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Exercising in natural surroundings — a jog through a park, a bicycle ride along a trail — could be more beneficial than working out indoors, a new review suggests. However, access to natural areas that are public varies widely, with not everyone having the chance to exercise outdoors, the investigators noted. “The research is clear that natural settings could be an effective venue for promoting physical activity,” said lead researcher Jay Maddock, director of the Texas A&M University Center for Health & Nature. “People generally enjoy being outdoors, with parks, trails and community gardens being the most popular venues.” Currently, more than 3 of 4 adults fail to get the weekly amount of physical activity recommended in the United States, researchers said in background notes. Such exercise can prevent chronic health problems like heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and osteoporosis, researchers said. It also can enhance immune function, improve mood, aid pain control and extend life expectancy. For the study, published recently in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, researchers analyzed data from prior research regarding the benefits of outdoor exercise compared against indoor workouts. The studies revealed a mix of potential benefits from outdoor physical activity — improved mood and brain function, better social interaction, greater enjoyment of exercise and possibly even less perceived exertion. The researchers noted that the studies focused on short-term… read on > read on >

Nearly 1 in every 6 U.S. adults have engaged in the ancient practice of yoga over the past year, new government data shows. In fact, as Americans increasingly turn to alternative or complementary health approaches, “the largest increases [have been] in the practice of yoga,” noted researchers Nazik Elgaddal and Julie Weeks. They’re with the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which is part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their new report is based on 2022 data from the ongoing National Health Interview Survey. According to the data, yoga remains more popular among women (23.3% reporting past-year use) than men (10.3%). It’s also more popular among the young (ages 18 to 44), with 21.3% in that age group saying they practiced yoga, than the middle-aged (14.1%) or those aged 65 or older (8%). The well-off are also more likely to engage in yoga than less affluent folks. Overall, 23% of people in the survey’s highest income bracket said they practiced yoga versus 10.4% of those at the lowest income level. As to why Americans are engaging in the ages-old Indian practice, about 80% of yoga practitioners cited “restoring overall health,” the CDC team found. That was especially true for folks ages 45 to 64. Meditation is often being performed in conjunction with yoga: Just over 57% of all practitioners said they… read on > read on >

Folks trying to control their blood sugar levels might do best to work out in the evening, a new study suggests. Exercise performed between 6 p.m. and midnight appeared to be better at controlling blood sugar levels all day long, according to results published June 10 in the journal Obesity. This was particularly true of people with the sort of impaired blood sugar regulation associated with diabetes, researchers said. The results show that doctors “should consider the optimal timing of the day to enhance the effectiveness of the exercise and physical activity programs they prescribe,” said researcher Jonatan Ruiz, a professor of physical activity and health with the University of Granada in Spain. For the study, researchers recruited 186 overweight and obese adults and tracked their activity and blood glucose levels for two weeks using wearable devices. People were categorized based on when they accumulated more than 50% of each day’s moderate to vigorous physical activity – “morning” for 6 a.m. to noon, “afternoon” for noon to 6 p.m. and “evening” for 6 p.m. to midnight. Some were categorized as “mixed” if no defined time window accounted for more than half their day’s exercise, and others were marked as “inactive” if they didn’t get any moderate to vigorous exercise. Those who worked out in the evening were more likely to have lower daytime, nighttime and… read on > read on >

It’s tempting to binge-watch TV, but yet another study finds that when it comes to healthy aging, the less time on your sofa, the better. The study looked at 20 years of data on more than 45,000 people taking part in the Nurses’ Health Study. All were at least age 50 in 1992 and free of chronic disease when they entered the study. Researchers tracked lifestyle habits like time sitting at work, home and watching television, as well as their hours at home or work spent standing or walking at home. All that data was compared to information on how healthily (or not) they had aged over time. What defined “healthy aging”? According to the team from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, it meant living to be 70 plus having no major chronic diseases, no impaired memory, and overall good physical and mental health. One activity — watching TV while sitting — seemed particularly unhealthy, the researchers found. “Replacing television time with light physical activity, moderate to vigorous physical activity, or sleep [in participants with inadequate sleep] were associated with better odds of healthy aging,” wrote a team led by Dr. Molin Wang, an associate professor of medicine in the department of epidemiology at Harvard. More specifically, every hour per day where sedentary TV watching was replaced by even “light” physical activity in… read on > read on >

A test used to gauge whether a college athlete has suffered a concussion is right only half the time and may be useless, new research finds. The test used by the NCAA, which oversees college sports, measures an athlete’s cognitive skills, and is one of three tests (symptoms and balance tests being the other two) that doctors use to identify concussion. “If you don’t do well on the cognitive exam, it suggests you have a concussion. But many people who are concussed do fine on the exam,” said study lead author Dr. Kimberly Harmon. She is a professor of family medicine and section head of sports medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Harmon said she was prompted to conduct the study by firsthand experience working on the sidelines as team physician for the UW Huskies. “Some people were concussed and they did well on the recall tests. Some people weren’t concussed and they didn’t do well. So I thought we should study it,” she explained in a UW news release. The test itself is one part of what’s known as the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT). In the cognitive skills section of SCAT, the patient is asked “orientation” questions (What day is it? What month is it?), then a memory test (recite back a list of words), then a concentration challenge (repeat… read on > read on >

New research shows that a set of healthy lifestyle habits can help preserve brain function in folks with mild cognitive impairment or early dementia. About 71% of patients who ate healthy, exercised regularly and engaged in stress management had their dementia symptoms either remain stable or improve without the use of any drugs, researchers reported June 7 in the journal Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy. By comparison, about 68% of patients in a control group without these lifestyle changes experienced a worsening of their symptoms, results show. Researchers also found that the more patients changed their lives in healthy ways and stuck to those changes, the greater the benefit for their brain power. This is the first time that lifestyle changes have been shown to have any impact on the progression of dementia and Alzheimer’s, researchers said. “I’m cautiously optimistic and very encouraged by these findings, which may empower many people with new hope and new choices,” said lead researcher Dr. Dean Ornish, founder and president of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute. “We do not yet have a cure for Alzheimer’s, but as the scientific community continues to pursue all avenues to identify potential treatments, we are now able to offer an improved quality of life to many people suffering from this terrible disease,” Ornish added in an institute news release. One participant said it… read on > read on >

Vigorous exercise more than once a week can lower the risk of dementia for people with high blood pressure, a new clinical trial shows. People who engaged each week in vigorous physical activity had lower rates of mild cognitive impairment and dementia despite their high blood pressure, according to results published June 6 in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, Examples of vigorous activity include hiking uphill, running, fast bicycling, swimming laps, aerobic dancing, jumping rope and heavy yardwork, according to the American Heart Association. “We know that physical exercise offers many benefits, including lowering blood pressure, improving heart health and potentially delaying cognitive decline,” said lead researcher Dr. Richard Kazibwe, an assistant professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. This new study offers an idea of how much exercise is needed to reap these benefits, Kazibwe added. The clinical trial involved more than 9,300 participants with high blood pressure aged 50 and older, recruited from about 100 hospitals and clinics throughout the United States. Early results published in 2019 showed that tight control of blood pressure significantly reduced the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment, a precursor of early dementia, researchers said. For this new report, researchers analyzed the effect of exercise on brain health in these folks. Nearly 60% of study participants reported… read on > read on >

Drug-resistant fungal infections are appearing in the United States, resulting in highly contagious and tough-to-treat cases of ringworm, also known as jock itch or athlete’s foot, experts warn in a pair of reports. The two fungi reported are among a group that cause skin rashes of the face, limbs, groin and feet, researchers said. Unfortunately, the rashes can look very different from the neat, regular circles seen in most forms of ringworm, researchers said. They might be confused with eczema, and go for months without proper treatment. A man in his 30s developed such a rash on his penis, buttocks and limbs after returning home to New York City from a trip to England, Greece and California, according to a report published June 5 in the journal JAMA Dermatology. Genetic tests revealed the infection was caused by a sexually transmitted form of ringworm called Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII. The man told doctors he’d had sex with multiple male partners during his travels, none of whom reported similar skin issues. “Healthcare providers should be aware that Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII is the latest in a group of severe skin infections to have now reached the United States,” said lead author Dr. Avrom Caplan, an assistant professor of dermatology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. Infections caused by that fungus are difficult to… read on > read on >

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 >