What are somatic workouts?
How to curb your stress eating
How to spot Parkinson’s disease symptoms
8 simple ways to reduce ultra-processed foods in your diet
Heart failure symptoms in women: How they’re different
GERD diet: Foods to avoid to reduce acid reflux
Strong is the new skinny
Everyday habits that sneakily weaken your bones
Don’t wait to get help for back pain
Correcting how you walk may ease osteoarthritis knee pain
Exercise & Fitness Archive
Articles
5 tips to help you stay healthy this winter
Even in an unusual year, tried-and-true strategies are still the best way to prevent illness.
Staying healthy is likely at the top of your list almost every winter. But this year, in the midst of a pandemic, it may be even more of a concern than usual. You might wonder: should you be taking special supplements to boost your immune system, or investing in cleaning devices to zap germs?
While the viral threats may be different from usual this year, the truth is that you should still be using many of the same strategies that you use in a typical year, says Michael Starnbach, a professor of microbiology at Harvard Medical School. Below are five of his top tips that can help you keep yourself and your loved ones safe.
Moderate-to-vigorous exercise may help prevent atrial fibrillation
Research we're watching
Regular, moderate-to-vigorous exercise may help prevent atrial fibrillation (afib), according to a study in the May 2020 issue of The American Journal of Cardiology.
Previous studies looking at the connection between afib (which causes a rapid, irregular heart rate) and exercise have produced conflicting results. But those studies relied on participants to self-report their exercise habits. For the new study, the 5,147 participants wore devices that measured their activity levels for four to seven consecutive days.
How do I measure exercise intensity?
On call
Q. Exercise guidelines recommend a certain number of hours per week, depending on whether it's moderate or vigorous intensity. So how do I measure exercise intensity?
A. Outside of a physiology laboratory, there really is no standard agreement on how people should gauge their level of exercise intensity.
How to recover from post-traumatic stress disorder
Normally associated with veterans, PTSD can also affect people of all ages who have experienced any kind of trauma.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe and potentially debilitating mental health disorder that affects people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event. PTSD often occurs in combat veterans, but it can also strike older adults, and especially men.
About 70% of older men have been exposed to trauma at some point in life, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Many of these traumatic events are accidents (or near misses), injuries, or serious health issues.
Three moves for better spine health
Spinal instability can contribute to low back pain, but the "big three" exercises can help.
A strong core can stabilize your spine to help keep your lower back healthy and pain-free. The muscles and ligaments surrounding your spine can weaken with age or from an injury, which can make movements like twisting, stretching, lifting, and bending difficult.
"The lower back often has to compensate for this lack of mobility, which places greater stress and burden on its muscles," says Eric L'Italien, a physical therapist with Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Center.
Stay active to stay out of the hospital
News briefs
It's well established that regular exercise is healthy. But how much exercise do you need to achieve health benefits? Even just a little activity — both at home and at work — may reduce your risk of hospitalization, suggests a long-term observational study published May 6, 2020, in BMC Geriatrics. Researchers analyzed the self-reported workplace and leisure activity of 25,000 men and women ages 40 to 79 over a 20-year period. During the first 10 years of the study, people who were active were 25% less likely to be hospitalized for more than 20 days per year, compared with people who were inactive. In the second 10 years of the study, people who remained active or became active — even just slightly — were 34% less likely to be hospitalized for more than 20 days per year. Also, people who were inactive or became inactive during the study had the highest risk of being hospitalized. The take-home message: Stay as active as you can, whether it's a brisk walk most days of the week or just vigorous housework. Even a little activity protects your health.
Image: shapecharge/Getty Images
Exergaming: Fitness and fun in front of your TV?
Active-play video games may encourage adults — including those with heart disease — to be more active.
Looking to liven up your indoor exercise routine? You might want to try exergaming — a fitness trend that incorporates exercise into a video game. Also called gamercising, the workouts may be more motivating and fun than a traditional exercise video.
"One advantage to exergaming is that the game choices are so broad, you can tailor the exercise to your own particular interest," says Dr. Ashwin Babu, a sports medicine physiatrist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. Depending on the video gaming system, you can choose from a wide array of simulated sports and recreational activities, including baseball, bowling, boxing, cycling, football, golf, table tennis, track and field events, skateboarding, skiing, tennis, and volleyball. Some offer muscle-strengthening workouts, balance and stretching, aerobic exercises, dancing, and martial arts. Others feature adventure games that you "play" with your body movements, such as moving your arms, jumping, squatting, running in place, and sidestepping.
Brain health and walking speed often decline together
In the journals
Slower gait speed and cognitive decline may be related, according to a study published online April 12, 2020, by the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
Scientists recorded the gait speed and cognitive health of 370 people in the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging (SALSA). Cognitive health was measured with a test that assessed orientation to time and place, attention, recall, language, and other aspects. Gait speed was measured with a timed 10-foot walk.
What are somatic workouts?
How to curb your stress eating
How to spot Parkinson’s disease symptoms
8 simple ways to reduce ultra-processed foods in your diet
Heart failure symptoms in women: How they’re different
GERD diet: Foods to avoid to reduce acid reflux
Strong is the new skinny
Everyday habits that sneakily weaken your bones
Don’t wait to get help for back pain
Correcting how you walk may ease osteoarthritis knee pain
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