Tag Archive for: exercise

Research on Nature and Health

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I’m back on the deck to write today’s message about the benefits of spending time with nature (1). Researchers tested over 1,500 subjects who live in urban settings; they wanted to quantify visits to parks in cities with physical measures such as depression, blood pressure, social interactions, and physical activity (2). If you’re a long-time reader, you know I prefer studies with solid measurements such as body weight or cholesterol levels. Surveys and questionnaires are subject to how a person feels at any given moment, but these researchers used the best instruments available.

They found . . .

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Breast Cancer Follow-up Options

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After treatment for breast cancer, you have a decision to make: do you take the medication to prevent reoccurrence? The decision always lies with the individual after considering all options; my role is to explain the options based on the current research. It goes without question that everyone should try to have the healthiest lifestyle possible including diet, exercise, and supplements. Those will help improve the outcome, medication or not, but this is about whether to take the medication, so here we go.

 

The Medication Option

Basing the decision on current research, taking the letrozole would seem . . .

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The Bottom Line on SIT

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Let’s take a closer look at the study on Sprint Interval Training (1). Researchers recruited 30 sedentary and overweight men, average age 27. They randomly assigned the subjects to one of three groups: a control group who just kept on with their sedentary lifestyle; a group who performed moderate-intensity exercise for 50 minutes three times per week; and the sprint interval group who did three 20-second all-out sprints interspersed with warm-up, recovery, and cool down for a total of 10 minutes, also three days per week. All exercise was performed on exercise bikes and . . .

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SIT to Get Fit?

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The researchers from Canada are at it again. The same group that brought you H.I.I.T now tries to go one step further with SIT. Too many acronyms? HIIT stand for high-intensity interval training; SIT stands for sprint interval training. What’s the difference?

HIIT uses intervals that last from one minute to four minutes in duration with an equivalent amount of rest between intervals; the intensity is adjusted to be able to last the interval time. In prior studies, this research group found that four 1-minute intervals with three minutes rest had positive effects on . . .

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Raising HDL: Exercise

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For many years—even back when I was a graduate student—we’ve known that one of the benefits of regular aerobic exercise is increased levels of HDL cholesterol, AKA the healthy cholesterol. If you want to increase your HDL, you should exercise regularly.

There are still many questions that need to be answered. What is the best type of exercise: aerobic or resistance training? How intense does the exercise have to be? Is walking intense enough or does it have to be faster? There are more questions, but you get the idea.

The reason we don’t know is . . .

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Smoking and Exercise

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What are we doing well when it comes to health habits? Based on the study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, we seem to be getting the message that we shouldn’t smoke tobacco: 71% of all Americans don’t smoke based on the data from the NHANES data set. This wasn’t just a questionnaire; the participants had their blood tested as part of their participation in the study. You can lie on a questionnaire, but you can’t fool a blood test for metabolites found in cigarette smoke.

Better doesn’t mean good enough in my opinion. I . . .

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Gaining Muscle and Losing Fat with Protein

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Can you gain muscle while losing weight? Let’s take a look at the final study in this week’s Research Update on protein.

Researchers recruited 40 young overweight men to participate in a four-week diet and exercise weight loss program with an average age of 23 and average BMI of 29.7. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups. The control group had a diet that reduced calories by 40% and provided 1.2 grams of protein per kg of body weight per day. The protein group had their intake reduced by 40% but were given 2 . . .

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You’ve Got the Ball

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Two emails. Two men. Two deaths. In each case, the men likely didn’t know what they didn’t know. If they had known they had coronary artery disease or hypertension, they probably would have done something about it. Or maybe like many people, they wouldn’t have—“that couldn’t happen to me” syndrome or simply ignoring the facts. As I said on Thursday, this is American Heart Month. I’m going to give you three things you should do to reduce your risk of sudden death, the most extreme symptom of heart disease.

 

Graded Exercise Test . . .

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When It’s 51-49

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I know what you’re probably thinking: Dr. Chet is predicting the Super Bowl score. While that would be a great game, especially if the Broncos win, that’s not what I’m talking about. (Don’t be offended, you Panther fans. I’m an AFC fan every day and especially, a Peyton fan.)

What’s 51-49? Let’s say that you wake up five minutes late on Monday. You will immediately start the process of deciding whether or not you can exercise or fix your healthy breakfast shake; the score stands at 50-50. The arguments begin in . . .

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“In Defense of Food”: The Key Omission

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The movie “In Defense of Food” is a must see, as I’ve said. I think it makes the most reasonable presentation for what we should and should not eat to be healthy. But it also has a glaring omission.

In the movie, a segment focuses on the Hadza, a nomadic tribe in Tanzania and one of the last cultures who are still hunter-gatherers. They eat what they find and occasionally kill. A staple of their diet is very fibrous root vegetables.

The movie also does a segment on a group of elderly 7th Day Adventists. They believe their . . .

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