• Home
  • About Morning Health
  • Morning Health Blog
  • Write For Us
  • Store

Morning Health

Healthy, Wealthy & Wise

  • Fitness
  • Food
  • Future of Health
  • Health
  • Mindset
  • News
  • Supplements
You are here: Home / Archives for exercise

How Exercise Keeps Us Young

April 28, 2017 By Morning Health Team Leave a Comment

Source:  well.blogs.nytimes.com

Active older people resemble much younger people physiologically, according to a new study of the effects of exercise on aging. The findings suggest that many of our expectations about the inevitability of physical decline with advancing years may be incorrect and that how we age is, to a large degree, up to us.

Aging remains a surprisingly mysterious process. A wealth of past scientific research has shown that many bodily and cellular processes change in undesirable ways as we grow older. But science has not been able to establish definitively whether such changes result primarily from the passage of time — in which case they are inevitable for anyone with birthdays — or result at least in part from lifestyle, meaning that they are mutable.

Photo:alternet.org

This conundrum is particularly true in terms of inactivity. Older people tend to be quite sedentary nowadays, and being sedentary affects health, making it difficult to separate the effects of not moving from those of getting older.

Photo:turismoacademico.com

In the new study, which was published this week in The Journal of Physiology, scientists at King’s College London and the University of Birmingham in England decided to use a different approach.

They removed inactivity as a factor in their study of aging by looking at the health of older people who move quite a bit.

Photo:huffingtonpost.co.uk

“We wanted to understand what happens to the functioning of our bodies as we get older if we take the best-case scenario,” said Stephen Harridge, senior author of the study and director of the Centre of Human and Aerospace Physiological Sciences at King’s College London.

To accomplish that goal, the scientists recruited 85 men and 41 women aged between 55 and 79 who bicycle regularly. The volunteers were all serious recreational riders but not competitive athletes. The men had to be able to ride at least 62 miles in six and a half hours and the women 37 miles in five and a half hours, benchmarks typical of a high degree of fitness in older people.

The scientists then ran each volunteer through a large array of physical and cognitive tests. The scientists determined each cyclist’s endurance capacity, muscular mass and strength, pedaling power, metabolic health, balance, memory function, bone density and reflexes. They also had the volunteers complete the so-called Timed Up and Go test, during which someone stands up from a chair without using his or her arms, briskly walks about 10 feet, turns, walks back and sits down again.

The researchers compared the results of cyclists in the study against each other and also against standard benchmarks of supposedly normal aging. If a particular test’s numbers were similar among the cyclists of all ages, the researchers considered, then that measure would seem to be more dependent on activity than on age.

Photo:pronutriabio.com

As it turned out, the cyclists did not show their age. On almost all measures, their physical functioning remained fairly stable across the decades and was much closer to that of young adults than of people their age. As a group, even the oldest cyclists had younger people’s levels of balance, reflexes, metabolic health and memory ability.

And their Timed Up and Go results were exemplary. Many older people require at least 7 seconds to complete the task, with those requiring 9 or 10 seconds considered to be on the cusp of frailty, Dr. Harridge said. But even the oldest cyclists in this study averaged barely 5 seconds for the walk, which is “well within the norm reported for healthy young adults,” the study authors write.

Some aspects of aging did, however, prove to be ineluctable. The oldest cyclists had less muscular power and mass than those in their 50s and early 60s and considerably lower overall aerobic capacities. Age does seem to reduce our endurance and strength to some extent, Dr. Harridge said, even if we exercise.

Photo:unmomentoplease.blogspot.com

But even so, both of those measures were higher among the oldest cyclists than would be considered average among people aged 70 or above.

All in all, the numbers suggest that aging is simply different in the active.

“If you gave this dataset to a clinician and asked him to predict the age” of one of the cyclists based on his or her test results, Dr. Harridge said, “it would be impossible.” On paper, they all look young.

Photo:michaelczinkota.com

Of course, this study is based on a single snapshot of an unusual group of older adults, Dr. Harridge said. He and his colleagues plan to retest their volunteers in five and 10 years, which will provide better information about the ongoing effects of exercise on aging.

But even in advance of those results, said Dr. Harridge, himself almost 50 and an avid cyclist, this study shows that “being physically active makes your body function on the inside more like a young person’s.”

Filed Under: Anti Aging, Exercise, Fitness, Mindset, Wellness, Workout Tips Tagged With: anti-aging, exercise, how to be young

Key to Post-Stroke Recovery

April 17, 2017 By Morning Health Team 8 Comments

Image result for stroke recovery

If you think strokes only happen to elderly people, think again. Strokes can hit anyone at any age, but the older one gets, the more susceptible one becomes for having a stroke.

About 15-years ago, my daughter worked as a certified-nursing-assistant at a senior daycare center. Although most of the patients or clients were elderly, 60 and over, she also had several that were younger. She had one male patient who had a debilitating stroke around the age of 30. When I was in college, I worked as a night orderly in a nursing home and we had several patients, mostly female who were between 40 and 50 years of age.

Not the long ago on our local news, they featured a woman who, at the age of about 40, was recovering from a stroke. She was married and had a handful of kids. I remember thinking how tragic at this stage of her and her family’s life.

According to Stroke.org:

  • Each year nearly 800,000 people experience a new or recurrent stroke.
  • A stroke happens every 40 seconds.
  • Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S.
  • Every 4 minutes someone dies from stroke.
  • Up to 80 percent of strokes can be prevented.
  • Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability in the U.S.

First of all, what is a stroke?

A heart attack is generally caused by the blockage of blood flow to an area of the heart, resulting in the heart muscle tissue dying for lack of oxygen. Likewise, a stroke is a ‘brain attack’ caused when the blood supply to an area of the brain is blocked and brain cells begin to die.

There are two main types of stroke – hemorrhagic and ischemic.

A hemorrhagic stroke is caused by the hemorrhaging of blood vessels in the brain. In most cases, it’s associated with a ruptured aneurysm – a swelling of a blood vessel that weakens the vessel wall and then bursts open.

An ischemic stroke is caused by a blood clot the cuts off the blood flow to part of the brain.

There is a third, generally less severe form of stroke known as a TIA or transient ischemic attack. They are defined as a temporary, generally less than 24 hours, where there is a blockage of blood flow due to a clot that in a short time releases and allows blood flow to resume.

The severity of a stroke depends a lot on the location and how soon treatment can be started. Knowing how to recognize a stroke is important for you and your family or those around you. Here are ten general symptoms of a stroke:

  1. Trouble seeing – sudden blurred or dimming vision.
  2. Loss of balance – having trouble walking or sitting without falling. Generally caused by one side of the body being affected by the stroke.
  3. Difficulty speaking – speech becomes slurred, words hard to recall.
  4. Weakness – A very common symptom when the arm and/or leg on one side of the body become weak and possible unable to move.
  5. Facial paralysis – not always, but one side of the face can become paralyzed, often accompanied by slight pain in the face, dizziness, difficulty speaking, drooling out of one side of the mouth, tearing of eye and inability to smile or frown.
  6. Pain – while most people don’t associate pain with a stroke, it can range from a dull ache to a constant or sudden sharp pain.
  7. Loss of understanding – a stroke victim sometimes is mentally confused and bewildered, unable to put a thought together.
  8. Severe headache – many illnesses can be accompanied by severe headaches, but coupled with many of the other symptoms, a severe headache can be a sign of a stroke.
  9. Loss of senses – could include vision, smell, hearing, tough and taste.
  10. Fatigue – by itself, fatigue may be a sign of many other things, including fevers or just staying up too late the night before. However, when fatigue is accompanied with many of the other symptoms, it’s nothing to just sleep on.

We hear all the time that high blood pressure and stress are some of the leading causes of strokes. That’s why so many doctors are concerned about their patients’ health as they want to take measures to help reduce the possibility of having a stroke.

Another key to reducing the risk of having a stroke or increasing the chance or recovery is you have a stroke, is watching your weight and regular exercise. Pamela Rist, of Harvard University just authored a study and reported:

“The new study involved more than 18,000 people with no history of stroke who were followed for an average of 12 years. During that time, nearly 1,400 of the participants suffered a stroke but survived.”

‘Three years after their stroke, those who had exercised regularly before their stroke were 18 percent more likely to be able to perform basic tasks — such as bathing on their own, the researchers found.”

“The fitter individuals were also 16 percent more likely to be able to perform more complex tasks, such as managing money on their own, compared to those who did not exercise before their stroke, the findings showed.”

“‘We also found that a person’s body mass index was not a factor in predicting their level of disability after stroke,’ Rist said in a journal news release. Body mass index is an estimate of body fat based on weight and height.”

“Two experts in stroke care who reviewed the findings said the study highlights the importance of exercise.”

That’s one of the reasons my wife and I are buying a treadmill. We have found that our life has become more sedentary than it used to be. With the crazy weather where we live, it’s not always possible to get out and walk or jog, so we decided to invest in a good quality treadmill that has adjustable speed, incline and a shock absorbing system to take some of the impact off of our knees.

With the treadmill, we can take turns getting our cardio exercise while watching some of our favorite television programs – sewing and quilting for her, sports for me and many shows we both like. We have also invested in some exercise strength bands and inexpensive equipment that will help make it easier for us to do strength building exercises which is vital for bones and the prevention of osteoporosis.

It’s important to do something to reduce the weight and fat and get some exercise, depending on your abilities or limitations.

Filed Under: Exercise, Health, Wellness Tagged With: early signs, exercise, prevention, recovery, stroke

The Top Secrets of Extremely Fit People

February 2, 2017 By Jenny Swisher Leave a Comment

You’re on an airplane, or sitting at the neighborhood pool, and you see this super fit couple. The guy has broad shoulders and chiseled abs, the woman has sculpted arms and a flat stomach. You find yourself eyeing them every few minutes, simply because this day and age, they look like specimens. And the funny thing is, they seem happy. They flirt and smile and laugh. They seem content.

You find yourself envying them, or at the very least, watching their every move. How do they stay so fit? They must be Crossfitters or elite athletes, right? There’s no way this kind of fitness and happiness is so easily achievable, is there?

We’re here to tell you YES. There is a simple way to achieve that athletic, sculpted body and happy relationship. Here are the top things we notice in super fit people that we think are easily duplicatable:

  1. You never see them smoking or drinking a Diet Coke. When was the last time you saw a super fit dude smoking a cigarette? Yeah.
  2. They always carry a water bottle. There they go, drinking lemon water out of a Nalgene in the middle of Nordstrom. What the what?! Must be something to it. Water is the key to energy.
  3. While some may be Crossfitters or elite athletes, many of them are getting and staying fit by exercising just 30 minutes a day at home. Thank you, Beachbody.
  4. You might see them, on occasion, eating french fries or pizza, and you find yourself even more jealous. ‘How can they do that and look so good?’ you ask yourself. Truth is, it’s likely a cheat meal because they believe in balance. They stay on track 90% of the time and indulge on occasion. 
  5. They always have great shoes. It’s true! Fit people value good footwear. They’re not exercising (or going to the movies) in a pair of lawnmowing tennies. They invest in their health.
  6. They’re well-rested and focused. When was the last time you saw a shredded chick passed out on the floor in the middle of the airport between layovers? Hardly ever. They fuel themselves with the right food, they sleep well (thanks to their lifestyle), and they almost always seem alert.
  7. They read. 
  8. They always pull snacks out of their purse/bag. Where did that apple or packet of peanut butter come from? They brought it. They thought ahead. They’re not playing victim to fast food like so many others do.

We’ve found that happy people are active people. Happy people move their bodies in challenging ways. They eat clean 90+ percent of the time. They get enough sleep. They challenge their mind. What does all of this mean? It means they’ve taken control of their body, and their life. You simply won’t hear them saying things like, “There was no way for me to eat healthy this weekend. I was traveling.” Instead, they own their fitness. They own their life. And we’re here to tell you, they’re doing it with a lot less effort than you’re assuming.

30 minutes a day and a plan can change your life. Stop watching and start doing. We can help!

 

Jenny Swisher
Gym Owner/Personal Trainer
jennyswisher.com

Jenny is a 6-Star Diamond Elite Team Beachbody Coach, Certified Personal Trainer, and Fitness Nutrition Specialist. She and her husband own RevolutionX Studio, LLC, a fitness facility in Fishers, Indiana.

Filed Under: Anti Aging, Fitness, Health, Wellness Tagged With: exercise, fitness, tips

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2

Recent Posts

Older Women with Gum Disease at Higher Risk of Cancer

From the time we were little kids, our parents were constantly on us about … [Read More...]

  • Keep Your Body Young With A Low Calorie Diet
  • Diet Trends That Keep You Fat
  • Smart Medicine or Playing God?

Advertisements

0048b679-organifisidebanner-weboutline-1 taa-300x250_03

About Us

  • About Morning Health
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Statement
  • Store
  • Write For Us
  • Write For Us-n/a

MORNING HEALTH

1808 W 103rd Street Chicago, IL 60643 Email: [email protected] Phone:
Copyright 2017 Morning Health, Inc., All Rights Reserved