5 Reasons to Take a Multivitamin

Fitness and Health: 5 reasons to take a multivitamin | baxterbulletin.com | The Baxter Bulletin

• Curb cravings. A multi may make you less hungry when you're dieting, reveals a new Canadian study. Researchers think that it short-circuits the body's natural response to calorie cutting, which is to boost appetite to counter vitamin deficiencies.

• Keep energy up. A good vitamin prevents low iron, which makes you drag during workouts and may also cause hair loss, according to a French study.

• Safeguard your heart. The ingredients in a multi have been linked to a lower heart disease risk. But it's an aid to — not a substitute for — fruits and veggies, which may deliver other disease-fighting compounds.

• Stave off breast cancer.Taking a multi may cancel out the breast cancer risk incurred by drinking alcohol. In a recent study from Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, women who had a daily cocktail and took a multi had a lower risk than those who didn't pop the pill. The supplement may correct alcohol-triggered deficits of B vitamins that encourage tumor development.

• Get pregnant. Multi users have a 41 percent lower risk of ovulatory infertility, finds a Harvard School of Public Health study. Folic acid and other B vitamins appear to help promote healthy ovulation.

Prevent Breast Cancer with Fitness

9NEWS.com | Colorado's Online News Leader | Fit women less likely to die of cancer

KUSA - Many people exercise to stay healthy or get healthy. Now there is new evidence that exercise will give you an edge if you're diagnosed with breast cancer.
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A new study from the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health looks at the benefits of aerobic exercise when it comes to surviving cancer.

This study involved 14,000 women between the ages 20 through 83. They were given preventative medical exams and treadmill tests at the Cooper Clinic in Houston from 1970-2001. At the time of the exams, the women had no history of breast cancer.

The researchers classified the women's fitness into three categories: low, moderate or high.

Women in the lowest fitness category were nearly three times more likely to die from breast cancer than women in the fit group.

To reach the moderate fitness category, women need to exercise about 150 minutes per week. High fitness translates to 300 minutes per week.

Researchers noted that with more than 40,000 women dying each year from breast cancer, this strong connection to fitness proves that regular physical activity, such as walking is a simple and inexpensive lifestyle change.

This study of aerobic exercise is reported in the April issue of the scientific journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

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American Kids are Unfit

Many U.S. middle school kids physically unfit: study | Science & Health | Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - U.S. kids are not only too heavy; they're also out of shape, according to a new study of 5th and 7th grade students in Georgia.

Half didn't reach minimum standards for healthy aerobic fitness, Dr. Kenneth E. Powell, a physician in private practice, and his colleagues found, while neaTechnorati Tags: kids, unfit, aerobic fitness, overweightrly a quarter didn't make the grade in terms of muscle fitness, endurance or flexibility.

Powell and his team determined body mass index (BMI) and tested fitness and physical activity levels of 5,248 students from 93 schools across Georgia.

They found that 30 percent of the students were overweight -- their BMI was outside the healthy range -- and 22 percent didn't get the recommended 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity.

Active Livestyle and Weight Loss

The Wenatchee World Online - Fitness Corner: Taking a vacation? Lose a little something

The cliche is that women lose weight before their weddings. But I’m thinking I might slim down on my honeymoon instead.

Nope, I’m not dragging my new husband on a romantic gym getaway. We’ve settled on Argentina and an itinerary that calls for tangoing in San Telmo, wandering through Recoleta, whitewater rafting in Mendoza and tooling around wine country on bike. That plus a little smooching — which requires about 70 calories an hour — and I can probably get away with gelato every day.

Sounds like a NEAT plan to physician James Levine, author of the new book "Move a Little, Lose a Lot" and director of the NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) Center at the Mayo Clinic. The idea is that while one grueling treadmill session might burn 500 calories, you can easily burn twice that in a day by living actively: by, say, visiting your colleagues’ offices instead of sending instant messages, strolling to a place for lunch 15 minutes away rather than brown-bagging it at your desk or choosing to self-propel for part of your next vacation rather than taking in the scene from a bus tour.

"A big part of life we’ve lost is being an adventurer, getting out of our chairs," Levine says. "It doesn’t have to be climbing K2 on the south face."

Levine had been studying obesity when, on a business trip a decade ago, he was struck with his new weight-loss theory during a conversation in a Mexican bar with — who else? — the bartender. The gentleman was about Levine’s age but looked "much more splendid," Levine says, and the secret to his youthfulness was simple: He walked his kids back and forth to school, played soccer in the neighborhood and worked on his feet.

Technorati Tags: active lifestyle, weight loss, healthy living, active vacation,

Good time to loose that excess winter weight

HRMC encourages people to Lose Weight-Feel Great | CITIZEN-TIMES.com | Asheville Citizen-Times

Clyde - Haywood Regional Medical Center is sponsoring a Lose Weight-Feel Great program, a 14-week program that will offer encouragement, health-related services and support to help people succeed with their long-term weight loss goals.
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The program is free for HRMC employees and the public. Contestants will compete for weekly prizes and a grand prize at the end of the program for the man and woman with the greatest percentage of weight loss.

"At Haywood Regional, we care about our employees and about the people in our community. We have services available to help people meet their weight loss goals and we realize that some people also need a little extra incentive to keep them on the right track for achieving those goals," said Mike Poore, CEO for Haywood Regional Medical Center.

Every participant of the Lose Weight-Feel Great program will be allowed to lose weight however he or she chooses. Haywood Regional will offer guidance for programs, nutritional advice and information about related services offered by the hospital during the initial weigh-in.

"What we think this program can achieve that other weight-loss programs often can't will be the ancillary services the hospital offers. For example, a person diagnosed with osteoporosis may need a special exercise regiment; or someone with diabetes will need to follow a special diet," said Scotty Setser, director of the Haywood Regional Health & Fitness Center.

"Most of the time, everyone makes fitness a New Years resolution, and by March they start dropping off," Setser said. "We wanted to help people continue their process of being healthy throughout the year."

Weekly male and female winners will be featured in The Mountaineer and Smoky Mountain News newspapers. All contestants will be posted on Haywood Regional Medical Center's Web page, along with the percentage of weight lost each week. Everyone who completes the Lose Weight-Feel Great will be listed in both newspapers at the end of the 14-week program.

Weigh-in and photographs will be done at the Haywood Regional Health & Fitness Center from 4 to 7 p.m. on March 24. The program will begin on April 7. Participants will be weighed weekly between the hours of 4 to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays at Haywood Regional Health & Fitness Center. Participants must be present on March 24 to enroll in the program. Participants must be 18 years old to participate.

Lose Weight-Feel Great is coinciding with Healthy Haywood's Fitness Challenge. Organizers of both events say the two programs will complement, not compete with each other.

"We hope that even after the Fitness Challenge, people will continue with Lose Weight-Feel Great," Setser said.

Firefighters and EMTs Need to Be More Fit

Boston researchers stress fitness for firefighter and EMT recruits - The Boston Globe

Boston researchers are sounding the alarm about the physical fitness of candidates for firefighting and emergency medical technician jobs in Massachusetts.

Roughly 77 percent of recruits were overweight or obese as measured by standard body-mass index, the researchers found, according to a study published online yesterday in the journal Obesity.

All of the normal-weight recruits passed minimum exercise tests recommended by the National Fire Protection Association, a nonprofit that sets standards for the industry. But 7 percent of the overweight and 42 percent of the obese recruits failed to meet the minimum standard, said the researchers from Boston University School of Medicine, Harvard University, and the Cambridge Health Alliance.

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