Tag Archives: exercise

Science and Other News

A Primitive Tribe Doesn’t Get Modern Diseases

9 Comments

Research on the [indigenous Tsimane of northern Bolivia] led to the finding in 2009 that cardiovascular disease is probably an ill of modern societies. Studies of the group also provided the most conclusive data supporting the idea that high levels of physical activity drastically reduce the risk of diabetes, obesity and hypertension.

There have been 42 studies with results published, and at least 33 more are under way. “This is the most productive research site in anthropology today,” Ray Hames, an anthropologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said.

Jean Friedman-Rudovsky in the NYT.

Science and Other News

Can Eating the Right Foods Change Your Genes?

10 Comments

In 35 years of medical research, conducted at the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute, which I founded, we have seen that patients who ate mostly plant-based meals, with dishes like black bean vegetarian chili and whole wheat penne pasta with roasted vegetables, achieved reversal of even severe coronary artery disease. They also engaged in moderate exercise and stress-management techniques, and participated in a support group. The program also led to improved blood flow and significantly less inflammation which matters because chronic inflammation is an underlying cause of heart disease and many forms of cancer. We found that this program may also slow, stop or reverse the progression of early stage prostate cancer, as well as reverse the progression of Type 2 diabetes.

Also, we found that it changed gene expression in over 500 genes in just three months, “turning on” genes that protect against disease and “turning off” genes that promote breast cancer, prostate cancer, inflammation and oxidative stress.

Full editorial by Dean Ornish in the NYT.

Interesting Links

“Best” Hospitals Fail to Make the Cut, and Other Links

7 Comments

Why academic medical centers do poorly on quality report cards.

Why corruption may save lives.

Exercise does seem to contribute to waist-tightening, provided that the amount of exercise is neither too little nor, more strikingly, too much.

Every year, an estimated 4,000 cases of items left in the patient’s body after surgery, and the vast majority are gauzelike sponges used to soak up blood.

Obesity Updates

O would some power the giftie gie us…

4 Comments

A team of researchers led by a group from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recently asked 3,622 young men and women in Mexico to estimate their body size based on categories ranging from very underweight to obese. People in the normal weight range selected the correct category about 80 percent of the time, but 58 percent of overweight students incorrectly described themselves as normal weight. Among the obese, 75 percent placed themselves in the overweight category, and only 10 percent accurately described their body size.

Source: Tara Parker-Pope in the NYT.

Science and Other News

Some Americans Go to Canada for Care

6 Comments

A weight-loss option that the F.D.A. hasn’t approved.

The intragastric balloon, filled with liquid and left in the stomach for up to six months, is not approved for use in the United States, though it’s available in Europe, South America and other parts of the world… Since the balloon’s introduction in Canada in 2006, people like Mrs. Kwarciak have been streaming north in growing numbers. Drawn by the relative ease of balloon placement, Americans account for nearly a third of patients undergoing the procedures in Canadian clinics just over the border.

Full Roni Caryn Rabin article in the NYT.

Interesting Links

Speed Reading Course, and Other Links

4 Comments

Forget about taking that speed reading course: The human eye cannot process more than about 300 words per minute.

The human mind gauges someone’s attractiveness in 13 milliseconds. It happens before you realize you’ve seen the image.

Don’t bother to exercise: You can strengthen your muscles by merely imagining exercise.

Most popular diets do not lead to weight loss; however, unpopular ones do (i.e. diet and exercise).