Health and Fitness in Young Children

It's tougher to raise kids today than it was even 10 years ago. Parents now are concerned about diet and exercise as well as kids' safety and development. There are many articles in the news and on TV telling us about the childhood obesity epidemic. The concern is growing because we've created a lifestyle which encourages all of us to sit - in front of the TV, in front of the computer, in front of the Play Station. Every child - even toddlers - needs to get at least 60 minutes of active play every day. It's scary when you read that kids today get less than 15 minutes of vigorous exercise a day, drinks more than 20 ounces of soda pop, and spends more than 20% of their time watching television. No wonder our kids are less fit and more fat than children from the 1960s.
The figures about obesity in children are startling. In only one state, Michigan, 33% of the girls and 34% of the boys are considered overweight. The national average is 29%. And 36% of those boys and girls have elevated cholesterol levels too, which is 11-18% higher than the U.S. average. Nationwide, our kids are developing adult diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol. We believe our toddlers are active all day because they wear US out, right? In fact, in nursery schools or daycare, they spend most of their time sitting! Our kids need to develop a healthier lifestyle, getting more exercise at the same time they are adopting healthier eating habits. Everyone in America is at risk for these health problems due to our poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyles. Our kids learn by playing, and when they play, they imitate what they see adults do. Being a good example naturally is the best way of teaching your children.
Our kids learn by playing, and when they play, they imitate what they see adults do. Being a good example naturally is the best way of teaching your children. Showing them how to eat right and get more exercise is crucial today. The percentage of overweight and obese kids has more than doubled over the past 30 years. Even thought many factors contribute to this epidemic, our children spend too much time sitting around - a LOT more than they used to. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average child watches nearly 3 hours of TV a day - making 5 1/2 hours of sitting per day after adding time spent on video games, computers etc.The AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) says that children under 2 years of age watch no TV and kids over 2 and above watch only 1-2 hours.
How much exercise is enough? All kids 2 and above need 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise most days of the week (preferable all days). Stretching exercises help improve flexibility, allowing muscles and joints to bend and move easily through the full range of motion. Kids look for opportunities every day to stretch when they try to get a toy just out of reach, practice a split, or do cartwheels. Climbing exercises improves coordination and planning skills.
Kids who get more exercise sleep better, learn better and are healthier. If you as a parent add regular activity into your daily routines, such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, is key to instilling in your children the way to a healthier lifestyle. Keep it fun and you can count on that your child will come back for more.

Yoga's Health and Fitness Benefits

Yoga has been around a long time-longer than interval training, Zumba classes, and free weights. But can a consistent and challenging yoga practice really lead to overall body fitness? Many experts say yes. But the good news doesn't stop there. Not only can you increase and maintain your level of fitness through a yoga practice, you can also become a healthier person. Let's take a look at some of the specific benefits that yoga practitioners experience.
- Yoga strengthens your muscles-depending on the type of yoga practiced, various poses might be held for several seconds to several minutes-but it also increases your body's flexibility. Ironically, many gym devotees strengthen their muscles by lifting heavy weights, creating strong short muscles that are more susceptible to injury. Yoga, however, strengthens and stretches; a key component to the creation of injury-resistant muscles.
- The power of yoga lies in the breath. Yoga instructors coach students in their breathing-as they move into, sustain, and move out of each yoga pose. Various types of breathing are taught and practiced. More than anything though, yoga lovers are simply made aware of breath and how important proper breathing is to overall yoga technique and everyday living. They come to understand the power of breath, how to integrate breath to get the most out of each pose and how proper inhalation and exhalation can relieve stress, lower the heart rate and increase lung capacity.
- By practicing this type of breathing, you can also up the amount of oxygen in your system. More oxygen means increased energy levels. The more yoga you do, the more energized you feel.
- Daily yoga practice has a variety of positive health benefits. Researchers have found that yoga, when consistently practiced, can relieve the symptoms of arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome and asthma. Yoga can also bring down high blood pressure and help people manage their weight.
- When you practice yoga regularly and over a sustained period of time, you will experience an increase in your body awareness, diminished stress levels and a fine-tuning of your ability to concentrate.
- Finally, yoga can improve your mood, help you relax and even help you perform better on tests! Yoga often involves unilateral movements (like breathing out of only one nostril at a time) and movements that require students to cross the median line of the body (like touching the left big toe with the right hand). These kinds of movements increase brain activity. More brain activity is a part of better cognitive performance.
As you can see, yoga isn't just about stretching. It is physically demanding, it can increase your overall fitness and help you mentally. Integrate one or two yoga classes into your weekly calendar, and you will see a tremendous difference in all aspects of your physical being.

Train Your Brain With a New $225m Market Based on Latest Brain Health and Fitness Research

A spate of recent news coverage on brain fitness and "brain training" reflects a growing interest in natural, non-drug-based interventions to keep our brains sharp as we age. This interest is very timely, given the aging population, increasing Alzheimer's rates, and soaring health care costs that place more emphasis than ever on prevention and changing lifestyle.
This past Tuesday, the MIT Club of Northern California, the American Society on Aging, and SmartSilvers sponsored an event on The Emerging Brain Fitness Software Market: Building Better Brains to explore the realities and myths of this growing field. Before the panel, I had the chance to present an overview of the state of the Brain Fitness Software Market.
Why are we talking about this field at all? Well, for one, an increasing number of companies are achieving significant commercial success in packaging "brain exercise". An example is the line of Nintendo games, such as Brain Age and Brain Training, that have shipped over 15 million units worldwide despite limited scientific support, since 2005. What is less visible is that a number of companies and scientists are partnering to bring products to market with a more solid clinical validation. We estimate the US market was $225m in 2007 (growing from $100 in 2005). Whereas K12 Education used to be the major segment, adult consumers are responsible for most of that growth: we estimate the consumer segment grew from a few million in 2005 to $80 m in 2007.
Who is buying these products? Yes, of course, many adults over 50 who want to protect their memory are among the pioneers. 78 million baby boomers are eager to try new approaches. A growing number of retirement communities and nursing homes are offering programs to their residents to expand their usual fitness and social activities. And we can't forget about K12 education: certain brain fitness software packages have shown they can help kids who have dyslexia and related difficulties.
Is there science behind these claims? Do these products work? It depends on how we define "work". If "working" means quantifiable short-term improvements after a number of weeks of systematic "brain training" to improve specific cognitive skills, then the answer is that a number of programs do seem to work. If , on the other hand, "working" means measurable long-term benefits, such as better overall brain health as we age, or lower incidence of Alzheimer's symptoms, the answer is that circumstantial evidence suggests they may, but it is still too early to tell.
Are there any public policy implications? We certainly believe that there are. The Center for Disease Control recently partnered with the Alzheimer's Association to develop a comprehensive Cognitive Health road map to better guide research efforts and improve public education on the lifestyle habits that every proud owner of a brain could benefit from following. Given the high rates of traumatic brain injuries and stress disorders found in a large number of the men and women coming home from the Iraq war, the military is investing heavily in research to help identify problems to develop tools to solve them, and we expect that research will translate into wider health applications. No presidential candidate, to our knowledge, has directly addressed his or her priorities in the cognitive health realm but, given the growing importance and economic impact of brain-related disorders, we expect that to happen soon.
What are some trends that executives and investors should be looking at to understand this growing market? Let me make a few predictions:
1) An increased emphasis on Brain Maintenance, from retirement communities to gyms and health clubs. Will health clubs one day offer brain fitness programs, and perhaps "brain coaches"? We think so.
2) Better and more widely available assessments of cognitive function will enable of all us to establish an objective baseline of how our minds are evolving, identify priorities for "workouts" and lifestyle interventions, and help us measure progress. Science-fiction? Not really. there are already pretty good tests used in clinical and medical environments, the challenge will be to refine and package those assessments in a consumer-friendly way.
3) We will see more and better computer-based tools, each of which may be more appropriate to work on specific priorities. Just as we find a variety of machines in health clubs today, in the future we can expect different programs tailored to train specific cognitive skills.
4) More non-computer based tools will also provide much value. There is more and more research on how meditation and cognitive therapy, to mention 2 examples, can be very effective in literally re-wiring parts of the brain.
5) Insurance Companies will introduce incentives for member who want to follow brain fitness programs. Perhaps even companies will offer such programs to employees to attract and retain mature workers who want access to the best and the latest innovations to keep their minds sharp.
Now, this being a pretty new field, many questions remain open. For example, how will consumers and institutions receive quality information and education to navigate through the emerging research and the overwhelming number of new programs, separating reality from hype?
In summary, what were the main take-aways from the event?
1. Research indicates that a number of cognitive abilities (attention, memory...) can be assessed and trained
2. An emerging market is starting to develop-growing from an estimated $100m in 2005 to $225m in 2007, in the US alone-, and is poised to keep growing at significant rates.
3. Many companies are currently selling products direct to consumers (as well as through institutions) with sometimes unclear claims - this threatens to confuse consumers and present a major obstacle to the growth and credibility of the sector.
If you are interested in this rapidly growing field, please stay tuned! There are fascinating research reports every month.
Copyright (c) 2008 SharpBrains

Health and Fitness Level

This article is about the completion of a key element of the proposed medical information system--the national research center.
To realize the most from this article you need to read the 3 previous articles. However, I will try and summarize some of the key points of those articles here.
The most effective means of evaluating a person's health would of course be through some direct means of looking into the human organism to see what is truly taking place. Fortunately, as strange as it may seem, the human body does provide such a window in the form of its biochemical makeup. Furthermore, even more encouraging, there is a science already fully developed that is taking full advantage of that body phenomenon called clinical laboratory science. These are major factors in the success any advanced health care system.
I highly recommend that you take a minute here to read what the experts have to say on that matter by clicking on the link (called page 18) at the end of this article. These experts are from text books located in the University of Michigan's Medical Library.
As described in the link reference on page 18, the advantages of the biochemical makeup of the body is very impressive indeed. Clinical laboratory science is a highly computerized and a very rapidly moving industry. Hundreds of critical tests are now available for use. That industry is an important part of the current health care system. The blood or tissue tests that your doctor orders for you when he or she is suspicious of a given medical condition that needs verification usually involves clinical laboratory science.
The key difference between the proposed national medical information system and the current health care system lies in the difference in the use of these data. The current health care system primarily uses it to evaluate a disease condition whereas the proposed system would apply it on a broader scale basis to include disease prevention and wellness--taking advantage of far more of what clinical science has to offer.
To get a good feel of some of the amazing success in clinical laboratory science click on link (45-47) at the end of this article.
The proposed medical information system would use a completely new and far different type of application of clinical laboratory data. Far larger test profiles (100 blood constituents taken from one blood test) would be used in conjunction with a very sophisticated national research system for massive correlation to human health--including disease prevention and wellness.
Following is a remaining key element of the proposed system.
Article 3 was discussed with the use of handout A. A link to handout A is provided at the end of this article and should be referred to again here. This article will discuss the underlying technical strengths of that system by showing briefly how and why the health data fed into the national research center is so effective in its correlation to human health and wellness.
Referring back to the 100 test profile pattern discussed in article 3, it was shown that the 100 individual bits of test information along with patient environmental and patient data would be fed to the national research computer center (marked case #1). The research computers would record the profile pattern results and correlate that particular combination of test results to a particular health related condition. With the size of this 100 test profile pattern, as discussed earlier, there would be literally trillions of possible combinations involved. Of those trillions of possibilities, there would conservatively end up being at least millions of what we would call significant combinations that would represent significant health related information. The National Research Center would then relate that data to the individual's current health condition, history, family history, the individual's environment, and also to the same data of tens of millions of other patients. This is an enormous amount of health information for the supercomputers to pull together and relate to human health conditions!
In addition, there would no doubt also be smaller sets of tests of interest within that overall 100 test profile, such as separate groups of hormones, enzymes, antibodies and other special tests that could also be read and analyzed as separate group combinations as well. Many of us realize how very important these various groups are to our well being.
Let me stop here and review this for a moment. We talk about millions of significant health data combinations. So why is it necessary for such a breadth of examination capacity? Basically, because of the extreme complexities involving our environment, our health and of course their complex inter-relationship. For example, if we (as individuals) try to determine what it is in our environment that is having an effect on our health, either positive or negative, we know it's usually very difficult to do. We know there are literally dozens of elements (variables) in our personal environment that could affect our health. So how do we go about narrowing it down to determine what it is in a person's environment that is likely affecting his or her health?
The system described here does it in two ways, it uses the extreme reading breadth of the profile pattern (as discussed in article 3), to read an individuals test results along with the input of the environmental and doctor's medical examination report. It was shown that this data was then fed into the national research center system and compared to millions of other patient's health conditions, environments and test results.
This comparison, to the millions of other patients, would soon be very effective in narrowing the unknown element, or elements, down to the common denominator (or denominators) of what it is in the environment that normally affects people's health in certain ways. Very few patients would have the exact same environment and health conditions. Comparing millions of patient's health to their environmental exposures would provide a very effective screening process. The results of this research would then be fed back into the state diagnostic computers to diagnose specific individuals based on their individual profile pattern results and their individual environmental and physical examination reports.
This article discusses the key to success for any highly advanced health care system, and also the sophisticated features of the proposed medical system's research center.

Improve Your Health and Fitness

I am going to tell you why you need to behave more like a cave man in order to stay healthier and happier. Read on cave people......

Over aeons of time, our bodies have adapted to cope with survival in a harsh environment. Although we achieved civilization thousands of years ago, our bodies have not evolved to adapt to this change. If we imagine ourselves back in the distant past we would have eaten less sugar, salt and fat in a year or more than we now eat in a week or less. We would have eaten a diet of meat and fish, mostly vegetable matter, fruit, berries, nuts, seeds and roots. We would only have drunk water, and may have sampled the splendour of honey. Foods would be rich in fibre, some protein, essential fats, vitamins and minerals, but low in sugar, salt and saturated fats. We would have been in almost constant motion; playing, working, foraging, preparing food, but rarely staying still. (I think that it is important to remind ourselves that our body is designed to be active, but that we often think of exercise as formal, vigorous, structured pursuits. It can be easy to persuade ourselves that going swimming or playing football twice a week is enough [and so we have an excuse for driving to work and to the local shops]. And although it is great to do these things, we can stay fit and healthy without a gym membership, just by doing everyday movements; walking, cleaning the house, and gardening, and yes I shall say that well-worn phrase- leaving the car at home.)

Don't think that our person from the past would have been feasting on jumbo mammoth steaks Flintstone-style all day long either. Meat may have been in scant supply for much of the time (have you ever tried to catch a rabbit?) and women and children spent a large amount of time foraging for nuts, roots, berries and vegetable matter. Everyone would have been involved in acquiring food, and all methods of obtaining food would have used large amounts of energy; you have to cover wide areas to provide enough food for a family. Even when farming became a way of life huge amounts of energy would have to be invested in producing the fruits, vegetables and animal products. Animals too would have been reared on a diet of more complex foods rather than modern high-energy processed feeds. It is thought that their meat would have been much less rich in saturated fats and so healthier for the people consuming it.

Food production would have been part of every day life, unlike today where food arrives pre-packed, smothered in cellophane, produced days, weeks or months ago in a factory hundreds of miles away, glazed with wax, identical in size and colour to its neighbour, lacking any aroma, and likely to be lacking in nutrition. Our imaginary person would have experienced real, largely unprocessed food, and a varied seasonal diet (no strawberries at Christmas for Ms Caveperson). It is likely that they would have a relationship with what they had produced. If you ever grow your own fruit and veg you will understand how exciting it is to watch things grow, then how good it feels to harvest and prepare them. People would have wasted nothing- all parts of every fruit, vegetable or animal would be used for something, almost nothing was unusable; today in the UK one third of our food is thrown away and wasted, out of every 2 bagged salads purchased today, one will go in the bin (sounds familiar?).

Another aspect of our imaginary person's relationship to food is the social aspect. People would have produced and processed the food together, celebrated harvests and abundant times, and eaten together as a family or group. Children would help the adults, and learnt how to grow and prepare food ensuring that they would be able to look after themselves as adults. Meal times may have been the only time when the extended family would be gathered together to swap the day's news, gossip and stories. This way people eat more slowly, and eat less allowing their body to feel full and satisfied. Food would have produced social bonding and been a central and essential part of social life.

Life would have been hard, and still is for many people today who have to provide their own food, and so I don't want to over-romanticise this imaginary person. However, I think that this person from the past is a useful tool for understanding what our eating and activity profile should be more like if we wish to be healthier and happier. There would have been no slouching on a sofa in front of the TV, no Chicken Dippas, micro-chips, and definitely (and thankfully) no Pringles. Our imaginary person may not even recognise these things as food.

Underneath it all we are still cave people, our bodies and brains have evolved to take nutrition from simple whole foods, we thrive on human contact and still feel the need to eat together and share food, and our bodies are healthier if we exercise consistently. We need a diet rich in whole foods, in raw foods, and home cooked foods. We should pick foods which are low in sugar, salt and saturated fat. If you are doubtful about the validity of a food, ask yourself how far-removed it is from its natural state, could you make it yourself, would it have existed a hundred years ago or more? If the answer is no then the chances are that it is not very healthy. We need to explore the excitement of foraging for food, growing it and preparing it, we need to rediscover the simple pleasures of podding peas, chopping fresh herbs, picking blackberries, and making pickles and jams.

We can support our 'tribe' by walking down to the local fruit and veg shop, and visiting the local butcher or fishmonger, by using our farmers markets, and supporting local growers. (For each £10 spent in the UK £6 goes into the pocket of Mr Tesco*; local shops are closing, and farmers are making little money due to the pressure placed upon them by supermarkets). We need to get back to the camp-fire and share family food times together, making eating a natural and loving social event where family and friends can interact and bond.

I am not suggesting that you go out and jump on a rabbit and sink your teeth into it, but try to think about the true importance of good food and exercise, and the way that we can improve our health and fitness, enrich our lives and support our community and the environment at the same time. Take a step back in time this week; walk down to the farmers market or the local shops, buy some local produce, take it home and cook it carefully for some people that you love. Unplug the TV and have a good long dinner by candlelight, taking time to talk and enjoy the food. I guarantee that you will feel healthier and happier, and Mr Tesco is hardly going to starve without you!

I hope that this gives you some food for thought,

Creative Ways to Boost Health and Fitness

When it comes to health and exercise maybe you have this image of you just munching through tons of salads, nibbling on raw carrot sticks... and generally eating fairly boring food.

If that's what you're thinking, I have some good news: Eating raw foods does NOT have to be boring. All you need is a little creativity and some special kitchen appliances to create some pretty amazing dishes. Read on...

Blender: If you're drinking whey protein shakes, you may already be using a blender. You can use this blender to make your protein shakes more interesting, such as by adding oatmeal or bananas to the shake. Or you can make fruit smoothies (for breakfast or anytime). For example, make a strawberry-banana smoothie. You can add flax, oatmeal or just about anything else to the smoothie for extra taste, texture and nutrients.

Juicer: If you recall from back in the nutrition lessons, I mentioned that you should avoid any juices that have added sugars or other ingredients. That means you should avoid most juices, because most of them are processed. And sometimes it's hard to find fresh juice.

Here's your solution: Get a juicer. Not only can you make your own fresh orange juice, grapefruit juice and other fruit juices, you can also make vegetable juices (like carrot juice) and seaweed juices. You can even combine different fruits and vegetables. For example, you can use a juicer to create carrot-orange juice or strawberry-grapefruit juice.

Food Processor: Yes, you can do everything with a set of kitchen knives that you can do with a food processor. But the thing is, you can do it much faster with the food processor. In other words, a good food processor can save you a lot of time on cooking day.

Now, obviously, if you're making just one meal, then it doesn't make sense to haul out the food processor. That's because you need to take into consideration the amount of time it takes to clean the machine when you're finished. For a small amount of food (a meal or two), any time savings you create over using a knife is lost in the time it takes to properly clean the machine.

Point is, it's a great time saver... but only if you're using it on those days when you're doing some bulk cooking. Food Dehydrator: While cooking nuts, seeds, fruits and veggies using high heat will rob the food of its beneficial enzymes and some of its nutrients, you can "cook" the food using low heat. In other words, you can dehydrate your food (preferably using a food dehydrator, since your oven probably doesn't have a low enough temperature setting).

Snack idea: You can dehydrate fruits to make fruit chips, like apple chips or banana chips. Then mix your dried fruits with nuts and seeds for a delicious, nutritious snack.

That's it for this time. Next time you'll find out what to do when you want to get more muscle...

Looking forward to talking to you again.

Must-Have Health and Fitness Smartphone

Health and exercise gurus who have weak knees for technology have reason to rejoice! These days it seems there is a smartphone app for just about everything, including personally training, dieting, and tracking medical records.

We have done the research and found the best health care apps for your iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android. These apps make exercising fun, calorie counting easier, and medical research a snap.

Workout Apps

The iPump series for iPhone is a set of five apps designed to make pilates, yoga, stretches, abs and core exercises, and cardio workouts easy. Complete with pictures and step-by-step workout directions, these apps also make it easy to track workouts.

Blackberry's iFitness app has pictures and instructions of more than 230 exercises that target different areas of the body. The app also has features for logging workouts, creating custom workouts, and setting goals.

GymTechnik for Android is an excellent app that takes users through workouts, uses checklists, keeps statistics to help with goal setting, and so much more!

Exercise Tracking and Goal Setting Apps

iPhone lovers looking for an easy way to track their workouts and set goals need look no further than Pocket Coach . This extremely robust and pleasing-to-the-eye app has daily exercises, a goal calendar, accountability reports, push notifications, and even a suggested reading section.

The Total Fitness app for the BlackBerry is the perfect way to meet exercise goals, track fitness progress with graphs, view reports, see exercise animations and instructions, and even track nutrition.

Android users should download the WorkItOut app so they can start logging workouts, scheduling routines, and see their progress.

Running Apps

LogYourRun is an app that routes runs, complete with maps and elevation. It also has the ability to upload workout information to the company's website to present running information as graphs. Users can share their running data on Facebook and Twitter and can even have updates automatically sent to Twitter while they are running. The app also features training programs, a heart rate counter, and playlist options.

For BlackBerry and Android fans, SportyPal is the king of running apps. Users of this app can view their workout on a map, set goals, share their progress on Facebook and Twitter, see their progress on graphs, and more. This feature-packed app can also be used for walking, biking, and even rollerblading.

Nutrition Tracking Apps

With the amazing, and almost unbelievable, app called FoodScanner users can actually use the camera on their iPhone to scan UPC codes on foods to get nutritional information about foods. They can also track their caloric intake, sync with the company's website for more features, and keep a list of favorite foods for quick access.

BlackBerry users can use Calorie Counter to find nutritional information on foods, keep a dietary journal, track daily activity to see burned calories, and keep track of what they are eating.

Calorie Counter for Google Android is a great app for finding nutritional values of foods by searching by food name, restaurant name, grocery store name, and even restaurant name. Like the iPhone app, this app also lets users scan UPC barcodes with the camera on their phone and find nutritional information quickly.

First Aid Apps

iPhone users can have peace of mind when they download Pocket First Aid & CPR from the American Heart Association . This app has instructions for emergency procedures, first aid checklists, and so much more.

The Complete Home First Aid Course app for the BlackBerry prepares users and trains them in how to handle poison cases, heart attacks, wounds, bites, shock, how to perform CPR, and that's just scratching the surface.

The First Aid app for Android does much the same thing and includes videos, illustrated instructions, and a place to store emergency numbers.

Medical History Apps

Imagine sitting in the doctor's office and having your medical history right your fingertips. The Family Care app for iPhone makes that possible. The app organizes medical history, immunizations, personal information like height and weight, blood pressure, allergies, prescriptions, insurance information and so much more, all by family member.

BlackBerry users can download the My Family app and keep track of virtually the same information, so their doctor's visits can go smoothly and be effective. Users can enter information including medical conditions, personal information, medications, immunizations, allergies, and more.

The motionPHR Health Record Manager is perfect for Android users looking for a way to keep their medial history, conditions, family history, immunizations, and more handy and easily accessible.

Medical Resources

The WebMD Mobile iPhone app is the ultimate go-to resource for medical issues. Users can research symptoms, cheek for possible drug interactions, and get instructions for first aid procedures.

BlackBerry users can use Medscape to research drugs and possible interactions and supplements. The app also provides medical news.

Skyscape is an excellent resource for Android fans looking for a way to find medical information. The app includes information on drugs and medicines as well as a medical calculator.