If your house is as clean as a whistle, you'll be fit as a fiddle

Daily Mail, By FIONA MACRAE, 2nd June 2010

Scientists think it may be that people who take pride in their homes also take pride in their health

We've all heard the saying 'tidy desk, tidy mind'. But now it seems that having a well-kept house might lead to a well-kept body.

Those who take pride in their homes are fitter than those who live surrounded by clutter, research suggests.

The study of almost 1,000 people also revealed that the state of a person's home is more closely linked to their fitness than it is to the area in which they live.

The finding surprised the U.S. researchers, who say that when trying to increase exercise levels, governments should focus on what happens indoors as well as out.

In other words, people might be more likely to pick up a duster than a tennis racquet.

Researcher NiCole Keith told the American College of Sports Medicine's annual meeting: 'If you spend your day dusting, cleaning, doing laundry, you're active.'

She added that some people 'won't take 30 minutes to go for a walk but they'll take 30 minutesto clean'.

Dr Keith, a sports scientist, is interested in finding ways to persuade us to exercise more to cut the risk of heart disease.

She studied the homes of 998 people in St Louis and noted the conditions both inside and out.

Factors taken into account included cleanliness, quality of furnishings, noise, pollution, street lighting and the condition of nearby buildings.

Levels of exercise were also noted.

Dr Keith, of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said: 'The interior condition of their house seemed to be the only thing affecting their physical activity. It is not at all what we expected.'

It is unclear why having a tidy house is so important. But it may be that those who take pride in their homes also take pride in their health.

Or that those who buzz around doing lots of housework also keep physically active in other ways.

But, said Dr Keith, it could be that there is something about living in a clean and ordered environment that drives people to take better care of themselves.

However, there are other benefits to living near parks and tree-lined streets.

Previous research has shown that planting gardens and parks in neighbourhoods reduces vandalism, graffiti, litter and yobbish behaviour.

Even in the roughest inner-city estates, those living near gardens, parks and green spaces tend to be better behaved, healthier and live longer than those in 'urban deserts', the University of Illinois study found.

Professor Francis Kuo, who did the research, said that being close to greenery was 'essential to our physical, psychological and social wellbeing.

'The relationship between crime and vegetation is very clear - the more trees, the fewer crimes.'

'Arthritis risk' for middle-aged exercise addicts

BBC News

Can exercise be too much of a good thing?

Middle-aged men and women may be risking arthritis if they overdo their exercise regime, research suggests.

A US study of more than 200 people aged 45 to 55 and of "normal" weight found those doing the most exercise were the most likely to suffer knee damage.

Running and jumping may also do more damage to cartilage and ligaments than swimming and cycling, researchers said.

One arthritis charity said it was important to keep fit and most people would not have any problems.

Osteoarthritis - the most common form of arthritis - is a degenerative joint disease that causes pain, swelling and stiffness and affects 8m people in the UK.

It is more common in women, and the risk increases with age and weight.

Presenting the findings at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, the researchers said their study included people who had not reported any previous knee pain.

Activity

Based on a questionnaire designed to work out how much exercise they do, participants were split into low-, middle- and high-activity groups.

A typical high-activity individual would do several hours of walking, sports or other types of exercise per week, as well as gardening and other household chores.

They then underwent MRI scans of the knee, looking for tears, lesions and other abnormalities in the cartilage and ligaments.

The damage seen was associated solely with activity levels and was not age or gender specific, the researchers said.

And it also seemed to be linked to the type of exercise a person did, although the researchers said this needed to be looked at in other studies.

Study leader Dr Christoph Stehling, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco said: "Our data suggest that people with higher physical activity levels may be at greater risk for developing knee abnormalities and, thus, at higher risk for developing osteoarthritis.

"This study and previous studies by our group suggest that high impact, weight-bearing physical activity, such as running and jumping, may be worse for cartilage health.

"Conversely, low-impact activities, such as swimming and cycling, may protect diseased cartilage and prevent healthy cartilage from developing disease."

A spokeswoman for the Arthritis Research Campaign said that the gains of exercise far outweighed any potential risks.

"We have known for years that certain high impact sports and jobs are associated with an increased risk of osteoarthritis, particularly of the knee, but for the vast majority of people exercise is good, not only for the cartilage but for total body health.

"Most people can exercise without any problems, but if you have had a joint injury or torn cartilage or ligaments you should be cautious about weight-bearing exercise, and swimming and cycling may provide a better option for you."

Juggling increases brain power

BBC News

Complex tasks such as juggling produce significant changes to the structure of the brain, according to scientists at Oxford University.

In the journal, Nature Neuroscience, the scientists say they saw a 5% increase in white matter - the cabling network of the brain.

The volunteers were taught to juggle with three balls

The people who took part in the study were trained for six weeks and had brain scans before and after.

Long term it could aid treatments for diseases like multiple sclerosis.

Diffusion MRI

The team from Oxford's Department of Clinical Neurology used a diffusion MRI which is able to measure the movement of water molecules in the tissues of the brain.

The signal changes according to how many bundles of nerve fibres there are and how tightly packed they are.

Changes in grey matter, where the processing and computation in the brain happens, have been shown before, but enhancements in the white matter have not previously been demonstrated.

Three ball cascade

The scientists studied a group of 24 healthy young adults, none of whom could juggle.

They divided them into two groups.

One of the groups was given weekly training sessions in juggling for six weeks and was asked to practice 30 minutes every day the other 12 continued as normal.

After training, the 12 jugglers could perform at least two continuous cycles of the classic three ball cascade.

Both groups were scanned using diffusion MRI before and after the training.

The red area shows the part of the white matter of the brain that is enlarged by learning to juggle. It is in the intraparietal sulcus at the back of the brain

At the six week point, a 5% increase in white matter was shown in a rear section of the brain called the intraparietal sulcus for the jugglers.

This area has been shown to contain nerves that react to us reaching and grasping for objects in our peripheral vision.

There was a great variation in the ability of the volunteers to juggle but all of them showed changes in white matter.

The Oxford team said this must be down to the time spent training and practising rather than the level of skill attained.

Dr Heidi Johansen-Berg, who led the team, said: "MRI is an indirect way to measure brain structure and so we cannot be sure exactly what is changing when these people learn.

"Future work should test whether these results reflect changes in the shape or number of nerve fibres, or growth of the insulating myelin sheath surrounding the fibres.

"Of course, this doesn't mean that everyone should go out and start juggling to improve their brains.

"We chose juggling purely as a complex new skill for people to learn."

Clinical Applications

Dr Johansen-Berg said there were clinical applications for this work but there were a long way off.

She said: "Knowing that pathways in the brain can be enhanced may be significant in the long run in coming up with new treatments for neurological diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, where these pathways become degraded."

Professor Cathy Price, of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, said: "It's extremely exciting to see evidence that training changes human white matter connections.

"This compliments other work showing grey matter changes with training and motivates further work to understand the cellular mechanisms underlying these effects."

Related Article:

Children can 'imagine away' pain

Jobless yogis follow their bliss to teacher training

By Dorene Internicola, Reuters, Mon Mar 16, 2009 7:00am EDT 

A yoga instructor trains a member of her class in Santa Monica, California, March 13, 2009. REUTERS/Yogaworks/Handout

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - As unemployment soars, some corporate types are swapping their designer suits for drawstring pants and their six-figure salaries for the more spiritual rewards of teaching yoga.

 

Newly minted yoga teacher Veronica Wolkow says leaving her lucrative position in financial services to teach yoga was a journey from "stressed out" to "compassionate" and the best thing she ever did.

 

"I would not return to the stock market for all the money in the world," said Wolkow, who specializes in teaching yoga to children, seniors and people with disabilities.

 

"I got rid of all the suits in my closet. No longer do I have dry cleaning bills. I no longer read the Wall Street Journal or even care about how stocks are doing," she said in an interview from Los Angeles.

 

Although she must rely on savings and temporary jobs to make ends meet, she has no regrets.

 

"Yoga does not provide me with an income stream at this time," she said. "My bank account is smaller, yes. But my world is bigger."

 

California-based Jessica Hinkle, who manages the teacher training program at Yoga Works, a national chain of yoga studios, said many people train with an eye toward changing careers.

 

"Others recently laid off are seeing this as a unique opportunity to do something they never had time for before," she explained.

 

PRECARIOUS INCOME

 

With U.S. unemployment topping eight percent in February, many people are trying to reinvent themselves. But although an estimated 6 million people are practicing yoga regularly, income earned from teaching the 5000-year-old practice can be as precarious as a wobbly triangle pose.

 

Caleb Asch had been teaching yoga for 14 years when he lost his day job as an assistant film editor in October. But teaching his six classes a week are not enough to make ends meet.

 

"Income from yoga isn't nearly enough to survive on," he said from his base in Santa Monica, California. "Ironically it's enough to keep me from collecting unemployment."

 

Although he enjoys teaching, he would return to his old job if he could because "the stress of not having enough to live on is a killer," he said.

 

For James Sklar, of Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, turning to teaching yoga after giving up his organic restaurant was the best decision he could have made.

 

"The restaurant was stressful, the money wasn't there, I was always playing catch-up," said Sklar, adding that his portfolio supplements his yoga income.

 

"I'm doing yoga for the love of it," he said "I forgot to pick up my first paycheck because I forgot it was a job."

 

When Jethro Liou worked for a private equity firm he earned "mid-six figures." Today he's pulling in the "high 20's." He also loves the work, but supplements it with consulting jobs.

 

Hard times have also thinned his southern California clientele.

 

"You can definitely see the change since everyone's discretionary income has dropped. The number of students coming to class is less."

 

On top of that, he sees a glut of yoga teachers.

 

"In high population coastal cities there are just as many yoga teachers as there are waiters," he said. "I didn't realize that almost everyone in L.A. is a yoga teacher."

 

'Sexercise' yourself into shape

BBC News

The NHS has some new advice for people struggling to schedule a fitness routine into their daily lives - a workout between the sheets.

According to the NHS Direct website, "sexercise" can lower the risk of heart attacks and helps people live longer.

Endorphins released during orgasm stimulate immune system cells, which also helps target illnesses like cancer, as well as wrinkles, it states.

Sexual health experts said such claims could not be scientifically proven.

"It's good to see the NHS are promoting sexual wellbeing," Dr Melissa Sayer told the Guardian newspaper.

"Yes, there is evidence that sex has benefits for mental wellbeing, but to say there is a link with reduced risk of heart disease and cancer is taking the argument too far."

NHS Direct, however, told the paper the content was "backed by science and clinical evidence" and "isn't just a bit of fun".

'Regular romps'

The advice, published under the headline "Get more than zeds in bed", is one of several sexual health-related articles to be found on the NHS Direct website.

Sex with a little energy and imagination provides a workout worthy of an athlete, the article says.

"Forget about jogging round the block or struggling with sit-ups.

"Sex uses every muscle group, gets the heart and lungs working hard, and burns about 300 calories an hour."

The advice suggests "regular romps this winter" could lead to a better body and a younger look.

Increased production of endorphins "will make your hair shine and your skin smooth," it adds.

"If you're worried about wrinkles - orgasms even help prevent frown lines from deepening."

The article goes on to say that orgasms release "painkillers" into the bloodstream, which helping keep mild illnesses like colds and aches and pains at bay.

The production of extra oestrogen and testosterone hormones "will keep your bones and muscles healthy, leaving you feeling fabulous inside and out".

Develop culture of maintaining health, Yudhoyono says

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Coinciding with the 79th Youth Pledge Day, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on the people, especially the youth, to develop the culture of maintaining health and the habit of doing physical exercises in order to be able to win the global competition.

The president in the company of First Lady Ani Yudhoyono made the call at a function launching the Movement of Indonesian Healthy Youth here Sunday.

"The youth and teenagers should keep doing physical exercises, maintaining health, being creative, maintaining harmony among them, avoiding narcotics and violent acts as well as averting free intercourse to safe the future, make them leading young generation and develop the nation, the president said.

The president said the government would continue to carry out programs to make the Indonesian people remain healthy by providing funds needed for the purpose.

On the commemoration of the Youth Pledge Day, the head of state called on the younger generation to maintain the spirit of the Youth Pledge in order that they and the Indonesian people in general would be leading in the globalization era towards the prosperous future.

Meanwhile, Youth and Sports Minister Adhyaksa Dault said the launching of the movement was a strategic momentum to improve the condition of the Indonesian young people.

He said the effort to invite young people to have the pattern of living healthily still faced some problems including the fact that many plots of land which should be made as public facilities and sports activities were converted into shopping centres among other things.

The minister expresed hope the Indonesian young people should have physical strength and good performance so that they would be able to win the global competition towards better future.

The function was also attended by Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari and Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo.

My insides are taped to stop urine leaks'

By Jane Elliott, Health reporter, BBC News

When Paula Webley crossed the winning line first at her child's sports day her elation soon turned to embarrassment.

She found that the exertion of the sprint had caused her to wet herself and the front of her jeans was soaking wet.

For six years, ever since the birth of her second child, she suffered from incontinence.

Paula, who runs a dog grooming business, found that lifting the heavier animals would cause her to leak, as would any running or gym activity.

'Exercise routine'

Even sneezing or coughing could cause problems.

So Paula, 38 and from Wiltshire, started to wear dark clothes to avoid the staining being too visible and cut down on her exercise routine.

I can do everything I used to - running, lifting heavy dogs and high impact exercise

Paula Webley

"When I did high impact exercise it was really obvious to other people what was happening.

"You feel like you have a balloon inside you which you know is going to burst and leak.

"I was very open about my problem with people, but it was still very embarrassing.

"Once I went out for a out night to the pub and, as I was late, I had to run a little. My jeans became soaking wet. If I hadn't had a long top on, I would have had to go home."

Read whole article ....

Obesity a result of modern life

Wed Oct 17, 2007 6:38am EDT

By Jennifer Hill

LONDON (Reuters) - Obesity does not result simply from over-eating and a lack of exercise, but is a consequence of modern life, a British government think-tank said on Wednesday.

Weight gain does not result from people's actions -- such as over-indulgence or laziness -- alone, and is a far more passive phenomenon than is often assumed, according to Foresight.

It found that the technological revolution of the 20th century has led to weight gain becoming unavoidable for the majority of the population, because our bodies and biological make-up are out of step with our surroundings.

"Stocking up on food was key to survival in prehistoric times, but now with energy dense, cheap foods, labor-saving devices, motorized transport and sedentary work, obesity is rapidly becoming a consequence of modern life," said Sir David King, the British government's chief scientific adviser and head of the Foresight program.

The British Department of Health-sponsored project is the result of a two-year-long study into the causes of obesity involving almost 250 experts and scientists.

They predicted that the so-called obesity "epidemic" would take at least 30 years to reverse

Read whole article ....

Steroids: Not Just for Athletes

Time, Friday, Oct. 12, 2007 By MICHAEL D. LEMONICK

Anyone who follows the news probably has a picture of the typical steroid user: an elite athlete — a home-run hitter, say — trying to get an edge on the competition, or a high-school or college kid who wants desperately to get into the pros.

But while those cases make headlines, the stereotype turns out to be largely off base, according to a new study published online in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. In a web-based survey of nearly 2,000 self-prescribed steroid users (the stuff has legitimate medical uses as well, such as correcting hormone imbalances), it turns out that the typical user isn't a competitive athlete at all. He (and it's pretty much always "he") is a highly educated professional, about 30 years old, who doesn't participate in organized sports at all — and never has. He uses steroids to build muscle, increase strength and look good. And he does it, not as an easy, stand-alone shortcut to body modification, but as a supplement to a carefully planned regimen of diet and exercise. In short, says one internist: "They're gym rats."

A majority of steroid users say they'd be willing to consult with doctors about their steroid use — in principle. In practice most didn't actually reveal their habit to their physicians. The reason: they don't believe doctors know a lot about the drugs, and they suspect that physicians, like the general public, have an exaggerated idea about how dangerous steroids really are.

The users themselves tend to be aware of side effects like liver damage, high blood pressure and behavioral changes. That's why most users inject the steroids instead of taking them by mouth, in order to better control blood levels and lessen the risk of liver toxicity. A majority of habitual users also get blood work at least once a year, probably to make sure the drugs aren't throwing hormone levels too far out of balance.

The authors make it clear that they don't approve of the non-medical use of steroids — but do believe that reducing the potential harm they can cause is never going to be possible if nobody understand who the users really are.

Kids rarely apply nutrition lessons

Belief, behavior diverge, studies find

By Martha Mendoza, The Associated Press

Dailynews.com, 07/04/2007 09:34:50 PM PDT

PANORAMA CITY - The federal government will spend more than $1 billion this year on some healthy snacks and nutrition education - videos of dancing fruit and hundreds of hours of lively lessons about how great you will feel if you eat well.

But an Associated Press review of scientific studies examining 57 such programs found mostly failure. Just four showed any real success against the growing epidemic of childhood obesity.

"Any person looking at the published literature about these programs would have to conclude that they are generally not working," said Dr. Tom Baranowski, a pediatrics professor and nutrition researcher at Houston's Baylor College of Medicine.

The results have been disappointing, to say the least:

Last year a major federal pilot program offering free fruits and vegetables to fifth-graders showed the children became less willing to eat them than they had been at the start. Apparently they didn't like the taste.

In Pennsylvania, researchers went so far as to give prizes to schoolchildren who ate fruits and vegetables. That worked while the prizes were offered, but when the researchers came back seven months later, the kids had reverted to their original snacks:

In studies of schoolchildren who say they are eating better or exercising more, researchers usually find no change in blood pressure, body size or cholesterol measures. The children want to eat better, and might even think they're doing so, but they're not.

Knowing is not doing

The studies don't tell Leticia Jenkins, a teacher at Vista Middle School in Panorama City, anything she doesn't know. She's one of the bravest teachers in America - not because she gave 30 sharp knives to her students in seventh and eighth grades to chop tomatoes, onions, jalape os and limes for a lesson on salsa and nutrition, but because she understands the futility of what she is trying to do.

"Oh, it's so hard, because at the end of the day sometimes I take a moment. I think, gosh, I did all this, and we still see them across the street picking up the doughnuts and the coffee drinks," she said.

Since the 1970s, obesity rates have nearly quintupled nationally among children ages 6 to 11 and tripled among teens and children ages 2 to 5, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

The medical consequences of obesity in the U.S. - diabetes, high blood pressure and even orthopedic problems - cost an estimated $100 billion a year. Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., a Kentucky cardiologist nominated as the next surgeon general, says fighting childhood obesity is his top priority.

Tough fight

The challenges to changing the way children eat are as numerous as the factors that have produced the obesity epidemic in the first place.

The forces that make kids fat "are really strong and hard to fight with just a program in school," said Dr. Philip Zeitler, a pediatric endocrinologist and researcher who sees a steady stream of obese children struggling with diabetes and other potentially fatal medical problems at The Children's Hospital in Denver.

What does he tell them?

"Oh, God, I haven't figured out anything that I know is going to work," he said. "I'm not aware of any medical model that is very successful in helping these kids. Sure, we try to help them, but I can't take credit for the ones who do manage to change."

Biology a factor

The obstacles are daunting:

PARENTS. Researchers agree that, although most funding targets schools, parents have the greatest influence, even a biological influence, over what their children eat. Zeitler says when children slim down, it's because "their families get religion about this and figure out what needs to happen."

But often, they don't.

"If the mother is eating Cheetos and white bread, the fetus will be born with those taste buds. If the mother is eating carrots and oatmeal, the child will be born with those taste buds," said Dr. Robert Trevino of the Social and Health Research Center in San Antonio.

By the time they reach age 10, most kids have learned what tastes good to them and what tastes nasty.

"If we don't reach (them) before they get to puberty, it's going to be very tough, very difficult, to change their eating behavior," said Trevino.

POVERTY. Poorer kids are especially at risk, because unhealthy food is cheaper and more easily available than healthy food. Parents are often working, leaving children unsupervised to get their own snacks. Low-income neighborhoods have fewer good supermarkets with fresh produce.

"If Mom can't find tomatoes in her local grocery store, nothing is going to change," said Zeitler.

Meanwhile, it's harder for children to exercise on their own. Parks often aren't safe, and sports teams cost money.

"Calorie burning has become the province of the wealthy," said Zeitler. "I fear that what we're going to see is a divergence of healthy people and unhealthy people. Basically, like everything else, it costs money to be healthy."

ADVERTISING. Children ages 8 to 12 see an average of 21 television ads each day for candy, snacks, cereal and fast food - more than 7,600 a year, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study. Not one of the 8,854 ads reviewed promoted fruits or vegetables.

There was one ad for healthy foods for every 50 ads for other foods.

Taste irresistible

Children may be the best sources to explain why they eat junk food despite lessons about nutrition.

"I think it's because they like it so much, because like, I don't know if you've seen the new hot Cheetos that are like puffs. Oh my God, they're so good. Like everyone at the school has them, and they're so good," said Ani Avanessian, 14, of Panorama City.

Her classmate George Rico, a 13-year-old whose mother is a manager at a McDonald's, said he loves his nutrition class. But does it affect what he puts in his mouth?

"Well, no, but it makes me think about what I eat," he said. "I think kids don't change because they've been eating it for so long, they're just accustomed to eating that way.

"Their teacher, Jenkins, offers fact-filled and engaging nutrition lessons as part of a $7 million U.S. Department of Agriculture program that reaches about 388,000 students a year in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The most recent evaluation of the eight-year-old program was disheartening: Kids participating in the program ate no more fruits and vegetables than nonparticipating kids ate. Teachers who spent more hours on nutrition education had no greater impact than other teachers. And parental behavior didn't change.

"It's true: It didn't change what they actually eat. But the program really made a difference in how kids were feeling about fruits and vegetables. They really had a more positive attitude toward fruits and vegetables," said Dr. Mike Prelip of the University of California, Los Angeles, who headed the evaluation.

Kate Houston, USDA deputy undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, oversees most federal funds - $696 million this year - spent on childhood nutrition education. Funding has steadily increased in recent years, up from $535 million in 2003.

Exercise needed

When asked about the many studies that don't show improvement in kids' eating habits, Houston asked for copies of the research. And she said the USDA doesn't have resources for "long-term, controlled, medical-modeled studies" to determine the impact of its programs.

Dr. Tom Robinson, director of the Center for Healthy Weight at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University, said studies aren't needed; research has already shown nutrition education alone doesn't work.

"I think the money could be better spent on programs that are more behaviorally oriented, " he said.

There may be pieces of solutions found in limited studies being tested around the country. In some situations, obese children can lose weight and get healthy through rigorous hospital and clinic-based interventions including regular check-ins, family involvement and scheduled exercise, as well as nutrition education.

Increased physical activity at school is more likely to have an impact than nutrition education.

This spring the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced plans to spend $500 million over the next five years to reverse the trend of childhood obesity. It will fund an array of programs and encourage more exercise at school.

One thing it won't fund: school projects that only provide nutrition education.

Thin people may be fat on the inside, doctors warn; exercise is key

CBC.ca

Maria Cheng, Thursday, May 10, 2007 | 4:49 PM ET

LONDON (AP) - If it really is what's on the inside that counts, then a lot of thin people might be in trouble.

Some doctors now think that the internal fat surrounding vital organs like the heart, liver or pancreas - invisible to the naked eye - could be as dangerous as the more obvious external fat that bulges underneath the skin.


This undated MRI scan image provides a detailed look at where fat is stored internally in the human body. The image is of an average-sized man who is 1.9 meters tall, weighs 79 kilograms and has a normal index of 21.7. Internal fat is shown as yellow, external fat is green and muscles are red. Some doctors now think that the internal fat surrounding vital organs like the heart, liver or pancreas - invisible to the naked eye - could be as dangerous as the more obvious external fat that bulges underneath the skin. (AP Photo, Imperial College, London, HO)


"Being thin doesn't automatically mean you're not fat," said Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London. Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create "fat maps" showing where people store fat.

According to the data, people who maintain their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if they are otherwise slim. "The whole concept of being fat needs to be redefined," said Bell, whose research is funded by Britain's Medical Research Council.

Without a clear warning signal - like a rounder middle - doctors worry that thin people may be lulled into falsely assuming that because they're not overweight, they're healthy.

"Just because someone is lean doesn't make them immune to diabetes or other risk factors for heart disease," said Dr. Louis Teichholz, chief of cardiology at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, who was not involved in Bell's research.

Even people with normal Body Mass Index scores - a standard obesity measure that divides your weight by the square of your height - can have surprising levels of fat deposits inside.

Of the women scanned by Bell and his colleagues, as many as 45 per cent of those with normal BMI scores (20 to 25) actually had excessive levels of internal fat. Among men, the percentage was nearly 60 per cent.

Relating the news to what Bell calls "TOFIs" - people who are "thin outside, fat inside" - is rarely uneventful. "The thinner people are, the bigger the surprise," he said, adding the researchers even found TOFIs among people who are professional models.

According to Bell, people who are fat on the inside are essentially on the threshold of being obese. They eat too many fatty, sugary foods - and exercise too little to work it off - but they are not eating enough to actually be fat. Scientists believe we naturally accumulate fat around the belly first, but at some point, the body may start storing it elsewhere.

Still, most experts believe that being of normal weight is an indicator of good health, and that BMI is a reliable measurement.

"BMI won't give you the exact indication of where fat is, but it's a useful clinical tool," said Dr. Toni Steer, a nutritionist at Britain's Medical Research Council.

Doctors are unsure about the exact dangers of internal fat, but some suspect it contributes to the risk of heart disease and diabetes. They theorize that internal fat disrupts the body's communication systems. The fat enveloping internal organs might be sending the body mistaken chemical signals to store fat inside organs like the liver or pancreas. This could ultimately lead to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, or heart disease.

Experts have long known that fat, active people can be healthier than their skinny, inactive counterparts. "Normal-weight persons who are sedentary and unfit are at much higher risk for mortality than obese persons who are active and fit," said Dr. Steven Blair, an obesity expert at the University of South Carolina.

For example, despite their ripples of fat, super-sized Sumo wrestlers probably have a better metabolic profile than some of their slim, sedentary spectators, Bell said. That's because the wrestlers' fat is primarily stored under the skin, not streaking throughout their vital organs and muscles.

The good news is that internal fat can be easily burned off through exercise or even by improving your diet. "Even if you don't see it on your bathroom scale, caloric restriction and physical exercise have an aggressive effect on visceral fat," said Dr. Bob Ross, an obesity expert at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.

Because many factors contribute to heart disease, Teichholz says it's difficult to determine the precise danger of internal fat - though it certainly doesn't help.

"Obesity is a risk factor, but it's lower down on the totem pole of risk factors," he said, explaining that whether or not people smoke, their family histories and blood pressure and cholesterol rates are more important determinants than both external and internal fat.

When it comes to being fit, experts say there is no short-cut. "If you just want to look thin, then maybe dieting is enough," Bell said. "But if you want to actually be healthy, then exercise has to be an important component of your lifestyle."

Late-starters can benefit from healthy habits: study

Reuters, By Ishani GanguliFri Jun 29, 9:04 AM ET

Even in middle age, adopting a healthy lifestyle can lower the risk for heart disease and premature death within years of changing habits, researchers reported on Thursday.

Middle-aged adults who began eating five or more fruits and vegetables every day, exercising for at least 2 1/2 hours a week, keeping weight down and not smoking decreased their risk of heart disease by 35 percent and risk of death by 40 percent in the four years after they started.

"The adopters of a healthy lifestyle basically caught up. Within four years, their mortality rate and rate of heart attacks matched the people who had been doing these behaviors all along," said Dr. Dana King at the Medical University of South Carolina, who led the research.

That is not to say people should wait until their 40s or 50s to get on track, he added.

"But even if you have not had a healthy lifestyle previously, it's not too late to adopt those healthy lifestyle habits and gain almost immediate benefits."

King and his team set out to find if late-starters could reap the rewards of habits like eating vegetables and walking 30 minutes a day.

When they began tracking nearly 16,000 Americans between the ages of 45 and 64 in the late 1980s, only 8.5 percent were following all four of the habits they were studying, they reported in the American Journal of Medicine.

Out of the other adults, 8.4 percent started practicing all four habits by six years after the study began.

Those 970 lifestyle converts were most likely to pick up the fruit and vegetable habit at that late stage. Losing weight to fall within the healthy to overweight range -- which the researchers counted as one of the healthy habits -- was the least popular change.

LIVING LONGER

When they had picked up all four habits, they enjoyed a sharp decline in heart disease risk and in death from any cause.

It took all four -- having just three of the healthy habits yielded no heart benefits and a more modest decrease in overall risk of death.

Still, said Dr. Nichola Davis at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, "these benefits are on a continuum. The more of the healthy habits that you can adapt, the better. ...These are modest changes that they're talking about."

King's team took age, gender, race, and other risk categories for cardiovascular disease into account, although King said the converts likely took up other healthy life changes -- such as cutting down on salt or upping their calcium intake -- that might have contributed to their health benefits.

He and Davis, who was not involved in the study, said they were troubled so few Americans were doing them.

In particular, men, blacks, people with less education and lower incomes, and people with high blood pressure or diabetes were less likely to follow the health guidelines from the beginning or adopt them later in life.

Exercise Grows New Brain Cells

Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience.com Staff Writer

Yahoo.com, Thu Jun 28, 12:35 PM ET

Exercise stimulates the growth of new brain cells, a new study on rats finds. The new cells could be the key to why working out relieves depression.

Previous research showed physical exercise can have antidepressant effects, but until now scientists didn’t fully understand how it worked.

Astrid Bjornebekk of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and her colleagues studied rats that had been genetically tweaked to show depressive behaviors, plus a second group of control rats. For 30 days, some of the rats had free access to running wheels and others did not.

Then, to figure out if running turned the down-and-out rats into happy campers, the scientists used a standard “swim test.” They measured the amount of time the rats spent immobile in the water and the time they spent swimming around in active mode. When depressed, rats spend most of the time not moving.

“In the depressed rats, running had an antidepressant-like effect after running for 30 days,” Bjornebekk told LiveScience. The once-slothful rodents spent much more time in active swimming compared with the non-running depressed rats.

The researchers also examined the hippocampus region of the brain, involved in learning and memory. Neurons there increased dramatically in the depressed rats after wheel-running.

Past studies have found that the human brain’s hippocampus shrinks in depressed individuals, a phenomenon thought to cause some of the mental problems often linked with depression.

“The hippocampus formation is one of the regions they have actually seen structural changes in depressed patients,” Bjornebekk said.

Running had a similar effect as common antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) on lifting depression.

The research is published in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology.

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* Original Story: Exercise Grows New Brain Cells