Combining Exercise & Mental Practice Supercharges Well-Being (M)
How mindfulness reshapes the mind-body connection, making workouts more effective than ever before.
Category: Exercise
People Will Exercise For Cash: What Happens When Money Stops? (M)
The study involved over half-a-million Canadians who were paid to increase their step count over about six months.
Antidepressants vs. Running: Which Treats Depression Better? (M)
The 16-week study gave people the choice between group running or taking antidepressants.
Longer Life: 30-Minute Activity Reduces Common Disease Risk 20%
Thirty minutes per week of this activity lowers the risk of early death, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
Thirty minutes per week of this activity lowers the risk of early death, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
People who do muscle strengthening activities for 30 to 60 minutes per week, are at a 10 to 20 percent lower risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and early death.
Muscles, or more precisely, skeletal muscles are important for energy production, body movement, and generally the quality of human life.
Adults’ skeletal muscle health greatly benefits from regular muscle strengthening activities such as heavy gardening, digging and shovelling, cycling, hill walking, resistance band exercises, lunges, sit-ups, push-ups, squats, and lifting weights.
Past studies have found that muscle strengthening exercises are associated with longevity, but the optimal dose was unknown.
For this reason, a research team analysed data from sixteen studies on associations between muscle strengthening activities and health outcomes in adults.
They found that muscle strengthening activities reduced diabetes, lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, and death up to 17 percent.
People who performed muscle strengthening activities for 30 to 60 minutes per week benefited most as the risk of CVD, cancer and all causes of death was reduced up to 20 percent.
The risk of diabetes remarkably went down with 60 minutes muscle strengthening once-a-week activities were carried out.
However, combination of muscle strengthening and aerobic exercises seem to offer maximum risk reduction.
These two activities together reduced risk of death for CVD by 46 percent, all-causes by 40 percent, and cancer by 28 percent.
The authors concluded:
“The combination of muscle strengthening and aerobic activities may provide a greater benefit for reducing all-cause, [cardiovascular disease], and total cancer mortality.
Given that the available data are limited, further studies—such as studies focusing on a more diverse population—are needed to increase the certainty of the evidence.”
The study was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (Momma et al., 2022).
The Number Of Steps Linked To A Longer Life
This number of steps every day can lower the risk of early death by 70 percent.
This number of steps every day can lower the risk of early death by 70 percent.
Walking 7,000 steps (5.6 km or 3 miles) each day lowers the risk of death by about two-thirds in adults compared to those who walk less.
A study has found that middle-aged adults who walked at least 7,000 steps each day had a 50 to 70 percent lower risk of dying prematurely.
They also say that walking faster or taking more steps than 10,000 a day didn’t reduce the risk of death any further.
The commonly-repeated advice on walking 10,000 steps every day is not based on scientific evidence, but actually is from a Japanese company marketing a pedometer.
Therefore, the researchers wanted to find out whether this 10,000 steps a day target can really provide health benefits and longevity.
Dr Amanda Paluch and her team began with one question:
“How many steps per day do we need for health benefits?
That would be great to know for a public health message or for clinician-patient communication.”
For this study, 2,110 participants aged 38 to 50 years were followed for 11 years.
They were divided into three groups: high- step volume for more than 10,000 steps a day, moderate for 7,000 to 9,999 steps a day, and low for less than 7,000 steps a day.
Dr Paluch said:
“You see this gradual risk reduction in mortality as you get more steps.
There were substantial health benefits between 7,000 and 10,000 steps but we didn’t see an additional benefit from going beyond 10,000 steps.
For people at 4,000 steps, getting to 5,000 is meaningful.
And from 5,000 to 6,000 steps, there is an incremental risk reduction in all-cause mortality up to about 10,000 steps.”
While previous studies related to steps have often been focused on older adults, this research involved middle-aged people.
The results suggest that people would stay healthier and live longer if they added this amount of regular steps to their everyday lives.
Dr Paluch said:
“Preventing those deaths before average life expectancy — that is a big deal.
Showing that steps per day could be associated with premature mortality is a new contribution to the field.”
A weight loss study has also suggested the 10,000 steps rule as the gold standard.
They have also found that people would see the physical and mental health benefits of walking even by just doing 7,500 steps.
A different study by Spartano & colleagues on the effect of light physical activity on reducing brain aging suggest 10,000 steps each day:
“Achieving 10 000 or more steps per day was associated with higher brain volume compared with those achieving fewer than 5000 steps per day.”
The study was published in JAMA Network Open (Paluch et al., 2021).
How To Gain Physical Strength Using Only The Mind (M)
In the study healthy people had their hands and wrists immobilised in a cast for four weeks.
Exercise Stimulates Neurons In Brain’s Memory And Learning Centres
The beneficial effects of exercise on the hippocampus, an area critical for memory and learning.
The beneficial effects of exercise on the hippocampus, an area critical for memory and learning.
Being physically active is essential for maintaining mental health and what is more, improves hippocampal function related to learning and memory, a study shows.
Exercise stimulates the production of chemical signals important for neuronal development in the hippocampus.
Mr Ki Yun Lee, the study’s first author, said:
“The hippocampus is a crucial area for learning and memory, and therefore cognitive health.”
During physical activity our muscle fibres contract and by doing so certain chemical compounds are released into the blood vessels and circulated around the body, including the hippocampus.
Swimming, cycling, bicep curls, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, are examples of sporting activities that involve muscle contraction (tightening, lengthening, or shortening of muscles).
The researchers wanted to find out how muscle signals are converted and used for neuronal activity and development in the hippocampus.
Knowing the beneficial effects of exercise on the hippocampus could lead to specific exercise-based interventions to overcome neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Hippocampal neurons
For this study, samples containing mice muscle cells were obtained and kept in the lab in cell culture plates.
When the muscle cells were grown, they began to contract and release chemical signals in the plates.
Then those cultures containing chemical signals were added to another culture which held hippocampal neurons and astrocytes (supportive cells).
The team also used various techniques to track neurons’ electrical activity and so they were able to examine how the hippocampal cells were influenced by the chemical signals.
They found that hippocampal neurons, when receiving the chemical signals from contracting muscles, started to produce larger and more frequent electrical signals.
These suggest that neurons of the hippocampus were flourishing and healthy while at the same time developing a powerful network.
Furthermore, they looked at the mediating role of astrocytes in order to understand what biological mechanism links exercise to brain health.
Mr Lee said:
“Astrocytes are the first responders in the brain before the compounds from muscles reach the neurons.”
When astrocytes were removed from the cell cultures, the team saw that hippocampal neurons began to generate more electrical signals.
This indicates an absence of astrocytes, Mr Lee said:
“Astrocytes play a critical role in mediating the effects of exercise.
By regulating neuronal activity and preventing hyperexcitability of neurons, astrocytes contribute to the balance necessary for optimal brain function.”
He added:
“Ultimately, our research may contribute to the development of more effective exercise regimens for cognitive disorders such as ‘s disease.”
The study was published in the journal Neuroscience (Lee et al., 2023).
The Amount Of Exercise That Keeps You Out Of Hospital
As little exercise as this keeps you fit and out of hospital.
As little exercise as this keeps you fit and out of hospital.
For people over 40, doing just 20 minutes of exercise a day will keep you fit and prevent hospital admission for some years to come.
A study on 81,717 UK adults reveals that those who exercise regularly are at a lower risk of hospitalization from many health issues henceforward.
They found that 20 minutes of regular exercise will cut the risk of hospitalization in adults over 40 by 23 percent.
Increased physical activity including moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise was very effective in reducing odds of hospitalization for 9 common illness.
These common conditions were iron deficiency anaemia, urinary tract infections (UTIs), colon polyps, gallbladder disease, venous thromboembolism, diverticular disease, diabetes, ischemic stroke, and pneumonia.
The likelihood of diabetes, urinary tract infections, and gallbladder disease was at lowest level among people who performed exercise every day.
This suggests that exercise not only keeps the heart healthy, make us slimmer and fitter but also provides many other health benefits.
According to physical activity guidelines, adults should be active and move more during the day.
They should do at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, such as brisk walking, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise, such as running, swimming, or cycling uphill during the week.
20 minutes a day
The study examined the link between levels of physical activity and the risk of admission to hospital.
Participants’ physical activity was recorded while they wore an accelerometer on the wrist for one week in 2013 and 2015 with a 7-year follow up.
During this period, 48,560 participants were taken into hospital for a number of reasons.
The results showed that adults of all ages who exercised at least 20 minutes a day were more likely to avoid hospital.
Moderate to intense physical activity was associated with decreased risk of hospitalization for those identified 9 conditions, ranging from 4 percent for colon polyps to 23 percent for diabetes.
Dr Eleanor Watts, the study’s first author, said:
“Studies show that physical activity can improve immune function, lung and heart health, insulin sensitivity and reduce inflammation.
Physical activity also can reduce body fat, high blood pressure and cholesterol.”
Benefits of exercise
Past studies suggest that physical activity is the best “prescription” and should be the first treatment option for lowering blood cholesterol and hypertension.
Research has found that the best way to maintain weight loss in the long-term is through more exercise rather than less food.
Even simple exercise such as fast walking helps burn more calories but more importantly increases longevity and lowers the risk of early death from heart disease.
Psychological benefits of exercise include fighting depression and anxiety, increasing stress resilience, speeding up the mind and much more.
Professor Chip Lavie, a cardiologist, said;
“Moderate-to-vigorous is a fairly broad range… a daily jog may bring bigger benefits than walking your dog.
Plus, the amount of exercise a person needs varies with the ultimate goal: If you want to lose weight, the more calories you burn, the better.
But the main message is that almost any physical activity is better than inactivity.”
Experts say that people don’t need to push for routine running workouts, any plan for healthy living is a good plan.
Even if a person has been physically inactive for a long time, it is still better late than never.
The study was published in JAMA Network Open (Watts et al., 2023).
This Depression & Anxiety Treatment Beats Medication & Counselling By 50% (M)
The largest benefits were seen among people with depression, pregnant and postpartum women and healthy individuals.
How To Spot The Signs of Exercise Addiction (M)
Self-expansion vs self-suppression: when escapism becomes an addiction.
