Health Habits

improve your health, habit by habit

Posts Tagged ‘baby boomers’

Researchers Find the Answer to Senior Citizen Heart Health

October 26th, 2009

Researchers have discovered a cutting edge technique to help senior citizens improve the elasticity of their arteries – thereby reducing their risk of heart disease and stroke.

Led by Dr. Kenneth Madden, the researchers were able to reduce arterial stiffness by 15 to 20% in only 3 months time.

But wait, it gets better.

Unlike most cardiovascular treatments, the cost of this new cure-all is…….nothing, zero, nada, rien…it’s free.

It’s free because the treatment is:

Exercise

Wow!!!

Exercise instead of drugs…who would have thought of that???

The Study

Dr. Madden divided his test subjects into two groups.

The first group performed one hour of vigorous physical activity for one hour, three times a week for three months.
The second group continued to live a sedentary lifestyle.

Subjects were classified as sedentary at the beginning of the study but gradually increased their fitness levels until they were working at 70 per cent of their maximum heart rate, using treadmills and cycling machines. They were supervised by a certified exercise trainer.

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And after three months, the exercise group was healthier, while the sedentary group wasn’t.

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So, as a public service to all of my 65+ readers (and those readers with friends & family who are 65+), I will be posting “no equipment necessary” workouts geared toward trainees who are boomer age and older.

Enjoy

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BTW, this post is for my Dad…who should be outside right now getting some exercise

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If you like what you see here, click here for updates

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Obese Women Face Unique Barriers To Exercise

October 8th, 2008

photo credit – http://fatwonderwoman.blogspot.com/

Researchers from the Center for Obesity Research and Education and the department of kinesiology at Temple University found that obese women face a significant number of barriers when it comes to exercise, more so than their normal weight counterparts.

The Study

278 women, both normal weight and obese, were enrolled in a 12 month physical activity encouragement study.

Throughout the study, the women were questioned to determine what factors might be keeping them from exercising.

Some of those factors were:

Feeling self-conscious;
Not wanting to fail;
Fearing injury;
Perceived poor health
Having minor aches or pains
Feeling too overweight to exercise

Results

Throughout the study, the obese women reported more barriers to exercise than the “normal” weight women.

Additionally, the obese women with the most barriers to exercise were the least likely to be exercising at the conclusion of the study.

Conclusion

Whether or not those barriers to exercise were real or imagined, they present a real problem.

Exercise may or may not be an effective treatment for obesity. But there is little doubt that exercise provides numerous health benefits to those willing and able to put in the effort.

If obese women (or other groups – disabled, seniors) are less likely to exercise due to perceived barriers, they are more likely to suffer from various chronic conditions above and beyond obesity.

Finding a way to minimize these barriers to exercise is vital if we are going to continue to market exercise as a method of health promotion / disease prevention.

Reducing these barriers to exercise may explain why the Curves chain of fitness centers has been such a huge success. While Curves may not be the most sophisticated health club chain, they do present an atmosphere that is “female-friendly”.

In a similar vein, “senior-friendly” health clubs are beginning to pop up around the country.

Who knows, in a few years, niche fitness clubs may be as popular as fast food restaurants.

But then again, maybe if we had fewer fast food restaurants, we wouldn’t need the niche fitness clubs.

Oh well…

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Thanks in Advance.

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