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In an effort to help women battling or recovering from cancer, Hollywood’s Lady of America Fitness Center is offering free Yoga classes to cancer patients and survivors.  

Carol Berkson, co-owner of the fitness center with Judy Scott, said exercise benefits women undergoing cancer treatment through helping them cope with insomnia, fatigue and other effects of treatment, and benefits survivors through helping them rebound from their illnesses.

“Exercise for cancer patients is a great outlet,” Berkson said. “For one hour a day, they’re not focusing on cancer.”

Personally knowing people who battled cancer motivated the two owners to begin this program. They know how much exercise benefits all individuals.

“I hope they feel healthier after taking the classes,” Berkson said. “Unfortunately there is so much cancer around, and we just feel that the benefits of exercise are so important.”

Berkson said she and Scott wanted to give back to the community and people personally affected by cancer. These classes provided the opportunity to do it. The owners ensure that potential participants will love the classes. 

People interested in taking the classes may participate in two classes a week for two months. Berkson and Scott offer five, one-hour classes a week: Mondays at 7:30 p.m., Tuesdays and Fridays at 10:30 a.m., Fridays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 1 p.m. 

Anyone interested in scheduling her first appointment should call 954-966-5239. The fitness center is located at 5361 Sheridan St.

Source - hollywoodgazette.com

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1. What is holistic medicine?

There are 10-50 trillion cells in our bodies. Each of these cells must carry out many functions for us to live. This means that at every second our bodies are doing perhaps 100 trillion functions (or more). Holistic medicine is a model that focuses on how these 100 trillion functions are working. It uses this power and intelligence to help a person heal through holistic medicine such as foods, supplements and herbs, relaxation techniques, acupuncture, chiropractic and other such means.

Holistic medicine also looks to see how the mind and spirit are affecting our body and our health. A truly healthy person, from a holistic standpoint, is one that is healthy in mind, body, and spirit.

2. How is this different than modern medicine?

Our modern medicine is very powerful and works well for many things, but it is based on the idea that healing comes from outside the body in the form of surgery, pills, or shots.

Using asthma as an example, modern medicine will use steroids or other inhalers or pills to decrease the inflammation or irritation in the lungs. Holistic medicine starts by asking what may have caused the inflammation in the first place. It then uses diet, herbs and supplements, as well as relaxation techniques to decrease the irritation and help a person breathe. Sometimes steroids may still be necessary, but perhaps with the holistic medicine the dose of the steroids can be reduced significantly.

3. Is holistic medicine helpful for children and what can it be used for?

Absolutely! Holistic medicine works even better for children than for adults because children’s bodies are more flexible and responsive to therapies in general.

Holistic medicine is used first and foremost to promote a state of health and to try to prevent problems and diseases from occurring.

Holistic treatments can be also be used to help with allergies and asthma, arthritis, chronic abdominal pain, headaches (migraines included), and to some degree attention deficit and autism, among other things.

4. Are there problems with holistic medicine?

Holistic medicine becomes dangerous when used inappropriately. Some people have died or have been seriously harmed because they wanted a “natural” approach to treat cancer or a serious infection. Such cases need the powerful treatments of chemotherapy and antibiotics. To disregard the great advances of modern medicine is unfortunate. There is no reason why we cannot use the best of both worlds. This is why we have the term, “integrative medicine” - which means to integrate the best of modern medicine with holistic medicine.

Not all holistic treatments work, and not all are worth the money that some spend for them. It is important for a person to find an honest and responsible provider for holistic care.

5. What does the future hold for holistic medicine?

In a country that spends more on health care than any other country in the world, more and more people are becoming interested and using complementary and holistic therapies. We are reaching a place and time where our health care system may become too costly. Holistic medicine can be a part of the solution. Diet, supplements and herbs, and relaxation techniques are all very cheap (if not free). Even though holistic modalities may not be as powerful as modern medications or therapies, for each penny spent, they may actually be more powerful.

Most importantly, up until now, we have spent a majority of our money and energy focusing on taking care of a disease once it has already occurred. As they say, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Holistic medicine can help bring the focus back on health promotion and help people learn how to stay healthy.

Dr. Pejman Katiraei is medical director and founder of the Loma Linda University Pediatric “Wholistic” Medicine Clinic, 11370 Anderson St., Suite B100, Loma Linda. (909) 558-2828.

Source - http://www.sgvtribune.com/

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ScienceDaily (Feb. 26, 2009) — Research by kinesiology investigator Dustin Hittel, PhD, has proven that muscle in extremely obese individuals produces large amounts of a protein called myostatin, which normally inhibits muscle growth—suggesting that for Type 2 diabetics, and the very obese, the task of getting healthy may be more difficult than initially thought.

It has been known for some years that naturally occurring mutations in the gene which controls myostatin results in double—muscling in cattle, dogs and even humans. Many in the body building community believe that blocking myostatin is a shortcut to the Arnold Schwarzenegger body.

The flipside is that producing too much myostatin has been linked with muscle wasting conditions such as HIV-AIDS, starvation and now, Type 2 diabetes.

Hittel believes this may be due to a pre-diabetic condition known as insulin resistance that “tricks” the muscles into thinking the body is starving despite the fact that blood sugar levels are skyrocketing.

“When that happens, the body reverses muscle production using myostatin,” says Hittel. “This is particularly worrisome because losing muscle mass further erodes your ability to control your blood sugar with exercise.”

One of the tell-tale signs of the transition between insulin resistance and full-blown Type 2 diabetes is a loss of muscle mass.

“Losing muscle mass makes sense from an evolutionary perspective since having large muscles during famine puts you at a serious risk for starvation,” explains Hittel. “Unfortunately, this survival mechanism has left us ill-equipped to deal with a Western lifestyle—lots of calories, little exercise—and it has laid the groundwork for the current epidemic of Type 2 diabetes.”

“The goal of my research is to understand how obesity, diet and exercise influence our metabolism and interact with our genome. This research sheds some light on an important part of the puzzle.”

This article can be found in the January 2009 edition of the scientific journal Diabetes.

Dr. Hittel would like to acknowledge start-up funding from the Faculty of Kinesiology and ongoing funding from the REACH! Campaign for Health.

Source - http://www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (Mar. 3, 2009) — When it comes to the hippocampus, a brain structure vital to certain types of memory, size matters. Numerous studies have shown that bigger is usually better. Now researchers have found that elderly adults who are more physically fit tend to have bigger hippocampi and better spatial memory than those who are less fit.

The study, in the journal Hippocampus, shows that hippocampus size in physically fit adults accounts for about 40 percent of their advantage in spatial memory.

The hippocampus, a curved structure deep inside the medial temporal lobe of the brain, is essential to memory formation. Remove it – as was done in the well-known case of surgical patient Henry Gustav Molaison – and a person’s ability to store most new experiences in memory is destroyed.

The hippocampus also is a key player in spatial navigation and other types of relational memory.

Certain activities are believed to modify hippocampus size in humans. For example, a study of London taxi drivers found that the posterior portion of the hippocampus was larger in experienced taxi drivers than in other subjects. And a study of German medical students found that the same region of the hippocampus increased in size as they studied for their final exams.

Studies also have found that the hippocampus shrinks with age, a process that coincides with small but significant cognitive declines. The rate at which this occurs, however, differs among individuals.

Earlier studies found that exercise increases hippocampus size and spatial memory in rodents, but the new study is the first to demonstrate that exercise can affect hippocampus size and memory in humans.

The researchers, from the University of Illinois and the University of Pittsburgh, measured the cardiorespiratory fitness of 165 adults (109 of them female) between 59 and 81 years of age. Using magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers conducted a volumetric analysis of the subjects’ left and right hippocampi. They also tested the participants’ spatial reasoning.

They found a significant association between an individual’s fitness and his or her performance on certain spatial memory tests. There was also a strong correlation between fitness and hippocampus size.

“The higher fit people have a bigger hippocampus, and the people that have more tissue in the hippocampus have a better spatial memory,” said U. of I. psychology professor Art Kramer, who led the study with Pittsburgh psychology professor Kirk Erickson.

“Even ignoring the hippocampus data, we see there is this significant and substantial relationship between how fit you are and how good your memory is, or at least a certain kind of memory, a certain kind of memory that we need all the time,” Kramer said.

“This is really a clinically significant finding because it supports the notion that your lifestyle choices and behaviors may influence brain shrinkage in old age,” Erickson said. “Basically, if you stay fit, you retain key regions of your brain involved in learning and memory.”

An impairment of spatial memory “is one of a number of reasons why older people end up losing their independence,” Kramer said. “Here is yet more evidence that becoming fit has implications for how well you’re going to live your life.”

Kramer is a full-time faculty member of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at Illinois.

Source - http://www.sciencedaily.com

Spero Karas, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Ga., talks about a new procedure to repair torn rotator cuffs in the shoulder. Tell me about rotator cuff injuries or the kind of shoulder injuries that you are addressing. What causes them and how do you fix them?

Dr. Karas: Rotator cuff injury can be caused by a number of phenomena. Most commonly, it’s an overuse type of injury that is acquired over many years. The rotator cuff tendon will slowly accrue injury that over many years weakens it and causes small partial tears that then can spread or propagate into a larger tear, or a full thickness tear. The rotator cuff tendon itself is anywhere from 12 to 16 millimeters thick. You can actually acquire a pretty good amount of injury through that 12 to 16 millimeters of tendon before you get what we consider a full thickness rotator cuff tear, or one that spans that entire thickness of tendon.

What does the rotator cuff do?

Dr. Karas: The shoulder is a ball and socket joint. What the rotator cuff actually does is it stabilizes the ball in the socket. When the rotator cuff is torn, that ball will tend to ride up out of the socket and then the other shoulder muscles cannot raise the arm effectively, so although a bodybuilder or an athlete would work on focusing on what I call the “beach” muscles — those big muscles that you build up in the weight room — those muscles are basically useless when the rotator cuff is not intact. When the rotator cuff is not functioning, then the shoulder cannot be centered in the ball and socket joint — the glenohumeral joint — and you get an ineffective transfer of power from those big muscles which elevate the shoulder.

If the rotator cuff is torn, what are the options for that patient?

Dr. Karas: It depends. Partial thickness rotator cuff tears are those tears that do not go completely through the tendon. Those can be very effectively managed with physiotherapy, perhaps a cortisone injection, anti-inflammatories and rest from the offending activity. About 80 percent of rotator cuff tears will respond to that management. When you get into a situation with a full thickness rotator cuff tear where there is a hole in the tendon, that is a more serious issue. Those can propagate or get larger over time. I’ve seen relatively small rotator cuff tears turn into large or massive irreparable tears in as little as a year. The important thing to recognize in a rotator cuff injury is there can be a pretty wide spectrum of disease from tendonitis of the tendon to a partial thickness tear of the tendon or to a full thickness tear of the tendon, which could either be small medium or large. The problem is once those tendons give way and once there is a hole in the tendon, then that needs to be fixed. Rotator cuff repair is really quite unique in orthopedic surgery. There are a lot of procedures we do that do not necessarily change the natural history of the disease. If you look at the long term outcomes of ACL reconstruction — even 20 years after an ACL reconstruction — a patient still may end up with arthritis; but an effective rotator cuff repair, one that gets the tendon to heal back down to the bone, actually reverses what we call the natural history of rotator cuff disease, which means the tear over time slowly gets larger, eventually becomes irreparable and then when that head starts to rise up or escape out of what we call the glenohumeral joint, or the ball and socket joint. Then it develops arthritis.

A quality rotator cuff repair in the young to middle ages can actually change the course of a patient later in life and perhaps not only improve function and decrease pain, but also stave off arthritis and more serious procedures like shoulder replacement down the line.

What is the new procedure you are using and what makes it work better?

Dr. Karas: I utilize a procedure called the dual row or double row rotator cuff repair. What the dual row rotator cuff repair does is it reconstructs normal anatomy. Typically, when you approach the rotator cuff injury through an arthroscopic technique, you have to use small rivets or suture anchors in the bone. Those rivets are what basically allows you to repair the rotator cuff back to the bone. Traditional techniques for suture anchor repair employed what was called the single row technique where you put a single anchor or a single row of anchors into the bone where the rotator cuff attaches and reattach that tendon down to the bone. The problem with the single row technique is that it only re-approximates approximately five millimeters of that 12 to 16 millimeter footprint we talked about earlier. In order to improve the strength of the repair, recreate normal anatomy and reconstruct the tendon as it was in its uninjured state, the footprint requires a dual row reconstruction. The concept of dual row or double row repair helps you achieve that by basically matching anatomy as it is in the uninjured state.

In terms of length of the procedure and length of recovery, how does it compare with the traditional arthroscopic procedure?

Dr. Karas: I always say you cannot fool Mother Nature, so regardless of how the rotator cuff is fixed, there is still a natural progression of time where that tendon and bone have to heal together. That actually takes, believe it or not, about a year to get a fully healed bone-tendon construct in the shoulder after rotator cuff repair. It takes about a year and it’s a fairly linear graph. Its 25 percent healed at three months, 50 percent healed at six months, 75 percent healed at nine months and so on until 100 percent healed at 12 months. Regardless of whether you fix a tendon with a dual row or single row construct, ultimate healing takes the same amount of time. What is clearly more advantageous in the dual row construct is that these repairs are stronger so when you test them biomechanically it is more difficult to pull the repair off. Rehab can take place with a little bit more fortitude. You can rehab a little bit stronger, you can move a little bit more aggressively early on. Furthermore, you get a better healing rate with the dual row repair, so the dual or double row repair, that dual fixation point, basically improves the footprint of the tendon onto the bone by a factor of anywhere from 50 to 75 percent. When you look at those repairs long term, especially when you are dealing with larger tears, you see that you actually have improved healing rates when compared to a traditional single row construct.

As I understand, many times people have these tears is because they are over 40 and that tendon is not what it was when they were in their 20s. How do the patients over 40 do in terms of recovery and going back to their regular activity?

Dr. Karas: The results of rotator cuff repair, whether it be done through an open or an arthroscopic technique, are uniformly very, very good. The main impactors in the outcome from rotator cuff repair are age, the size of the tear and if the surgeon was able to get the tear to heal. It’s clearly been shown that patients that have undergone rotator cuff repair do better if, down the road, their tendons have healed. That sounds intuitive, but you would be surprised at how well patients do after rotator cuff repair even when the tendon doesn’t heal. It’s just that those particular patients, if the tendon re-tears, they typically get a recurrence of their symptoms sooner than one would expect. A follow up study showed that the tendon is re-torn. You have to remember that a solid primary rotator cuff repair the first time around puts the patient in a much better situation to have an excellent outcome in terms of healing rates and in terms of long term improvement in symptoms.

In terms of activity, what does this mean for these patients? For the people you were talking about earlier that have had this procedure, what does it mean for them in terms of being able to return to the things that they normally like to do?

Dr. Karas: Clearly, in the smaller tears that are treated with the double row construct, I have a lot of confidence getting these patients up and moving and rehabilitating quicker and more aggressively because there is more confidence in the repair. There is a broader contact area on the bone. Patients with bigger tears, I use the technique almost exclusively because the large tears are the ones that have a higher rate of re-rupture or re-tearing and those patients are clearly the ones that are shown to have a bad outcome. What the double row repair means in terms of how your patients do is, again, a better long term outcome due to a better repair.

How many doctors are doing this procedure besides you? Is it performed all over the country, or are you still one of the only doctors doing this?

Dr. Karas: No, it’s definitely catching on. There is actually a growing number of surgeons who recognize that the dual row construct not only recreates anatomy, but also improves the biomechanics of repair. Quite frankly, some of the studies, as you follow them out, show that it actually improves healing rates in short to intermediate term post-op follow up. Basically to summarize, the dual row rotator cuff repairs are really taking off in terms of surgeons recognizing that it is a more anatomic repair — a stronger repair — and has better healing rates and it’s truly gaining popularity.

Do you do it arthroscopically or is it an open procedure? Does it depend on the patient?

Dr. Karas: It actually does depend on the patient. The percentage of rotator cuff repairs I do arthroscopically are over 95 percent. Today however, I have a patient with a very large tear that was actually what we call an irreparable tear. For an irreparable rotator cuff tear, there is only one way to fix that hole. You can’t fix it back down to the bone. You have to use a graft, and so on those where I’m really trying to get a graft to heal down to the bone, I use the dual row through an open procedure. It’s kind of like golf: You use the club it takes to get you in the hole. It’s almost always a primary arthroscopic repair, but sometimes it has to be performed with an open technique.

Do these people go back to the things that they could do before their injury? Does it give them their range of motion back?

Dr. Karas: Yes. The patient has pain and weakness when using the arm because the tendon is torn and the shoulder is not operating efficiently or effectively. That is why we repair it; we do it to eliminate painful movement and improve the strength in the shoulder. I do not think we can really underestimate the fact that rotator cuff repair, if done effectively and appropriately the first time — if you get a good heal — really does dramatically change the long-term outcome of the patient.

Source - http://www.ivanhoe.com

Representatives from more than 200 companies and groups throughout Arkansas and the nation gathered Tuesday to Invest in Fitness at the kickoff of the 2009 Blue You Fitness Challenge held at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.

Governor Mike Beebe declared Tuesday Fitness Challenge day in Arkansas in recognition of the sixth annual competition to promote wellness in the community and at the worksite.

Invest in Fitness was the theme of the kickoff as companies and groups made their deposits toward fitness in increments of 30, 60 or 92 virtual checkpoints across America.

“Thousands of Americans are making a move toward a better health by participating in the challenge this year,” said Richard Cooper, Vice President of Human Resources for Blue Cross, Blue Shield and team champion for the Challenge.

The exercise competition has grown from two entities in 2004 to a possible 107,000 or more employees/individuals competing in 2009. The Blue You Fitness Challenge begins March 1 and runs through May 31 and is hosted by Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the Arkansas Department of Health and the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

The Challenge encourages employees to work toward the public health recommendation of 30 minutes of physical activity each day for adults, most days of the week. Exercise requires only a small investment of time and movement, and promises a great rate of return on your health. Thousands of Americans are making a move toward better health by participating in the Challenge this year, saidCooper.

During the contest, participants engage in eligible cardiovascular-oriented exercises to work their way through at least 30 virtual checkpoints across America during the three-month contest, although 92 checkpoints (the number of total days of the contest) are on the virtual map.

Participants start in Little Rock where the Fitness Challenge all began then exercise through all state capitals, many national parks and some interesting places in between, to finish in Hot Springs National Park, the oldest national park in the system.

Blue You Fitness Challenge participants register and log their exercise online (click here). Participants are able to watch real-time data to see how their stats compare to others in the competition. The winning entity is determined by the greatest employee/group participation and the highest scores in four categories.

For the fifth year, the Arkansas Department of Human Services is excited to be a part of this program, which continues to grow each year. As our more than 7,500 employees take care of our citizens across the state, we want them to remember to take care of themselves too, said John Selig, director of the Arkansas Department of Human Services. Regular exercise is a good way to reduce stress, combat the sedentary nature that often comes with office jobs and improve cardio-vascular health. We are happy that this home-grown program has put Arkansas in the national spotlight for worksite wellness.

We believe programs like the Blue You Fitness Challenge are a fun, motivational way to help people begin to change their lifestyles and, ultimately, improve not only their individual health and fitness but also improve the overall health of Arkansans, said Paul Halverson, Dr. PH, director of the Arkansas Department of Health. Current research tells us that getting more physical activity means lower health-care costs for individuals and families. The United Health Foundation does their state health rankings each year to determine which states are the healthiest in the nation Arkansas came up five levels in 2008, from 48th to 43rd.

The Employee Fitness Contest Kit, a free guide to organizing an employee exercise competition, is available in notebook and/or CD format by calling toll free, 1-800-686-2609, or by stopping by the nearest Arkansas Blue Cross regional office. The kit also may be downloaded by clicking here. Read more at arkansasmatters.com.

American Council on Exercise (ACE) announced its research results for the top fitness trends for 2009 on Dec. 9. 

While many of them are variations on old ideas, some of them are a reflection of society’s need for variety in fitness.

I bring to you the top fitness trends and a little explanation of each.  The overall theme for all of these activities seems to be getting the most out of your exercise time and/or getting the most out of your money.

 • Boot Camp-Style Workouts: This kind of workout remains popular because of its multi-functional design.  You not only get cardiovascular benefits, but you get the added component of strength training all while having fun doing a variety of exercises.  Your typical boot-camp class can burn up to 600 calories and sometimes more depending on the intensity level and design of the format.  Additionally, this kind of workout can be modified for a variety of fitness levels, so it appeals to a wide audience.

• Budget-Friendly Workouts: According to ACE-certified professionals surveyed, 48 percent said that gym memberships will decrease in 2009 and 52 percent said less people will hire personal trainers. What does this mean for gyms like ours?  It means more people will look to the “included” benefits of gym membership, such as group exercise classes and circuit training equipment, so if you are looking into a gym, make sure you find a variety of strength training and cardio equipment that will allow for a diverse and multi-level workout.

• Specialty Classes: Yoga and Pilates classes will always be popular, but lately the advent of classes that merge fitness with dance have tapped into a population that doesn’t want to look at fitness as work, but as something fun.  These dance fusion classes are for everyone and are sneaky because you get the calorie burn without even knowing it!

• Getting Back to Basics: Much of the ACE survey focused on the ability of trainers to return to the simple design of a training regimen that allows people to get the most out of their “hour” using tried and true methods for strength training and cardiovascular exercise.

• Kettle bells: This nifty workout tool originally regained popularity with the release of the movie “300,” but since then people have continued to incorporate the kettle bell into “functional fitness” routines that allow a person to merge strength training with high intensity cardiovascular movements.  Done safely, this kind of workout can produce muscle mass and improved overall fitness.

While these are just a few of the popular trends for 2009, I think they represent what is the overall theme, which is simply variety.  In today’s fast-paced world it is necessary to find what kind of workout works best for you and then look for ways to add to or vary that workout routine to alleviate boredom.  Mixing things up for any level exerciser is the key to staying on the road to success and finding permanent lifestyle change. 

For more information on 2009 trends, visit www.acefitness.org or visit www.mackzfitness.org for additional fitness information.

Victoria MacKenzie, the group fitness coordinator for Ramona Fitness Center, has been a fitness instructor and personal trainer for 10 years.

Source - www.ramonasentinel.com

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Dancing, archery, and penny scales at Arnold Active Aging Festival

You can brush up your dancing, learn from a 70-year-old how to hit the archer’s bulls eye, and weigh yourself on an Early American biofeedback device–a penny scales, all at the Arnold Active Aging Festival March 6.

These activities, and a dozen more listed below, all are geared to help you increase your ability to achieve your life goals and do more of the things YOU want to do.

The newest addition to this year’s Active Aging Festival is “Brush Up Your Dancing,” led by Ron Clark, of Dance Plus Ballroom in Grandview.  A “smorgasbord of other dance studios” will run throughout the day, with well-known instructors presenting beginner / refresher lessons and social dancing.

A Friday Night Dance Party will cap off the evening, from 7-10pm, also in the Regency Ballroom.
“Why dance? To truly enjoy special occasions, for your wedding, for better health (exercise), or just for fun!” said Ron Clark.  “Learning to dance is a great balance to relieve everyday stress.”  Clark and his instructors have helped thousands of Central Ohio adults and youth learn and enjoy social and ballroom dancing at Dance Plus Ballroom, and in dozens of rec centers, middle schools and high schools.

The overall focus of the 3rd Arnold Active Aging Festival is to help adults feel better, move better, and be better, said Jim Lorimer, co-producer of the Arnold Sports Festival.  “This is a great opportunity to improve #1—you!”

The event runs 9am-4pm, Friday, March 6, 2009 in the Hyatt Regency Ballroom at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

“Each activity will follow a ‘tell-show-do’ approach, with a brief presentation, followed by a teacher demonstration, and audience participation led by professionals,”

Other expert presenters include Upper Arlington artist and collector Chris Steele, 70-year-old world archery champion Arlyne Rhode, and Richard Lewis, Sr., a 53-year veteran travel agent.

Steele will bring samples of “The American Weigh,” his collection of more than 200 penny scales, which captures a slice of Americana, a time when health-conscious Americans monitored their weight daily on penny scales, because the only other scales generally available were in doctors’ offices.

Three lucky attendees can win the opportunity to see a display of Steele’s “100 Best Scales” in their Columbus-area private location.  The Smithsonian, Toledo Art Museum, Cincinnati’s Taft Museum, and the Columbus Museum of Art have drawn on Steele’s collection for exhibitions.  One museum director said:  “…the penny scale is worth a pound of study…a symbol of the universal quest for a healthy, trim appearance…”

For Arlyne Rhode archery has been a lifetime pursuit and keeps her fit and focused. She won nine consecutive Minnesota National Field Archery Association competitions in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1978 she won the Women’s Professional Flight champion crown and became a record-holder as the Women’s Footbow Flight World Record with a distance shot of 1,113 yards, 2 feet, six inches – a record that still stands in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Rhode has continued to inspire athletes of every age with her record breaking performances. As the 2008 Arizona Senior Olympic Champion, Rhode stunned the world when she qualified for the 2009 National Senior Olympics.

Other expert presenters include Scott Sonnon, “Flow Coach” of the Internet; Deborah Redder, designer of the SilverSneakers™ program; David Zid, creator of Delay the Disease: Exercise and Parkinson’s Disease; and Frank Forencich, author of The Exuberant Animal and Play as if Your Life Depends on It.

Sonnon, has been a leader of the wellness revolution for more than 10 years.  Chiropractors and medical doctors have evaluated his Ageless Mobility™ program and say his approach helps fight osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and nerve impingement and tendonitis.

Redder is designer and choreographer of the SilverSneakers® Group Exercise Program, which offers an innovative blend of physical activity, healthy lifestyle and a socially-oriented group exercise program that allows older adults to take greater control of their health.  Members receive a free fitness center membership and access to conditioning classes and equipment.

Zid has been an accredited trainer in Columbus for 11 years, and currently leads three weekly exercise classes for 180 individuals with Parkinson’s.  He will tailor his presentation to persons with Parkinson’s and other diseases, and their caregivers, and will lead a demonstration with 60 of his regular students.

Forencich is creator of The Exuberant Animal:  the Power of Health, Play and Joyful Movement, and Play as if Your Life Depends on It:  Functional Exercise and Living for Homo Sapiens.   Exuberant Animal is a health philosophy that promotes health, vitality and physical happiness by combining the study of human performance with play-based movement training. Participants will learn how to transform their bodies through a multi- disciplinary approach that is invigorating, liberating and life-changing.

Ticket Discounts for Advance Sales:
Advance sale discount tickets are available for $7 instead of the regular $10 price. Groups also can enjoy curbside drop-off, and free parking and shuttle service for group drivers. Call (614) 443-3529 for further information. Admission to the Active Aging Festival, the Evening Dance Party, and 11 other same-day events is included in the same ticket.

Source - Arnold Sports Festival Newsletter

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Researchers in Aberdeen think playing Wii Fit may improve the elderly’s balance and lower risks of falling.

LONDON, England (CNN) — Playing the Nintendo Wii Fit could improve balance and help avoid falls in seniors, researchers taking part in a new study suggest.

The University of Aberdeen, Scotland and the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) have embarked on a four month study on people over 70 to observe any changes in balance after regular use of the Wii Fit.

The video game has different activities including yoga poses, push ups, strength, balance and aerobic exercises.

The Wii Fit includes a balance board that records movements and gives feedback on performance.

Dr Marie Fraser, a specialist registrar at Woodend Hospital in Scotland, UK, is carrying out the research.

She told CNN: “Falls are the most common cause of accidental injury in older people and the most common cause of accidental deaths in 75-year-olds and over.”

It is hoped that using the Wii Fit’s balance board can improve elderly people’s balance and confidence.

Dr Alison Stewart, who devised the study said she came up with the idea while working in the Osteoporosis department at the University of Aberdeen, after seeing a large number of fractures in old people who had fallen.

Stewart, a commercial research manager with the NHS, said she then decided to research how to improve older people’s balance.

She told CNN: “There exists a medical fitness device that improves balance, but it is expensive and I could not get the funding.

“That’s when I looked up the Wii and discovered it is very similar to the other equipment, but less expensive.

“What is great about the Wii is it also has an entertainment value. The fact that it is enjoyable also makes the compliance rate higher.”

The latest study comes as another pilot study at Southern Cross University, Australia looked at the benefits of using the Wii to help Parkinson’s sufferers.

A group of seven older people with and without the degenerative condition took part in the pilot project, and were put through an almost daily regime of playing the Nintendo Wii.

Associate Professor Rick van der Zwan who led the research said initial results were “positive.” They ultimately hope to determine the effectiveness of computer games in developing muscle strength and co-ordination and reducing the risk of falls for people with Parkinson’s.

“People generally start to develop the disease in their 50s or 60s. It leads to inertia and people become unstable on their feet,” said Van der Zwan in a media statement.

“What we are trying to do is reduce the risk of serious harm. These people are nine times more likely to fall over than someone without the disease and falls in this older age group can be very serious.”

Van der Zwan now wants to recruit 15 more research participants to broaden the study.

Since its launch in 2006 the Nintendo Wii has seen a huge rise in the number of elderly players. At one senior citizen home in north-east England, staff introduced the popular games console at Christmas in all five of its homes.

“Everyone loves it and we noticed it has improved the physical fitness of residents who play,” Rachel Todd of McArdle Care told CNN.

Todd believes the device’s entertainment value not only improves residents’ fitness levels, but also their mental fitness.

Among the Wii Fit fans at the home are 74-year-old Ian Fisher and 86-year-old Betty Dennis.

“I always loved sports, particularly football” Dennis told CNN. “But I had a stroke six months ago and am now in a wheelchair.”

“Since the Wii I really feel movement in my right arm has improved, which is all I need to play skittles.”

Her bowling partner Fisher told CNN he recently played the boxing game on Wii Fit with his four-year-old great-grandson.

“It really spans all ages, although my great-grandson knocked me out twice,” the former bricklayer said.

Source - CNN.com

Arginine is not new to HealthNews and has been reported on before, but a different light has now been shed on more specific health benefits. In a study that was released this week in the Journal of Nutrition, researchers at a school in Texas were able to produce positive effects using arginine on obese rats.

Arginine is one of our essential amino acids but only on a conditional basis—meaning that we need arginine at a certain age and under certain circumstances and then not anymore as we get older—because infants are unable to produce it on their own yet. As adults, most of our arginine can be attained from inside our bodies but babies need to receive it through their diet. Dairy products like soft cheeses, milk, and yogurt contain arginine, as well as most meats: beef, poultry, pork, seafood and wild game. Grains and vegetable substances like flour, granolas, oatmeal, nuts, some fruit juices, and seeds, among others also contain the amino acid.

Texas scientists at AgriLife Research Centre in College Station, Texas A&M University, and researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine teamed up to explore arginine supplementation in rats. The researchers found that by regulating the amino acid in the rats they were able to promote muscle gain.

In the lab, two groups of rats were fed either a low- or high-fat diet. Over 12 weeks of supplements containing arginine decreased the gain in body fat of both the low-and high-fat diets of the rats. The low-fat diet group decreased body fat gain by 65 percent and was followed closely behind by the high-fat group whose body fat gain was lowered by 63 percent over 3 months.

Researchers hope the results can be directly related to treating obesity in humans. The results could suggest that the supplementation may be able to boost what researchers call, “lean tissue growth.” One of the study’s authors, Dr. Guoyao Wu, says that they found arginine to also be helpful in stimulating a biochemical process called “muscle protein synthesis” that requires an excess of energy thereby forcing the energy acquired through the diet to be used towards adding lean tissue growth instead of fat.

Wu, an animal science researcher, continues to say that the follow-up research will be clinical studies using both adults and children, “Given the current epidemic of obesity in the U.S. and worldwide, our finding is very important….This finding could be directly translated into fighting human obesity.” Wu admitted that arginine supplements are not found in our food currently, but are a possibility for the future.

Wu and his team of researchers were funded by the American Heart Association and for all of the notes or to read the specifics, you can purchase the full text here from the Journal of Nutrition.

Hopefully these important findings can help reverse the growing epidemic of obesity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a 2007 report of the United States, showed that only one state (Colorado) showed a less than 20 percent obesity rate. Arginine in the past has showed a significant success rate in helping patients with conditions ranging from arthritis and liver disorders to fertility problems and cancer. Although arginine has already proven to be helpful in gaining muscle by being put in protein drinks for use in gyms and fitness centers as a bodybuilding technique, this study is the first to link it directly towards fighting obesity. Although we don’t know what the future will hold for the clinical trials of arginine, we can hope that our obesity as a nation can become controlled with or without supplementation.

Source - paktribune.com

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