Category Archives: Healthy Lifestyle

Its recommended we do at least 30 minutes of exercise a day or 150 minutes a week to stay healthy. But 30 minutes accounts for just 2% of the day. And many of us spend most of the rest of the time sitting.

Research shows that sitting can be bad for our health in many ways with some even suggesting its as bad for us as smoking. And our new study has revealed that 30 minutes of daily exercise is not enough to overcome the health risks of sitting too much. But we also revealed that with the right balance of time spent exercising and moving, it may be possible to counteract the negatives of sitting.

We combined data from six different studies from the UK, US and Sweden, looking at a total of over 130,000 adults. Each of the studies used a physical activity monitor (like a Fitbit) to measure a persons movements and sitting time throughout the day. Each study then followed the participants for an average of four to 14 years to track whether any participants died.

As expected, we found that 30 minutes of daily exercise decreased the risk of early death by up to 80% for those who also spent less than seven hours a day sitting. But it didnt have the same effect for people who spent between 11 and 12 hours a day sitting. In other words, its not as simple as checking off the exercise box on the to-do list. A healthy lifestyle requires more than 30 minutes of exercise if you spend a lot of time sitting.

For those who sat a lot, 30 minutes of daily exercise would only lower risk of early death by 30% if combined with four to five hours of light movement a day (such as shopping, cooking, or yard work) spending less than 11 hours sitting total. We can think of this mixture of light activity, exercise and sitting as a cocktail. And when it comes to living an active lifestyle, there are different recipes you can choose to to get the same benefits.

For example, one person might exercise daily for 30 minutes, move throughout the day for about six hours doing activities like housework or walking to work, but spend around ten hours a day sitting. They would have the same risk of death as someone who exercised 55 minutes daily, moved throughout the day for about four hours, and sat for about 11 hours. In other words, different combinations of exercise and movement can be used to offset the harms of sitting.

Personalised recommendations

Our findings provide new insights on what constitutes a healthy and active lifestyle. For decades, scientists have studied the health benefits of exercise but this research has largely ignored the fact that how you spend the rest of the day also matters. Instead of the recommendation that everyone should strive to achieve 30 minutes of daily exercise, our results show physical activity recommendations can been more personalised. People can adopt a mixture of activity that works best for them.

For many of us, our jobs require us to sit for eight hours or more a day. But when you get home, exercising for one hour and doing light activities for a few hours in the evening (such as housework or yard work) could still yield health benefits. If youre a stay-at-home parent whos typically too busy to get to the gym, moving around throughout the day while doing essential tasks (such as playing with the kids or putting away groceries) can also improve your health.

The application of precision medicine to save and improve lives relies on good-quality, easily-accessible data on everything from our DNA to lifestyle and environmental factors. The opposite to a one-size-fits-all healthcare system, it has vast, untapped potential to transform the treatment and prediction of rare diseasesand disease in general.

But there is no global governance framework for such data and no common data portal. This is a problem that contributes to the premature deaths of hundreds of millions of rare-disease patients worldwide.

The World Economic Forums Breaking Barriers to Health Data Governance initiative is focused on creating, testing and growing a framework to support effective and responsible access across borders to sensitive health data for the treatment and diagnosis of rare diseases.

The data will be shared via a federated data system: a decentralized approach that allows different institutions to access each others data without that data ever leaving the organization it originated from. This is done via an application programming interface and strikes a balance between simply pooling data (posing security concerns) and limiting access completely.

The project is a collaboration between entities in the UK (Genomics England), Australia (Australian Genomics Health Alliance), Canada (Genomics4RD), and the US (Intermountain Healthcare).

The caveat, however, is that our study found that six minutes of light activity was equivalent to one minute of moderate to intense exercise. So you would need to do three hours of light activity to yield the same benefit as 30 minutes of exercise.

While our study adds important new insights about the ideal balance of movement, we are missing one ingredient: sleep. Its unclear if the health benefits of exercise and movement are the same if you dont get enough sleep. As well, key questions on how to spend your day like whether you should wake up 30 minutes earlier to exercise still need to be studied.

Ultimately, our findings show that a healthy and active lifestyle is more than just exercising for 30 minutes, and that there are many different ways of achieving better health and longevity. While exercise still provides the best bang for your buck in terms of the amount of time required, our findings are still good news for people who may not have the time, ability or desire to exercise. The road to an active lifestyle is more accessible and achievable than we thought and is not just for gym regulars.

Read the rest here:
Experts answer: is 30 minutes of daily exercise enough? - World Economic Forum

by: Sarah Darmanjian, Mary Wilson

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)- It may be surprising to hear that strokes kill twice as many women as breast cancer. In fact, one in five women between the ages of 55-75 will have a stroke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Four out of five strokes can be prevented, making it important to know the risks and warning signs the CDC said.

80% of strokes are preventable and so the fact that we can prevent 80% of the strokes is really quite amazing, Dr. Alexandra Paul, a neurosurgeon at Albany Medical Center, told NEWS10s, Mary Wilson.

There are several reasons why women have a higher risk of stroke including pregnancy, birth control pills, migraine headaches, atrial fibrillation, high blood pressure and hypertension, said Dr. Paul.

The act of being pregnant actually puts women at a higher risk of having a stroke, oral contraceptives also increase the risk of stroke in women, he said.

High blood pressure or hypertension, is the most treatable cause of stroke. A healthy lifestyle is the best prevention, the CDC said.

Eat a healthy diet, maintain a healthy weight, be physically active, dont smoke, and have your blood pressure checked, Dr. Paul said.

Being able to identify the symptoms of a stroke can not only help yourself, it can also help your loved ones.

About 66% of the time, someone other than the stroke victim makes the decision to seek treatment and so recognizing the signs and sudden symptoms of stroke could actually help save a life, Dr. Paul said.

Source: Duke Health

The most common treatment for stroke victims is a clot-busting drug but it can only be given within four and a half hours after the onset of symptoms. Getting swift treatment can make a significant difference in a patients outcome.

Some stroke symptoms are reversible and thats called a transient ischemic attack and then some strokes are much more devastating where patients are left completely pelagic on one side, unable to move the arm or the leg and no speech at all, said Dr. Paul.

A thrombectomy can also lessen the debilitating effects of a stroke and can be done in a wider time frame.

We can go inside the blood vessels up to the blood vessels of the brain and try to take out the clot and that has had a really remarkable effect on reducing the disability of stroke in the country, Dr. Paul said.

The surgery is a newer treatment which can be done at Albany Medical Center but this isnt the case for all hospitals in America. One in six patients does not have access to a thrombectomy.

Originally posted here:
Womens Health: Stroke Awareness Month - WSYR

LETTER | Leave no one behind. That is our promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals and our government has been working hard to decrease the inequalities and vulnerabilities that leave people behind.

Unfortunately, we still have a significant number of people, mainly from the lower-income group, struggling to achieve socioeconomic and health equality. Socio-economic problems, and health and food insecurity are reported to be the main problems among the low-income group and amidst the pandemic, women and children, especially from the lower-income group who are the most negatively affected, require urgent attention.

Non-communicable diseases and malnutrition are some of the few health threats reported among women from the B40 group and these problems seem to be persistent among them. Studies have reported that the impact of diabetes is greater in females than in males with a worse outcome. Women with diabetes have a higher risk of heart diseases and earlier incidents of heart attack which can be fatal when compared to men.

Healthy habits are the most effective way to combat them, but, sadly, in the chaos of a woman's daily life, healthy living may take the back seat to chores, work, busy schedules, and more. To make matters worse, with the rising number of cases and the implementation of the movement control order again, these already vulnerable groups, are facing another period of social and economic uncertainties.

Why are we targetting women? Simply because women are responsible for producing and preparing food for their family and household; therefore, their knowledge or lack of it can create issues not only on womens own health but also on the health of the family members.

Ensuring the correct nutritional status is vital, especially now when we need our immune system to fight the disease.

Healthy habit is a combination of healthy eating, being physically active, avoiding smoking and limiting alcohol consumption. For more information, we suggest you see your physician and the dietitian. Some steps to overcome the barriers women face to live healthily include:

Adequate knowledge on healthy lifestyle is important for women not only because it helps them to be productive members of society but also because of the direct effect on their family members and the next generation.

Our low-income families are at risk of poor nutrition and unhealthy lifestyle with the ongoing lockdown; therefore, empowering and educating them can create an environment that benefits everyone.

Nothing must be done separately; make healthy choices for the whole family. In addition, do not be afraid to seek help if it is needed. This lockdown will leave some impact on our community and all these efforts will have a greater health impact if it comes from us ourselves.

DR KALAASHINI RAMACHANDRAN is with the Department of Public Health University of Malaya Medical Council and DR HAZREEN ABDUL MAJID isHead of Centre for Population Health, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Universiti Malaya.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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LETTER | Encouraging women in lower-income group to live healthy amidst pandemic - Malaysiakini

Elected leaders should follow the science on mask-wearing

Recent bursts of sunshine, nearly cloudless skies and summer-like temperatures have got us all outside, recovering not only from the long New Hampshire winter but also from the isolation of COVID-19. It also has us wondering when we might be able to give up the masks weve worn for the past year. Local elected officials are holding public hearings, soliciting input from citizens on mask mandates. Its a controversial issue, with strong feelings on both sides.

Now is the time for strong leadership.

As elected officials, I believe we have to follow the science. This will help us with our fear. There are objective facts out there, and it is our duty to pursue them. Monica Gandhi, professor of medicine and director of AIDS research at the University of California at San Francisco, who was a strong proponent of masking, is now strongly suggesting that we take them off.

In a recent PBS interview, she draws from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as such publications as JAMA, to update us on the research. What might appear as a sudden reversal of opinion regarding mask-wearing, she explains, is not.

Study after study has shown the effectiveness of the vaccines. They are even more effective than originally thought. The vaccines, she further explains, also block transmission.

Additionally, she worries about decreasing the strength of our immune systems through continued mask-wearing. Humans simply need exposure to some pathogens in order to remain strong. (Remember our worries, eons ago, about overuse of antibacterial cleanser on our hands that it might lessen our immunity? That was a solid worry, it turns out.)

Finally and Im drawing directly from Dr. Gandhi here we should remember to be grateful. We live in the richest country in the world: The vaccines were developed in record time, and they have been dispensed with record speed. For those of us who have traveled in developing countries, we can be grateful for the resources that we have at our disposal.

I hope that this means we can be happy, and hopeful.

WENDY PIPER

Enfield

The writer is chair of the Grafton County Commissioners.

Forum contributor Margaret D. Hurley describes the cruelty to animals and the damage to our health and the health of the planet by the consumption of meat and dairy (Stop normalizing animal cruelty, May 25). She seems to be despairing of the Valley News ignoring this kind of news. But I see the printing of her letter as a sign of validation of the subject.

I believe many of us are aware of the cruelty of factory-farmed livestock. Those methods torture and exploit animals and yet, unfortunately, continue to flourish. Maybe this is due to conditioning, habit and the advertising and marketing practices of the meat and dairy industries.

Just eliminating the consumption of factory-farmed animals may not satisfy those opposed to it, but it would be a step in the right direction of living a more compassionate and healthy lifestyle.

As to our own health, studies such as Colin Campbells The China Study point to a whole-food, plant-based diet as a healthy food choice. Yet we seem to be on our own as far as learning how to go about this. I guess many health care practitioners may not feel adequately trained to include that in their wellness programs. Luckily, there are helpful resources, such as foodrevolution.org, run by John and Ocean Robbins.

To the list of documentaries on the subject of plant-based diet, a good one to add is The Game Changers. This may especially appeal to sports-oriented folks. It is gripping and convincing and may begin the process of change, namely starting with compassion for our own bodies.

Self-compassion may be a good entrance point to this ever-evolving journey of a step-by step move toward a more sustainable and compassionate future. When we learn to take care of ourselves we can really thrive and be as healthy as possible.

It may automatically lead to compassion for animals, our co-inhabitants, and to the healing of our beautiful but severely overtaxed natural world.

BINEKE PEL OORT

Wilder

My maternal grandfathers birth surname was Yerushalimsky, a Europeanized version of Yerushalmi, which means of or from Jerusalem. That itself means nothing, of course, but my grandfather was a kohen, or hereditary member of the priestly caste, and careful attribution of that lineage is taken quite seriously in Judaism. Performance of every ritual for significant life events depends on it. And my father was a hereditary member of the priestly assistants class, ditto and likewise. (Imagine the shonda when I became a Muslim and remained so for a considerable number of years!)

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaibs maiden name was Harbi, which means of or from the tribe of Harb, originating in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula. (Of course, if you boil us down, Im just a Brooklynite and shes a Detroiter.

But funny thing: A handful of my cousins were born in Mandatory Palestine, and therefore were legally of Palestinian citizenship, according to the governing British law of the time, before they acquired Israeli citizenship.

Why do ethnic groups now self-identified as Palestinian speak the non-indigenous language of Arabic? If thats your mother tongue and you call yourself a Palestinian, your people come originally from colonizers or the colonized. And invaders from practically time immemorial kept carrying my ancestral people away in chains, if they managed to survive massacres. Im glad a maternal great-aunt, and a maternal great-uncle, and my various cousins, survived all the massacres in 1929.

Both Jews and Arabs, and their governing authorities, have been perpetrating atrocities and cruelties upon each other for a very long time.

Want to stop them? Shut the money spigots pouring into the hands of fundamentalist crazies on both sides. They mirror each other in every single way. They have every bad thing in common. I promise you, as one whos been a bat mitzvah girl and an Eid celebrant, Ive got a heck of a mishigas meter.

Want the possibility of peace over there? Neuter the evil twins and let everyone else breathe.

SARAH CRYSL AKHTAR

Lebanon

The rest is here:
Forum, May 28: Elected leaders should follow the science on mask-wearing - Valley News

If you are trying to lose weight, manage your blood pressure, or just live a healthy lifestyle, figuring out how many carbs you should eat each day can be easier said than done. One person says to eat carbs all day every day, while another person will imply that this macro is one of the worst things on this earth that you can eat. Which leaves you scratching your head wondering whether eating an apple is going to save your life or if it is going to be the death of you.

Among the sea of advice surrounding how many carbs is ideal, there is one amount that is the wrong amount: zero carbs. As a registered dietitian, I always recommend that zero carbs are the wrong amount of carbs to eat every day, no matter what the diet trends on social media tells you. (Related: 30 Worst Things You Can Do If You're Trying to Lose Weight.)

Carbohydrates, affectionately known as carbs, are what our body uses primarily as fuel and energy. While it is true that the body can break down fat and protein for energy too, leaning on carbs can be a much more efficient way to fuel your body.

Foods that contain carbs are also the best sources of fiber which can help keep your bowel movements healthy, can support a healthy gut microbiome, and can promote satiety after a meal. Not eating enough fiber is linked to some unsavory outcomes, including an increased risk of colon cancer and a higher likelihood of experiencing constipation.

Carbohydrates can also help maintain muscle mass. While it is true that protein is the shining star macro in the muscle-building world, if your body is not getting any carbs, your muscles can be broken down and used as energy.

Read more: 26 Worst Habits Slowing Your Metabolism, Says Science

Even if you are following a diet that is notoriously low in carbs think keto or Atkins, as examples you will be hard-pressed to find a diet that is 100% carb-free. Even hard-core keto allows for some carbs every day, such as low-carb fruits.

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If you are eliminating carbs completely, you are inevitably eliminating entire food groups. From fruit to whole grains to even milk, eating "no carbs" means that you are essentially living off of protein and fat sources, and thus, missing out on some key nutrients (like fiber).

Eliminating food groups can be risky. As an example, eating fruit is linked to plenty of positive health benefits. From reducing the risk of depression to decreasing the changes of experiencing a heart attack or stroke, including fruit into a diet is utterly important.

Perhaps the most frightening outcome that people may experience when they eat a low amount of carbs (or no carbs) is an elevated risk of experiencing early death along with an elevated risk of developing cancer and experiencing stroke, according to data shared by the European Society of Cardiology.

In a nutshell, completely eliminating carbs from your diet is a risky move.

There are valid reasons why people may follow a low-carb diet, and studies have shown that these diets can provide people with some amazing results. But eating absolutely no carbs is a dangerous game to play. When you completely eliminate carbs from your diet, you are cutting out entire food groups, and therefore may cause you to run the risk of being deficient in some very important nutrients, or worse, cause you to experience some scary health effects.

Instead of eliminating carbohydrates altogether, consider focusing on unrefined carbs that are nutrient-rich and can help support your overall health. From berries to whole grain bread to beans and peas, the healthy carb choices are endless and each one is more satisfying than the next. For some examples, see these 24 Best Healthy Carbs To Eat For Weight Loss.

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Read more:
The Wrong Amount of Carbs to Eat Every Day, Says Dietitian - Yahoo Lifestyle

Hypertension and other chronic conditions disproportionately affect people from ethnic and racial minorities, who are often live in under-resourced communities and face historic or systemic disadvantages. Considering these inequities is essential both for COVID-19 responses and for long-term management approaches to chronic conditions.

Media coverage has examined how and why COVID-19 is disproportionately impacting communities of color to some degree, lead author Adam Bress, PharmD, MS, an associate professor of population health science in the division of health system innovation and research at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake Sity, said in a statement. However, it is critical that we continue to examine and explain the degree to which the pandemic has widened the divide among race [or] ethnic and class groups in the US and exposed the systemic and institutional cracks in our health care system in terms of health care equity for people who are under-represented and populations that face disadvantages.

A panel of clinicians, investigators, and leaders from diverse backgrounds recently convened to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic widened inequities in hypertension control and to examine environmental and socioeconomic factors that contribute to disparities within the health care system. They also aimed to develop strategies to help close the gap moving forward.

One large nationwide study of more than 50,000 adults found that the number of individuals maintaining healthy blood pressure (BP) levels had been declining even before the pandemic, and a lack of access to health care and health insurance were major contributing factors. HBP in this study was defined as greater than 140/90 mm Hg, though the American Heart Association guidelines define HBP as greater than 130/80 mm Hg.

This study found that between 2017 and 2018, just 22% of uninsured individuals in the study had healthy BP levels compared with 40% to 46% of those who had some form of health insurance. Furthermore, just 8% of individuals who had not seen a health care professional in the previous year had their BP under control compared with 47% of those who reported seeing a health care professional. The results also suggest that Black adults were 12% less likely to have healthy BP levels than White adults.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a major shift in health care, with the switch from in-person to virtual medical visits. Although virtual visits can be convenient for many patients, this also presents a challenge, because many individuals do not have access to validated home BP monitors. This lack of access to devices, as well as a lack of internet access or inadequate digital literacy to participate in virtual appointments, posed significant barriers.

Additional obstacles to achieving controlled BP are a lack of adherence to lifestyle changes and medications. Limited trips to grocery stores or physicians offices also resulted in limited access to counseling and healthy food, which can have a negative effect on hypertension.

The panel also noted that distrust of the health care system is a major obstacle to BP control. This distrust is fueled by decades of institutional racism and historical atrocities in medical research, such as the Tuskegee study of syphilis in Black men. To address this distrust, the panel noted that community-based interventions can help foster trust and improve health care access.

One trial illustrating the importance of community interventions was the BARBER trial, in which barbershops in primarily Black neighborhoods in Los Angeles were used to encourage people to meet with pharmacists, who were embedded in the barbershops regularly. The barbershops also promoted healthy lifestyle choices with routine care by physicians.

At 6 months, individuals who participated in the intervention achieved a 21.6 mm Hg greater reduction in systolic BP and had a 51.9% greater increase in BP control than those who did not receive any intervention. These results were sustained at 12 months.

Finally, the panel noted a lack of diversity among investigators, medical school students, and research participants. The results of 1 analysis found that among all hypertension trials registered in the United States, just 5.4% enrolled exclusively Black adults, suggesting that there are few approaches and interventions being specifically studied for this population.

Too often, individuals are blamed for their health care conditions, without considering the multiple levels of social factors and context that contribute to persistent and pervasive health inequities, Bress said.

Health inequities are a social justice issue, she said. We need to be more direct and honest about the reasons for health disparities today and commit to structural solutions to begin to address them.

REFERENCE

COVID-19 pandemic magnified health inequities for people with high blood pressure. News release. American Heart Association. May 19, 2021. Accessed May 21, 2021. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/covid-19-pandemic-magnified-health-inequities-for-people-with-high-blood-pressure?preview=1605

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Pandemic Exacerbates Health Inequities for Individuals with High Blood Pressure - Pharmacy Times