Obesity contributes to global warming

Obesity contributes to global warming, too.

Obese and overweight people require more fuel to transport them and the food they eat, and the problem will worsen as the population literally swells in size, a team at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine says.

This adds to food shortages and higher energy prices, the school’s researchers Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts wrote in the journal Lancet on Friday.

“We are all becoming heavier and it is a global responsibility,” Edwards said in a telephone interview. “Obesity is a key part of the big picture.”

At least 400 million adults worldwide are obese. The World Health Organization (WHO) projects by 2015, 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese.  Continued…

U.S. obesity rates alarmingly high

New research shows “alarming levels” of obesity in most ethnic groups in the United States, principal investigator Dr. Gregory L. Burke, of Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina told Reuters Health. The study also confirms the potentially deadly toll obesity exacts on the heart and blood vessels.

“The obesity epidemic has the potential to reduce further gains in U.S. life expectancy, largely through an effect on cardiovascular disease mortality (death),” Burke and colleagues warn in the latest issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Among 6,814 middle-age or older adults participating in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, or “MESA” study, researchers found that more than two thirds of white, African American and Hispanic participants were overweight and one third to one half were obese.

Obesity rates were far lower in Chinese Americans in the study, with 33 percent overweight and just 5 percent obese, suggesting, Burke said, that high rates of obesity should not considered “inevitable.”  Continued…

Amby Burfoot’s 10 Tips for Marathon Training

I’ve been a long time reader of Runner’s World and always find their articles informative and valuable. The marathon isn’t for everyone, but if you do decided to train for one, these 10 tips from Amby Burfoot will help you do it right.

“Three weeks before last spring’s London marathon, I received an e-mail from a friend who’s an ophthalmologist (smart, scientific, precise) and a very talented marathoner. He was concerned about Ryan Hall’s just-posted blog at runnersworld.com. Hall described a long, fast-finishing 26-mile workout. “Don’t you think that’s a mistake?” my friend asked me. “He won’t be fully recovered in time for the marathon.”

Three weeks later, Hall ran 2:08:24 at London, and my friend e-mailed again. “I guess I was wrong,” he said. No, not wrong, I replied. We simply don’t know whether Hall’s success was specific to him or could be extended to other runners. This point was affirmed several months ago by an exciting new study in the International Journal of Sport Physiology and Performance. In his research project, running coach and exercise physiology Ph.D. student Jason Karp asked 93 U.S. elite marathoners how they trained. All of them had qualified for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials by running at least 2:22 (the men) or 2:48 (the women). Karp was hoping to find many universal themes. He didn’t.

Sure, the elites all ran a lot, from 40 to 125 weekly miles, and more than 70 percent of their marathon training was at a relaxed pace. Beyond that, Karp was forced to conclude, “Among U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifiers, there is no consensus as to how to prepare for the marathon.”

What? No consensus? Well, things aren’t that bad. While marathon training hasn’t been studied extensively, millions of runners have managed to go the distance, some of them at a sub-five-minute clip. And runners incessantly exchange their tales of success and failure. When I look at the accumulated science and shared knowledge of marathon training, these overarching principles emerge. Continued…

8 Ways to Know If You’re Fit

A major health headline this week was a study dispelling the notion that you can be both fit and fat. Last fall, the wires were abuzz with citations about the dangers of being thin and fat (so-called “skinny fat”). With a national obesity rate of nearly 30 percent, we know that we’re overweight. But if thin isn’t the indicator of fitness, and you can’t be large and fit, how are we supposed to tell if we’re healthy? Let’s decipher what these studies indicate and sort through the murkiness about what it really means to be fit.  Continued…

What is Your Body Mass Index?

It’s no secret that the U.S. is one of the fattest nations in the world: 66.3 percent of Americans over 20 years old are overweight or obese (about 140 million); 32 percent are obese (67 million); and almost 5 percent (9 million) are morbidly obese. Among adolescents 12 to 19 years old, over 17 percent are overweight (over 12.5 million)—16 percent are girls and 18.2 percent are boys. But what exactly do the terms “overweight,” “obese,” and “morbidly obese” mean, and why should these distinctions matter to you?

The standard definitions as used by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the World Health Organization (WHO) (and most social science and medical journals that rely on the data from those organizations) are based on body mass index (BMI) levels. This is a calculation using your height and your weight.  Continued…

10 Ways to Find the Happiness in Front of You

Whatever faith guides you can probably be found on the Beliefnet site. I get words of inspiration from them that guide me through each day. This content is from “Life Is Sweet” by Addie Johnson. Used by permission from Conari Press. “Life Is Sweet” - copyright 2008 - is available wherever books are sold.

“We struggle with war, poverty, global warming, rising crime rates, and a barrage of news, hardly any of it good. We hear of people getting sick, getting divorced, or dying. Celebrities have fabulous lives, but you don’t, and the “if only’s” threaten to win the day: “My life would be sweet if only I were richer, more famous, thinner, younger, older, had a better job, lived in a different city…”

But happiness is all around you. And it doesn’t care how much money you have or the circumstances of your life. Click through this gallery of tips on how to look on the bright side and find the happiness in front of you.” Continued…

Push - Friday Inspiration

I need inspiration and motivation just as much as anyone else. I am blessed to have it come to me in emails or promptings or in the littlest things and then I love to pass it on. I have gotten an email for years entitled, “Insight of the Day” and most of the time, I just save it. I read today’s email and wanted to pass it on to you.

“”How are you feeling?” asked my friendly neurosurgeon Dr. Alex Gol as I lay in my hospital bed in the rehab hospital at 3:30 P.M. after a torturous day in therapy. I could not yet utter a single word after sustaining a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) at the age of 19. So I nodded as if to say, “OK.” Dr. Gol then calmly replied, “That’s nice,” and quickly left the room with a smile.

As he was leaving I thought to myself, “Dr. Gol…so nice…so calm…so peaceful.” I tried to reposition myself in my bed as the door closed behind him in order to get more comfortable, but something was not “right” in the hospital hallway as I heard a great commotion coming from there. (True, I could not yet speak; however, nothing was wrong with my hearing and there was plenty of screaming coming from the hall.) I wondered, “What was the problem?”

I soon found out the cause of the chaos: it was sweet, serene and calm Dr. Gol who was causing it.

As soon as he left my room he erupted: “WHO’S THE NURSE TAKING CARE OF MIKE? WHAT’S HE DOING IN BED SO EARLY? HE’S A 19 YEAR OLD VICTIM OF TBI, NOT A 95 YEAR OLD STROKE VICTIM! GET HIM OUT OF THAT BED, AND I DON’T WANT HIM BACK IN BED UNTIL HE GOES TO SLEEP!”

The nurses had never seen Dr. Gol act like that. In fact, they had never heard him raise his voice. They quickly got me out of bed and put me in my wheelchair until 9 P.M.

I was miserable. I wanted to get back into my comfortable bed - well, it was not so comfortable but it was much less uncomfortable than my wheelchair or any kind of chair, for that matter.

As I said, after therapy was over at 3 P.M. I wanted to get straight back in bed; however, throughout the following weeks and months the nurses did not want to face “the wrath of Dr. Gol.” Therefore, after therapy I remained in my wheelchair in my room until I went to sleep. Being in the wheelchair for so long was agonizing!

I hated Dr. Gol after that eventful day when he asked me that seemingly simple question while I was trying to relax in bed. However, years later I loved him as I realized Dr. Gol was only doing what was in my best interest.

When I returned to college after being out for so long, my professors, after learning what had happened to me and realizing that I could no longer read as quickly as before I was hurt, were more than happy to say, “Mike, it’s ok. Just read what you can and we’ll test you on that material.” However, one professor did not say that. Dr. Sheldon Ekland-Olson, a sociology professor, said, “Mike, I understand you have difficulty reading. I’ve had many students with many visual problems. For those students, I refer them to “Recording for the Blind.” They have access to many textbooks on cassettes. Here’s the phone number…”

I “hated” that statement as I wanted to take the “easy way out.” (My feelings of “hate” were very similar to those I had for Dr. Gol on that eventful afternoon in the hospital.) However, I have since learned that the “easy way” is quite often the “wrong way.”

Sometimes everyone needs a “push.” Even I, recently, had to be reminded to push myself as I had gotten “lazy” at the gym. However, a “stranger” reminded me to use my right hand. Even though it was difficult, I thanked him for the reminder.

I have learned that the difficult things in life are often the sweet things in life. One cannot experience “beauty” without experiencing “bitterness.” Remember, “push” yourself to “get through the thorns of the rose bush, to experience the beautiful flower of the rose.”

Every time I think of some difficult thing in life, I close my eyes, see Dr. Gol, and smile.

Michael Segal

Shot in the head during a robbery, Michael Jordan Segal defied all odds by first surviving and then returning to college. He then earned two degrees with honors, married his high school sweetheart, Sharon, and became a father to their daughter Shawn. Mike is a social worker at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston and an author (currently he has two book projects he’s working on: an autobiography and an anthology of his short stories). He also is a popular inspirational speaker sharing his recipe for recovery, happiness, and success. Please visit his site at: www.InspirationByMike.com

Become A Change Optimist

I am an eternal optimist and that certainly helps when you are trying to motivate people. It is especially helpful when you are asking people to change their bodies and change their lives. I am blessed to get an inspirational email and a good article that I saw recently was, “Become a Change Optimist” and here is a little excerpt”

“Everyone experiences change–it may be a job change, relationship change, health change, or a change you’ve initiated that suddenly seems daunting. If you find change difficult, you’re not alone. Many people think change is hard. But it’s possible for the change you’re going through to be easier, smoother, and less stressful–you can find the positive in transitions and learn to love your life more…you can become a Change Optimist.” Continued…

Americans still unclear about stroke warning signs

I for one really don’t know any of the warning signs of a stroke.  I only know that when I was under a lot of stress last year with a failing business, I thought that I might have a stroke.  This article is from Reuters Health:

“Fewer than half of Americans can recognize the top five warning signs of stroke, information that could help save thousands of people from death and disability, the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention said on Thursday.

Their report uncovered significant disparities in awareness, with whites, women and people with higher levels of education much more likely to be aware of individual stroke warning symptoms and call for an ambulance than others.

“These findings indicate a need to increase awareness of stroke warning symptoms in the entire population, and particularly among blacks, Hispanics, men and persons at lower education levels,” the CDC said in its weekly report on death and disease.

Stroke warning signs include sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side; sudden confusion or difficulty speaking; sudden trouble walking, dizziness or loss of balance; sudden trouble with vision in one eye or both; and severe headache with no known cause.  Continued…

Early exercise aids against breast cancer

As a parent of an active 3 1/2 year old, I was heartened to see this article and know that she is starting out life on the right foot so to speak.  This article appears in CNN Health and is from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis:

“New research shows exercise during the teen years — starting as young as age 12 — can help protect girls from breast cancer when they are grown.

Middle-aged women have long been advised to get active to lower their risk of breast cancer after menopause.

What’s new: That starting so young pays off, too.

“This really points to the benefit of sustained physical activity from adolescence through the adult years, to get the maximum benefit,” said Dr. Graham Colditz of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the study’s lead author.

Researchers tracked nearly 65,000 nurses ages 24 to 42 who enrolled in a major health study. They answered detailed questionnaires about their physical activity dating back to age 12. Within six years of enrolling, 550 were found to have breast cancer before menopause. A quarter of all breast cancer is diagnosed at these younger ages, when it is typically more aggressive.

Women who were physically active as teens and young adults were 23 percent less likely to develop premenopausal breast cancer than women who grew up sedentary, researchers report Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.”  Continued…