Exercise can not only buy you a fit body but also a better memory. A new study has revealed that physically fit people tend to have a bigger hippocampus, which is responsible for the formation and storage of new memories as well as for spatial navigation.

Researchers from the University of Illinois and the University of Pittsburgh have found that fitness increases hippocampus size, which in turn improves spatial memory, making it easier to record information about one’s environment and its spatial orientation and consequently ensuring the convenience of navigation around a familiar city.

Previous studies have depicted that the volume of hippocampus can be increased by exercising its spatial skills and its memorizing abilities. Cabbies in London are known to have a larger hippocampus than other citizens, and experienced cabbies have it bigger than the new ones. Constantly making use of the memory-making skills of hippocampus can also help it grow; study of German medical students revealed that their hippocampus got larger, while studying for finals.

Studies in the past have shown that exercise increases hippocampus size and spatial memory in rodents, but scientists have demonstrated for the first time that exercise can affect hippocampus size and memory in humans.

In the new study, researchers measured the cardiorespiratory fitness of 165 adults (including 109 females) between 59 and 81 years of age. After measuring their hippocampus, the volunteers were given a test of spatial memory. Later, their aerobic fitness was measured by VO2 max.

The scientists found a “triple association” – physical fitness was associated with a larger hippocampus, which in turn was related with better spatial memory.

Hippocampus is a brain structure inside the medial temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex, which known to shrink with age, causing small but significant cognitive decline. However, the rate of its deterioration is different among individuals.

“The higher fit people have a bigger hippocampus, and the people that have more tissue in the hippocampus have a better spatial memory,” said University of Illinois professor Art Kramer, who led the study along with Pittsburgh psychology professor Kirk Erickson.

“Basically, if you stay fit, you retain key regions of your brain involved in learning and memory,” said Erickson.

SOURCE: THE MED GURU

You know you feel better after a good laugh and laughter has long been associated with happiness and emotional release, but studies now suggest that a good gut-busting can also be good for your health. In fact, there is growing evidence suggesting that laughter boasts a wide range of health and fitness benefits, including everything from stress relief to blood flow.

Seriously, no joke intended … studies have found that laughter therapy is a viable form of cardiovascular exercise, powerfully working the body’s heart and lungs in the same fashion that a rowing machine or exercise bike might work.

Take stress for example. We know untreated stress is a precursor and risk factor for many disease processes including high blood pressure, heart disease, and various cancers. However, laughter really can elevate your mood and diminish the potential ill effects of a stressful or depressing day and help alleviate anxiety too. What’s more, scientists say that the body can’t actually differentiate between real and fake laughter so if you’re feeling down, a fake chuckle could still trigger feelings of happiness and hormones in your brain and help reduce potential illness.

Laughter also burns calories. As well as relieving stress, laughter offers an even better punch, it burns excess calories. Early research suggests that a strenuous, one-minute laugh can burn as many calories as 10 minutes on a rowing machine or bike. And if you laugh a lot, remember 3,500 calories equals 1 pound of fat.

Laughing has also been shown to boost blood flow. Studies have found that laughing can raise the flow of blood in the body by as much as 22 percent, because the heart and lungs work harder to supply oxygen to key muscles. As well as boosting blood flow, relaxed arteries also help regulate blood pressure at normal levels.

Need more convincing? How about a healthy immune system? Laughing has been linked to strong immune system function as well. While it may be too soon to tell if we can stop taking our vitamins, help is at hand if you’re willing to lighten and not take everything quite so seriously. A quick dose of laughter can significantly boost the immune system of even the most resistant skeptics. Research has found that the body’s level of killer cells, essential in attacking viruses and cancers, increase significantly after a good giggle. In contrast, these killer cells are reduced during lengthy periods of stress. So if you want to stay healthy and free of disease, it might be time for you to laugh.

SOURCE: NEWS-PRESS.COM

The NeuroActive Bike is the world’s first exercise equipment that works out both the body and the brain. This fitness bike combines a solid cardio workout with a fun brain-training program designed to increase memory and cognitive function to offer your readers a better body and a sharper mind, all at the same time.

Users of the NeuroActive Bike may select from 22 brain-stimulating exercises that train different parts of the brain, including: memory of names and faces, 3D visuo-spatial skills, concentration, word naming and arithmetic. As they pedal, they manipulate a wireless mouse to interact with the computer and complete the NeuroActive Program, the only brain-fitness program that uses an advanced artificial intelligence and a series of word problems and visual exercises to train the entire brain and sharpen 16 cognitive functions – more than any other brain program on the market.

Unlike simple brain games, NeuroActive is developed by doctors and based on scientific research that proves that brain-training exercises increase cognitive function by 20%, improve processing speed and memory and sharpen the brain so that it performs as well as it did at its peak.

To keep both the mind and the body in top shape, Dr. Bergeron, the president of Brain Center America, recommends three to four 20-minute sessions per week on this unique fitness equipment, which he says is more entertaining and rewarding than the typical alternative for those using cardio equipment, watching TV or reading magazines.

SOURCE: EMAXHEALTH.COM

A bottle of wine (or two), an order of calamari, a nice filet, and of course, chocolate cake. Sounds like the perfect romantic, candlelit dinner, right? Not necessarily. These romantic dinners could be doing more harm to your body than good for your relationship.

Laura Delcore, Leawood senior, says some of her favorite evenings with her boyfriend, Patrick, are spent dining at The Eldridge. However, these dinners can make it a challenge for her to maintain a slim physique. When Delcore started dating Patrick a year ago, she wondered if her health habits would have to take a backseat to their relationship. Delcore is not alone in her struggle to balance healthy eating and exercise with her relationship.

According to The Obesity Society, young women in romantic relationships gained an average of 15 pounds over five years and men saw similar upward trends.

Your partner’s health habits can have a large influence on your diet and exercise routine, too. “Oftentimes our behavior is shaped by the people around us,” says Jenny Prohaska, M.A. in clinical psychology. “When one member of the relationship is more sedentary than the other, the lazy person influences the more active.”

Students in relationships may have a hard time finding activities to do together that are healthy. In the beginning of Andrew Wank’s relationship, the Leawood senior says he tried to impress his girlfriend, Kristen Conway, by taking her out to dinner and to movies. Both found it hard to continue their healthy diet and exercise habits with meals at restaurants and movie popcorn every weekend.

“I transferred from a school where my only focus was tennis. When I came here, I no longer played a sport and I spent more time with her so I got away from diets,” Wank says.

However, as a beauty pageant competitor, it was not a choice for Conway to let her diet and exercise go. Being in the pageants kept Conway motivated and showed how the trend of conforming to your partner’s habits can work both ways.

This fall, Conway suggested they make a commitment to having a healthier relationship. “We both had to be ready to do it for ourselves before we could do it for each other,” Conway says.

Since then, Conway and Wank spend time going on walks, playing tennis and cooking dinner for each other. It is a far cry from the fat-laden meals and hours spent in front of the TV that consumed their relationship before. Cori Colombe, holistic health counselor with Your Wellness Connection, says this is a perfect example of how to resolve a diet-related relationship issue.

Colombe says communication is the key. She says people have a hard time understanding when their partner says “ugh, I’m fat … ” Colombe says it is much more effective to say you want to be healthier or have more energy. From there you can find things you would enjoy together, such as yoga, golf, tennis and the gym.

Some suggestions for maintaining a healthy and fit romantic relationship include taking up a new sport together, parking farther from dinner or exploring new, healthy recipes at home. Colombe recommends going back to what made you happy as a child—being outside, playing sports, or playing a simple game of tag.

No one is saying you have to throw those romantic dinners out the window, just modify them. In the end you will be a happier and healthier couple.

SOURCE: KANSAN.COM

Brian Christie is wearing an Old Guys Rule surfing T-shirt, but the University of Victoria neuroscientist knows that one of the best ways to keep his brain young is to exercise.

It has only been a decade since scientists discovered that brain cells could be increased and made more active through exercise, not just lost through disease–and Christie was part of that groundbreaking research team at the Salk Institute in California. Granted, the studies were on mice.

He’s still looking at ways to help regenerate neurons in the adult brain and isn’t waiting for the research on humans.

“Exercise creates new cells and changes old cells for the better,” says Christie, who bikes or runs two kilometres to and from UVic each day.

“Even if you’re diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, if you exercise, the progression of your disease will slow considerably. As little as 20 minutes of brisk exercise three times a week–if you just do that, it re-ally produces a lot of benefits.”

Backing that is a 2008 study by Dr. Jeffrey Burns of the University of Kansas that found only one-fourth the brain shrinkage in fit people with Alzheimer’s disease compared to less-fit participants.

Abnormalities in new brain-cell growth and connections are linked to Alzheimer’s, major depression and schizophrenia. It’s especially important because brain volume and the production of new neurons decline with age.

SOURCE: CANADA.COM

Carnegie Mellon is encouraging the campus to “Take the Challenge! Restore Balance.”

In an effort to promote health and fitness awareness on campus, the objective of the 2009 Fitness Challenge is to exercise at least 20 minutes a day, three times a week, and to make two smart choices a week.

The program lasts for six weeks, and participants are encouraged with a daily e-mail from someone on the Carnegie Mellon Fitness Challenge team.

Jessica Daluz, a junior business major, said, “The Fitness Challenge is a good way to get people motivated to exercise. I think sometimes people get so caught up in studying and extracurricular activities that they forget to take care of themselves and their health.”

Participants are encouraged to make two smart choices a week, such as taking the stairs one day instead of the elevator, eating an extra piece of fruit or vegetables, or drinking water instead of soda.

Each smart choice or exercise earns Challenge participants a sticker for the smart choice, or a colored-in block for the exercise.

The blocks are located on a wall across from the UC Equipment Desk. Each participant’s name is in a column with various colored-in blocks.

The crayons and stickers are available at the UC Equipment Desk.

If participants are wary about beginning a workout regimen alone, there are a number of fitness classes available to join.

Printed on the back of the Fitness Challenge information cards is a weekly schedule of fitness classes that take place in the UC Gym every day.

In order to take a class, gym-goers must purchase a card from the UC Equipment Desk with a certain number of hole punches available. Each fitness class requires at least one hole punch per class. There are single class cards available, but all cards purchased at the Equipment Desk must be purchased with a check.

The Fitness Challenge program is not focused solely on helping people get back in shape, but on restoring order and balance to participants’ lives.

Several yoga classes are available throughout the week and the Challenge coordinators encourage yoga practices and meditating as smart choices.

Elisha Clayton, a first-year CIT major, feels inspired when she sees the Fitness Challenge board with everyone’s name on it. “I have been thinking about working out more often now that I know there’s a program to help people stay motivated.”

Most people have that same sentiment about the program.

Dominique Davis, sophomore creative writing major, has been faithful to the Challenge, “but I keep forgetting to put my little stickers up there. I definitely get my workouts in but I haven’t been keeping up with coloring in my blocks. Either way, the e-mails remind me to keep going, and that really helps.”

Along with the daily e-mails, Challenge coordinators also plan sessions with specialists to help people fit more ways to restore balance in their lives.

Two sessions were planned for Monday in Rangos 2 with Chris Rose and Tracy Linza.

Chris Rose is Carnegie Mellon’s head athletic trainer and on Monday will explain why and how to choose the best walking and running shoes for fitness activities.

It is important to have the proper foot equipment, as serious injuries can result from wearing the wrong shoes.

Linza is from the Heinz School and will lead participants through a meditation experience in their chairs.

The session is encouraged for a quick release of tension anywhere in the body. There is also a professional personal trainer in the UC weight room every Friday from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the month of February for participants who may have any questions about their workout regimen, or for those who need help modifying the intensity of their regimen safely.

The 2009 Fitness Challenge is slightly altered this year from last year’s program.

The introduction of smart choices takes the pressure off of having to work out as often, yet still makes an impact in a person’s weekly routine.

The goal is to live a healthier lifestyle, and for an added incentive, all participants who meet the six-week challenge will be awarded prizes and be included in a raffle on March 19 in the Danforth Lounge from noon to 1 p.m.

SOURCE: THE TARTAN

PORTAGE — Imagine it’s 6:15 p.m. on a Thursday and you’re on the way to belly-dancing class.

You enter the Portage Public Schools Administration Building, climb the stairs to the second floor, walk past the classrooms full of night-school students, hang up your coat and head to the dance studio to warm up.

You grab a bottle of water and line up with 15 women ranging in age from 16 to 60. They’re wearing stretch pants, T-shirts and pink, lime, silver and black sequined hip belts that shake like loose change.

The instructor frantically looks through her leopard-print tote bag for the first song. She inserts the CD into the boom box and the drums start, then the lutes, hammered dulcimers and vertical flutes. This is not Western music, you say to yourself. The old wooden floor begins to creak as you start to move to the beat.

“Are we ready to go?” calls out the instructor as she leads a warm-up dance.

It doesn’t matter if you’re overweight or if you have physical disabilities. Joette Sawall helps any willing woman, and the occasional man, shimmy and undulate to a new body image.

“It’s very empowering, and it creates a positive force for women,” says the 36-year-old Sawall, owner and operator of the West Michigan School of Middle Eastern Dance.
Where it started

Belly dancing, or raks sharki, as it’s known in Egypt, conjures up all sorts of images: scantily clad women, sequined midriff-baring costumes, dangling beaded belts and an exotic nightclub setting.

The truth is that the dance form has humble beginnings that date back thousands of years to Egypt and the Turkish countryside.

It became a hit in the United States when a young, fully clothed girl performed belly dance at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, Sawall says. Sal Bloom, the exhibit director, coined the name Little Egypt for the girl, who shimmied and undulated her way into the hearts of an uptight Victorian culture.

The 1950s and ’60s ushered in the dance technique as we know it today in the United States. Nightclubs featured the dance in a burlesque style. Dancers wore over-the-top costumes, including bright, coined sequined belts, as they quivered unabashedly and rotated their bellies in a suggestive manner.

Weight loss and aerobics

Health clubs, on the other hand, thrived on the weight-loss aspect of the moves, and some colleges began offering belly dancing as an aerobics credit.

“It works different muscles without the torture of regular aerobics,” says Deb Hansen, 56, of Portage. “It’s great for anyone who has curves.”

Johanna Hamilton, a 16-year-old high school student, agrees. Hamilton has taken dance classes since she was 9 years old. Her mother and sister took a class with Sawall and encouraged her to get involved.

“I like the mix of styles and the light structure,” she says. “Most other dance instructors have rigorous standards, and this is so much more fun.”

Kathryn Walter, 53, of Portage takes the beginning belly-dancing course with Sawall. She was exposed to belly dancing for the first time when a belly dancer paid a visit to the nursing home where he father lives, near Detroit.

“It’s nice for women who are curvier and any size or shape,” she says.

Three instruction levels

Sawall instructs belly dancing at three different levels. The first level is for those who want to learn the basic moves — undulations, shimmies, circles, hip drops — which feel a little awkward at first. After 12 weeks, most students know them well.

Upon the instructor’s approval, students can move up to the next level, which focuses on choreography for performances. This is when the fun shopping begins — the buying of headdresses, extravagant belts, veils and costumes.

The third level brings opportunities to perform at Greek Fest and other festivals or private shows.

“Women tell me they come to find their happy place. I have found mine,” says Sawall, who also teaches gender and media studies at Western Michigan University after obtaining a master’s degree in communication there last year. “I may not be wealthy, but I’m rich in many other ways.”

SOURCE: MLIVE.COM

The federal government released a new set of exercise guidelines a couple of weeks ago, and the basic recommendation was straightforward: Thirty minutes a day, five days a week, at a moderate effort, for basic health; double that and/or make it more intense for more significant health and fitness benefits.

But what if you’re over 65? Should you be doing the same things, or approach exercise a bit differently? What about kids — do their developing bodies need a different sort of workout? What if you’re pregnant? Or hobbled by arthritis? The new guidelines attempt to clarify a host of issues like these.

Exercise recommendations have been issued over the years by different federal agencies as well as by such organizations as the American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine. While the “2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans” from the Department of Health and Human Services are generally consistent with those recommendations, the attempt here was to provide the broadest possible review of the available science, and to create a document that would have the weight of federal policy.

According to William E. Kraus, a professor of medicine at Duke University’s medical school and a member of the advisory panel that assembled the guidelines, that policy dimension gives this document some extra significance: Its conclusions may figure into legislative and other debates about funding for school physical education programs, regulations for the operations of senior citizens programs and other public-policy questions.

“These guidelines provide muscle that was not available” in the discussion of where physical activity fits in an array of issues, Kraus said. “It becomes part of national policy. . . . By doing such a broad review of the science, we feel very confident that HHS is armed with the best data to come up with broad recommendations.”

It also takes a sometimes confusing subject and renders it in pretty simple terms.

The effect of a more intense workout, for example, was given a specific multiplier — namely, 2. So if you are willing to work out at a level where you are breathing so hard that conversation becomes difficult, you can cut the recommended times in half — to 15 minutes a day for general health, or 30 minutes a day for more substantial health and fitness improvements. (Don’t try to start out at this level, by the way; work up to it.)

The concept of “accumulation” was endorsed, at least as a way to get started. If you have been inactive or have trouble finding a free half-hour, you can still benefit from multiple10-minute chunks — a walk or calisthenics before work, a stroll at lunch and a final session at night, for example.

For the general adult population, there are more details and suggestions, and forms for tracking daily activity, at http://www.health.gov/PAguidelines/default.aspx.

The panel — helpfully, I think — also singled out specific populations for which exercise might seem less important or be more likely to go overlooked. The overriding point was that the general recommendation of five-day-a-week aerobic training and at least biweekly strength training holds for nearly everyone, including senior citizens, women through pregnancy and the postpartum period, and people with chronic problems such as osteoarthritis that might make them overly cautious.

But there are a few specific recommendations and caveats:

If people over 65 can’t meet the full recommendations, then even small efforts will, over time, improve strength, stamina and coordination. For those who have been inactive or feel at risk of falling, balance training three times a week is recommended, including exercises such as walking backward, heel-and-toe walking and disciplines like tai chi.

Pregnant women who have been exercising have no reason to stop, though those accustomed to particularly vigorous workouts may have to adjust intensity in consultation with their doctor. Those who have been inactive before becoming pregnant will benefit from moderate aerobic activity, with little or no risk. Some common-sense exceptions include potential-impact sports like horseback riding, skiing, soccer and basketball; also, after the first trimester pregnant women should avoid exercises that involve lying on the back.

People with disabilities from stroke, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy or other conditions “should engage in regular activity according to their abilities and should avoid inactivity.” Consult with a doctor or therapist about how to adapt exercises or activity to the particular condition.

For people with chronic illnesses — the report singles out osteoarthritis, Type 2 diabetes and cancer — regular physical activity can lessen the impact of the disease, improving longevity for some types of cancers, improving mobility and lessening pain for arthritis sufferers, and lowering the risk of heart and other problems associated with Type 2 diabetes.

Kids need to be moving at least an hour a day, in ways appropriate to their age. There needn’t be so much structure, but there does need to be variety, with activities that are aerobic, build muscle, and help develop balance and coordination. Twenty push-ups, in other words, may be less important than climbing a tree or wrestling a sibling; a jog around the neighborhood may be fine for the parents, but let the kids stick to hopscotch or soccer.

SOURCE: WASHINGTON POST

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A person’s fitness level in childhood seems to influence certain measures of their health as young adults, new study findings suggest.

The study followed Norwegian students and found that those who were more physically fit at age 13 were less likely to become obese or have elevated blood pressure in early adulthood.

By the age of 40, however, that effect had faded, the researchers report in the journal Pediatrics.

The findings, they say, indicate that childhood fitness may have an impact on later health, but adults still need to keep up their fitness levels as they age.

As people move into middle-age, other factors intervene to affect their health, so their fitness during their youth may become less and less important. “And this suggests that it’s important to keep up the good habits, like being active, also into middle-age,” lead researcher Dr. Elisabeth Kvaavik, of the University of Oslo in Norway, told Reuters Health.

She and her colleagues based their findings on 1,016 men and women who’d been followed since 1979, when they were 13 years old, on average. At that time, they’d been questioned about their exercise habits and had their fitness measured during testing on a stationary bike.

In general, the study found that the more fit participants were at age 13, the less likely they were to be obese or have elevated blood pressure in their 20s and early-30s.

There was no clear link between childhood exercise levels and adulthood health measures. However, Kvaavik said this is not surprising since the methods used to measure exercise levels — namely, questionnaires — are much less precise than the objective tests that measure a person’s actual cardiovascular fitness.

Fitness is not only a matter of exercise habits; genes play some role, for example. Nonetheless, since fitness is at least partly a reflection of physical activity, Kvaavik said, children who exercise regularly may help protect themselves from obesity and elevated blood pressure in early adulthood.

SOURCE: CANADA.COM

Does the thought of the ultimate fitness goal - a half marathon, full marathon or triathlon - seem more like a fantasy, or worse, a nightmare, for an average dreamer such as yourself?

Think again. Across the nation, people of every shape, size, age and fitness level are turning their fitness dreams into reality. With a little motivation and the right advice, so can you. You don’t need to be a fitness guru to get started.

“The bottom line is you get what you put into it,” said Craig Watterson, running coach for Team in Training (TNT), the fundraising arm of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. “And you can start from nowhere, but once you do a marathon or a half-marathon, your life changes drastically. What you used to hold as boundaries for yourself no longer exist, and that extends to every aspect of your life.”

When Watterson joined TNT for the second time in 2006, he’d taken up smoking again, hadn’t trained and, until his boss was diagnosed with cancer, lost the motivation that propelled him in previous years. Now he’s a running coach and an Ironman Triathlon alumnus.

Your motivation may be different, but with the right guidance, your goals are just as attainable.

“You don’t have to be young or skinny or fast to do a marathon,” said Darlene Miller, national program director at Jeff Galloway Training Programs. “Galloway’s approach is to bring the marathon to the everyman.”

So now that you know you can do it, how do you start shaping those fitness dreams into a healthy reality?

Miller explained the run-walk-run method Galloway designed and trademarked in 1978. “The idea most people have is that you have to run straight through or get to the place where you run the entire event,” she said. “If you take a walk break occasionally, you’re saving strength for the longer miles… and you can run farther than you thought you could. It allows you to gradually increase your mileage, find a pace and prevent injury.”

The Galloway Run-Walk-Run is the crux of Galloway’s national training program (jeffgalloway.com/training/), but the elements of a run-walk regime are tried and true practices used by trainers nationwide. The slow-and-steady approach is also a universal tenet to endurance training programs, especially for beginners.

Whether your finish line ends at the half-marathon mark, extends to the full 26.2-mile marathon, or includes the cycle, swim and varying durations of a triathlon, experts agree the key to making the mark is all in the training. The name of the game is injury prevention, making it to the finish line and, if you’re running for a cause, making a difference.

Jennifer Grandy, national director of TNT, echoed Watterson’s advice and mirrored tenets of Galloway’s program by offering the following tips:

Now that you’ve got the tips, what are you waiting for? It’s time to hit the pavement and then pave the way for your fitness dreams.