Sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but…a new study tells us that the time you spend sitting on your butt is shortening your life.

Yep. You heard right.

• Watching tv
• Surfing the net
• Driving your car
• Working at your desk
• Even reading your favorite blog – Health Habits

All of these activities are killing you.

And wait, it gets worse.

According to the researchers, being physically active doesn’t make up for all those hours spent sitting on your butt.

The Research

Researchers analyzed survey responses from 123,216 individuals (53,440 men and 69,776 women) who had no history of cancer, heart attack, stroke, or emphysema/other lung disease enrolled in the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Prevention II study in 1992.

They examined the amount of time spent sitting and physical activity in relation to mortality between 1993 and 2006.

They found that more leisure time spent sitting was associated with higher risk of mortality, particularly in women.

• Women who reported more than six hours per day of sitting were 37 % more likely to die during the time period studied than those who sat fewer than 3 hours a day.
• Men who sat more than 6 hours a day were 18 % more likely to die than those who sat fewer than 3 hours per day.

Associations were stronger for cardiovascular disease mortality than for cancer mortality.

And while being physically active didn’t eliminate the effect of all those hours of sitting, when they compared the combination of excessive sitting with a lack of physical activity, the picture looked even worse.

• Women and men who both sat more and were less physically were 94% and 48% more likely, respectively, to die compared with those who reported sitting the least and being most active.

So…Let’s Recap

Women

• With exercise, women who sit were 37% more likely to kick the bucket
• Without exercise, that number jumps to 94%

Men

• With exercise, male couch potatoes were 18% more likely to croak
• Without exercise – 48% more likely

And why do they think that sitting on our collective keisters is so bad for us?

“Several factors could explain the positive association between time spent sitting and higher all-cause death rates,” said Dr. Patel. “Prolonged time spent sitting, independent of physical activity, has been shown to have important metabolic consequences, and may influence things like triglycerides, high density lipoprotein, cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose, resting blood pressure, and leptin, which are biomarkers of obesity and cardiovascular and other chronic diseases.”

Conclusion

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Get off your butt and move around a little

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Reference

• the study
• EurekAlert

Sitting on your butt is going to kill you is a post from: Health and Fitness articles

Scarcity of:

• Food (starvation)
• Medical Knowledge (infant mortality, germs, viruses, infections, etc)
• Cleanliness (germs & cooties)
• Technology (hunting dinner could quickly turn into being hunted for dinner)

Luckily for us, our ancestors were hard workers and developed strategies for solving most of these problems.

• Food (agriculture)
• Medical Knowledge (Gregory House M.D.)
• Cleanliness (washing your hands with soap)
• Technology (food production, medicine, transportation, etc)

Unfortunately for us, our hard working ancestors may have been just a little too smart for our own good.

In our desire to live longer & better, some of our “lifestyle improvements” have turned around and bit us squarely on the butt.

We have gotten so good at:

• Food (calories) production
• Labor saving devices (automobiles, microwaves, roombas)
• Entertainment
• Information delivery (computers, internet)
• and so on…

That we are now dying due to excess:

• High Central Obesity or Visceral Fat
• High Triglycerides
• Low HDL Cholesterol
• High Blood Pressure
• High Blood Sugar
• High levels of Inflammation
• Microalbuminuria
• Diabetes (Types 1, 2 and 3)
• Coronary Heart Disease
• Cancer

sounds fun, doesn’t it?

Scientists call this condition by a host of different names - Metabolic Syndrome, syndrome X, insulin resistance syndrome, Reaven’s syndrome, and CHAOS (Australia).

I prefer the name 21st Century Disease.

Despite the different names, the scientists all agree that this “syndrome”  is caused directly by the very lifestyle that our ancestors worked so hard to create.

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Ironic, ain’t it?

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Note - It’s obvious that there is a still lot of scarcity in the world. It just doesn’t happen to most of us. Without getting all preachy, there are lots of ways we can share some of our abundance with others who weren’t born into abundance. One of my favorites is Kiva.

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If you like what you see here, click here for updates or Share this Post with the rest of the world.

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21st Century Disease is a post from: Health and Fitness articles

Unfortunately, before February 1st rolls around, two thirds of those people have fallen off the bandwagon, abandoned their gym memberships and returned to the normal diet of pizza & ice cream.

So, in an attempt to recharge your collective weight-loss motivation, I thought I would let you in on a recent piece of obesity research that concluded that…

Obesity = Inflammation = Cancer

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Yep, cancer…the big C.

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According to this latest research, obesity enhances the development of a form of liver cancer called HCC (hepatocellular carcinoma) by:

1. Stimulating the production of tumor-promoting cytokines (interleukin-6 {Il-6} and tumor necrosis factor {tnf})
2. Il-6 and tnf causes inflammation in your liver, and
3. Activates a tumor-producing transcription factor called STAT3
4. STAT3 activates the formation and growth of the HCC liver cancer

Or, in layman’s terms

Obesity = Inflammation = Cancer

But, it’s not just liver cancer.

Obesity also increases the risk of developing pancreatic, GI and kidney cancers.

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So, how about that slice of pizza?

Feeling hungry?

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

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• The status-quo is broken…We need a new model for burning fat and getting fit

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Reference

• EurekAlert
• Cell

Obesity = Inflammation = Cancer is a post from: Health and Fitness articles

• Obesity costs America $147 billion each and every year.
• It’s linked to cancer…
• and diabetes…
• and depression….
• and generally ain’t that good for you

So, how come “many overweight patients are not being advised to lose weight, diet, or exercise”.

In fact, when it comes to medical intervention in cases of obesity, the numbers are as follows:

1. Having a doctor tell the patient about the health problems associated with being overweight (48.0%),
2. Suggesting diet and exercise (46.5%),
3. Referring the patient to a formal diet program (5.2%),
4. Prescribing a weight loss medication (4.0%),
5. Recommending a non-prescription weight loss product (1.8%),
6. Recommending stomach bypass surgery (1.5%).

I don’t know about you, but considering that obesity is fast becoming the western world’s #1 health issue, I think that the global medical community should be taking obesity prevention/treatment much more seriously.

I don’t know if it’s a lack of knowledge or the threat of discrimination lawsuits or the frustration of being ignored by obese patients over and over and over, but if we want to reverse the tide of obesity related disease, real steps need to be taken.

The time for talk is over.

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

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• Too fat to be surgeon general?
  
• Having trouble sticking to your diet?
  
• How the Free Market makes you FAT and why “Big Food” likes it that way
• Nutritional Information on Restaurant Menus – Does it make any difference?
• The Future of Fast Food
• The status-quo is broken…We need a new model for burning fat and getting fit

Reference

• Prev Med

Doctors Ignore Obesity is a post from: Health and Fitness articles

This post is strictly for the fitness/nutrition geeks.

All sorts of neat-o research studies.

Enjoy

• The Nutrient-Rich Foods (NRF) Index is a new, objective, science-based way to measure the total nutritional quality of foods and beverages…link to the research, Nutrient Rich Foods Coalition
• Urban Farming? - Will Allen – creator of Growing Power, FoodCycles – Toronto’s Urban Garden
• Millions Of U.S. Children Low In Vitamin D – Increased risk of bone and heart disease – all due to sunscreens and a fear of the sun? - link to the research
• More Evidence Of Fish Oil’s Heart Health Benefits – There is mounting evidence that omega-3 fatty acids from fish or fish oil supplements not only help prevent cardiovascular diseases in healthy individuals, but also reduce the incidence of cardiac events and mortality in patients with existing heart disease. link to the research
• Caloric Restriction reduces the risk of Breast Cancer - link to the research
• If you have an overweight child who has overweight friends, you need to read this
• Social Stress leads to visceral/belly fat which leads to heart disease - link to the research
• Gut hormone CCK has an insulin like effect on blood sugar - link to the research
• Traditional Gender Roles aren’t dead yet – Women Eat Less when they Eat with a Man - link to the research
• High-fat, High-sugar Foods Alter Brain Receptors - Researchers report that either continuous eating or binge eating a high fat, high sugar diet alters opioid receptor levels in an area of the brain that controls food intake - link to the research

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

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• The status-quo is broken…We need a new model for burning fat and getting fit
• The Link between Belly Fat, Depression, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease
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• 10 Ways to Screw Up your Diet

Bleeding Edge Nutrition Research is a post from: Health and Fitness articles

image: allthingsbeautiful.com

Cancer cases are now rising at such a rate that the disease poses a threat to humanity comparable to climate change.

So what?… you don’t smoke, live under power lines or work at a nuclear power plant.

That may be true, but you haven’t seen your toes in years, and according to a report co-published by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research, a third of cancers are caused by diet and lack of exercise.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, according to the new WCRF/AICR report:

• About seven million people die from cancer worldwide each year.
• That number is expected to rise to more than 10 million by 2020.
• The estimated number of new cases annually is set to increase from 10 million now to 16 million by 2020.
• Overall the toll is predicted to double in the next 40 years.

Because of these facts, the WCRF/AICR has identified global obesity as it’s primary target in their war against cancer.

According to British researcher Sir Michael Marmot,

“When we look at what’s happened to obesity levels in this country(England), it’s growing at an alarming rate. Anybody looking at the evidence would say there must be social and economic causes of that. It can’t be that 20 million people individually said, ‘I’ll think I’ll get fat.’”

Marmot acknowledged the extra challenge posed by the recession, which has led to booming sales for fast food chains. “It is going to be difficult, but in a way it’s even more urgent to ask what needs to be done, because if you do nothing and the recession forces people into cheaper, unhealthier options, that only highlights that the unhealthy options tend to be the cheaper ones.”

Obesity = Cancer is a post from: Health and Fitness articles

After looking at 12 studies that followed more than 1,500,000 people over a span of 18 years, researchers at the University of Florence have determined that people who followed the Mediterranean Diet were:

• 9% less likely to die from heart disease or other cardiovascular ailments
• 6% less likely to develop or die from cancer
• 13% less likely to contract Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease

According to WHO and CDC statistics, adherence to a Mediterranean diet would result in:

• 1,500,000 fewer deaths per year from cardiovascular disease
• Cardiovascular disease is the #1 cause of death worldwide
• 474,000 fewer deaths from cancer
• Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide
• 9307 fewer deaths from Alzheimer’s in the United States alone
  
• Alzheimer’s is the #6 leading cause of death in the U.S.A.
• 2541 fewer deaths from Parkinson’s in the United States alone
  
• Parkinson’s in the 14th leading cause of death in the U.S.A.

So What Is The Mediterranean Diet?

While it varies slightly from region to region, the Mediterranean Diet is based primarily on:

Fresh, healthy food: The staples of the Mediterranean diet include fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, legumes, seafood, yogurt, olive oil, and small amounts of wine. Food should be eaten in season and locally grown, and Mediterranean dieters avoid processed food.

Portion control: The Mediterranean diet focuses on small portions of high-quality food. “When food tastes delicious, a little is enough because your senses have been satisfied,” And healthy fats like olive oil and nuts, which are staples of the Mediterranean diet, keep you feeling fuller longer than diets that restrict fat or forbid it altogether.

Healthy fats: Unlike most diets, the Mediterranean diet doesn’t cut fat consumption across the board.  Rather than limiting total fat intake, the Mediterranean diet makes wise choices about the type of fats that are used. On the menu are the monounsaturated fat found in olive oil, nuts, and avocados; and polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids, found in fatty fish (salmon, tuna, sardines, and trout); and fat from plant sources, like flaxseed. Limiting processed and packaged foods keeps the diet extremely low in unhealthy trans fats, which have been shown to increase the risk of heart disease and strokes.

Olive oil: The Mediterranean people use olive oil in almost everything they eat, including pastas, breads, vegetables, salads, fish, and even cakes and pastries. It’s the principal fat in the Mediterranean diet, replacing other fats and oils, including butter and margarine. What’s so healthy about olive oil? Researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia found that oleocanthal, a compound in olive oil, may reduce inflammation, which could help prevent conditions like heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, and autoimmune diseases, as well as certain cancers.

Omega-3 fatty acids: Found in abundance in the Mediterranean diet, omega-3 fatty acids are bursting with health benefits. Fatty acids have been shown to reduce the incidence of heart attacks, blood clots, hypertension, and strokes; and may prevent certain forms of cancer and lower the risk of neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease.

More vegetables, less meat: “A diet higher in plant foods and lower in animal products has been linked to decreased incidence of heart disease, diabetes, and many cancers.”  The traditional Mediterranean diet is practically vegetarian, with lots of fish and very little meat. As for vegetables, Mediterranean people feast on tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, capers, spinach, eggplant, mushrooms, white beans, lentils, and chick peas.

Wine: Many Mediterranean people drink a glass or two of wine each night with dinner. But portions are small, generally about three ounces (a third of a small wine glass or two shot glasses). When taken in small amounts, wine has been linked to lower rates of heart disease, likely due to the presence of antioxidants like transresveratrol and oligomeric proanthocyanidin (OPC), which keep blood circulation healthy and prevent blood clots from forming.

Whole grains: Whole grain foods like bread, pasta, potatoes, polenta, rice, and couscous are a key part of the Mediterranean diet. In their natural state, grains are full of cancer and heart disease-fighting fiber, vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. But stripping the grain’s outer layers to make white flour and white rice eliminates these benefits, reducing the healthy whole grain to little more than empty calories. Whole grains provide energy and calories with little fat, and because they’re slow to digest (thanks to their high-fiber content), they help you feel fuller longer.

Fruit for dessert: Forget pie a la mode and chocolate cake. For Mediterranean people, fresh fruit is the typical daily dessert. Taking advantage of fruit’s natural sweetness has double benefits. First, what you gain: the fiber and nutrients in fruits like apples, grapes, and oranges. What you lose: the added sugar, calories, chemicals, and unhealthy fats in sweet, processed desserts.

And we can only imagine what would happen to those health statistics if Mediterranean dieters were to increase their physical activity.

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Thanks.

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The One Diet That May Actually Save Your Life is a post from: Health and Fitness articles