Education & Health

                     

                  Exercise may cut risk of death among elderly men

 Elderly men who exercise regularly – even by doing light activities like walking – may be less likely to die than those who are sedentary, a large Norwegian study suggests.

Researchers followed about 5,700 men for about five decades, starting in the 1970s when they were 45 years old on average, to see how their exercise habits influenced longevity.

Men who got about 30 minutes of exercise six days a week appeared to reduce their risk of death by 40 percent.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence showing that exercise can help people live longer, Dr. I-Min Lee, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard University, said by email.

“We have clear data showing that the more energy is expended, the greater the reduction in mortality rates,” said Lee, who wasn’t involved in the study.”

Exercise has many benefits, including weight reduction and improved cardiovascular health. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality worldwide, accounting for at least 17 million deaths annually, while obesity kills at least 2.8 million people a year, according to estimates from the World Health Organization.

To follow the impact of exercise on longevity, the current study, co-authored by Ingar Holme, a sports medicine researcher at the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences in Oslo, looked at data collected in 1972 and 1973 for a group of about 16,000 men who were born between 1923 to 1932.
In 2000, men who participated in the first screening were invited to participate in a second round of evaluations. Then, researchers monitored the group through 2011 to see how many of them died of heart-related issues or from other causes.

Researchers surveyed men about their activity levels, ranging from sedentary if they spent most of their leisure time reading or watching television to vigorous if they participated in competitive sports several times a week. Walking or bicycling counted as light activity, while regular exercise for four hours each week was considered moderate activity in the study.

Less than one hour a week of light activity wasn’t enough to reduce the odds of death, the study found.
But men who exercised intensely for less than an hour a week did see a benefit; they reduced their risk of death by 26 percent.
When men who were inactive in the 1970s later increased their activity, their risk of death was 44 percent lower than their peers who remained consistently inactive.
Only the healthiest men originally recruited to the study in the 1970s were still alive to participate in the follow-up decades later, the researchers acknowledge in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The study also relied on men to truthfully report their exercise habits, which generally leads people to overestimate their activity levels.

Elderly men who want to start exercising or step up their game might want to focus more on hours than intensity, said Peter Kokkinos, a cardiologist at Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C.

“The emphasis should be placed on relatively longer exercise duration and moderate intensity, like a brisk walk, especially for older individuals,” Kokkinos, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “This approach carries a lower risk of injury.”

SOURCE: http://bmj.co/1Ft9Q1U British Journal of Sports Medicine, online May 22, 2015.

                                     
                     Kidney Disease and Diet

 If  your kidneys are not working as they should, your doctor will likely prescribe a diet with specific daily amounts of protein, sodium and potassium. Keeping these nutrients in check can help prevent kidney disease from getting worse.

If you have kidney disease, you need a registered dietitian nutritionist on your health care team. An RDN will teach you how to eat well and manage this new and very important part of your health plan.

You will need a meal plan that meets your individual needs. A registered dietitian nutritionist will help you accomplish this by taking your food preferences, lifestyle and special needs into account.

Protein

Protein helps build, repair and maintain every cell in your body and can be used to supply energy if needed. When your kidneys are not working well, they can't handle as much protein. It is very important you eat enough carbohydrates and fats to supply your body with all the energy you need. The limited protein you eat will then be used to build and repair your cells. Your new diet will need to include the right balance of protein, carbohydrates and fat. Main sources of protein include meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, beans and nuts. Breads, cereals, seeds and vegetables contain protein, too.

Sodium

Sodium can raise your blood pressure and cause you to retain fluids. For people with kidney disease, extra sodium and fluid can build up in your body, which can affect your heart and lungs. Your new diet may include a daily sodium limit. Your RDN will outline how best to stay within this limit. Sodium is found in salt and most processed foods. Make sure to check labels for salt content. Also check labels of salt substitutes before using them; many contain potassium which may need to be limited.

Potassium

Like sodium, potassium must stay balanced in your body. If your kidneys are not working well, potassium levels in your blood can rise. High potassium levels affect your heart rhythm, so your new diet may include a potassium limit. Your RDN will explain how to stay within your limit. Potassium is found in many fruits and vegetables, beans, nuts and dairy foods. (See High-and Low-Potassium Foods)

An RDN can also help you with other aspects of your diet to make sure you get the nutrition you need. These include:

• Total Calories. Calorie intake is important in keeping your weight in a healthy range.
• Phosphorus. Poor kidney function can cause phosphorus levels to rise in your blood. For that reason, a lower phosphorus diet may be needed.
• Calcium. A high phosphorus level in your body decreases the availability of calcium for your bones. Your diet will need to offer the right balance between phosphorus and calcium.
• Vitamins and Minerals (particularly B-complex, vitamin C, vitamin D, iron and zinc). Limiting certain food groups to ease the workload on your kidneys could leave you lacking certain vitamins and minerals.

 

HOW SEASONS AFFECT OUR GENES

A-choo! While they may be prevalent all year round, people tend to get struck down with coughs and sniffly colds more frequently during the colder and wetter times of the year. But this apparent increase in illness doesn't end with tissues and bottles of cough mixture; more severe conditions like heart disease and autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis also seem to spike when the nights draw in. Researchers might have finally figured out what's going on.

It would seem that the seasons have an acute effect on how our genes function. After looking at the expression of over 22,000 human genes, scientists from Cambridge University discovered to their surprise that around a quarter showed clear signs of seasonal variation. What’s more, those involved in regulating the immune system were more active during the winter months.

“This is a really surprising – and serendipitous – discovery,” says Professor John Todd, co-author of the study and director of the JDRF/Wellcome Trust Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory. “In some ways, it’s obvious – it helps explain why so many diseases, from heart disease to mental illness, are much worse in the winter months – but no one had appreciated the extent to which this actually occurred.”

Expression of genes vary from season to season. Image credit: Castro Dopico et al.

The team analyzed blood from more than 16,000 people living in both hemispheres. What they found was that the genes involved with regulating immunity, specifically those to do with inflammation, were far more active during the cold winter months. Whilst this might help the body to fight off minor infections like colds, the researches say that it could bring about more serious conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and heart attacks due to this surge of inflammation.

Even more fascinating was that the seasonal gene activity of those living in The Gambia didn’t match the summer/winter pattern of activity observed in countries further from the equator. Instead, the gene activity was higher in the rainy season. The researchers speculate that this could be due to the fact that certain infectious diseases such as malaria are more prevalent during this time of year. In Iceland, there was little seasonal change in activity, presumably because they have 24 hours of daylight followed by 24 hours of darkness.

“We know that humans adapt to changing environments,” says Dr. Chris Wallace, another of the authors. “Our paper suggests that human immune systems adapt to show different seasonal variation in equatorial regions with fewer distinct seasons compared to regions at higher and lower latitudes with more pronounced differences between winter and season.”  

What the researchers were not able to determine, however, was whether the gene activity increased due to an rise in infection during the winter months, or if there is some other natural cue that the body uses to start its yearly cycle. It’s already been established that changes in the environment – such as hours of daylight – can influence our internal body clock, and thus gene activity, so perhaps this might also come into play here.

Amazingly the research, published in Nature Communications, could have an impact on when we vaccinate. They found that a set of genes linked to people's response to vaccination were also more active during winter, suggesting that vaccines might be more successful if given during this period when the immune system was already ‘primed.’

So it would seem that seeking out a bit of winter sun to make yourself feel better might not be a bad idea after all. 

  
Reference: ifl science

       SCIENTISTS STRONGLY RECOMMEND TO SLEEP NAKED

Experts say once you ditch pyjamas you could improve your sleep quality, boost relationship with your partner and even burn calories. Unbelievable!
Naked sleep – good night’s sleep
Sleep experts agree it’s important to keep cool at night as your body temperature needs to drop by about half a degree for you to fall asleep. If anything (like lots of bedclothes) prevents that decline in temperature, the brain will wake itself up to see what’s going on. The advantage of sleeping naked is it’s easier for the body to cool and maintain the lower temperature the brain wants to achieve.

Sleep naked – low blod pressure
Cosy pyjamas are tempting, but if you share a bed with a partner, going nude will generate a generous boost of oxytocin, a hormone that’s been shown to have a wealth of health benefits. It is triggered by closeness, particularly skin-to-skin contact. Oxytocin has a protective effect on the heart, as it lowers blood pressure. It also boosts the immune system and reduces anxiety.
Take off your clothes – ward off infections
Wearing nothing to bed can help women avoid developing yeast infections, such as thrush. Thrush loves warm, restricted environments, so wear something loose or preferably nothing at all. If you wear something tight it means less air gets to your genitals and you’re more likely to sweat, which can cause irritation.
Don’t cool yourself too much
Though it’s important not to get too hot at night, make sure you have warm hands and feet.If your hands and feet are cold, the blood vessels next to the skin constrict and reduce blood flow in an effort to keep warm and stop heat escaping. This in turn means your body temperature won’t be able to drop so easily.
Sleeping naked encourages your sex life
People who sleep naked have happier love lives, according to a survey of 1,000 British adults by a bedsheet company this year. The study found 57 per cent of nude sleepers were happy with their relationship, compared with 48 per cent of pyjama wearers and 43 per cent of nightie wearers (onesie wearers were just 38 per cent).
Nudity at night is the best way to burn calories
Experts believe that certain activities could switch on this fat, potentially helping to burn calories at a greater rate. American researchers found that sleeping in a cold bedroom could activate brown fat that produces 300 times more heat than any other body organ. The study also showed that over time sleeping in a cold bedroom could lessen the risk of diabetes. But room temperature shouldn’t be below a level at which you feel comfortable, otherwise you won’t sleep.
Have a good and healthy sleep!
 Reference:Naij

 NASA TECHNOLOGY SAVED FOUR LIVES IN NEPAL EARTHQUAKE BY DETECTING THEIR HEARTBEATS

NASA’s new radar technology was able to detect the heartbeats of men trapped under 10 feet of rubble due to the devastating 7.8-magnitude Nepalese earthquake. NASA deployed two prototypes of the new search-and-rescue technology, called FINDER (Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response), which uses microwave-radar to pinpoint faint heartbeats, allowing emergency teams to respond accordingly.