Tag Archives: Science Daily

The mystery of fat

Does obesity breed obesity? A 2007 study out of Harvard University found that hanging out with fat people increase your chances of being fat. Now, based on the result of that study comes a new study from the Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology predicting obesity rates in the U.S. will slowly climb for another 40 years, at which point 42 percent of the population will be obese. Not just overweight, but obese. That finding contradicts previous predictions that the obesity rate has topped at its current rate of 32 percent of the U.S. population. read more

Your next race: train hot, train consistently, take a calculator

News from the lab coat world that could aid your performance:

Hot workouts, cool results: You know this blazing hot, record-setting summer we just endured? The one when every workout seemed like it was taking place in an equatorial rain forest under a sunlamp? If you gutted out your summer workouts, you should be an animal in fall’s cooler weather. read more

Another reason to walk, another to downplay BMI

Another reason you should go for a walk today: Putting in six to nine miles a week may help you remember that you left your keys in the freezer. This from a University of Pittsburgh study published in the journal Neurology that followed 300 seniors whose average age was 78 at the beginning of the study in 1989. Over time — about 13 years — one-third had developed “mild cognitive impairment or dementia.” But testing showed that more active walkers in the group had more gray matter and thus better cognitive skills. Thus, they were able to remember that after getting home from the grocery their hands were full as they pushed their way through the front door, climbed the stairs, entered the kitchen, shimmied the freezer door open with an elbow and put the ice cream in the freezer — along with the keys they were still clasping in their right hand. read more