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Do More to Strengthen Your Core

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Developing core strength is essential for fitness and overall health, but it doesn’t have to be a drudge. If you’re ready to go beyond crunches — or never liked them to begin with! — consider these moves that target the muscles in your torso and spine. The Advanced Bird Dog: Begin on your hands and knees. Contract your core muscles and straighten your right leg behind you until it’s level with your hip. Now raise your left arm straight out in front of you to shoulder level. From this start position, draw in your right knee and left elbow, touch the elbow to the knee if you can, and then straighten them back to the start position without touching the floor. Do one set, then switch sides and repeat. The Plank With Knee Drive: Begin on your hands and knees. Straighten your legs behind you, shifting your weight to the balls of your feet. Contract your core muscles and, with control, bring one knee toward your chest and then back out to the starting position. Alternate legs throughout the set. The Lying Single Leg Extension: Lie flat on a mat and then draw in your knees so that they make a 90-degree angle with your thighs; calves are parallel with the floor. Contract your core muscles. Keep your back pressed into the mat as you…  read on >

Caw-lesterol? Fatty City Food Hits Crows’ Arteries

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Your lunch leftovers are doing no favors for urban birds’ hearts, new research shows. Fatty food scraps may be boosting the cholesterol levels of crows in U.S. cities, but whether it’s a threat to their health isn’t clear. A team from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., analyzed blood cholesterol levels of 140 crow nestlings in urban and rural areas of California. Those in urban areas had higher levels of cholesterol than those in rural areas, the findings showed. The researchers also tested the impact of human food by giving nestlings in rural New York state a regular supply of cheeseburgers. They then compared the cholesterol levels of those crows with nearby nestlings that didn’t get cheeseburgers. The cheeseburger-fed nestlings’ cholesterol levels were higher, and comparable to those of the city-dwelling crows in California. But whether higher cholesterol is bad for crows is uncertain. “Despite all the bad press that it gets, cholesterol has benefits and serves a lot of essential functions,” said study author Andrea Townsend, an assistant professor of biology. “It’s an important part of our cell membranes and a component of some crucial hormones. We know that excessive cholesterol causes disease in humans, but we don’t know what level would be ‘excessive’ in a wild bird,” she explained. The study was published Aug. 26 in The Condor: Ornithological Applications journal. The researchers followed…  read on >

Your Chocolate Pot ‘Edible’ Could Hold a Hidden Danger

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A quirk in quality testing could mean that pot-laced chocolates are more potent than their label indicates, researchers report. Many states that allow the sale of marijuana-infused edibles — gummy bears, cookies and chocolates — require package labeling that shows the products’ level of THC, the compound that gets you high. But potency testing on chocolate products appears to be slightly skewed, said David Dawson, a research principal with CW Analytical Laboratories, one of California’s longest-operating marijuana testing labs. It turns out that larger samples of chocolate used in testing actually produce less accurate results than smaller samples, Dawson said. “It’s pretty striking and definitely goes against your basic gut instinct,” Dawson said. “As the amount of sample you are testing increases, it should be more representative of the whole of the product. Thus, you should be getting more solid values,” Dawson said. “We saw the opposite here, where we actually start getting less accurate and precise values the more actual product we are testing at a given moment.” The testing flaw tends to cause a chocolate product’s THC levels to be reported as lower than they actually are, Dawson said. For example, a bar containing 97 milligrams of THC might test at 93 milligrams. The variance “isn’t enough to truly pose a danger to consumers, but it is enough to possibly make a good…  read on >

Your Chocolate Pot ‘Edible’ Could Hold a Hidden Danger

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A quirk in quality testing could mean that pot-laced chocolates are more potent than their label indicates, researchers report. Many states that allow the sale of marijuana-infused edibles — gummy bears, cookies and chocolates — require package labeling that shows the products’ level of THC, the compound that gets you high. But potency testing on chocolate products appears to be slightly skewed, said David Dawson, a research principal with CW Analytical Laboratories, one of California’s longest-operating marijuana testing labs. It turns out that larger samples of chocolate used in testing actually produce less accurate results than smaller samples, Dawson said. “It’s pretty striking and definitely goes against your basic gut instinct,” Dawson said. “As the amount of sample you are testing increases, it should be more representative of the whole of the product. Thus, you should be getting more solid values,” Dawson said. “We saw the opposite here, where we actually start getting less accurate and precise values the more actual product we are testing at a given moment.” The testing flaw tends to cause a chocolate product’s THC levels to be reported as lower than they actually are, Dawson said. For example, a bar containing 97 milligrams of THC might test at 93 milligrams. The variance “isn’t enough to truly pose a danger to consumers, but it is enough to possibly make a good…  read on >

Backpacks Shouldn’t Be a Back-to-School Burden on Health

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Books, tablets, lunch: Stuff can really start to weigh heavily in your kid’s school backpack. And so experts at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) are offering tips on backpack safety to parents as a new school year begins. That’s because heavy and improperly worn backpacks can trigger back, neck and shoulder-related pain in children, the group says. In fact, in 2018, almost 51,000 people were seen for backpack-related injuries at emergency departments, doctors’ offices and clinics, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. “Back pain due to improperly wearing and overloading a backpack is a common symptom,” AAOS spokesperson Dr. Afshin Razi, an orthopedic spine surgeon, said in an academy news release. “To limit injuries or back pain, encourage your children to limit the load and utilize both padded straps for proper posture and weight distribution.” Ideally, healthy children with a normal body weight should not carry more than 10%-20% of their body weight in a backpack. Always have kids use both shoulder straps when carrying a backpack, so that the weight is distributed more evenly across the back. Tighten backpack straps to keep the load closer to the back, as well. The bottom of the backpack should sit at waist level, the AAOS said. Kids should carry only items that are required for the school day, and heavier items should be…  read on >

How to Get on Track When Weekend Eating Is Your Downfall

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Do you eat healthy during the week, then ease off the brakes on the weekend? You’re not alone. But such a five days on-two days off eating regimen can erode diet quality, according to a study published recently in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Not only did participants take in more calories on weekends than on weekdays, they were less healthy calories, to boot. They consumed more alcohol and fat, and ate less of the good stuff, like yogurt, fruits, dark green and orange vegetables, chicken, nuts and seeds, and whole grains. And if the calories you consume on the weekend exceed the number you take in during the week, that’s a net surplus — read: weight gain. Besides stalling any weight-loss efforts, weekend junk-food binges can also negatively impact the healthy bacteria in your gut. A lab study published in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research found that cycling on and off junk food was almost as detrimental to the delicate balance of the gut microbiome as eating it all the time. In particular, a junk-food diet reduces the microbes needed to metabolize flavonoids, a category of micronutrients thought to help with weight loss and brain health. If you look forward to letting loose on the weekends, find other ways to unwind. For instance, try a new activity — you’ll burn…  read on >

Give This Recipe for Tasty, Nutritious Beets a Try

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“Eating the rainbow” is a great way to harness the different micronutrients in fruits and vegetables. Among the reds (and yellows), naturally sweet beets are a great source of folate, the B vitamin, fiber and potassium. If you shied away from beets as a kid, it’s time to give them a try. A fun introduction involves using a spiralizer to prep the beets. It’s an essential kitchen tool for those who love a big plate of pasta but not the carb and calorie overload that comes with it. The spiralizer turns veggies like beets, as well carrots and sweet potatoes, into spaghetti-like squiggles. Spiralized beets make a nutritious swap for the standard pasta used to make classic cold sesame noodles, a zesty, do-ahead dish that family and guests alike will love. Cold Sesame Beet Noodles 4 large beets, peeled 1 tablespoon sesame oil 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter 1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce 2 teaspoons chili garlic sauce or Sriracha 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1/3 cup unsalted vegetable or chicken broth 1/4 cup peanuts, roughly chopped 4 scallions, chopped Select the spiralizer blade for the thickness of the noodles you want to make. Fit a beet into the front of the spiralizer where spikes hold the vegetable in place. Next press the hand crank into the other side of the beet. To make noodles, turn…  read on >

1 in 8 Teen Girls Has Faced ‘Reproductive Coercion’

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A staggering number of teen girls are experiencing an insidious form of relationship abuse: reproductive coercion. Researchers report that it affects 1 in 8 adolescent girls who are sexually active. Reproductive coercion is a form of abuse in which a girl or woman is pressured into pregnancy. From a male partner threatening to leave if his female partner refuses to have his baby, to poking holes in condoms before sex, the coercion can take shape in a variety of ways. “Reproductive coercion is a form of power and control exerted via influencing women’s health, sexuality and health care behavior,” said study co-author Heather McCauley, an assistant professor of social work at Michigan State University. She added that the findings highlight a broader public health issue. “Our society so often normalizes the abusive experiences girls and women have in their relationships, making it difficult for young people to recognize that what they are experiencing is not healthy,” McCauley said. Researchers described the new study — published in the August issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology — as the largest look to date at how many teen girls face this pressure. Most studies of reproductive coercion have focused on young adult women. For the study, McCauley and her colleagues analyzed data collected from 550 sexually active girls between age 14 and 19 at eight school-based health…  read on >

Your Dog May Be Leading You to a Healthier Heart

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Your dog might be your heart’s best friend, if a new study is any indication. Researchers found that compared with people who had no pets, dog owners tended to have fewer risk factors for heart disease: They got more exercise, and had healthier diets and lower blood sugar levels. Even compared with other pet owners, they were doing better with diet and exercise. The study of nearly 1,800 Czech adults is not the first to suggest our canine friends can do our hearts good. In fact, in 2013 the American Heart Association (AHA) issued a scientific statement saying that dog ownership is likely linked to a lower risk of heart disease. That was largely based on evidence that people with dogs are more physically active. The new findings suggest the benefit might extend to diet and blood sugar levels. It’s easy to see how having a dog could get people moving, according to senior researcher Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez. And it’s possible that dog owners’ lower blood sugar levels were related to their exercise habits, said Lopez-Jimenez, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. It’s less obvious, though, why dog ownership would encourage a healthier diet. One possibility is that the two are not directly related, he said. On the other hand, past research has shown that dogs do more than demand walks and…  read on >

Health Tip: Risks of Secondhand Smoke

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(HealthDay News) — Secondhand smoke (SHS) has the same harmful chemicals that smokers inhale, says the American Cancer Society. Non-smokers who breathe SHS take in nicotine and toxins, and are at risk for cancer. Cancer is not the only illness that SHS can cause. It affects the heart and blood vessels, also increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke in non-smokers. Studies show that children exposed to SHS get sick more often, have more lung infections and are more likely to cough, wheeze and have shortness of breath.