Gaining Weight to Fit In

Written by Kathryn Savage

Research suggests that if your friends are overweight, there is a greater chance that you will become overweight, too. Purely by association, research reveals that when you are surrounded a certain behavior - healthy or unhealthy - your odds of indulging that behavior increase.

The study included research by scientists at the University of Warwick, Dartmouth College, and the University of Leuven. Their study focused on data from 27,000 people and led to a term, "imitative obesity" - or "keeping up with the Joneses" on calories, as reported to BBC News.

Why the weight?
When it comes to human interaction, permission plays in important role in how we live our lives. ”Is it ok if I order another beer or will these people think I’m a lush?” “Do I look good in this dress?” “Will my wife think these concert tickets are out of our budget?” And permission plays a key role in “imitative obesity” - when the people around you are fat, it sends a signal to your subconscious that it's ok for you to be fat. So is obesity more a sociological phenomenon, rather than a physiological, an environmental or an emotional one? Well, that depends on who you’re talking to.

Interviewed in the BBC News report, Professor Andrew Oswald at the University of Warwick, who worked on the study, said: "Consumption of calories has gone up but that does not tell us why people are eating more.” He said: "Some have argued that obesity has been produced by cheaper food, but if fatness is a response to greater purchasing power, why do we routinely observe that rich people are thinner than poor people?" He encourages people to think about obesity as a sociological phenomenon instead of a physiological one.

But Dr. David Haslam, clinical director of the National Obesity Forum, also interviewed by BBC, said: "It's a bit cheeky to pin it on sociological influences - there's more to it than that." And: "If you are surrounded by people, whether that's friends or within the family home, who are overweight, you are sharing the same environment where there is likely to be an abundance of the wrong kind of foods."

People want to fit in and be liked. This research may translate to other unhealthy and healthy behaviors. All your friends smoke? There is a greater risk that you will become a smoker. Are all your friends vegetarian runners? Your chances of opting to eat less meat and run more go up, purely by association. The underlying brain signal is: if they can do it, I can do it.

The Silver Lining...
Want to adopt a new, healthy behavior? You're more likely to stick with it if you participate with a friend. Weight Watchers encourages dieters to sign up for their program with a friend or family member because members who bring a companion to the diet program have on average, more success than dieters who go it alone.

Starting Healthy Habits Later In Life Still Makes A Difference

Written by Kathryn Savage

We know that diet and exercise play a vital role in living a long, healthy life, and scientists are always coming up with new information that helps explain why this is.

A recent study, (July, 2007), published in the journal Science, reveals that even if we start later in life, healthy lifestyle habits, (eating lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and a diet low in saturated fat, along with exercise), has a profoundly balancing effect on our hormones. This may extend more than our ability to rock those skinny jeans, it also extends the health of our brains.

Quoted in a CBS News report, researcher Morris White, PhD, who works at the Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, explains that adopting healthy habits "...has less to do with how we look, and more to do with a healthy brain, especially in old age.”

Researcher Morris White, PhD and others, focused their attention on the Irs2 gene in mice. This gene is responsible for creating a protein that helps cells absorb insulin, a hormone that monitors blood sugar levels. What the scientists found in mice, is a link between an inactive Irs2 gene and insulin insensitivity. The mice with insulin insensitivity gained weight and became inactive. Insulin resistance, or insensitivity in people often leads to metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. According to a report released by the Mayo Clinic, diabetes increases your risk for Alzheimer's.

A healthy diet and exercise naturally balances blood sugar and keeps hormones in line. This isn’t about playing with genes, and getting all mad-scientist on some mice, our altering our brain chemistry to promote longevity through pills and potions. It’s more about promoting tried and true habits, and encouraging the body to take care of itself naturally. Daily exercise, calorie restriction, and maintaining a healthy weight all contribute to insulin sensitivity, reducing your risk for diabetes and possibly Alzheimer's.

Need tips on where to begin living a healthier lifestyle? There are a ton of great tips on this website, also visit Spark People for fun exercise and healthy eating suggestions. And don’t forget to check with your doctor before starting a new fitness routine.

How Excercise can Hurt your body.

Written by Kathryn Savage

An active life is a vital life.
We’re taught from the age of pee-wee soccer that physical fitness walks hand in hand with emotional well-being, strength and personal satisfaction. In a world where physical activity is the status quo, and treadmills come in as many brands, shapes and sizes as bottled water, sadly, joint health is increasingly declining.

We’re wearing out the tread.
Many of the 70 million baby boomer's are being forced to reckon with their active lifestyle. Osteoarthritis is just one possible consequence of a long, active life according to a recent report. Osteoarthritis currently affects about 46 million Americans. Stanford Universities Longevity Center reports that this number will hit 67 million by 2030.

Hips are like tires, once you “wear out the tread,” the cartilage, you’ve got to replace the hip. Sadly, new hips (knees, wrists) wear out too. Overtime, it is not unlikely for multiple replacement surgeries to be deemed necessary to keep you moving.

What to do?
When you exercise, focus on low or no impact activities like yoga, bike riding, hiking, swimming and pilates instead of jogging. At the end of the day, we’re all fighting the cartilage-clock. Overtime, cartilage that pads the joints wears down and wears out, and once you get bone on bone contact, that’s when the pain starts. The best solution is to focus your workouts on activities that don’t put large amounts of pressure or pounding on joint cartilage.

It’s not all about stress...
Stress on joints is commonly believed to be the main cause of cartilage wear and tear. New research suggests that repetition alone, that three mile jog you’ve been taking since the 1970’s, is not the only, or the main, reason for cartilage to go kaput. Other factors like obesity and previous injury may play a bigger role than popular science suggests.

Glucosamine and Chondroitin?
Many people, including a personal trainer I know very well, pop a vitamin that is a mix of glucosamine and chondroitin daily. This combo is believed to reduce pain and pressure on knees. Can a magic pill cure cartilage breakdown? Not yet, anyway. While an assortment of vitamins may make lofty advertising claims, medical professionals still lack the ability to generate new cartilage. Everything from aspirin, vitamin supplements, to cortisone shots is a quick pain fix, not a solution. Joints perform a mechanical function, and joint replacement is the only way we know to fix this function.

Want to know more about healthy joints? Read Stanford Universities take on how to keep aging joints healthy.

Yoga for Longevity

Written by Kathryn Savage

Yoga is beneficial as we age because it focuses on strength and balance without placing unnecessary pressure on joints and bones.

Our Bones
As we age our bones become more brittle and cartilage between the joints wears out. Women, starting in their 30’s and continuing after menopause have a faster rate of bone dissolve, and develop thin bones more easily then when they were young. There are a host of drugs on the market today that are designed to strengthen brittle bones. New studies suggest that these drugs may not be as effective as was once thought. Some researchers are hypothesizing that these drugs may actually cause more harm than good.

Where yoga comes in...
Yoga is a popular form of movement that unites meditation, balance and strength training with focused breathing. It began in India as a way for people to connect and feel at peace with the world. Today, yoga is practiced throughout the world for reasons as diverse as weight loss and heightened spirituality. Yoga consists of posses that are practiced in a sequential order and held for several seconds or several minutes. Yoga is great for longevity because it strengthens the muscles and ligaments that surround bones and joints without putting pressure on bones and joints. Movements become more fluid and less stiff overtime.

Weight loss
Yoga is beneficial for weight loss because it tones and strengthens the body, while bringing greater attention to the mechanisms of the body. Heightened self awareness and easier digestion are some of the positive consequences of regularly practicing yoga.

Stress Reduction
Because yoga focuses on stamina, strength, breathing and meditation, studies suggest it is benefits sleep patterns and reduces stress.

Check with your doctor if you think there is any reason (high blood pressure, arthritis, risk of blood clots) that you should not be dropping by a yoga class near you!

Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men?

Written by Kathryn Savage

Eat less live longer?
It’s a popular belief that women, on average, tend to outlive men and that caloric restriction tends to increase healthy years of life. But why? New research being conducted in Spain and Italy suggests that a liver protein may be responsible.

The study, involving lab rats, focused on the livers of female rats, and the livers of rats on a calorie-restricted diet. Regardless of sex calorie-restricted rats generated different levels of 27 proteins that hearty-eating rats failed to produce. Ladies? Female rats generated the same 27 proteins simply for being a girl.

The findings suggest that a set of cellular pathways, once ignored in the longevity debate, might be involved in increasing longevity among picky eaters and women. They also point out that women in Hollywood may outlive all of us.

What about exercise?
A separate study suggests that the benefits a calorie-restricted diet has on longevity (disease prevention, joint health), is more easily achieved by eating less rather than working out (and thus burning more calories than non-exercisers).

Changes in hormones that occur when mice eat significantly less may play a prominent role in longevity.
Derek M. Huffman, the recent studies lead author, said in a report, “We know that being lean rather than obese is protective from many diseases, but key rodent studies tell us that being lean from eating less, as opposed to exercising more, has greater benefit for living longer.”

Why?
His reasoning is that eating less across the board seems to be a better deterrent from multiple diseases than exercise alone. Another theory rooted in Huffman's study is that exercise places stress on the body, stress on the joints and potentially stress on the heart, and this damages tissue and DNA. A third hypothesis is that caloric restriction creates physiological changes that benefit the body. Want to learn more? Read all about his research here.

FEATURE: Get a Holistic Fitness Routine

Written by Kathryn Savage

But let’s say you’re 35, and you’re fit as a fiddle.
Stressed? What with deadlines at work, that gym you’ve been ignoring, an upcoming anniversary, and let’s throw a screaming baby in the mix, it’s hard not to get stressed out. Stress is a normal fact of life, but chronic stress (heart palpitations over the thought of ordering take out)  leads to systematic inflammation and reduces our immune system’s ability to fight infection.  

It’s time to move!
Movement is important at any stage of your life. Movement is especially vital as you age because it increases strength and flexibility in the years your body will naturally loose it. Movement can also relieve stress and as a consequence, bodily inflammation.  In old age especially, exercise leads to increased independence and quality of life. A senior yoga class, swimming, these are great activities that increase balance and bodily awareness and prevent falls that can lead to serious injury. The National Institute on Aging advocates strength training. Strength training is great because it improves flexibility and reduces stress on joints.

How to make strength training a part of your routine?

Who Needs the Gym? Outdoor Excercise Tips

Written by Kathryn Savage

Global regions where people are living the longest are not close to a 24 Hour Fitness or a YMCA. Centenarians are not marathoners, weight lifters or gym rats. They make moving a part of their daily life by gardening, farming and simply walking.

People in Los Angeles are canceling gym memberships in record numbers due to current economics and gas prices. All that sunshine doesn’t hurt of course, but gyms, yoga studios and pilates centers are feeling the hurt and loosing members in record numbers. What’s bad for business does not have to be bad for waistlines! Los Angeles residents are hitting the beach, the park, hiking trails, and doing yoga outside, often for free. Don’t live in L.A.? You can still take your workout outside, just check out these outdoor exercise tips.

What’s that I hear? Excuses?
Interested in quitting the gym and hitting the bike trail but worried about seasonal allergies? Learn how to beat allergies and still give up the gym!

Workout Tips
You’re excited. You just bought new jogging shoes and you’re ready to go! Remember to take things slow at first, there are rocks and uneven sidewalks to watch out for. Just like you would indoors, warm up and cool down, and it’s important for joints and ligaments that if you run, jog, or plan on doing lunges or squats that you make time to stretch!

Happy trails to you!

Can't Sleep? The holistic way to beat Insomnia.

Written by Kathryn Savage

It’s 2 a.m. and you’re seriously contemplating ordering a Total Gym, the infomercial is way too convincing. There are brownies in the fridge and you’re trying to resist. It’s early, you can’t sleep, and you’re not alone. Millions of people suffer from insomnia. So what can you do? Assuming there are no underlying causes like a sleep disorder, it’s probably a combination of stress, poor eating habits and a lack of exercise standing between you and your eight hours.

Focus on improving healthy habits during the day, and get to sleep at night!
A recent report suggests that moderate exercise can improve insomnia. Acute aerobic exercise during the day might reduce anxiety and improve sleep quality according to a recent study authored by Giselle S. Passos, of Federal University of Sao Paulo in Brazil.

Cut Caffeine
Caffeine intake can lead to difficulty sleeping. Limit coffee to one cup a day. And replace caffeinated soda with water, herbal tea or at the very least swap Mountain Dew for a caffeine free soda like Sprite.

Don’t eat a big meal right before bed.
Numerous studies suggest that eating a big meal can cause insomnia. Big meals should be consumed earlier in the day. Ideally, your smallest meal should be dinner.

Behavioral therapy vs. drugs?
We at Blue Zones are big believers in a holistic approach to health care. Before you fill that prescription, look at your habits and your environment. What can you change in your day to day life that might lead to a better nights sleep? Noisy neighbors? Buy earplugs. Not getting enough exercise? See if a daily bike ride, or jog improves your sleep patterns. Eating a big dinner? Cut your portions in half and see if this helps. While those sleep aids will work for the short term, insomnia is often a symptom of a larger lifestyle problem. Reducing stress, late night calories, and increasing physical activity may be the best long term solution.

From the Experts: Does exercise and going to a gym help you live longer?

Written by Siddarth Saikia

We continue our From the Experts series by quizzing Dr. RobertKane about exercise, gymming and their benefits for longevity.

Dr. Robert Kane, M.D, is director of the Center on Aging and the Minnesota Geriatric Education Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis

Today's Question:

What about going to the gym? Wouldt that add more quality years to our lives?

Robert Kane: Exercise has several quite distinct functions. You have cardio-vascular exercise, which we describe as aerobic exercise, which increases your body's capacity to process oxygen. That's where you go out and work really hard and raise your heart rate. Swimming would be a good way to get that kind of exercise.

There's also anti-gravity exercise. For example, if you're trying to prevent osteoporosis, swimming is not a good thing to do, because it doesn't increase the strength of your bones. There, working against gravity, walking, standing does more to increase bone metabolism than swimming does.
Then there are balance exercises-those designed to improve your balance. Tai Chi is one people talk about, or yoga. Those are exercises that have been associated with reducing the risk of falls.

FEATURE: Five Ways to Set Up Your House To Help You Move More Naturally

Written by Kathryn Savage

Exercise is great for our health and walking after you eat is wonderful for healthy digestion. So how can we design a home that incorporates ways to move more naturally?

Get rid of the remote.
It may sound silly, but toss the remote and get up and change the dial when you watch TV. Better yet, cancel cable, and watch less TV. Take an evening walk, or read in bed and get a good nights rest instead.

Take the stairs.
I used to live in a fourth floor walk up in Brooklyn. A girlfriend lived in a seven story walk up. She didn’t need to squat or lunge, getting the mail was a workout! Next time you shop, visit the office, run in the park, find a pair of stairs and take them! Certainly avoid elevators at all costs!

Garden.
Plant a garden and get busy! It’s a great way to unwind, and break a sweat at the same time! All those great flowers and yummy vegetables aren’t going to harvest themselves!

Get rid of the garage door opener.
Better yet, get rid of the car! Buy a bicycle and use it more often than your car. Save on gas and save the environment!

Cook!
Skip the take out and get busy in the kitchen! Trying a new recipe, whipping your own whip cream, mincing and dicing and canning relishes and chutneys really is work! I know it might not sound like much, but cooking is a great activity that really gets you moving!