Stressing Fitness

45% of the decisions we make are actually habits. They’re not really decisions and from that, we know that every habit happens at a kind of border: It’s a decision we made at some point but then stopped making and continued acting on.

the best way to develop an exercise habit is during the first week or two, give yourself a piece of chocolate or some other treat that you really enjoy right afterwards because you have to teach your brain to enjoy exercise for exercise’s sake.

Seeing is believing. To be the best runner you can be, it's crucial to begin with a positive vision. While thinking about running won't get you in shape, creative visualizations will motivate you to stick with a training plan, achieve your running goals and persevere in challenging race conditions.

Casually flipping through a 2006 copy of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, I learned that exercise is the key to combating the stress of modern life.The authors, from the University of Ioannina in Greece, first explain (in regards to the fight-or-flight response) that "stress responses can be elicited by emotional stimuli or professional and social stress."

It takes just one negatively worded memo handed down from on high to get the glucocorticoids and catecholamines flowing, but these adrenal hormones go unused and are stored in visceral fat deposits, and this does bad things to you.

these stored adrenal hormones disturb gonadal function (no wonder Viagra is such a big seller), as well as growth hormone and thyroid function. They explain how these "metabolic disturbances" lead to "comorbidities including central obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and endothelial dysfunction." In other words, unrelieved stress turns you into an artery-clogged hippopotamus with Limbaugh-like blood pressure and a lousy immune system. Oh, and it's also hard on your brain.

Regular exercise could help prevent brain damage associated with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, according to research published this month in Elsevier's journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. "Exercise allows the brain to rapidly produce chemicals that prevent damaging inflammation", said Professor Jean Harry, who led the study at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in the United States. "This could help us develop a therapeutic approach for early intervention in preventing damage to the brain."

exercise before the onset of damage modifies the brain environment in such a way that the neurons are protected from severe insults.

exercise could be used to affect the path of many human conditions, such as neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. In addition, as a chemical model of neuronal damage was used, it also raises the possibility that exercise could offer protection against the potentially harmful effects of environmental toxins.

A big new article in the Journal Of The American Heart Association seems to have a little good news for everyone, and maybe the most for women who are heavy exercisers. Distance running reduces heart-attack risks. The article, a meta-analysis of past studies, is the first paper to quantify the dose-response relationship between leisure time physical activity (i.e., exercise as opposed to walking around on the job) and heart disease.

men and women who perform 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week have, on average, a 14 percent lower risk of heart disease than similar groups who perform virtually no exercise. If you exercise 300 minutes a week, your risk reduction increases to 20 percent. At 750 minutes, the risk reduction is about 25 percent.

Exercise helped women prevent heart disease more than it did men, particularly at high exercise levels. The researchers admitted they could not explain this differential. They also, thank goodness, converted their findings from minutes of exercise per week to calories burned during exercise per week. Since many runners burn about 100 calories per mile covered, it's easy to turn your weekly mileage into weekly calories burned. For example, if you run about 20 miles a week, that's about 2000 calories burned.

Public bicycle sharing schemes such as Barcelona's "Bicing" program or London's "Boris Bikes" save lives and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study on Friday.

Researchers at the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona found in a study, however, that around 9,000 tons of carbon dioxide pollution are averted and some 12 lives saved each year by Barcelona's scheme, which was introduced in March 2007.

From this they estimated the number of deaths associated with traveling by bike compared with driving for three main factors -- physical activity, road traffic incidents and exposure to air pollution. They also estimated the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.Looking at the Barcelona "Bicing" scheme, they calculated an annual increase of 0.13 deaths from air pollution and 0.03 deaths from traffic accidents among cyclists compared with car users.But as a result of high levels of physical activity, 12.46 deaths were avoided, making a total of 12.28 deaths avoided among cyclists every year, the researchers said. They also estimated a reduction in carbon emissions of over 9 million kg or 9,000 tons per year, the equivalent to flying 1,800 people to Sydney and back from london.The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week and says this could be done by walking for 30 minutes five times per week or by cycling to work every day.

If you are trying to eat as healthy as the government wants you to, it’s going to cost you: at least $7.28  a week extra, that is. A recent update of U.S. nutritional guidelines -- what used to be known as the food pyramid and is now called "My Plate" -- calls on Americans to eat more fresh foods containing potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin D and calcium.

With potassium, for instance, the participants consumed an average of 2,800 milligrams a day — 700 milligrams below the recommended amount. To get up to par, they’d have to spend an extra $1.04 a day, or $380 a year. For a family of four, that's $1,520 annually. To boost levels of dietary fiber and vitamin D, they’d have to spend about 35 cents extra a day for each of the two nutrients. Most participants came so close to meeting calcium guidelines, they wouldn’t have to spend more on dairy products.

Boosting potassium doesn't have to come with such a high price tag, though. “If you were to guide people toward the most affordable sources of potassium, you could do it more cheaply,” Monsivais said. Potatoes and beans, for instance, are inexpensive sources of potassium and dietary fiber, For a mere 95 cents, you could buy five bananas at Trader Joe’s, and they’d provide 450 to 500 milligrams of potassium each. So why would the participants in Monsivais’ study have to spend so much? King County includes Seattle, one of the most affluent and highly educated cities in the country. When those folks consume potassium, Monsivais says, it tends to come in the form of more expensive fruits and vegetables such as nectarines and dark leafy greens. Sure, they could eat more economically, but they'd have to know how to do so, Monsivais said. The guidelines may be based on solid scientific evidence, he says, but they won’t do much good if Americans don’t know what foods provide the best nutritional bang for their buck.

The normal resting heart rate for an adult ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute. But some researchers believe it may be time to re-examine what’s considered normal.Researchers have found that a resting pulse at the upper end of “normal” may indicate a higher risk of stroke and heart disease. Some have linked it to a greater risk of diabetes and obesity. Instead of drawing the line at 100 beats per minute, some say, anything above 90 — and perhaps even 80 — may be considered cause for concern.

In one study published in The Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, scientists followed 50,000 healthy men and women over two decades, looking at whether a resting heart rate at the upper end of normal increased the risk of dying of a heart attack. Just more than 4,000 of the subjects died of heart disease, and the authors found that resting heart rate was a good predictor: For each rising increment of 10 heart beats per minute, the risk of dying of a heart attack increased 18 percent among women and about 10 percent in men.Another study, published in The American Journal of Hypertension, found that a large group of adults who started out with resting heart rates above 80 beats a minute were more likely to become obese and develop diabetes after two decades.To lower the heart rate, try stepping up your cardio exercise, particularly with interval training, which is known to increase the amount of blood the heart pumps with each beat.

More Americans say they are aware of the health benefits of functional foods, but there has been no increase over the past five years in the number of people who are eating them on a regular basis, according to a new survey from the International Food Information Council (IFIC). Functional foods are foods that may provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition. Examples include fish such as salmon, which are rich in heart-protective omega-3 fatty acids, and whole grains, which help maintain digestive health while potentially lowering the risk of colorectal cancer. Berries, dark green leafy vegetables like spinach and kale, and other colorful fruits and vegetables also are considered functional foods.

Ninety-five percent of the respondents believe that they have control over their own health. Nearly half said that heart disease was their most important health concern, followed by weight and cancer. And three-quarters of those who took the survey said that food plays the most important role in both maintaining and improving one’s overall health. “Nine out of 10 people can name at least one food and its associated health benefits,” Elizabeth Rahavi, RD, associate director of health and wellness at the IFIC, told reporters. That’s up from just under eight out of 10 in 1998. “That’s a really exciting trend.”

For example, 85% of the people surveyed recognized that omega-3 fatty acids offer cardiovascular benefits. But of those who are aware of those benefits, less than half report that they get omega-3s. There were similar findings for food components associated with overall health and well-being. While most of the respondents knew the value of protein and B vitamins, the survey reveals, only about half of those people make them a regular fixture at mealtimes.

A new study published on Thursday in the journal Health Affairs calculates that it would cost the average American an extra $380 in fruits and vegetables per year to meet the government's recommendation for potassium intake alone. Healthy foods are expensive. Conversely, the unhealthier your diet gets, the less it costs. The study found that for each 1% increase in calories from saturated fat, food costs decline by 28¢; for each 1% increase in calories from added sugar, the savings equal 7¢.

Not only are fresh, whole foods costly, but there isn't enough of them to go around. Regarding the U.S. food supply, the researchers wrote: The current system has proved to be remarkably effective in the provision of calories, but not as good at supplying nutrients. More fundamentally, the system currently falls short of producing enough vegetables and fruit to supply Americans with even the minimum recommended number of daily servings of these foods.

Potassium was, calorie for calorie, the most expensive nutrient. U.S. guidelines recommend that Americans get 4,700 mg of potassium each day, but study participants got just 2,800 mg per day on average. In order to make up the difference, a person would have to spend an additional $1.04 per day

Mitochondria, the cellular power plants that generate virtually all the energy your body requires, play a vital role in keeping organs youthful and healthy, too. So what can you do to keep those mitochondria powered up? Try reaching for the green -- like green pepper, green kiwifruit, and green parsley. Green-pigmented foods like these are rich in pyrroloquinoline quinone -- or PQQ for short -- a powerful antioxidant that shields mitochondria from oxidative damage in such vital organs as the brain and heart.

Dietary PQQ may not only shield these precious mitochondria from damage but also promote the formation of new mitochondria. Studies also suggest that PQQ may protect against neurological damage caused by the common environmental toxin methylmercury, which has been linked to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease

In addition to certain greens, a number of items in the native Japanese diet contain PQQ as well, including miso, tofu, and natto (soybean paste). Coldwater fish like salmon, sardines, and tuna also contain appreciable amounts of PQQ. Just choose wild rather than farmed fish -- and canned chunk-light tuna over albacore -- to avoid high levels of methylmercury.

Nerve cell communication gets better with use. A neuron’s electrical activity triggers other cells to come and slather on a protective coating that makes messages travel faster, a study published online August 4 in Science shows.Like rubber insulation around electrical wires, myelin wraps around message-sending axons, protecting and speeding electrical impulses. Specialized brain cells called oligodendrocytes wrap up to 150 layers of this insulation around a single axon.

When the team activated normal axons, boosting their glutamate production, oligodendrocytes produced more of the fatty proteins that make up the myelin coating.The results suggest one way that the brain quickly adapts and improves when a person practices new tasks such as playing the violin or juggling.

proprioceptors are the sensors in your muscles that help to govern your balance. All of your muscles and tendons have these sensors. When you’re injured, the proprioceptors become damaged and don’t function properly. This can lead to becoming more easily injured, such as when you are running on uneven terrain. In those circumstances, when you’re about to roll your ankle, it’s your proprioceptors that inform your tendons and muscles to fire to stop that process.