Tobacco use, obesity and high blood pressure have dropped life expectancy in Appalachia, the Deep South and northern Texas, said Christopher Murray, the institute director and a report author. He called for more investment in public-health programs and increased emphasis on primary care so doctors can catch and control high blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
Virginia Men Have 15 Years on Mississippi’s – Bloomberg
Women in large swaths of the U.S. are dying younger than they were a generation ago, reversing nearly a century of progress in public health and underscoring the rising toll of smoking and record obesity.
Nationwide, life expectancy for American men and women has risen over the last two decades, and some U.S. communities still boast life expectancies as long as any in the world, according to newly released data. But over the last decade, the nation has experienced a widening gap between the most and least healthy places to live. In some parts of the United States, men and women are dying younger on average than their counterparts in nations such as Syria, Panama and Vietnam.
Fat Thanks to Sunita K. for the tip!
U.S. life expectancy: Women’s longevity slips in some regions – latimes.com
This week, researchers at Umea University in Sweden released a startling finding: Couples in which one partner commutes for longer than 45 minutes are 40 percent likelier to divorce. The Swedes could not say why. Perhaps long-distance commuters tend to be poorer or less educated, both conditions that make divorce more common. Perhaps long transit times exacerbate corrosive marital inequalities, with one partner overburdened by child care and the other overburdened by work. But perhaps the Swedes are just telling us something we all already know, which is that commuting is bad for you. Awful, in fact.
Thanks to Anne Y. for the tip!
Very obese older men hoping to live longer may be let down by a new long-term study that found weight-loss surgery didnt increase survival for people like them–at least during the first seven years.
Prior studies have found stomach stapling and other obesity surgeries improved survival rates after two to 10 years. The new study in mostly older male veterans suggests one of two things: Not everyone gains equally from surgery, or a survival benefit may show up later in older men, after more years of follow-up.
Obesity surgery fails to extend life in older men
The Hula-Hoop, which became popular in the 1950s, is re-emerging as a hot trend in weight loss, a study says.
“Hooping” expends the same amount of energy as walking 4 to 4.5 mph — enough to help a person firm up and slim down, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. “It’s becoming a popular form of choreographed group exercise,” said John Porcari, of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, the study’s author.
The study examined 16 women, ages 16 to 59, who regularly attended choreographed hooping classes. The researchers measured their oxygen consumption, heart rate and physical exertion as they completed a 30-minute video-led hooping class.
The average heart rate was 151 beats per minute, and the average caloric expenditure was 210 calories. The exercise was enough to help people control their body weight, the study said.
Fat Thanks to Sunita K. for the tip!
Hula-Hoop re-emerging as a new weight-loss tool – Chicago Sun-Times
A new Bronx co-op apartment building is designed to help combat obesity.
The building, called the Melody, has a backyard with brightly colored exercise equipment for adults, and climbing equipment for children. It also has both indoor and outdoor fitness centers.
City officials say it’s the first in New York to be built with design elements aimed at countering obesity.
Two flights of stairs feature silhouettes of dancing women and jazz playing through speakers and motivational signs posted throughout the building tout the benefits of exercise.
A sign posted between the elevator and stairs, for example, notes that stairs are a healthy choice.
The 63-unit building houses 63 units and is for families with incomes of $90,000 or less. Fourteen of the units will be owned by Habitat for Humanity’s New York City chapter families who helped build the project.
Hold this thought: To lose weight effectively and permanently, you need to eat. And eat smart. Happily, nature designed a lot of delicious edibles to turn up your fat-burning furnace, flatten your belly, and take a big bite out of your appetite. Here are 11 of the get-slim food gems we’re talking about.
11 Foods for Faster, Easier Weight Loss on Shine
With the memory of Memorial Day cheeseburgers and bratwursts still lingering, many of us may be relieved to hear that a new study suggests that a meaty, high-fat, Atkins-style diet can do more than contribute to rapid weight loss. It may also be less unhealthy for the heart than many scientists had feared — provided you chase the sausage with a brisk walk.
“It took people less time to lose 10 pounds” on a high-fat diet-and-exercise program, about 45 days on average, than the 70 days it took for those who exercised and followed a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet constructed using guidelines from the American Heart Association, said Kerry J. Stewart, director of clinical and research exercise physiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and lead author of the report. And at least in the short term, there were no apparent harmful effects. The findings are being presented on Friday at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in Denver.
Fat Thanks to Sunita K. for the tip!
Phys Ed: Eating Fat, Staying Lean – NYTimes.com
House Republicans are pushing back against Obama administration efforts to promote healthier lunches, saying the Agriculture Department should rewrite rules it issued in January meant to make school meals healthier. They say the new rules are too costly.
The bill, approved by the House Appropriations Committee late Tuesday, also questions a government proposal to curb marketing of unhealthy foods to children and urges the Food and Drug Administration to limit rules requiring calorie counts be posted on menus.
The overall spending bill would cut billions from USDA and FDA budgets, including for domestic feeding programs and international food aid. The panel also cut some farm subsidies to cut spending.
Republicans are concerned about the cost of many of the Obama administration proposals, which they regard as overregulation, said Chris Crawford, a spokesman for the chairman of the Appropriations Committee’s agriculture subcommittee, Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga.
Crawford said the marketing guidelines, released last month, are “classic nanny-state overreach.” Though the guidelines, which would restrict which foods could be marketed to children, are voluntary, many companies are concerned that they will be penalized if they don’t follow them. The bill questions whether the Agriculture Department should spend money to be part of the marketing effort.
“Our concern is those voluntary guidelines are back-door regulation,” he said, deploring the fact that kids can watch shows that depict sex and drugs on MTV, but “you cannot see an advertisement for Tony the Tiger during the commercial break.”
GOP questions federal rules on healthier eating
