PROTIME-FITNESS HOLISTIC HEALTH AND WELLNESS

  LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE WITH STEPS         An estimated 80% of older adults in the U.S. have high blood pressure. Maintaining healthy blood pressure can protect against severe conditions like heart failure, heart attacks, and strokes . A new study, including Linda Pescatello, distinguished professor of kinesiology in UConn's College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources, found that adding a relatively minimal amount of movement, about 3,000 steps per day, can significantly reduce high blood pressure in older adults. Pescatello worked with Elizabeth Lefferts, the paper's lead author, Duck-Chun Lee, and others in Lee's lab at Iowa State University. They published their findings in a recent  Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease issue. "We'll all get high blood pressure if we live long enough, at least in this country," Pescatello says. "That's how prevalent it is." Pescatello is an expert on hypertension (the clinical term for hi...

CHILDREN'S STRESS LEVELS IMPROVE WITH EXERCISE           According to findings by researchers from the University of Basel, school children cope better with stress if they get plenty of daily exercise. "Get some exercise!" It's one suggestion adults frequently hear when they complain about stress. Exercise helps relieve stress. But does this also apply to children? Does exercise help them manage the pressures to achieve at school? A research team led by Dr. Manuel Hanke and Dr. Sebastian Ludyga from the Department of Sport, Exercise, and Health recently examined the effect of physical activity on children's stress levels. Their findings appear in the  Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. For their study, 110 children between 10 and 13 wore a sensor tracking their daily movement over a week. They then brought the participants into the lab on two separate to complete stressful and non-stressful control tasks (see the box). The researchers tested the chil...

  ALMONDS ASSOCIATED WITH HEALTHY WEIGHT LOSS AND CARDIOMETABOLIC HEALTH         Nuts are not generally recommended for dieters -- while they're high in protein, they're also high in fats, which often deters those looking to shed a few pounds. But new research from the University of South Australia shows you can eat almonds and lose weight. In the most extensive study of its kind, researchers found that including almonds in an energy-restricted diet helped people lose weight and improved their cardiometabolic health. Examining the effects of energy-restricted diets supplemented with Californian almonds or carbohydrate-rich snacks, researchers found that both diets successfully reduced body weight by about 7kg. Globally, more than 1.9 billion adults are overweight (650 million with obesity). In Australia, two in three people (approximately 12.5 million adults) are overweight or have obesity. UniSA researcher Dr Sharayah Carter says the study demonstrates how nuts...

  FIBER MAY COUNTERACT OBESITY         Digesting a crunchy critter starts with the audible grinding of its rigid protective covering -- the exoskeleton. Unpalatable as it may sound, the hardcover might be good for the metabolism, according to a new study in mice from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The researchers, led by Steven Van Dyken, Ph, an assistant professor of pathology & immunology, found in mice that digesting chitin, an abundant dietary fiber in insect exoskeletons, mushrooms, and crustacean shells, engages the immune system. An active immune response was associated with reduced weight gain, lower body fat, and increased resistance to obesity. "Obesity is an epidemic," Van Dyken said. "What we put into our bodies has a profound effect on our physiology and on how we metabolize food. We're investigating ways to counteract obesity based on what we learn about how the immune system is engaged by diet." The study was published ...

  DEPRESSION COMBATED WITH A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE         A healthy lifestyle that involves moderate alcohol consumption, a nutritious diet, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, and frequent social connection while avoiding smoking and too much sedentary behavior reduces the risk of depression, new research has found. In research published today in  Nature Mental Health , an international team of researchers, including from the University of Cambridge and Fudan University, looked at a combination of factors, including lifestyle factors, genetics, brain structure, and our immune and metabolic systems to identify the underlying mechanisms that might explain this link. According to the World Health Organization, around one in 20 adults experiences depression, which significantly burdens public health worldwide. The factors that influence the onset of depression are complicated and include biological and lifestyle factors. To better understand the relatio...

  NEW DRUG TREATMENT FOR RESISTANT FORM OF CHOLESTEROL         A new drug offers a breakthrough world-first treatment for Lipoprotein(a), a largely genetic form of cholesterol that increases the risk of heart attack and stroke, announced today by study lead Professor Stephen Nicholls, Director of the Monash University's Victorian Heart Institute and Victorian Heart Hospital. High levels of Lipoprotein(a), known as Lp(a) or spoken as 'LP little a', impact one in five people globally with no approved treatment currently on the market. The trial demonstrated the success of Muvalaplin -- the first oral drug ever developed to target Lp(a) -- effectively lowering levels by up to 65%. It works by disrupting the ability of Lp(a) to form in the body. Professor Stephen Nicholls, cardiologist and Director of Monash University's Victorian Heart Institute and the Victorian Heart Hospital at Monash Health, led the landmark research and trial, presented at the European Society...

  BICYCLIST SAFETY REQUIRES VISIBILITY AND MOTOR VEHICLE OPERATOR EDUCATION High-visibility clothing only part of the solution, researchers say         Researchers from UBC Okanagan have determined motorists tended to give cyclists wearing high-visibility vests more room on the road than cyclists without high-visibility clothing. The vests, with arrows directing traffic away from pedestrians and cyclists, have been shown to reduce the number of traffic accidents involving these groups. Gordon Lovegrove, a UBC Okanagan associate professor in the School of Engineering, suggests a bit of visual reinforcement, combined with driver education ingrained into safety apparel, may curb unnecessary accidents and fatalities. According to the World Health Organization, almost half of the traffic fatalities are pedestrians and cyclists. And while improved vehicle designs and technologies can protect drivers, he explains that vulnerable road users (VRUs) -- mostly cyclists and...

  KETO DIET MAY IMPROVE PCOS         According to a new paper published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society, the ketogenic (keto) diet may lower testosterone levels in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) . PCOS is the most common hormone disorder in women, affecting 7-10% of women of childbearing age. It can cause infertility and raise the risk of developing diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic health problems. Women with PCOS have at least two of these signs: Elevated levels of testosterone and other androgen hormones associated with male reproduction, Irregular periods, and Large ovaries with many small follicles. The keto diet is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet with promising effects in women with PCOS. Research has found it may help women lose weight and maintain weight loss, improve their fertility, optimize their cholesterol levels, and normalize their menstrual cycles. "We found an association between the ketogenic diet and an improvement ...

  CONCUSSIONS IN YOUNG PEOPLE ARE ASSOCIATED WITH LATER-LIFE COGNITIVE DECLINE A study of twins shows that having a concussion early in life is tied to having lower scores on tests of thinking and memory skills decades later and having a more rapid decline in those scores than twins who did not have a concussion or traumatic brain injury (TBI). The study was published in the online issue of  Neurology ® , the American Academy of Neurology medical journal. "These findings indicate that even people with traumatic brain injuries in earlier life who appear to have fully recovered from them may still be at increased risk of cognitive problems and dementia later in life," said study author Marianne Chanti-Ketterl, Ph.D., MSPH, of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. "Among identical twins, who share the same genes and many of the same exposures early in life, we found that the twin who had a concussion had lower test scores and faster decline than their twin who had neve...