Life style & Fitness

•Losing and regaining weight repeatedly, known as weight cycling or yo-yo dieting, may increase the risk of death from heart disease among postmenopausal women.
•The increased risk was for women who were of normal weight at the start of the study but not for overweight or obese women who reported weight cycling.
•Weight cycling put women at higher risk of sudden cardiac death and coronary heart disease death.

Your diet, medications and beauty products leave molecular traces on the objects you touch, providing an unbiased, data-driven profiling method for crime scene investigations and other potential applications

It is a well-known fact that fitness and well-being go hand in hand. But being in good shape also protects against the health problems that arise when we feel particularly stressed at work. As reported by sports scientists from the University of Basel and colleagues from Sweden, it therefore pays to stay physically active, especially during periods of high stress.

Pilates is definitely not just a young person’s activity if the latest University of Tasmania study is any indication.

Endurance training changes the activity of thousands of genes and give rise to a multitude of altered DNA-copies, RNA, researchers from Karolinska Institutet report. The study, which also nuances the concept of muscle memory, is published in the journal PLOS Genetics.

Research at Umeå University provides new insights into when during the menstrual cycle it is advantageous to periodise your strength training. The results show that training that is concentrated to the first two week of the cycle have more of an effect on muscular strength, power and muscle mass. The study is a part of a dissertation that also shows that periodic training could be implemented without any female specific exercise-related complications and was perceived positively by participants.

Women are being encouraged to ensure their body mass index (BMI) is within a healthy range before pregnancy to ensure the best outcomes for their babies.

The increased risk of death associated with sitting for eight hours a day could be offset by one hour of physical activity a day.

A public health program that was modelled on University of Queensland research and designed to help people maintain the switch to a healthy lifestyle has been extended.

Study Highlights:

Being more physically fit in your mid- to late-40s was associated with lower stroke risks after age 65, independent of traditional stroke risk factors such as high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and atrial fibrillation.
Researchers suggest that physicians consider low fitness level a stroke risk factor.
The study underscores how important it is to be physically fit throughout lifetime, not just when you’re younger.

Engaging in short, explosive leg contractions is the most effective way of strengthening muscles, Loughborough research reveals.

Researchers from Massey University and the University of Sydney are working together to develop a tool to assess the quality of dietary intake in high-performing athletes.

Contaminants in vegetable oils and fats (and foods containing them such as cookies, pastries and others) pose a potential health concern to average consumers for young age groups (infants, toddlers and children under 10 years old).

When receptionist Nicola Thorp was told by her employer that she had to wear high heels to work, she pointed out that her male colleagues were not required to do so. When she refused to conform to the company’s dress code policy, she was sent home from her job without pay. The media got hold of the story, public outcry ensued and the firm at the centre of it has now changed its policy.

Boston, MA – Women who attended religious services more than once per week were more than 30% less likely to die during a 16-year-follow-up than women who never attended, according to a study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Frequent attendees also had significantly lower risk both from cardiovascular- and cancer-related mortality.

By Duke Medicine News and Communications

Migrants pay more for their home region’s cuisine, even when on the edge of malnutrition.

Women with poor physical fitness display significantly higher platelet activation than women with average to very good fitness.