Tag Archives: exercise

Stay cool and get fit by going for a swim

Posted on July 18, 2016 | Leave a comment

It’s hot! Whether you are swimming laps or splashing in a lake, swimming is a great way to stay cool. Swimming is also an excellent exercise for improving your fitness and helping with weight loss.

This is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week. You can also find more information about the fitness and health benefits of swimming from something I wrote previously.

Swimmer

There is nothing that feels better on a hot summer day than going for a swim. But beyond being a fun way to cool down, swimming is a great way to get in shape. Swimming is also an excellent exercise for injury rehabilitation or for people with certain conditions like arthritis.

The fitness benefits of swimming are well established. Since swimming is a whole-body exercise it uses all of your major muscle groups, building strength, endurance, and aerobic fitness. Highly trained swimmers have VO2max values, considered the best measure of aerobic fitness, that are similar to runners and cyclists. If you have doubts about the fitness benefits of swimming, think about how muscular and lean Olympic swimmers are.

Depending on the stroke and speed, swimming ranges between 5 to 10 METs. (METs are units used to measure the intensity of activity; one MET is equivalent to sitting at rest) For example, doing the backstroke at a moderate speed is about 5 METs while swimming laps freestyle with vigorous effort is about 10 METs.

This range is similar to walking at 4 mph up to jogging at a 9 minute per mile pace. What if you are just spending time in the pool or lake rather than swimming laps? Swimming leisurely is 6 METs, still a decent workout.

Swimming is a great way to burn calories, too. Even at a moderate pace, swimming laps for 30 minutes can burn over 200 calories. The exact energy expenditure depends on the stroke (butterfly is highest, backstroke is lowest) and the speed, but for most people swimming will burn as many calories as spending the same amount of time exercising on land.

There are two major reasons for this. First, water is more dense than air, so you need to expend more energy to move your body through the water. Second, swimming is a whole-body exercise which requires more muscle activity compared to walking or jogging which mostly involve the legs.

You may be surprised to learn that novice swimmers expend more energy per lap than elite swimmers. For example, one study showed that competitive swimmers expend only 280 calories to swim a mile, while less experienced swimmers burn about 440 calories to cover the same distance. The reason for this is that experienced swimmers are more efficient, so they expend less energy.

Aquatic exercise is popular for both therapeutic and fitness purposes, especially for people who don’t tolerate exercise on land well. When you are submerged up to your waist, 50% of your weight is supported; when you are up to your chest, about 75% is supported. This reduces the impact of exercise in the water, perfect for people who have arthritis, osteoporosis, severe obesity, or who are recovering from injuries.

Exercise in the water doesn’t have to mean swimming laps. Water aerobics, aqua walking or jogging, and resistance training using foam “weights” or webbed gloves offer safe ways to increase strength and endurance for almost everyone. Most fitness facilities that have a pool offer group aquatic exercise classes and you can find instructions online for exercises that you can do in your own pool.

The hot summer weather makes swimming and other water exercise appealing. But even if you don’t use the time for exercise, spending time playing in the pool or lake can still burn as many calories as going for a walk and is a great way to have fun and cool down!

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How to survive an alien invasion. And other more likely threats to your health.

Posted on July 4, 2016 | 1 comment

The film Independence Day: Resurgence, the sequel to the 1996 film, opened in theaters last week. The movie is about an alien attack that threatens to destroy the earth. The film has all the makings of a summer blockbuster and will certainly have people talking about alien invaders. It may even prompt some to prepare for an alien attack. This is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

Alien invasion

All evidence suggests that an alien invasion is highly unlikely. Just in case, though, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response has provided advice for surviving a host of disasters that are common in Hollywood blockbusters, including an alien attack. The intention is that preparing for epic disasters also means that you will be prepared for more realistic natural and man-made catastrophes.

I would like to share some health and fitness-related steps you can take to help you survive an alien invasion as well as other more likely threats to your health. After all, you are far more likely to suffer a heart attack than an alien attack, but it makes sense to prepare for both.

The first thing that is clear is that you need to be physically fit to escape or fight alien invaders. Roads and other transportation infrastructure tends to get destroyed in an extraterrestrial strike, so you may have to travel on foot and carry a heavy load of supplies, likely over long distances.

Building speed and endurance through prolonged aerobic exercise and high-intensity interval training can give you an advantage. Developing muscular strength through resistance training would certainly help, too. A comprehensive fitness program at a gym or at home can help you achieve these goals. Even going for a brisk walk everyday will help.

What you eat now can also help you prepare for the aftermath of an alien assault. Both running away from alien attackers and walking for days to a safer place requires that you have adequate stores of carbohydrate and fat. A high carbohydrate diet will increase your storage of muscle and liver glycogen, the primary fuels used for intense exercise so you will have more energy available to sprint and run.

Don’t overeat, though. Maintaining a healthy body weight is beneficial, too. The heavier you are, the more weight you have to carry in your escape, which is likely to slow you down.

Even though the possibility of an extraterrestrial apocalypse is remote, preparing now makes sense. Just as the CDC recommends that you be prepared for aliens in an effort to make sure you are ready for other more likely disaster scenarios, getting in shape to fight or flee attacking aliens also increases your chances of surviving more probable health threats.

Regular aerobic and strength exercise, maintaining a healthy body weight, and eating a healthy diet are the best ways by which you can reduce your risk of a host of health problems. The benefits of these healthy habits include a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, and some cancers along with prevention and treatment of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. These are exactly the type of risks you should be preparing for.

So, as you watch Independence Day: Resurgence think about what you can be doing now to prepare for both an alien invasion and more realistic threats to your health. Visit the CDC website to learn how to prepare for Hollywood-sized disaster scenarios as well as credible information about exercise, nutrition, and health. Then, get started on getting yourself in shape—the aliens will probably attack without warning!

Nutrition, exercise, and health information can be confusing. 
But it doesn't have to be that way.
What can I help you with?
 drbrianparr@gmail.com | http://twitter.com/drbrianparr

 

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Exercise and cancer prevention and treatment.

Posted on May 23, 2016 | Leave a comment

Exercise has broad and significant health benefits, making it among the most important healthy behaviors you can adopt. These benefits include improved muscular strength and endurance, stronger bones, and better cardiovascular system function. Exercise is also essential for maintaining a healthier body weight and body composition and improving metabolic health through blood glucose and lipid regulation.

But exercise causes changes at the cellular and hormonal levels that have even broader effects. Among these is a reduction in inflammation, which has long been linked to a lower risk of heart attack. Accumulating research suggests that reduced inflammation and improved immune system function may be an important way in which exercise reduces the risk of cancer. The role of exercise in cancer prevention and treatment is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

cancer exercise group

While we typically associate the immune system with communicable diseases like cold or flu, our immune system plays an important role in the body’s defense against cancer. Conditions like obesity, poor nutrition, and a sedentary lifestyle can promote chronic inflammation. Among other negative effects, inflammation can interfere with the normal functioning of the immune system. This impairs your cells’ natural cancer-fighting capacity, making it more likely that cancer will develop and spread. Exercise can reverse the immune system damage caused by chronic inflammation, reducing the risk of cancer development and progression as well as making it less likely you will become sick from a cold or flu.

The idea that exercise can reduce the risk of cancer isn’t new. I have written previously about the fact that regular physical activity can lower breast cancer risk by as much as 30%, improve survival, and reduce the risk of recurrence. A recent study confirms that high levels of physical activity can significantly lower the risk of breast cancer along with many other common types including colon, bladder, lung, kidney, and endometrial cancers.

In addition to helping reduce the risk of cancer development and recurrence, regular exercise can help you handle cancer treatment better. To be sure, cancer treatment can lead to extreme physical consequences including losses in weight, muscle mass, strength, and endurance. At least some of this is due to more time resting and less time being active, the effects of which occur within days and get worse over time.

You may have noticed this as weakness and fatigue after spending a few days in bed with the flu. Muscle strength declines at a rate of over 1% per day of bed rest, and can be 50% lower following as little as three weeks. That reduction in strength could limit a person who was already deconditioned to a point where he or she would have difficulty completing the most basic activities of daily living. Bed rest can also reduce bone density, exposing patients to a greater risk of fracture.

The fitter you are when you begin treatment, the fitter you will be at the end because you have “saved” more strength and endurance in your fitness bank. You simply have more you can lose before you get to a point at which you can’t complete your normal activities. In fact, maintaining physical activity is a key component of cancer treatment. And post-cancer exercise programs are becoming more common as a way to help women recover from cancer treatment and rebuild strength, endurance, and feelings of wellbeing.

The best approach is to be active now to reduce your risk of cancer (and many other chronic diseases) and build strong muscles and bones to help you successfully handle any cancer treatment or periods of other illness you may encounter later.

Nutrition, exercise, and health information can be confusing. 
But it doesn't have to be that way.
What can I help you with?
 drbrianparr@gmail.com | http://twitter.com/drbrianparr

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A one minute workout?

Posted on May 2, 2016 | 2 comments

You have probably heard of people who do very short workouts—sometimes just a few minutes—but still get the same benefits as you do going for a long run or sweating through an hour on the elliptical machine. This type of exercise is called high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which involves short bouts of very intense exercise separated by periods of rest or light activity. I have written about this type of training previously (and before that, too), but a new study that has been in the news this past week makes revisiting this topic worthwhile.

Cycling class

Previous research has shown that shorter exercise sessions can be as effective as the typical 20-60 minutes of continuous exercise people commonly do to lose weight or get in shape. The catch is that these shorter bouts of exercise must be done at a very high intensity to promote improvements in maximal exercise capacity (called VO2max) and endurance by enhancing heart function and causing changes in the muscle itself. These adaptations can lead to improved fitness, performance, and health.

For example, in one study the intervals were as short as 30 seconds of all-out, maximal exercise separated by rest periods, for a total of just six minutes of exercise per day. Other studies employ slightly less intense intervals for a total of 20 minutes of exercise per session. Another study found that a single 4-minute bout of vigorous exercise was effective. Taken together, these studies show that HIIT leads to adaptations in the heart and muscle and improvements in VO2max and endurance that are greater than that of more traditional, lower intensity exercise.

A new study published last week ( excellent low-sci description here) showed that sessions of one minute—yes, 60 seconds—of intense exercise can match the fitness and health benefits of more traditional workouts. Subjects in the study completed three, 20-second bouts of all-out, near maximal exercise separated by two minutes of light cycling on a stationary bike. After doing this three times per week for 12 weeks the changes in heart rate, muscle function, and blood glucose regulation were the same as those experienced by subjects who did the same number of 45 minute workouts, but at a lower intensity.

Before you get too excited about only needing to exercise for a minute at a time, there are a few points to keep in mind. First, this type of exercise is very intense and may not be right for everyone. At the very least, it is likely to be uncomfortable. Second, exercising at a high intensity may not be a good idea if you are not already in good shape or have other health problems, like high blood pressure. Third, HIIT may not be the best way for you to meet your exercise goals. If you are trying to build endurance for a marathon or long distance bike ride, you really do need to focus on longer duration exercise at least some of the time.

Finally, if you add up the total exercise time, including the warm-up, time between intervals, and recovery, the “one minute” workout is more like 10 minutes of exercise. This is still shorter than what you would probably do anyway, but certainly not a true 60 second workout. And this type of training doesn’t do much to help you meet other fitness goals including improving strength and flexibility, so you will still need to spend additional time in the gym. The bottom line is that HIIT should be part of your exercise regimen, not the whole program.

Nutrition, exercise, and health information can be confusing. 
But it doesn't have to be that way.
What can I help you with?
 drbrianparr@gmail.com | http://twitter.com/drbrianparr

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Your Park Prescription

Posted on April 25, 2016 | Leave a comment

Since Earth Day just passed you are probably thinking about ways you can “go green” to reduce your impact on the environment. Many of these choices are also good for your health. For example, choosing food from local farms is associated with fewer “food miles” and a lower environmental footprint. It is also likely to be picked at the peak of freshness, meaning it is richer in nutrients, not to mention flavor. Walking or biking instead of driving is another way to protect the environment while you protect your health.

When it comes to exercise, you can literally “go green.” Being active outdoors in nature leads to enhanced feelings of energy, improved mood, and diminished fatigue, anxiety, and anger compared to similar activity conducted indoors. Additionally, some research suggests that outdoor activity may improve attention and productivity in adults and children. Even though the physical, mental, and social benefits of activity in a natural environment are well established, most recommendations just focus on activity, not where it is done. Making the outdoors your destination for activities for you and your family is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

father and son walking in woods

The National Park Prescription (Park Rx) Initiative is designed to encourage people to make the outdoors their destination for exercise and family activities. In fact, April 24th was National Park Rx Day. The idea is to promote access to and use of parks, trails, and other green spaces and highlight the health, environmental, social, and economic benefits of having these resources in our communities. The benefits of parks can be enjoyed by everyone, regardless of age or ability, so enhancing public lands should be a high priority.

This isn’t new of course, but it’s nice to have a reminder. At playgrounds you commonly see as many children playing in the trees that surround the swings, slides, and monkey bars as you see on the playground equipment. Grassy areas serve as picnic spots, impromptu sports fields, and places to run and play. Trails through the woods offer a place to hike and bike as well as trees to explore and climb. Lakes, rivers, and streams (called water trails) are perfect for rowing, paddling, and swimming. And many public parks and green spaces have paved trails so that people of all ages in strollers or wheelchairs can enjoy the outdoors.

Fortunately, there many excellent parks and natural areas to explore in the Aiken area. Aiken State Park, several county and city parks, and neighborhood playgrounds make it easy to find a place to be active outdoors. There is no better place to experience nature than the vast Hitchcock Woods, located right in the heart of Aiken. Community organizations like the GAIT Foundation are dedicated to expanding access to natural areas for all types of outdoor activates. This makes it easy to find a place to walk, run, bike, hike, climb, swim, paddle, push, or ride.

It also makes it easy to follow the Park Rx. Being active is one of the most important things you can do to improve your health and wellbeing. Activity in a natural environment has additional physical, mental, and social health benefits. Share these benefits with others by planning outdoor activities with your family and friends. For maximum effect, you should do this as often as possible—everyday is best. And it doesn’t need to be a day long excursion. Even taking the dog for a short walk, playing outside with the kids, or doing yard work are good ways to reap the benefits of being active outdoors.

Nutrition, exercise, and health information can be confusing. 
But it doesn't have to be that way.
What can I help you with?
 drbrianparr@gmail.com | http://twitter.com/drbrianparr

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Too much of a good thing. Can you do too much exercise?

Posted on April 11, 2016 | 1 comment

Is it possible to do too much exercise? Given the fact that most Americans do not meet minimum recommendations for physical activity, doing too much may not seem like an issue. To be sure, the biggest exercise problem most people face is not getting enough. But doing too much exercise can have negative effects.

This is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

Exercise fatigue

What constitutes too much exercise? First, let’s review the recommendations. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans call for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity per week and do strengthening exercises that involve all major muscle groups at least two days per week. This recommendation can be met by a 30 minute brisk walk five days per week or longer, more vigorous workouts two days per week.

Many people do more than this, often an hour or more of vigorous exercise each day. While this may seem like a lot of exercise, they built up to these workouts over months or even years. But they almost certainly started out with shorter, less intense exercise sessions. As their strength and endurance improved they increased the time and intensity of their training. Even now, they likely structure their workouts in order to allow recovery time. For example, a runner might do a long run one day followed by a shorter run the next. Weight lifters usually alternate muscle groups on different days: chest exercises on one day, arms the next, and so forth.

When beginning an exercise program, is it smart to start slowly and work your way up to longer, more intense sessions. A common occurrence is that new exercisers do too much too soon. This can lead to severe muscle soreness that limits the ability to exercise on the following days and, in some cases, injury. At the very least, a negative experience can cause a person to stop exercising. In fact, one of the most common reasons people quit an exercise program is injury or soreness early on. Taking it slow in the beginning can help you avoid these problems.

Even athletes with years of training experience can overdo it. Athletes are known for long, intense training sessions to develop the high levels of strength and endurance required to be competitive. But training too intensely or for too long can have negative effects. This phenomenon is called overreaching or overtraining and, for some athletes, can be as big a problem as not training enough. Overtraining can lead to poor immune function, reduced motivation, and fatigue, all of which can have a serious impact on performance.

Many competitive athletes intentionally do less in the days and weeks leading up to a big event. This is a process called tapering and it involves reducing training time and intensity, even including a rest day. This allows the muscles to recover and reduces the risk of injury. While many athletes—and coaches—think that a hard workout or practice before a big game is a good idea, failure to taper is more likely to lead to poor performance.

If you are like most people, you are probably not doing too much exercise. But you should make small increases in your time and intensity to reduce the chance of injury. If you are training for a run such as a 10k, half marathon, or longer event, you should cut back on your training time and plan a rest leading up to the race. And while more exercise is generally better for health and fitness, keep in mind that doing too much, especially early in a training program, can have the opposite effect.

Nutrition, exercise, and health information can be confusing. 
But it doesn't have to be that way.
What can I help you with?
 drbrianparr@gmail.com | http://twitter.com/drbrianparr

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DON’T BE AN APRIL FOOL WHEN IT COMES TO WEIGHT LOSS

Posted on April 4, 2016 | Leave a comment

Diets don’t work!

Exercise can actually make you gain weight!

You can take supplements that will melt fat away while you sleep!

Claims like these should make you wonder if someone is trying to fool you. Since April Fools’ Day was last week, my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard is an attempt to uncover the truth about these common weight loss myths.

Diet pills

Diets don’t work
Considering that most people who lose weight end up gaining it back, this belief is understandable. The fact is that diets do work—that is how people lost weight in the first place! The problem is that many diets simply aren’t sustainable and don’t teach healthy eating habits necessary to keep the weight off. The result is that after the diet ends, a return to old eating patterns leads to gaining the weight back. The solution, of course, is to find a diet that you can stick with even after you have lost weight, one that teaches you how to make healthy choices and adapt your lifestyle.

Exercise doesn’t lead to weight loss
The traditional advice for losing weight is to eat less and exercise more. But some research suggests that exercise itself doesn’t lead to significant weight loss. In fact, exercise alone results in lower weight loss compared to diet only or diet plus exercise. While this is true, concluding that exercise isn’t important is a mistake.

First, even if exercise only leads to a small amount of weight loss (about a half pound per week in my experience) it does add up over time and can help someone achieve their weight loss goal more quickly. Second, research involving individuals who have succeeded at long-term weight loss in the National Weight Control Registry shows that exercise is important. It is noteworthy that 94% of these “successful losers” increased their physical activity in order to lose weight and 90% said that they maintain their weight by exercising an average of 60 minutes every day.

You can boost your metabolism and burn fat using supplements
Losing weight really does require making changes to your eating and exercise behaviors. Many of these changes can be difficult, so it is no surprise that people look for shortcuts. And there is no shortcut more appealing than a supplement that will increase your metabolism and burn fat while you sleep.

Keep in mind that there are no dietary supplements that have been shown to be effective for promoting long-term weight loss, despite what the manufacturers claim. In fact, some could even be dangerous. The only way to make a meaningful change in your metabolism is to exercise and significant weight loss simply won’t happen unless you change your diet.

Be especially skeptical when you see words like “flush” and “cleanse,” which are meaningless and have nothing to do with weight loss. There are a few prescription medications and one over-the-counter drug (Orlistat) that has been shown to promote weight loss—but only when combined with a healthy low-calorie diet and exercise.

Hopefully this advice will help you make healthy decisions and avoid becoming an “April Fool” when it comes to weight loss claims. The good news is that you can start losing weight today by making some simple changes including reducing your portion sizes at meals, choosing water or other calorie-free beverages when you are thirsty, and making it a point to be active every day. These modifications can lead to weight loss now and are exactly the type of changes you need to make to keep the weight off in the long run.

 

Nutrition, exercise, and health information can be confusing. 
But it doesn't have to be that way.
What can I help you with?
 drbrianparr@gmail.com | http://twitter.com/drbrianparr

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The case of the missing beach body. How to get yours back…and keep it!

Posted on March 21, 2016 | 1 comment

Now that spring has arrived you may have noticed that your eating and exercise habits over the winter (or past several winters!) haven’t been kind to your body. For some people this comes as a surprise, and they wonder where their beach body from last summer went. For others, their beach body may long gone, but they want to lose some weight and get in shape before summer.

Obviously, this will mean making changes to what you eat and your exercise habits. If you want to lose 5–10 pounds and get back in shape, this means small changes to your diet and exercise designed to meet your fitness goals. If you have more significant weight to lose you will need a stricter diet and an exercise program that will help you to burn calories and build your strength, endurance, and flexibility.

While diet and exercise can help you get back in shape, staying in shape requires making lasting behavior changes. My Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week includes a few key questions that will help you find your missing beach body now and, importantly, not lose it again in the future.Luddington beach

When did you last see it?

Many people can identify a time in their life when their lifestyle changed and weight gain began. Commonly, this is getting married, starting a new job, or having children. Other people notice that they have gained weight, but can’t point to any specific reason why. In both cases, healthy eating and exercise routines get replaced with other less beneficial habits. The result for most people is gaining weight, either very quickly or slowly over time. Understanding what led to your weight gain is important for making changes to fix it.

How long has it been gone?

The longer you have been inactive and eating poorly, the longer you have been developing these unhealthy habits. The consequence is that it will be more challenging to undo the damage these habits have caused and teach yourself new habits that are consistent with better health. Your task is relatively easy if you have just gained a few pounds since last summer. Trying to reverse years or decades of inactivity and unhealthy eating is a bigger challenge, but one you simply must take on!

Where did you last see it?

The environment has a huge impact on our health, largely through influencing our activity and eating behaviors. In many cases, weight gain may be at least partly a consequence of where we spend our time. For example, a new job that involves long commutes by car and workdays spent sitting can make gaining weight almost inevitable. Quitting that job probably isn’t reasonable, but knowing how it has affected your health allows you to focus your efforts on increasing your activity outside of work. For many women, weight gain occurs after graduating from college, getting married, and having children. While there are many contributing lifestyle factors in this case, the change from an active college campus to a more sedentary environment certainly plays a role.

Once you figure out when and where you last saw your beach body you will have an idea of what you need to do to get it back. Keep in mind that the type of behavior changes you need to make to lose weight and get back in shape are difficult and will take time to adopt. While you shouldn’t expect any miracles in the next month or two, developing healthy eating and activity habits can have a miraculous effect on your weight, your health, and how you feel in the years to come!

Nutrition, exercise, and health information can be confusing. 
But it doesn't have to be that way.
What can I help you with?
 drbrianparr@gmail.com | http://twitter.com/drbrianparr

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Your Heart Month action plan

Posted on February 23, 2016 | Leave a comment

Heart disease, sometimes called coronary artery disease, is the leading cause of death in the United States. Despite improvements in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, it is still responsible for nearly 600,000 deaths each year, mostly from heart attacks. Millions more are at increased risk because of certain biological and behavioral risk factors. Some of these risk factors cannot be changed, such as age, sex, and family history, while others can be altered to reduce risk. These modifiable risk factors include smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, and physical inactivity. You can learn much more about heart disease from the American Heart Association.

Since February is Heart Month, this is an ideal time to assess your own risk of heart disease and take steps to improve your heart health. If you aren’t sure where to begin, my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week includes four simple steps you can take to assess and lower your risk for heart disease. If you aren’t sure where to begin, these four steps should be a good start to prevent and treat heart disease.

Heart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is your Heart Month action plan:

  1. Assess your risk. If you haven’t done so recently, you should see your doctor to have your risk factors evaluated. This includes tests for blood glucose and blood lipids (including total, LDL, and HDL cholesterol and triglycerides), measurement of your blood pressure and body weight, and an assessment of other health factors such as your family history, whether you smoke, and your level of physical activity. You may be able to find a health fair or other event in the community at which you can have many of these measurements made, but only your doctor can help you determine the best course of treatment given your personal risk profile.
  1. Be active everyday. The benefits of as little as 30 minutes per day physical activity are well-established and impact heart disease risk in a multitude of ways. Physical activity helps with weight control, lowers blood pressure, improves blood lipids, and prevents and treats diabetes. Think of this as a great health “deal.” By modifying one risk factor—inactivity—you can also promote beneficial changes in four others—obesity, hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes. There is no other treatment, drugs included, that can have such a broad impact on reducing heart disease risk!
  1. Improve your diet. If you are like most Americans, your diet is too high in unhealthy fats, salt, and added sugar and lacking adequate whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and fiber. This type of diet is associated with obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. All of these conditions are risk factors for heart disease, so you may literally be eating your way to a heart attack. Changing what you eat to include more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and low-fat meat and dairy and minimizing added sugars, fat, and processed foods can help you lose weight and prevent or treat high cholesterol, diabetes, and high blood pressure.
  1. Quit smoking. There is no way around this one—quit! Ask your doctor about prescription medications that can make quitting easier. Nicotine replacement therapy in the form of patches, gum, and lozenges can help manage cravings and are available over the counter. Ultimately, though, quitting smoking is a behavior change that takes motivation, willpower, and time. But it is worth it—your risk of heart attack goes down within days and can drop 50–70% within five years after quitting.

The potential impact of these steps is great. Knowing which risk factors are most concerning can help you and your doctor make the most effective treatment decisions. Even modest changes in diet and activity can lead to improvements in risk factors and reduced heart attack risk. The best news is that you can start today by putting down your next cigarette, going for a walk, and eating a healthier dinner. Your heart will be glad you did.

Nutrition, exercise, and health information can be confusing. 
But it doesn't have to be that way.
What can I help you with?
 drbrianparr@gmail.com | http://twitter.com/drbrianparr

 

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How washing your hands, going for a walk, and getting enough sleep can make this a healthy New Year!

Posted on January 11, 2016 | Leave a comment

Now that the holiday season is behind us and 2016 is underway we can focus on our goals and resolutions for the new year. Staying healthy is essential for achieving these goals, whatever they may be. Unfortunately, the natural spread of cold and flu viruses at this time of year can interfere with your plans. The good news is, there is much you can do to reduce your risk of getting sick, which I explain in my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

sneeze

For starters, getting a flu vaccine is the most important thing you can do to prevent seasonal influenza (flu). And it’s not too late if you haven’t gotten your flu shot yet. You can also protect yourself by not touching your eyes, nose, or mouth and by washing your hands frequently with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. You have probably been doing it wrong, so you may want to learn this song.

Exercise can have a positive effect on your immune system. People who exercise on a daily basis have fewer and less severe colds and have up to 50% fewer sick days than those who aren’t regularly active. Research in animals and humans shows that exercise increases the activity of certain immune cells called helper T cells. This makes the immune system response to viruses, like the cold and flu, more robust. The strongest evidence is seen when the exercise is moderate in intensity and duration, such as a 30–60 minute walk or jog each day.

More exercise isn’t always better, though. Very vigorous and prolonged exercise can have the opposite effect. Athletes who engage in long, intense training tend to be more susceptible to upper respiratory infections. Research shows that immune function is depressed in the weeks leading up to and after running a marathon, resulting in an increased risk of becoming sick. The bottom line is that while exercise improves your immune system, very vigorous exercise may not.

Regular exercise also enhances the immune system response to the influenza vaccine. This means that the flu vaccine can be more effective in people who exercise. If you don’t exercise already, you can still benefit: one study showed that a single 45 minute exercise session can improve the immune response to the flu vaccine. You can get this benefit by going for a brisk walk before your flu shot.

Good nutrition is also important for optimal immune system function. Deficiencies of certain nutrients can have a negative effect on immune function, so eating a balanced diet is essential. That said, there is no support for “boosting” the immune system by taking high doses of vitamins, minerals, or other supplements, despite the claims made by supplement companies. In fact, one supplement company paid $23 million to settle a class action lawsuit regarding false claims that it prevented colds.

You can get benefits from two more common-sense recommendations: getting adequate sleep and reducing stress. Poor sleep habits are associated with suppressed immunity and more frequent illness. Sleep deprivation can also reduce the positive immune response to a vaccine. Another study showed that sleep following a vaccination enhanced the effectiveness of that vaccine. High levels of stress increase susceptibility to colds and the flu and can lead to more sick days from work or school. Stress and poor sleep habits tend to occur together, creating a double negative effect on the immune system.

In order to have your best chance of staying healthy this year you should exercise every day, eat a healthy diet, manage your stress, and get enough sleep in addition to following the traditional advice to get a flu shot, wash your hands frequently, stay away from people who are sick, and stay home yourself if you are ill. As a bonus, many of these habits will also help you lose weight and reduce your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers along with keeping you healthy this cold and flu season.

Nutrition, exercise, and health information can be confusing. 
But it doesn't have to be that way.
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 drbrianparr@gmail.com | http://twitter.com/drbrianparr

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