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Volume 4, Issue 3
Regular exercise reduces risk for colon cancer
Each year more than 100,000 Americans are diagnosed with colon cancer. OneÕs risk for colon cancer is determined by a variety of factors including family history, age, weight, and according to a new study of nearly 80,000 women, levels of physical activity.
Researchers at the Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis followed a group of women ranging in age from 40 to 65 for a sixteen-year period. The results indicate that risk for colon cancer decreased as exercise increased. Women who walked 1 to 2 hours per week reduced their risk by 33 percent and those who engaged in more vigorous physical activity for more than 4 hours a week reduced their risk of colon cancer by 44 percent.
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Ease your arthritis symptoms with exercise
People who suffer from arthritis have to cope with daily pain and fatigue. There are a variety of medications to treat this disease, but as a new study indicates, exercise can also help to ease the symptoms of arthritis.
In this University of North Carolina study, researchers followed a group of 346 adults with arthritis who were assigned to either an exercise group or a control group. Participants took part in an 8-week program called PACE (People with Arthritis Can Exercise), in which they completed a regimen of both basic and advanced exercises twice a week. At the end of the study, participants from the exercise group saw significant improvements in pain and fatigue. In addition, these improvements were still present at a six-month follow up.
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Wide scale study shows significant link between exercise and reduced mortality risk
In one of the largest known studies researching the link between physical fitness and mortality, researchers at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C. found that men who participate in higher levels of physical activity have a lower risk of mortality.
Researchers studied the exercise capacity of a group of 15,660 African American and Caucasian veterans. For this 7.5 year study, participants completed regular standardized treadmill tests, after which researchers divided them into four categories: low fit, moderately fit, highly fit, and very highly fit. The results showed that highly fit men had a 50 percent lower risk of dying than low fit men, and very highly fit men were 70 percent less likely to die than low fit men.
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Parents unable to see kidÕs weight problems
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 13 percent of 2 to 5 year olds, 19 percent of 6 to 11 year olds and 17 percent of 12 to 19 are overweight or obese. This said, a new study recently published in Diabetes Care has found that often times, parents of overweight or obese children do not actually recognize that their children are overweight.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina asked 104 teens and their parents if they thought that these adolescents were very thin, thin, average, overweight or very overweight. Interestingly, while over 87 percent of the participants were considered overweight based on their body mass index, only 41 percent of parents and 35 percent of teens considered the teens to be overweight. In addition, teens were more likely to underestimate their weight when theparents did the same. Researchers stress that recognizing that there is a weight problem is the first step to making lifestyle changesÑincluding diet changes and increased physical activityÑwhich will lead to weight loss.
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Couch potatoes beware: Inactivity accelerates the aging process!
New research has found that regular exercise not only makes you more fit and reduces your risk for disease, but it also makes you biologically younger. At the same time, a sedentary lifestyle can lead to disease and premature death.
In a new study out of London, researchers studied a group of 2,401 white twins and assessed their levels of physical activity, their smoking habits and their socioeconomic status. In addition, researchers took DNA samples, which help serve as a marker of biological age. The results indicated that study participants who were more physically active had DNA which indicated that they were ÒyoungerÓ than participants who were less active. Those participants who exercised for an average of 199 minutes a week appeared to have similar DNA structures to those less active individuals who were 10 years younger.
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Sources
1Wolin, K.Y., et al. (2007). Leisure-time physical activity patterns and risk of colon cancer in women. International Journal of Cancer, 121, 2776-81.
2Sokka, T., et al. (2008). Physical inactivity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: Data from twenty-one countries in a cross-sectional, international study. Arthritis and Rheumatism, 59, 42-50.
3Kokkinos, P., et al. (2008). Exercise capacity and mortality in black and white men. Circulation, 117, 614-22.
4Skinner, A.C., et al. (2008). Accuracy of perceptions of overweight and relation to self-care behaviors among adolescents with type 2 diabetes and their parents. Diabetes Care, 31, 227-9.
5Cherkas, L.F., et al. (2008). The association between physical activity in leisure time and leukocyte telomere length. Archives of Internal Medicine, 168, 154-8.
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