Sedentary Lifestyles Associated With Accelerated Aging Process

Sedentary Lifestyles Associated With Accelerated Aging Process - ScienceDaily
2008.01.29
"Individuals who are physically active during their leisure time appear to be biologically younger than those with sedentary lifestyles...Regular exercisers have lower rates of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, obesity and osteoporosis, according to background information in the article. "A sedentary lifestyle increases the propensity to aging-related disease and premature death," the authors write. "Inactivity may diminish life expectancy not only by predisposing to aging-related diseases but also because it may influence the aging process itself."...Telomere length decreased with age, with an average loss of 21 nucleotides (structural units) per year. Men and women who were less physically active in their leisure time had shorter leukocyte telomeres than those who were more active. "Such a relationship between leukocyte telomere length and physical activity level remained significant after adjustment for body mass index, smoking, socioeconomic status and physical activity at work," the authors write. "The mean difference in leukocyte telomere length between the most active [who performed an average of 199 minutes of physical activity per week] and least active [16 minutes of physical activity per week] subjects was 200 nucleotides, which means that the most active subjects had telomeres the same length as sedentary individuals up to 10 years younger, on average." A sub-analysis comparing pairs in which twins had different levels of physical activity showed similar results...Oxidative stress--damage caused to cells by exposure to oxygen--and inflammation are likely mechanisms by which sedentary lifestyles shorten telomeres, the authors suggest. In addition, perceived stress levels have been linked to telomere length. Physical activity may reduce psychological stress, thus mitigating its effect on telomeres and the aging process..."

Rounding 3rd and heading for home in this batch of research showing that exercise not only makes you healthier it'll probably make you live longer and vice versa for lethargy.

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From And For The Heart, My Dear Valentine: Broccoli

From And For The Heart, My Dear Valentine: Broccoli - ScienceDaily
2008.01.24
"...Das and colleagues now report evidence on that topic from animal studies. They gave broccoli extract to lab rats for one month and measured its effects on the rats' heart muscle. Compared to a control group that ate a regular diet, the broccoli-fed animals had improved heart function and less heart muscle damage when deprived of oxygen. Broccoli's heart-healthy effects are likely due to its high concentrations of certain substances that seem to boost levels of a heart-protective protein called thioredoxin, the researchers note.

The article "Broccoli: A Unique Vegetable That Protects Mammalian Hearts through the Redox Cycling of the Thioredoxin Superfamily" is scheduled for the Jan. 23 issue of ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry."

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Daily Exercise Dramatically Lowers Men's Death Rates

Daily Exercise Dramatically Lowers Men's Death Rates - ScienceDaily
2008.01.23
"...The government-supported Veterans Affairs study included 15,660 participants and is the largest known to assess the link between fitness and mortality..."It is important to emphasize that it takes relatively moderate levels of physical activity -- like brisk walking -- to attain the associated health benefits. Certainly, one does not need to be a marathon runner...The study found that "highly fit" men had half the risk of death compared to "low fit" men. Men who achieved "very highly fit" levels had a 70 percent lower risk of death compared to those in the "low fit" category. For every 1-MET increase in exercise capacity (fitness), the risk for death from all causes was 13 percent for both African Americans and Caucasians..."Our findings show that the risk of death is cut in half with an exercise capacity that can easily be achieved by a brisk walk of about 30 minutes per session 5-6 days per week," he added. "Physicians should encourage individuals to initiate and maintain a physically active lifestyle, which is likely to improve fitness and lower the risk of death...."

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Moderate Exercise Yields Big Benefits

Moderate Exercise Yields Big Benefits - ScienceDaily
2008.01.04
"...The January issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter lists some of the benefits of 30 minutes of exercise a day:

• Lower blood pressure: A reduction of 5 to 10 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) is possible. In some cases, that’s enough to prevent or reduce the need for blood pressure medications.
• Improve cholesterol: Exercise often increases the concentration of high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good” cholesterol in the blood), especially when accompanied by weight loss. Exercise also helps reduce triglyceride levels.
• Prevent or manage type 2 diabetes: Exercise helps insulin work better, lowering blood sugar.
• Manage weight: Coupling exercise with a healthy diet is the best way to shed fat and maintain a healthier body composition.
• Prevent osteoporosis: Exercise may increase bone density and protect against bone mass decline, especially if weight-bearing activities are involved.
• Prevent cancer: Exercise has been shown to strengthen the immune system, improve circulation, reduce body fat and speed digestion. Each has a role in preventing cancer, particularly cancers of the colon, prostate, uterine lining and breast.
• Maintain mental well-being: Exercise may help reduce stress, improve mild-to-moderate depression and anxiety, improve sleep and boost moods.
• Increase energy and stamina: A lack of energy often results from inactivity, not age.""

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Longer-lived Rodents Have Lower Levels Of Thyroid Hormone

Longer-lived Rodents Have Lower Levels Of Thyroid Hormone - ScienceDaily
2006.10.12
"The thyroid may play an important role in longevity, with longer-lived rodents showing significantly lower levels of a thyroid hormone that speeds metabolism..."Mice strains that exhibit extended longevity tend to have lower thyroid hormone concentrations than shorter living strains," the authors wrote. "Significant declines in thyroid hormone correlate well with enhanced maximum lifespan."...The study compared the levels of these thyroid hormones among four groups of rodents with different life spans: mice, guinea pigs, Damara mole-rats and naked mole-rats. Mice live to about three and a half years; guinea pigs live to six years; Damara mole-rats to 15 years; and naked mole-rats to 28 years...T4 levels varied significantly between all of the groups, with the shorter-lived groups having higher levels of T4 than longer-lived groups. The mice, for example, had twice as much T4 as the Damara mole-rats and had and three times more than that of the naked mole-rats, Pinto reported. There was also a significant difference in T3 levels between the naked mole-rats and the guinea pigs, but not between any of the other groups..."

An old article, but worth revisiting.

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Scientists discover way to reverse memory loss

Scientists discover way to reverse loss of memory - Science, News - Independent.co.uk
2008.01.30
"...The accidental breakthrough came during an experiment originally intended to suppress the obese man's appetite, using the increasingly successful technique of deep-brain stimulation. Electrodes were pushed into the man's brain and stimulated with an electric current. Instead of losing appetite, the patient instead had an intense experience of déjà vu. He recalled, in intricate detail, a scene from 30 years earlier. More tests showed his ability to learn was dramatically improved when the current was switched on and his brain stimulated...Professor Lozano said: "This is the first time that anyone has had electrodes implanted in the brain which have been shown to improve memory. We are driving the activity of the brain by increasing its sensitivity – turning up the volume of the memory circuits. Any event that involves the memory circuits is more likely to be stored and retained."...Speaking to The Independent yesterday, Professor Lozano said: "His performance improved dramatically. As we turned the current up, we first drove his memory circuits and improved his learning. As we increased the intensity of the current, we got spontaneous memories of discrete events. At a certain intensity, he would slash to the scene [in the park]. When the intensity was increased further, he got more detail but, when the current was turned off, it rapidly decayed."...The discovery surprised the scientists as the hypothalamus has not usually been identified as a seat of memory. The contacts that most readily produced the memories were located close to a structure called the fornix, an arched bundle of fibres that carries signals within the limbic system, which is involved in memory and emotions and is situated next to the hypothalamus..."

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Folic Acid Supplementation Associated With Reduced Risk Of Preeclampsia During Pregnancy

Large Study Links Folic Acid Supplementation With Reduced Risk Of Preeclampsia During Pregnancy - ScienceDaily
2008.01.24
"...preeclampsia occurred in 2.2 per cent of women who took multivitamins containing folic acid compared to 5.1 per cent of women who did not...Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada recommends a dose of 1 mg per day. In the current study, 92 per cent of women were taking folic acid, mostly at the higher dose..."

Low Vitamin D During Pregnancy Linked To Pre-eclampsia

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Study Links Caffeine to Miscarriage

Study Links Caffeine to Miscarriage WebMD
2008.01.22
"...Women in the study who consumed more than 200 mg of caffeine a day -- the amount found in about two 8-ounce cups of regular-strength coffee -- had twice the risk of miscarriage as pregnant women who consumed no caffeine...."

Reuters via Scientific American

"This risk appeared to be related to the caffeine, rather than other chemicals in coffee, because they also saw an increased risk when the caffeine was consumed in soda, tea, and hot chocolate.

Li said many researchers think caffeine is harmful because it stresses the fetus' immature metabolism. It may also decrease blood flow in the placenta, which could harm the fetus.

"To me, the safe dose is zero," Li said. "If you really have to drink coffee, try to limit it to one cup or at the most two cups." Or better yet, switch to decaffeinated beverages, he added."

NewYork Times

"...Pregnant women should try to give up caffeine for at least the first three or four months, said the lead author of the study, Dr. De-Kun Li..."

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Fruit, Vegetable Eaters Have Fewer Strokes

Fruit, Vegetable Eaters Have Fewer Strokes - WebMD
2008.01.09
"...University of Cambridge researchers measured vitamin C levels in more than 20,000 people, who were then followed for roughly a decade. Blood vitamin C levels tend to be much higher in people who eat lots of fruits and vegetables than in people who do not. When the participants were divided into four groups based on vitamin C levels, those with the highest concentrations of the vitamin in their blood were found to have a 42% lower stroke risk than those with the lowest concentrations...The findings do not prove that it is the vitamin C in fruits and vegetables that is protective, the researchers note.And most studies have found that taking vitamin C and other antioxidant vitamin supplements is of no benefit for lowering stroke risk..."We don't know what it is, but the message to the public is clear," he tells WebMD. "Eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Think about color, and eat a rainbow of plant foods."..."


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Four Health Behaviors Can Add 14 Extra Years Of Life

Four Health Behaviors Can Add 14 Extra Years Of Life - ScienceDaily
Via QualityCounts
2008.01.09
"People who adopt four healthy behaviours -- not smoking; taking exercise; moderate alcohol intake; and eating five servings of fruit and vegetables a day -- live on average an additional fourteen years of life compared with people who adopt none of these behaviours...Kay-Tee Khaw and colleagues from the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council used a health behaviour score that is easy to understand in order to assess the participants in the study (who were from Norfolk, United Kingdom). Between 1993 and 1997, 20,000 men and women between the ages of 45 and 79, none of whom had known cancer or heart or circulatory disease, completed a questionnaire that resulted in a score between 0 and 4...A point was awarded for each of the following: not currently smoking; not being physically inactive (physical inactivity was defined as having a sedentary job and not doing any recreational exercise); a moderate alcohol intake of 1-14 units a week (a unit is half a pint of beer or a glass of wine); and a blood vitamin C level consistent with eating five servings of fruit or vegetables a day. Deaths among the participants were recorded unti l 2006...After factoring in age, the results showed that over an average period of eleven years people with a score of 0 -- i.e. those who did not undertake any of these healthy forms of behaviour -- were four times more likely to have died than those who had scored 4 in the questionnaire."

PLoS Study link


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Fish Oil Prevents Alzheimer's Plaques

Fish Oil Prevents Alzheimer's Plaques - WebMD
Via QualityCounts
2007.12.26
"Why does fish oil help prevent Alzheimer's disease? Your brain needs a fish oil fatty acid to make a plaque-fighting protein, UCLA researchers find...It's known that people who get plenty of DHA, a fish oil fatty acid, have a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease, note Greg M. Cole, PhD...Why? Cole's team had a clue. People with Alzheimer's disease tend to have low levels of a brain protein called LR11 (also known as SorLA). And about 15% of people with Alzheimer's disease carry a genetic mutation that reduces LR11...LR11 helps clear the brain of amyloid precursor protein, essential for production of the brain-gumming beta-amyloid plaque that clogs the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease...Sure enough, in live rodents and in cultures of human brain cells, the researchers found that the fish-oil compound DHA causes brain cells to make lots more LR11...it may be a great help if taken at the first signs of Alzheimer's"

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Exercise and alcohol fights heart disease

A few drinks a day and exercise limit heart disease Reuters/YahooNews
2008.01.09
"...People who neither drink nor exercise have a 30 to 49 percent higher risk of heart disease than people who do one or both of the activities, the researchers said in the European Heart Journal...The main finding is there seems to be an additional beneficial effect of drinking one to two drinks per day and doing at least moderate physical activity...Several major studies have found that light to moderate drinking -- up to two drinks a day on a regular basis -- is associated with a lower risk of heart disease, and some have also found this leads to a lower risk of some cancers...teetotallers who exercised at least moderately were able to reduce their risk of heart disease, an important finding for people who abstain because of religious beliefs or other health issues such as pregnancy, the researchers said. People who had the lowest risk of dying from any cause were physically active, moderate drinkers while those at highest risk were the physically inactive, heavy drinkers, the study found..."

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