More than half of American women don’t like their weight – including the 26 percent of those whose height and weight put them in the healthy category – according to a new poll assessing females’ attitudes about body image. But, even though nearly two-thirds of American women are overweight or obese, according to national health statistics, still only a third of them say they do not like their physical conditioning. The Associated Press-iVillage poll of 1,000 adult women also showed that women put in a median of about 80 minutes of exercise a week, meaning that about half do even less. This is a far cry from the 2.5 hours of exercise per week deemed necessary for a healthy life.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could run your errands and exercise at the same time? Well, you can. If you are constantly on the go and you can’t get to the gym everyday, there are ways you can incorporate exercise into your daily routine. Click for more. 

Patients who have suffered chronic heart failure can feel better with moderate exercise, and it’s safe, according to two articles published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Even though fewer than half of patients in the study group were complying fully with the recommended exercise regimen – the equivalent of brisk walking or stationary cycling for about two to three hours a week – the benefits shouldn’t be overlooked, given the poor quality of life many chronic heart failure patients have, says Clyde Yancy, M.D., medical director of the Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute in Houston. “Having any strategy that’s reasonable, that has the potential to help even a little bit, is pretty important,” says Yancy, who was not involved in the research. “The real gain might be in helping our patients feel better.” Some 5 million people in the United States have chronic heart failure, in which the heart becomes too weak to pump blood through the body effectively. Not too long ago, bed rest was the standard treatment for these patients, who suffer from fatigue, difficulty breathing, and swelling of the legs, among other symptoms. But for the past 20 or 30 years, evidence has been trickling in to show that these patients can actually benefit from being active, says Kathryn E. Flynn, Ph.D., of Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.

Turns out that calories might not be the main reason for obesity. In a new study, researchers from Loyola University Health System compared Black Chicago women to women in rural Nigeria. What they found was that, on average, the Chicago women weighed 184 pounds to Nigerian women’s 127 pounds. What the researchers expected to find was that the Nigerian women were more physically active. Not so. In fact, what they discovered is that there is no significant difference between the two groups in the amount of calories burned during physical activity. “Decreased physical activity may not be the primary driver of the obesity epidemic,” said Loyola nutritionist Amy Luke, an associate professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology. U.S. government guidelines call for at least 2 ½ hours of moderate aerobic activity (such as brisk walking) or 75 minutes of vigorous activity (such as jogging) each week. Adults also should do muscle-strengthening activities, such as weight-lifting or sit-ups, at least twice a week. Such activity not only strengthens bones and muscles, but it improves mental health and mood, lowers blood pressure, improves cholesterol levels and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, breast cancer and colon cancer. But Luke and her cohorts found that weight control might not be among the main benefits. Although people definitely burn more calories when they exercise, they compensate by eating more, says Richard Cooper, Ph.D., co-author of the study and chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology. “We would love to say that physical activity has a positive effect on weight control, but that does not appear to be the case,” Cooper said.

For many people, today could be the day the quit. Today marks the American Cancer Society’s 33rd Great American Smokeout, a day when smokers are encouraged to not smoke for at least one day in the hope that they can quit permanently. Many Americans are expected to observe the Smokeout by refusing to light up a cigarette. Smoking one pack a day, means you’re spending about $2,000 to $3,000 a year, according to one estimate. November is also Lung Cancer Awareness Month, a month dedicated to raising awareness about the most devastating side-effect of smoking: lung cancer. Lung cancer killed 160,390 people last year, an average of 439 people a day, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance. It is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, killing more people annually than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and melanoma cancers combined.  So how do you fight the urge? Well for starters you can build a support system for yourself, health officials say. Or use a buddy system, so you have someone to call. Try to stay busy so you’re not thinking about your next drag.

Exercise can cut a woman’s breast cancer risk. Here’s yet another benefit of working out: for women, it reduces your breast cancer risk by 20 percent. Women who got regular exercise, according to a study of more than 32,000 postmenopausal women, cut their risk of breast cancer by 30 percent. “Possible mechanisms through which physical activity may protect against breast cancer that are independent of BMI [body mass index] include reduced exposure to growth factors, enhanced immune function, and decreased chronic inflammation, variables that are related both to greater physical activity and to lower breast cancer risk,” said the authors, who published their findings in the journal of Breast Cancer Research.  However, there was a caveat.  The benefits of exercise were whipped out of women who did not get enough sleep. In some cases, women’s breast cancer risk actually increased by 50 percent in women who got less than 7 hours of sleep a night, the authors said.  Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death and is the sixth most-common cause of death for women of all ages in the U.S. While African-American women do not get breast cancer at a greater rate than White women, when they do get it they die at higher rates than White women do, according to federal statistics.

Eat what you want as long as you walk. You can eat basically anything you want and still lose weight if you religiously take a brisk 30-minute walk six days a week, according to researchers from the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. This amount of exercise is enough to trim your waistline and cut your risk of developing metabolic syndrome, a common condition linked to obesity and a sedentary lifestyle that raises the odds of heart disease, diabetes and stroke, reports Reuters Health. “Our study shows that you’ll benefit even if you don’t make any dietary changes,” study leader Johanna L. Johnson said in a statement. The Duke team examined results from the STRRIDE study (Studies of a Targeted Risk Reduction Intervention through Defined Exercise), which was funded by the National Institutes of Health. In this study, researchers observed 171 middle-aged and overweight men and women for the effects of varying amounts and intensity of exercise. They found that 41 percent of the participants had metabolic syndrome before they began exercising regularly. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of five conditions: a large waistline, high blood pressure, high levels of harmful triglycerides, low levels of “good” HDL cholesterol and high blood sugar. But after eight months of exercise, only 27 percent still had metabolic syndrome. “It’s … encouraging news for sedentary, middle-aged adults who want to improve their health,” Johnson said. “It means they don’t have to go out running four or five days a week; they can get significant health benefits by simply walking around the neighborhood after dinner every night.”
Double children’s Vitamin D intake, doctors advise. Children should be getting double the usually suggested amount of vitamin D because of evidence that it may help prevent serious diseases, the leading U.S. pediatricians group recommended on Monday.  To meet the new recommendation of 400 units daily, millions of children will need to take vitamin D supplements each day, the American Academy of Pediatrics said. That includes breast-fed infants – even those who get some formula – and many teenagers who drink little or no milk. Baby formula contains vitamin D, so infants fed only formula generally do not need supplements, the doctors said. However, the academy recommends that breast-feeding for at least the first year of life, and breast milk is sometimes deficient, reports The Associated Press. Most commercially available milk is fortified with vitamin D, but most children do not drink enough of it – four cups daily would be needed – to meet the new requirement, said Dr. Frank Greer, who helped write the report.

 Vigorous Exercise helps those with “fat gene.” Physical activity may reduce the risk of obesity in people with a genetic mutation that predisposes them to high body-mass index (BMI), says a U.S. study released Monday. Recent research has shown a link between BMI and variants of the fat mass and obesity associated with the FTO gene, reports HealthDay. The mutations connected with obesity occur are associated with a 3.9-pound increase in body weight, according to background information in the study. While lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise are important factors in weight control, it’s not exactly clear how they interact with genetics. In this study, researchers analyzed DNA samples from 704 healthy Amish adults, average age 43.6, and also conducted a series of physiological tests on the participants, including recording their physical activity over a seven-day period. Those in the “high-activity” group burned about 900 calories (860 for women) more than those in the “low activity” group, the researchers wrote. “High activity” amounted to three to four hours of moderate intensity physical activity such as brisk walking, housecleaning or gardening, the researchers wrote.

Exposure could affect prostate and brain of babies.
Plastic baby bottles cause more concern.  Baby bottles made of a certain plastic are causing “some concern” among government scientists, according to a new report. Human exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used in many polycarbonate plastics, such as those used to make some plastic water and baby bottles, is a problem because of the effect it could have on the development of the prostate gland, brain and behavior effects in fetuses, infants and children, according to the final report released Monday by the National Toxicology Program. Scientists with the program have concluded that BPA has the potential to cause harm to human reproduction or development. They base their findings primarily on a review of scientific information on BPA. But the scientists warn that the results are not conclusive. “There remains considerable uncertainty whether the changes seen in the animal studies are directly applicable to humans, and whether they would result in clear adverse health effects,” said NTP Associate Director John Bucher, Ph.D. “But we have concluded that the possibility that BPA may affect human development cannot be dismissed.”

Plastic baby bottles cause more concern.  Baby bottles made of a certain plastic are causing “some concern” among government scientists, according to a new report. Human exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used in many polycarbonate plastics, such as those used to make some plastic water and baby bottles, is a problem because of the effect it could have on the development of the prostate gland, brain and behavior effects in fetuses, infants and children, according to the final report released Monday by the National Toxicology Program. Scientists with the program have concluded that BPA has the potential to cause harm to human reproduction or development. They base their findings primarily on a review of scientific information on BPA. But the scientists warn that the results are not conclusive. “There remains considerable uncertainty whether the changes seen in the animal studies are directly applicable to humans, and whether they would result in clear adverse health effects,” said NTP Associate Director John Bucher, Ph.D. “But we have concluded that the possibility that BPA may affect human development cannot be dismissed.”

Exercise thwarts high blood pressure.

For people with high blood pressure, exercise can be the most important lifestyle change they can make, researchers say. Yet two-thirds of doctors don’t take the time to tell their patients with high blood pressure about the importance of exercise and physical activity, a new study finds. “Patients do follow physician recommendations to exercise when instructed to, and patients who follow exercise recommendations tend to have lower systolic blood pressures than those who do not,” lead researcher Dr. Josiah Halm, a hypertension specialist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, told HealthDay. The findings are published in the summer issue of Ethnicity & Disease. For the study, Halm’s team collected data on 17,474 people who participated in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Among these people, 4,686 reported having high blood pressure. The researchers found that only slightly more than one-third of the people with high blood pressure said their doctor had told them to increase physical activity as a way of bringing down their blood pressure. Yet, 71 percent of patients with high blood pressure saw a drop in their blood pressure when they increased their physical activity, which means that they listened when doctors told them to exercise more, according to the report. “Non-pharmacological methods, such as exercising, are important in improving blood pressure control on a population level as this study looked at the cross-section of the U.S. population,” Halm said.

Black Americans need more sun.

There is a growing body of scientific and medical research suggesting that concerns about skin cancer may have been exaggerated and that most Americans, especially African Americans, actually need greater exposure to sunshine and the valuable vitamin D it helps to produce, reports EURWeb. The most recent in a series of studies was released on Tuesday by the prestigious Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The researchers used data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to conclude that not getting enough of the so-called “sunshine vitamin” appears to increase the risk of an early death by as much as 26 percent. Johns Hopkins cardiologist Dr. Erin Michos said low levels of vitamin D appear to “confer an increased risk of dying from any cause.” For African Americans, Jean Mayer of the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston concluded in an earlier report: “Vitamin D insufficiency is more prevalent,” especially for Blacks living in the North. “Most young, healthy Blacks to not achieve optimal” levels of vitamin D from sunshine,” he says. That’s mostly because the natural pigment protection African Americans have against harmful ultra-violet rays reduces vitamin D absorption in North American environments, researchers say.  Studies show the sunshine vitamin offers a broad range of health benefits including boosting bone and muscle strength to offering protection against both cancer and diabetes. But Michos said more clinical studies were needed before that conclusion could be definitively made. Meanwhile, in 2007 a team from Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., found that the lower the levels of vitamin D in a woman’s body the greater is the risk of her developing breast cancer.

Is Sen. Barack Obama too skinny to be president?
Vital Signs: Is Sen. Barack Obama too skinny to be president? Find out who thinks so at Vital Signs.

Exercise pill could help fight obesity. A pill could someday duplicate the results you get by exercising. While new research suggests that drugs could enhance or even mimic the effects of exercise, many researchers say that the notion that you could skip the treadmill and pop a pill is premature. A team of scientists led by Ronald M. Evans, an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor at the Salk Institute’s Gene Expression Laboratory, studied two drugs that trigger genetic changes in the body – changes that are typically stimulated by exercise and can ultimately lead to improved muscle functioning and energy-burning abilities. And in mice, at least, the drugs seem to show some positive results. When given to exercise-trained mice, the first drug, known as GW1516, increased their running time by 68 percent and distance by 70 percent. The second, called AICAR, increased running time by 23 percent and distance by 44 percent – but in mice that were “couch potato[es],” Evans says. It was as if, he says, the mice had achieved the “impossible goal” of gaining muscle tone and endurance without having exercised. The research was published Thursday in the online edition of the journal Cell. “Perhaps the most significant finding is that one can actually develop a pill that can confer exercise,” Evans says. But scientists are sure they can duplicate the same results in humans. At best, the study shows some promise that a new drug could be developed to fight obesity, some day.

Mexican farm linked to Salmonella outbreak. Laboratory testing by the Food and Drug Administration has linked a Mexican farm to the salmonella outbreak in the United States, the agency said yesterday. A sample of serrano peppers and irrigation water taken from the farm, in Nuevo León, Mexico, contained the same strain of salmonella that caused the U.S. outbreak. A contaminated jalapeño pepper had been identified two weeks ago at another farm in a different part of Mexico. Until further notice, the FDA advises consumers to avoid eating raw serrano or jalapeño peppers from Mexico or any foods that contain them.

Vital Signs: When Black America is shortchanged in the fight for HIV/AIDS funds it has a terrible consequence: fewer Black women get the help the need. Read more at Vital Signs.

More Americans are going deaf
One of three U.S. adults already suffers from some degree of hearing loss, experts said on Monday. The use of personal stereos and an aging population may create a hearing impairment epidemic, a new study shows. A team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore estimated that 55 million Americans have hearing loss in one or both ears, with men, Whites and the least-educated most affected, the researchers said. One out of six – or 29 million adults – has some trouble discerning speech, more than previous estimates, they reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine. “The prevalence of hearing loss in the United States is predicted to rise significantly because of an aging population and the growing use of personal listening devices. Indeed, there is concern that we may be facing an epidemic of hearing impairment,” Dr. Yuri Agrawal of the Baltimore hospital wrote. It is normal for people to ignore or disavow hearing loss, the researchers said, leading to difficulty communicating that can result in productivity problems at work, depression, and less access to health care that ultimately raises the risk of sickness and death. Hearing loss affected 8.5 percent of those in their 20s and 17 percent of people in their 30s. Exposure to workplace noise, firearms and loud music were all risk factors.

You need 55 minutes a day to lose weight permanently
Obese and overweight women need to cut calories and exercise 275 minutes a week more than their baseline physical activity – or at least 55 minutes a day, five days a week to lose weight and keep it off , a new study says. The research was led by John M. Jakicic, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues. They tracked 201 overweight and obese women over a two-year period; 170 women completed the study. At the start, all of the participants were sedentary. They were randomly assigned to one of four groups based on how much and how intensely they exercised and how many calories they burned. The participants were told to eat or drink no more than 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day. Researchers tracked them by talking to them on the phone and having face-to-face talks. Participants were encouraged to spread the exercise out over five days during a week, done in at least 10-minute chunks. The women were given treadmills to use at home and taught to monitor their own heart rates. At the end of the two-year study, women who had lost 10 percent or more of their initial body weight reported that they had done more physical activity, compared with those who did not lose as much weight. After six months, women in all four groups had lost an average of 8 percent to 10 percent of their initial body weight. But the hard part was keeping that weight off. Most of them regained the weight. Nearly 25 percent of the participants managed to keep 10 percent or more of their original body weight off over the two years. Those women exercised about 275 minutes a week more over their baseline activity levels.

Will Michelle Obama’s image help young Black girls?
Vital Signs: She’s been called unamerican, an “angry Black woman,” the “b” word and worse. But is the criticism of Michelle Obama, whose worked to soften her image, hurt or help how young girls see themselves and what they can accomplish? Read more at Vital Signs.