While going through menopause, many women who gain weight head to the gym for intense workouts, but new research suggests that too much exercise may help trigger another side effect: hot flashes. In a report published May 29 in the journal Menopause, investigators found that working out too vigorously may raise the risk hot flashes. By how much? Sharp increases in physical activity raised the chances of both objective and subjective hot flashes by 31% and 33%, respectively. “This study shows a link between increases in physical activity and subsequent subjective and objective hot flashes during both waking and sleeping periods,” Dr. Stephanie Faubion, medical director for the Menopause Society, said in a journal news release. “Clinicians may advise patients of this link while acknowledging the multiple well-known benefits of physical activity.” Meanwhile, temperature was only a contributing factor to subjective hot flashes while sleeping, raising the risk of them by 38%. “Because temperature during sleep affected the odds of having a hot flash, modifications such as the use of lighter-weight blankets and sleepwear, as well as keeping the room temperature cooler, may help with nighttime hot flashes,” Faubion added. Hot flashes are one of the most frequently experienced menopause symptoms, with 80% of women experiencing them, researchers said. Previous studies have shown that a drop in estrogen levels triggers changes in the hypothalamus that…  read on >  read on >

A small urban garden can contribute to your health, especially if the garden contains rich soil, a new study shows. A one-month indoor gardening period increased the bacterial diversity of participants’ skin and appeared to improve their response to inflammation, researchers found. Growing, harvesting and consuming food produced in an urban garden every day could help city dwellers fend off disease, researchers suggested. “The findings are significant, as urbanization has led to a considerable increase in immune-mediated diseases, such as allergies, asthma and autoimmune diseases, generating high healthcare costs. We live too ‘cleanly’ in cities,” said lead study author Mika Saarenpaa, a doctoral researcher with the University of Helsinki in Finland. “We know that urbanization leads to reduction of microbial exposure, changes in the human microbiota and an increase in the risk of immune-mediated diseases,” Saarenpaa added in a university news release. “This is the first time we can demonstrate that meaningful and natural human activity can increase the diversity of the microbiota of healthy adults and, at the same time, contribute to the regulation of the immune system.” For this study, participants gardened using regular flower boxes, using plants bought off a store shelf. The crops included peas, beans, mustards and salads. A group of 15 people gardened using naturally derived and microbially rich soil, while another control group of 13 gardened with microbially…  read on >  read on >

For decades, Todd Vogt has been dedicated to the sport of rowing, believing he was in peak physical condition. Then, a series of symptoms began to emerge, turning his life upside down. “My left arm stopped swinging, and I felt incredibly fatigued,” Vogt, 49, recalled. “Eventually, a tremor developed in my hand, and I slowly began to realize something was wrong.” That was in 2018. Since then, he has navigated life with Parkinson’s disease, managing his symptoms and maintaining his rowing career. This summer, he will compete in the Paralympic Games in Paris. But the journey has been anything but easy. Parkinson’s disease affects about 1.5 million people in the United States, with symptoms that include tremor, muscle stiffness, slow movement and problems with coordination and balance. These symptoms typically worsen over time. In Vogt’s case, he faces challenges such as fatigue, weakness and involuntary tremor in his left hand and foot. Despite these obstacles, he believes his rigorous exercise routine has played a crucial role in managing the disease. “I believe all the exercise I’ve been doing has delayed the progression,” he said. Vogt’s introduction to rowing came during his freshman year at the University of Buffalo in 1992. His passion for the sport was immediate, leading him to row competitively throughout college and beyond. After college, he transitioned to coaching, a role that…  read on >  read on >

Some folks like to count their daily steps, while others prefer exercising for a certain amount of time during a day or a week. Luckily, either approach boosts health, a new study finds. Exercise targets based on either step count or minutes are equally associated with lower risks of premature death and heart disease, researchers report in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. Given this, personal preferences probably are key when setting up an exercise plan, researchers said. “For some, especially for younger individuals, exercise may involve activities like tennis, soccer, walking, or jogging, all of which can be easily tracked with steps,” said lead author Dr. Rikuta Hamaya, a researcher with the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Preventive Medicine in Boston. “However, for others, it may consist of bike rides or swimming, where monitoring the duration of exercise is simpler,” Hamaya added in a hospital news release.  Current U.S. exercise guidelines focus on minutes – at least 150 minutes weekly of moderate to vigorous physical activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity. But smartwatches have made it easier than ever to track step counts, raising the question of whether steps would be better suited for setting exercise goals, researchers said. “We recognized that existing physical activity guidelines focus primarily on activity duration and intensity but lack step-based recommendations,” Hamaya said. “With more people using…  read on >  read on >

(HeathDay News) — Following decades of declines, drowning deaths are once again climbing in the United States, new government data shows. More than 4,500 people died from drowning each year in 2020 through 2022, 500 more per year than in 2019, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. Increased access to basic swimming lessons and water safety training could save many lives, researchers said. “I’ve seen firsthand the effects of drowning: families forced to say goodbye to their loved ones too soon,” CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry said in an agency news release. “Understanding the barriers people face to accessing basic swimming and water safety skills training can help us better understand how to address those barriers, decrease drowning rates and save lives,” Houry added. Drowning is the leading cause of death for toddlers ages 1 to 4 in the United States, and the new study found that drowning rates were the highest in this age group. By race and ethnicity, the highest drowning rates were found among Black people  and American Indian/Alaska Native people, researchers found. Nearly 40 million adults (15%) do not know how to swim, and over half (55%) have never taken a swimming lesson, researchers noted. Black people in particular lack swimming skills. More than one in three (37%) Black adults said they don’t know how…  read on >  read on >

Athletes who push themselves to maximum performance don’t appear to pay a price when it comes to their longevity, a new study says. The first 200 athletes to run a mile in under four minutes actually outlived the general population by nearly five years on average, according to results published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. This counters the popular belief that extreme exercise might push the body too far and shorten life expectancy, researchers said. For centuries, some have promoted the idea of a “U-shaped” association between health and exercise, with either too little or too much physical activity doing damage to a person’s well being. “Our findings challenge the notion that extreme endurance exercise may be detrimental to longevity, reinforcing the benefits of exercise even at training levels required for elite performance,” concluded the team led by senior researcher Mark Haykowsky, research chair of aging and quality of life at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. The study marks the 70th anniversary of the first time a person ran a mile in under four minutes, researchers said. The English neurologist and athlete Roger Bannister first broke this milestone in May 1954. Bannister died in 2018, at the age of 88. For the study, researchers looked at the first 200 athletes to break the four-minute mile and compared them to the average person’s…  read on >  read on >

Children and young adults who are couch potatoes could wind up with enlarged hearts, increasing their risk of heart attack, stroke and early death. Sedentary behavior contributed as much as 40% to the total increase in heart size between the ages of 17 and 24, researchers found. Further, a lack of movement helped enlarge teens’ hearts independent of other risk factors like obesity or high blood pressure, researchers found. Childhood and teenage sedentary behavior amounts to a “ticking time bomb,” researcher Andrew Agbaje said in a news release. He’s an associate professor of clinical epidemiology and child health at the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio. “There is growing evidence that childhood sedentariness is a health threat that needs to be taken seriously,” he said. On the other hand, children who regularly engaged in light physical activity reduced their increase in heart mass by 49%, researchers said. “Light physical activity is an effective antidote to sedentariness. It is easy to accumulate three to four hours of light physical activity daily,” Agbaje said. Examples of light physical activity include outdoor games, walking a dog, running errands, walking and biking to stores or to school, taking a stroll in the park, playing in the forest, gardening, and casual games of basketball, soccer, golf, frisbee, he said. Kids who regularly worked out even harder tended to increase their heart…  read on >  read on >