PROTIME-FITNESS HOLISTIC HEALTH AND WELLNESS

  PHYSICIANS AND FAMILY MEMBERS LEARN TO DO NO HARM WHEN COMMUNICATING These 'never words' can cause harm if said by clinicians to patients and families dealing with serious illness. Seriously ill patients and family members face intense emotional suffering, and researchers, including a Texas A&M University professor, say clinicians must engage in "compassionate communication" as part of the treatment process. They have identified so-called "never words" that should not be said under any circumstances, offer methods for clinicians to determine their own never words, and provide more helpful language to use instead. In a recent paper published in  Mayo Clinic Proceedings , Texas A&M University Distinguished Professor of Marketing at Mays Business School Dr. Leonard Berry and co-authors from Henry Ford Health in Detroit assert that despite rapid progress in the treatment of serious illnesses such as cancer, advanced heart failure, and end-stage pulmona...

  EXERCISING FOR AS LITTLE AS FIVE MINUTES A DAY MAY HELP LOWER  BLOOD PRESSURE Findings show the importance of activities that raise heart rate for blood pressure control. New research suggests that adding a small amount of physical activity—such as uphill walking or stair-climbing—to your day may help lower blood pressure. The study, published in  Circulation , was carried out by experts from the ProPASS (Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting and Sleep) Consortium, an international academic collaboration led by the University of Sydney and University College London (UCL). Just five minutes of activity a day was estimated to potentially reduce blood pressure, while replacing sedentary behaviors with 20-27 minutes of exercise per day, including uphill walking, stair-climbing, running, and cycling was also estimated to lead to a clinically meaningful reduction in blood pressure. Joint senior author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, Director of the ProPASS Consortium fro...

  BETA-BLOCKER HEART MEDICATIONS MAY CAUSE DEPRESSION IN SOME PATIENTS :         All patients who have had a heart attack are typically treated using beta blockers. According to a Swedish study conducted earlier this year, this drug is unlikely to be needed for those heart patients with a normal pumping ability. Now, a sub-study at Uppsala University shows that there is also a risk that these patients will become depressed by the treatment. "We found that beta blockers led to slightly higher levels of depression symptoms in patients who had had a heart attack but were not suffering from heart failure. At the same time, beta-blockers have no life-sustaining function for this group of patients," says Philip Leissner, a doctoral student in cardiac psychology and the study's first author. Beta-blockers are drugs that block the effects of adrenaline on the heart and have been used for decades as a basic treatment for all heart attack patients. In recent years, their ...

  SITTING FOR LONG PERIODS HARMFUL EVEN FOR YOUNG AND HEALTHY PEOPLE MODERATE EXERCISE MAY NOT BUFFER AGAINST THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF SITTING FOR LONG PERIODS         Between long commutes, video conference-packed workdays, and evenings of streaming and scrolling, millennials now spend more than 60 hours per week sitting, potentially boosting their heart disease risk and accelerating other signs of aging, according to new research from CU Boulder and the University of California Riverside. The study of more than 1,000 former or current Colorado residents, including 730 twins, is among the first to explore how prolonged sitting impacts health measures such as cholesterol and body mass index (BMI) in young adults. It found that more than meeting the minimum recommended physical activity guidelines—about 20 minutes per day of moderate exercise—is needed to counter the hazards of spending most waking hours in a seat. "Our research suggests that sitting less througho...

  CONCUSSIONS LINKED TO HIGHER IRON IN THE BRAIN         People who have headaches after experiencing concussions may also be more likely to have higher levels of iron in areas of the brain, which is a sign of injury to brain cells, according to a preliminary study released today that was presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 76 th  Annual Meeting. "These results suggest that iron accumulation in the brain can be used as a biomarker for concussion and post-traumatic headache, which could potentially help us understand the underlying processes that occur with these conditions," said study author Simona Nikolova, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. The study involved 60 people who had post-traumatic headaches due to mild traumatic brain injury or concussion. The injuries were due to a fall in 45% of the people, 30% were due to a motor vehicle accident, and 12% were due to a fight. Other ca...

  WHAT PERSONALITY TRAITS IMPACT YOUR ACTIVITY LEVEL? A study conducted at the Gerontology Research Centre and the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä observed associations of personality traits with physical activity and sedentary behavior . Individuals characterized by high conscientiousness and extraversion are likelier to accumulate more extended periods of physical activity and sedentary behavior. In contrast, individuals with higher neuroticism scores tend to interrupt their sedentary behavior more often. The study followed the personality traits of the same individuals when they were 33, 42, 50, and 61 years old. It formed personality profiles representing unique combinations of neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness, and agreeableness. "We identified five personality trait profiles:  resilient ,  brittle ,  overcontrolled ,  undercontrolled , and  ordinary, " says research director Katja Kokko. In prev...