Category: Research (Page 92 of 93)

Walking your way to weight loss

March 23, 2011 / Staff

If you really want to lose weight and feel better, getting started should be easier than you think. Many people get intimidated by the thought of going to the gym and radically changing your diet. While those might be great ideas, they mean nothing if the notion of an intense workout and diet prevent you from doing anything at all.

Start with the basics. Get off the couch and start walking!

When it comes to weight control, almost nothing is easier and cheaper than brisk walking.
Going for a walk every day can improve mood, increase energy, lower blood pressure and protect against diabetes, osteoporosis and cancer.
But to reap these benefits, you need to get the lead out and put some spring in your step.
It’s not window shopping or taking a stroll in the park. Walk like you’re late for the bus.
You should be able to carry on a conversation, but you’ll be a little breathless when you talk, says Miriam Nelson, director of the John Hancock Research Center on Physical Activity, Nutrition and Obesity Prevention at Tufts University in Boston.

Some of you may feel that you’re so out of shape that even brisk walking makes you nervous. Well, don’t feel like you have to walk like this from the beginning. Just get out of the house and walk around the block. Then, do it again in the next day or two, but walk a little further. Just moving a little will make you feel better, and then you’ll feel more excited about walking regularly and walking more briskly.

Check out the entire article for more information on how 3 MPH is the threshold for brisk walking.

Nutrition, Research, Wellness

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UCLA Scientists Identify a Possible Cure for Baldness

February 18, 2011 / Staff

Scientists may have accidentally discovered a cure for baldness while researching the effects of stress on the digestive system.

The findings look promising.

“Our findings show that a short-duration treatment with this compound causes an astounding long-term hair regrowth in chronically stressed mutant mice,” Million Mulugeta, an adjunct professor of medicine in the division of digestive diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a corresponding author of the research, said in a statement. “This could open new venues to treat hair loss in humans … particularly hair loss related to chronic stress and aging.”
Read the whole article here.

Research

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Study says soda tax would reduce weight and add revenues

December 14, 2010 / Staff

Obesity is one of the biggest problems in this country, so people are searching for innovative ideas to attack the problem.

One possible approach is to tax sodas and other sugary drinks. It seems logical, but of course one has to deal with the food and beverage lobbyists. Also, some Americans hate the idea of the government dictating anything, though here it’s just a tax to cover the costs we as a society pay for these beverages.

A recent study, however, provides some ammunition for proponents of the soda tax.

Millions of people would lose about a pound or more a year if large taxes were tacked onto regular soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages such as sport drinks and fruit drinks, a new analysis shows.
A soda tax of 20% or 40% would generate about $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion in annual tax revenue. The 40% tax would cost the average household about $28 a year, the research shows.
“If the tax money was used to serve healthier foods in schools and build parks and recreation centers, it could lead to even more weight loss,” says the study’s lead researcher, Eric Finkelstein, a health economist and associate professor of health services at Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School.
The idea of a substantial tax on soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages has been the subject of hot debate in recent years among national, state and local policymakers. Public health advocates have been pushing for a hefty tax as a way to reduce consumption of these products to help people lose weight and become healthier.
Currently, two-thirds of people in this country are overweight or obese, which is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and many other health problems. Obesity costs the country roughly $147 billion a year in increased medical expenses, according to another study by Finkelstein.

The soda tax seems like an obvious solution, and perhaps this study and others like it will start to tip the balance.

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Nutrition, Research, Wellness

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Depressing study about patient safety at hospitals

November 26, 2010 / Staff

A new study taken over the last decade indicates that efforts to improve patient safety and cut down on medical errors at hospitals have not had much effect.

The study, conducted from 2002 to 2007 in 10 North Carolina hospitals, found that harm to patients was common and that the number of incidents did not decrease over time. The most common problems were complications from procedures or drugs and hospital-acquired infections.
“It is unlikely that other regions of the country have fared better,” said Dr. Christopher P. Landrigan, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. The study is being published on Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine.
It is one of the most rigorous efforts to collect data about patient safety since a landmark report in 1999 found that medical mistakes caused as many as 98,000 deaths and more than one million injuries a year in the United States. That report, by the Institute of Medicine, an independent group that advises the government on health matters, led to a national movement to reduce errors and make hospital stays less hazardous to patients’ health.

We’ve just gone through a bruising fight on health care reform, but patient safety is something all of us should be able to agree upon. We need national standards to help reduce medical errors.

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Doctors, Health Care Policy, Hospitals, Quality Control, Research

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The benefits of free-range eggs

November 10, 2010 / Staff

Here’s some interesting information on the benefits of free-range eggs over regular eggs. Basically, they are much more nutritious:

This only makes sense considering the chickens are allowed to consume their natural diet, which includes seeds, insects, green plants and worms. Compared to U.S. Department of Agriculture nutrient data for commercial eggs, eggs from chickens raised on a pasture may contain the following: two-thirds more vitamin A; two times more omega-3 fatty acids; three times more vitamin E; and seven times more beta carotene. The problem with eggs labeled “free-range” is that the USDA defines free-range as chickens having access to the outside. The problem with this definition is it doesn’t define their diets or what “outside access” means. Under this definition, the chickens can have access to a cement courtyard while eating an unnatural diet that includes soy, corn and cottonseed meals, and still be called free range. (Mother Earth News. Oct/Nov, 2007)

Now you need to figure out where you can purchase real free-range eggs.

Nutrition, Research

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