Obesity and Its Economic Cost

Top 10 Calorie Burning Cardio Exercises

Here's a quick, straight to the point (and cute) list of the Top 10 Calorie Burning Cardio Exercises.

Enjoy!

Diet Loaded With Veggies, Fruits, Whole Grains May Cut Stroke Risk

Study Shows Women Have Lower Risk of Stroke if Their Diet Includes Lots of Antioxidants

Eating a diet loaded with antioxidant-rich vegetables, fruits, and whole grains may help women lower their chances of having a stroke -- even if they have a history of heart disease or stroke, a new study shows.

Antioxidants are certain vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that may lower stroke risk by sopping up damaging molecules in our blood called free radicals, which have been linked to heart disease, stroke, and other diseases.

The study is published in Stroke.

Researchers led by Susanne Rautiainen, a PhD student at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, grouped 31,035 women without heart disease and 5,680 women with a history of heart disease. Then they measured the amount of antioxidant-rich foods and beverages they ate and drank.

About 11.5 years later, there were 1,322 strokes among women without a history of heart disease or stroke. Among women with previous heart disease or stroke, there were 1,007 strokes after about 10 years.

The amount of antioxidants in the diet seemed to make a difference in stroke risk, the study showed.

Women without a history of heart disease or stroke who ate diets loaded with antioxidants were 17% less likely to have any type of stroke, compared to women who ate the least amount of antioxidants. These results held even after researchers took into account exercise, smoking, and other behaviors that could affect stroke risk.

Among women with a history of heart disease or stroke, those who ate and drank the most antioxidant-rich foods and drinks were 45% less likely to have a hemorrhagic stroke than women who ate the least.

Hemorrhagic strokes cause bleeding in the brain due to a ruptured blood vessel.

Protecting Against Heart Disease

Women with no previous heart disease or stroke got about half of their antioxidants from fruits and vegetables. Other antioxidant-rich foods and drinks such as whole grains, tea, and chocolate were also a part of their diet.

"This study is showing that if you get your antioxidants in the form of foods in the diet, it could be protective against heart disease and stroke," says Suzanne Steinbaum, DO. She is the director of women and heart disease at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Michael J. Katsnelson, MD, agrees that eating more fruits and vegetables is a healthy thing to do. He is the director of stroke services at University of Miami Hospital.

"Most stroke specialists do recommend eating more fruits, more vegetables, more omega-3 fatty acids, more nuts, and less saturated fat," he says.

More study is needed before the effects of this type of diet on stroke risk can be quantified. "The study is interesting and promising, but it needs to be replicated in other populations and men," Katsnelson says.

There are other ways to lower stroke risk, says Roger Bonomo, MD, director of stroke care at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York: "Of all of the things that can reduce your risk of stroke, smoking cessation is the one that makes the biggest difference."

Article originally by Denise Mann
WebMD Health News

Inspirational ad: NIKE - Make Yourself!

Make your body. Make your life. Make yourself!

Success - How Bad Do You Want It? (Giavanni Ruffin & ET the Hip Hop Prea...

Posting this to share this MOTIVATING and INSPIRATIONAL video for all to see. Crush your limitations, believe and achieve!



Success - How Bad Do You Want It?
Speech by: Eric Thomas (The Hip Hop Preacher)
Athlete: Giavanni Ruffin (former running back for ECU)
Video by: Greyskale Multimedia

Scottsdale Fitness Trainer
Scottsdale Fitness Trainer
Scottsdale Personal Training
Scottsdale Personal Training
Scottsdale Bootcamp
Scottsdale Bootcamp Training

One runs on fat, the other makes you fat!

This one made me chuckle! Now that the weather is cooling down, think about getting some outdoor cardio via hiking, walking, running, and/or cycling! Stay fit my friends!

Fattest States From 2010

Mississippi is the fattest state for 5th straight year, Colorado still leanest



"For 2010 Mississippi has claimed the title of fattest state for the fifth consecutive year, while Colorado continues its streak as the leanest. Maine rose the most places in the rankings over last year, while Oregon dropped the most, according to a new analysis by CalorieLab, Inc.

Most Obese States
Tennessee jumped from fourth place to tie last year’s second place state Alabama. Nine states have obese populations that exceed 30 percent over a three-year average, and in ten states two-thirds of the citizens were either overweight or obese by CDC standards in 2009.

Also not faring well this year was Maine, which rose six places to be the 29th fattest state, from last year’s 35th placing.

Thinnest States
Colorado repeats as the slimmest state, despite a slight increase in obesity of 0.2 percent over three years. In connection with a previous ranking Governor Bill Ritter of Colorado told CalorieLab, “We’re not spared from the national obesity epidemic, and we must remain vigilant in order to guard against it. We’re doing all we can to encourage Coloradans — especially our kids — to take advantage of the natural resources our state offers in order to stay fit, healthy and happy.”

Connecticut was the second skinniest state, with the District of Columbia third, with its three-year average obesity rate actually falling by 0.8 percent from last year. Alaska and Oregon were the only other states whose three-year average obesity rates fell.

Regional Obesity by State Trends
In general, states in the West and New England rank lowest in the fattest states rankings, while states in the South and the Rust Belt tend to rank highest.

CalorieLab computed the fattest state rankings for this year based on the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System database maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rankings use a three-year average in order to smooth out statistical fluctuations."

Article written by Calorielab

Physical Activity Can Reduce the Genetic Predisposition to Obesity by 40 Percent, Study Finds

"Although the whole population can benefit from a physically active lifestyle, in part through reduced obesity risk, a new study shows that individuals with a genetic predisposition to obesity can benefit even more. The research, carried out by Dr. Ruth Loos from the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and colleagues, published in PLoS Medicine suggests that the genetic predisposition to obesity can be reduced by an average of 40% through increased physical activity.

The authors used a cohort study of 20,430 people living in Norwich, UK and examined 12 different genetic variants which are known to increase the risk of obesity. The researchers tested how many of these variants each study participants had inherited from either parent. They then assessed the overall genetic susceptibility to obesity by summing the number of variants inherited into a 'genetic predisposition score'. Most individuals inherited between 10 and 13 variants, but some had inherited more than 17 variants, while others fewer than 6. In addition the researchers assessed occupational and leisure-time physical activities in each individual by using a validated self-administered questionnaire. The researchers then used modeling techniques to examine whether a higher 'genetic predisposition score' was associated with a higher body mass index (BMI)/obesity risk and, most importantly, they also tested whether a physically active lifestyle could attenuate the genetic influence on BMI and obesity risk.

The researchers found that each additional genetic variant in the score was associated with an increase in BMI equivalent to 445g in body weight for a person 1.70 m tall and that the size of this effect was greater in inactive people than in active people. In individuals who had a physically active lifestyle, this increase was only 379 g/variant, or 36% lower than in physically inactive individuals in whom the increase was 592 g/variant. Furthermore, in the total sample each additional obesity-susceptibility variant increased the odds of obesity by 1.1-fold. However, the increased odds per variant for obesity risk were 40% lower in physically active individuals (1.095 odds/variant) compared to physically inactive individuals (1.16 odds/variant).

These findings challenge deterministic views of the genetic predisposition to obesity that are often held by the public, as they suggest that even people at greater genetic risk of obesity can benefit from adopting a healthy lifestyle.

The authors say: "Our findings further emphasize the importance of physical activity in the prevention of obesity.""

Article reprinted from the Science Daily, originally written by PLoS Medicine.

Pancreatic Cancers Use Fructose, Common in a Western Diet, to Fuel Growth

"Pancreatic cancers use the sugar fructose, very common in the Western diet, to activate a key cellular pathway that drives cell division, helping the cancer to grow more quickly, a study by researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has found.

Although it’s widely known that cancers use glucose, a simple sugar, to fuel their growth, this is the first time a link has been shown between fructose and cancer proliferation, said Dr. Anthony Heaney, an associate professor of medicine and neurosurgery, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher and senior author of the study.

“The bottom line is the modern diet contains a lot of refined sugar including fructose and it’s a hidden danger implicated in a lot of modern diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and fatty liver,” said Heaney, who also serves as director of the Pituitary Tumor and Neuroendocrine Program at UCLA. “In this study, we show that cancers can use fructose just as readily as glucose to fuel their growth.”

The study appeared in the Aug. 1 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Cancer Research.

Sources of fructose in the Western diet include cane sugar (sucrose) and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a corn-based sweetener that has been on the market since about 1970. HFCS accounts for more than 40 percent of the caloric sweeteners added to foods and beverages, and it is the sole sweetener used in American soft drinks.

Between 1970 and 1990, the consumption of HFCS in the U.S. has increased over 1,000 percent, according to an article in the April 2004 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Food companies use HFCS—a mixture of fructose and glucose—because it’s inexpensive, easy to transport and keeps foods moist. And because it is so sweet, it’s cost effective for companies to use small quantities of HCFS in place of more expensive sweeteners or flavorings.

In his study, Heaney and his team took pancreatic tumors from patients and cultured and grew the malignant cells in petri dishes. They then added glucose to one set of cells and fructose to another. Using mass spectrometry, they were able to follow the carbon-labeled sugars in the cells to determine what exactly they were being used for and how.

Heaney found that the pancreatic cancer cells could easily distinguish between glucose and fructose even though they are very similar structurally, and contrary to conventional wisdom, the cancer cells metabolized the sugars in very different ways. In the case of fructose, the pancreatic cancer cells used the sugar in the transketolase-driven non-oxidative pentose phosphate pathway to generate nucleic acids, the building blocks of RNA and DNA, which the cancer cells need to divide and proliferate.

“Traditionally, glucose and fructose have been considered as interchangeable monosaccharide substrates that are similarly metabolized, and little attention has been given to sugars other than glucose,” the study states. “However, fructose intake has increased dramatically in recent decades and cellular uptake of glucose and fructose uses distinct transporters ... these findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation. They have major significance for cancer patients, given dietary refined fructose consumption.”

As in anti-smoking campaigns, a federal effort should be launched to reduce refined fructose intake, Heaney said.

“I think this paper has a lot of public health implications,” Heaney said. “Hopefully, at the federal level there will be some effort to step back on the amount of HFCS in our diets.”

Heaney said that while this study was done in pancreatic cancer, these finding may not be unique to that cancer type.

Going forward, Heaney and his team are exploring whether it’s possible to block the uptake of fructose in the cancer cells with a small molecule, taking away one of the fuels they need to grow. The work is being done in cell lines and in mice, Heaney said.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Hirschberg Foundation and the Jonsson Cancer Center."

Article written by Anthony Heaney, M.D., Ph.D., originally posted on UCLA's website.

Can Wii Fit Make You Fit?

"Wii Hula and Step Games Can Provide Exercise Benefits—at Intermediate or Higher Levels, Reports The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research

Philadelphia, PA (March 9, 2011) - Playing two Wii Fit video games—Step and Hula—can provide adequate exercise to improve health and physical fitness, reports a study in the March issue of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, official research journal of the National Strength and Conditioning Association. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

These Wii Fit games "can be used as an effective mode of physical activity to improve health in adult women," according to the study by honors students Jennifer R. Worley and Sharon N. Rogers, and their advisor, Robert R. Kraemer, Ed.D., FACSM, of Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond. However, the researchers emphasize that players "should strive to participate at higher (intermediate) game levels" to gain exercise benefits.

Active Video Games Have Potential to Improve Fitness
Healthy young women were studied while playing Wii Fit games: Step, a step aerobics workout; and Hula, a simulated hula-hoop game. Oxygen consumption, energy expenditure, and other measures of the body's response to exercise were assessed as players advanced through different levels of each game.

At the starting levels, neither game produced high levels of oxygen consumption or perceived exercise intensity. However, as the women advanced to the intermediate levels, the exercise intensity increased. In both the Step and Hula games, the intermediate level produced energy expenditure equivalent to a fairly brisk walking pace of 3.5 miles per hour.

Of the two games, the Hula game provided higher oxygen consumption and energy expenditure. "This could be attributed to the fact that the hula involves more total body movement exercise than step and uses more muscle groups," Ms. Worley and coauthors write. At the intermediate level of the Hula game, players could burn approximately five calories per minute.

Video games have become a popular recreational activity for many people. One study found that up to 45 percent of U.S. adults play video games, with evidence that those who spend more time playing have lower physical (and mental) health. In recent years, several new games have been introduced that seek to incorporate physical activity into video gaming. The new study is one of the first to evaluate whether these games really provide sufficient exercise to improve health and fitness.

Based on the new findings in healthy young women, at least some Wii Fit games—particularly the Hula game—do indeed provide meaningful exercise. "[The] findings suggest that the Wii Fit can be used as an effective activity for promoting physical health in this population," the researchers conclude. However, they stress that the games don't provide much benefit at the starting level—players who want a real workout will need to play at the intermediate or higher game levels."

Article was taken from the March issue of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, which can be found here.