Fitness

If you've been neglecting exercise for years, making it a habit--especially in your older years--may seem impossible to achieve. Yet doing so could help you avoid becoming disabled or seriously ill once you reach your 60s, according to a new study. Why Exercise Matters At All Ages Published in the February issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers from the University College London looked at older Europeans who remained healthy in their "middle" years--a term describing adults between…
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If there's one thing we all fear in life, it's this: Cancer. And once we hit our 30s, we'll either know a friend, colleague, or family member with the disease--if we don't have it. But now researchers from the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School says there's one way to cut the risk of death from cancer in half: Exercise more. "The number of cancer survivors is increasing rapidly; however, little is known about whether…
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As men, getting older can bring about many unpleasant problems--lack of mobility, a weaker body, and if you're unlucky, a brush with prostate cancer. But now there may be an easy way to treat it--and all it takes is a brisk walk outdoors. According to new findings presented at the American Association for Cancer Research-Prostate Cancer Foundation Conference of Advances in Prostate Cancer Research, men who walked briskly regularly were less likely to have poor prostate cancer outcomes due to…
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If you're a woman, you may balk at the idea of lifting weights in lieu of aerobic exercise, but now a new study says there's a good reason to: It could lower your diabetes risk. The study, which was published in the health journal PLOS Medicine, reveals that resistance training, such as lifting weights, lowered a woman's risk of diabetes by a whopping 40 percent--something that ought to motivate women to start pumping iron. "Notably, women who did more than…
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The statistics don't lie: With more than 25 percent of Americans reportedly suffering from lower back pain, it's turning into an epidemic. Worse yet, spending thousands of dollars of medications, injections, and surgery often make the pain worse. "A broken leg, and the acute pain it causes, can often be treated relatively quickly," says Perry Fine, M.D., a University of Utah pain specialist. "But chronic pain is more akin to bigger problems like diabetes or advanced cancer, which can't be…
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For many older Americans, the pain and embarrassment of osteoarthritis is often too much to bear. However, now a new study from researchers in Ohio say there may be one way to ease arthritis pain naturally--through yoga. "Yoga reduces stress which is known to exacerbate arthritis," say the authors of the study, who work on behalf on the University of Cincinnati's Health Promotion and Education Program in Cincinnati, Ohio. "Yoga can improve coping and by altering perspective toward life provide…
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Imagine this: You're pinched for time, so you head to your living room to do a quick bout of interval training. Then, 4 minutes later, you end your workout and head out the door to work. Sound like heresy? Believe it or not, it's reality now, thanks to a Norwegian study reported by LifeHacker earlier this week. "Regular exercise training improves maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), but the optimal intensity and volume necessary to obtain maximal benefit remains to be defined,"…
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For most people, it's one of their main resolutions: Lose weight and exercise more. But when it comes to weight loss, what's the better solution--aerobic exercise or resistance training? According to a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology in December, they investigated just that--something that left many weightlifters sour-faced. In the study, which examined how aerobic exercise and resistance training affected weight loss for overweight and obese people, lead author Leslie H. Willis. M.S., an exercise physiologist at…
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Mention the word menopause and most women recoil with horror--the hot flashes and rampant insomnia that often accompanies it hardly makes any woman happy. But now a new study in the journal Menopause may put an end to at least one of these symptoms. In the study, which was led by Katherine Newton, Ph.D., a senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute, taking a yoga class helped menopausal women overcome insomnia--though it didn't help lessen hot flashes or night sweats.…
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You've probably heard it time and time again: If you want to live a healthy life, exercise is a must. But for those at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, a type of memory loss disorder, there may be a bigger benefit to hitting the weights--it helps improve the physical and cognitive health of those diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. "I have complete confidence that any exercise will be of some benefit," says Dorothy Forbes, lead author of a new study published…
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