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  What the Ab Wheel Brings to Core Training The ab wheel doesn’t look like much. You kneel, grip the handles, roll forward, and pull back. Then you try it and discover that pulling back is the hard part. As the wheel moves away from your knees, your body forms a longer lever. Your trunk has to keep your lower back from sagging while your arms and shoulders help control the movement. Roll farther, and that job gets tougher. That makes the ab wheel a useful way to train core strength and control. It doesn’t make it automatically better than a crunch or plank. Research comparisons depend on which exercises were tested, how they were performed, and which muscles were measured. Why use an ab wheel? A rollout works the rectus abdominis —the muscle along the front of your abdomen—and calls on the obliques , shoulders, and upper body to help keep you steady. In a study of rollouts and Swiss-ball exercises , rollouts produced high activity in the upper and lower rectus abdominis and the o...
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  FOUR-MINUTE WORKOUTS: BUILDS STRENGTH IN SENIORS Four minutes is barely enough time to make a cup of tea. But a Penn State study suggests it may be enough time for a daily strength routine that helps older adults move more easily. In a 12-week trial, adults aged 65 and older who followed a four-minute exercise program improved their performance on tests of leg strength and balance . Those abilities matter in everyday life: they help people stand up from a chair, climb stairs, and stay steady on their feet. The findings, published in PLOS One , offer a more approachable starting point for people who find conventional workouts daunting. The study didn’t test whether the routine prevented falls or helped participants remain independent for longer. It did show that a small, consistent effort can improve physical abilities linked to both. A workout short enough to fit into the day The researchers designed the program, called FAST-2 , around four movements: push-ups, chair stands , t...
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  FISH OIL: LITTLE BRAIN IMPACT Millions of people take fish oil supplements hoping to keep their minds sharp as they age. A two-year clinical trial put that hope to the test—and found a striking gap between what the supplements delivered and what they achieved. The omega-3 fatty acid DHA reached participants’ central nervous systems. But people taking the supplements did no better on memory and thinking tests than people taking a placebo . The supplements also did not prevent shrinkage of the hippocampus , a brain region involved in memory that is vulnerable to Alzheimer’s -related changes. “We all wish there was a silver bullet for preventing Alzheimer’s, but our findings showed that fish oil supplements do not appear to protect brain health,” said Hussein Naji Yassine, MD , director of the USC Center for Personalized Brain Health and lead investigator. A direct test of a popular supplement The study, published in eBioMedicine , enrolled 365 adults ages 55 to 80 who rarely ate...
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  HIIT: A METHOD FOR RETAINING MUSCLE AS YOU AGE Source: University of the Sunshine Coast Losing fat is good. Losing muscle along with it? Not so much—especially later in life, when muscle plays a major role in strength, balance, mobility, and independence. A six-month study suggests high-intensity interval training , better known as HIIT , may help older adults avoid that trade-off. While both high- and moderate-intensity exercise reduced body fat, only HIIT preserved lean tissue . “We found that high, medium and low intensity exercises all led to modest fat loss, but only HIIT retained lean muscle,” said lead author and exercise physiologist Dr. Grace Rose of the University of the Sunshine Coast. The findings point to an important lesson: healthy aging isn’t simply about losing weight. What you lose matters. Six Months of Exercise Revealed a Key Difference The Australian research team studied 123 healthy older adults from the Greater Brisbane region . Participants were 72 years...
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  Mental Health and Mental Illness: How to Spot Problems and Get Help Mental health affects nearly everything we do—how we think, feel, make decisions, respond to stress, and connect with other people. It is more than the absence of a psychiatric diagnosis. A person with a diagnosed mental illness may feel stable and well for long periods. Meanwhile, someone without a diagnosis may be struggling with serious emotional distress. Mental health exists on a spectrum, and it can shift throughout a person’s life. Mental illness refers to conditions that cause clinically significant changes in mood, thought, perception, or behavior. These conditions include anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance-use disorders. There is no single way mental illness looks. Symptoms may appear once, return periodically, or continue for years. Two people with the same diagnosis can ...
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  8  Food Additives Linked to High Blood Pressure and Heart Disease The preservatives that keep food fresh, colorful, and shelf-stable may come with a hidden cost. A large study of more than 112,000 people found that heavy consumption of several widely used preservatives was associated with higher rates of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Researchers identified eight additives linked to hypertension, with one also associated with cardiovascular disease. The study was observational, so it can’t prove that these preservatives directly caused the health problems. Still, the findings raise questions about ingredients found throughout the processed food supply. Why Researchers Studied Preservatives Preservatives do a lot of useful work. They prevent bacteria and mold from growing, slow spoilage, and help foods maintain their color, flavor, and freshness. That’s why they appear in hundreds of thousands of industrially processed products. Their widespread use also mean...
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  Transgender Athletes in Women’s Sports: The Search for a Fair and Workable Policy Few issues in sports produce more heat—or less productive conversation—than the participation of transgender women in female competition. That’s partly because the debate touches several sensitive questions at once. What makes competition fair? When does a physical advantage become too significant? How should sports balance gender identity with sex-linked athletic differences? And when an event involves tackling, striking, or collision, how much uncertainty about safety is acceptable? The language matters, too. Transgender women are people whose gender identity is female and whose sex was recorded as male at birth. Describing the issue only as “biological males competing against women” highlights concern about sex-linked performance differences, but it can also dismiss the identity and dignity of transgender athletes. A serious discussion has to hold two ideas at once: transgender athletes deserve r...
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