during the last 45 minutes, as compared with when they ate nothing. Given that road races and many competitive events are won or lost by fractions of a second, to be 15 percent stronger offers a huge advantage (Sherman et al. 1989). The carbohydrates the cyclists ate before they exercised supplied extra fuel for the end of the workout, when their glycogen stores were low.

Although these studies looked at cyclists, who tend to report fewer gastrointestinal complaints than do athletes in running sports that jostle the stomach, the benefits are worth noting. If you've always exer-cised on an empty stomach, you may discover that you can exercise harder and longer with an energy booster. Experiment during training with eating some carbohydrate-based snacks within a few minutes to four hours before you exercise. If you swim at 6 A.M., munch on a bagel on the way to the pool. If you work out at lunch, be sure to eat carbs such as cereal for breakfast and a banana for a 10 A.M. snack. If you exercise after work, have a substantial lunch and then a yogurt and energy bar for a second lunch later that afternoon.

What's the Best Time to Eat?

The trick to completing your workout with energy to spare is to fuel up at the right time before the event. Here are some suggestions for different types of events at different times of the day.

Time: 8 A.M. event, such as a road race or swim meet

Meals: Eat a high-carbohydrate dinner and drink extra water the day before. On the morning of the event, about 6:00 or 6:30, have a light 200- to 400-calorie meal (depending on your tolerance), such as yogurt and a banana or one or two energy bars, tea or coffee if you like, and extra water. Eat familiar foods. If you want a larger meal, consider getting up to eat by 5:00 or 6:00.

Time: 10 A.M. event, such as a bike race or soccer game

Meals: Eat a high-carbohydrate dinner and drink extra water the day before. On the morning of the event, eat a familiar breakfast by 7:00 to allow three hours for the food to digest. This meal will prevent the fatigue that results from low blood sugar. If your body cannot handle any breakfast, eat a late snack before going to bed the night before. The snack will help boost liver glycogen stores and prevent low blood sugar the next morning.

Time: 2 P.M. event, such as a football or lacrosse game

Meals: An afternoon game allows time for you to have either a big, high-carbohydrate breakfast and a light lunch or a substantial brunch by 10:00, allowing four hours for digestion time. As always, eat a high-carbohydrate -dinner the night before and drink extra fluids the day before and up to noon.

Time: 8 P.M. event, such as a basketball game

Meals: You can thoroughly digest a hefty, high-carbohydrate breakfast and lunch by evening. Plan for dinner, as tolerated, by 5:00 or have a lighter meal between 6:00 and 7:00. Drink extra fluids all day.

Time: All-day event, such as a hike, 100-mile bike ride, or triathlon training

Meals: Two days before the event, cut back on your exercise. Take a rest day the day before to allow your muscles the chance to replace depleted glycogen stores. Eat carbohydrate-rich meals at breakfast, lunch, and dinner (see chapter 7 for information about carbo loading). Drink extra fluids. On the day of the event, eat a tried and true breakfast depending on your tolerance.

While exercising, at least every 1 1/2 to 2 hours plan to eat carbohydrate-based foods (energy bars, dried fruit, sports drinks) to maintain normal blood sugar. If you stop at lunchtime, eat a comfortable meal, but in general try to distribute your calories evenly throughout the day. Drink fluids before you get thirsty; you should need to urinate at least three times throughout the day. 

 

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Excerpted with permission from Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook, by Nancy Clark, Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc. 

 

Exercise boosts brainpower by building new brain cells in a brain region linked with memory and memory loss, U.S. researchers reported.

Tests on mice showed they grew new brain cells in a brain region called the dentate gyrus, a part of the hippocampus that is known to be affected in the age-related memory decline that begins around age 30 for most humans.

The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging scans to help document the process in mice - and then used MRIs to look at the brains of people before and after exercise.

They found the same patterns, which suggests that people also grow new brain cells when they exercise.

"No previous research has systematically examined the different regions of the hippocampus and identified which region is most affected by exercise," Dr. Scott Small, a neurologist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York who led the study, said in a statement.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers said they first tested mice.

Brain expert Fred Gage, of the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, had shown that exercise can cause the development of new brain cells in the mouse equivalent of the dentate gyrus.

The teams worked together to find a way to measure this using MRI, by tracking cerebral blood volume.

"Once these findings were established in mice, we were interested in determining how exercise affects the hippocampal cerebral blood volume maps of humans," they wrote.

They of course could not dissect the brains of people to see if new neurons grew, but they could use MRI to have a peek.

They recruited 11 healthy adults and made them undergo a three-month aerobic exercise regimen.

They did MRIs of their brains before and after. They also measured the fitness of each volunteer by measuring oxygen volume before and after the training program.

Exercise generated blood flow to the dentate gyrus of the people, and the more fit a person got, the more blood flow the MRI detected, the researchers found.

"The remarkable similarities between the exercise-induced cerebral blood volume changes in the hippocampal formation of mice and humans suggest that the effect is mediated by similar mechanisms," they wrote.

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Originally published by Reuters