Exercise for 30 minutes a day for real health benefits

Washington (IANS)L: For real health benefits, people should exercise for 30 minutes a day five times a week, a new study has found.

Although pedometers (which measure how much we walk) are widely used as a physical activity monitoring tool, they are unable to measure activity intensity. Researchers have determined that a rate of at least 100 steps per minute achieves moderate intensity activity.

Therefore a simple pedometer-based recommendation of 3,000 steps in 30 minutes can get people started on a meaningful exercise programme.

While being monitored for oxygen uptake during walking on a treadmill, 58 women and 39 men completed four to six-minute sessions at different treadmill speeds between 65 and 110 metres per minute.

All wore pedometers and their heart rates were recorded. Using 3 METs, or metabolic equivalents, as the minimum level of oxygen demand which approximates moderate exercise, participants were monitored to determine whether they had reached the moderate-exercise level at a given treadmill speed.

From these data, the researchers found that for men, step counts associated with walking at three METs were between 92 and 102 steps per minute. For women, the range was between 91 and 115 steps per minute.

Lead investigator Simon J. Marshall, School of Exercise and Nutritional Sciences, San Diego State University (SDSU), said: "We believe that these data support a general recommendation of walking at more than 100 steps per minute on level terrain to meet the minimum of the moderate-intensity guideline."

Because health benefits can be achieved with bouts of exercise lasting at least 10 minutes, a useful starting point is to try and accumulate 1,000 steps in 10 minutes, before building up to 3,000 steps in 30 minutes, said a SDSU release.

Individuals can monitor their progress using a simple pedometer and a wristwatch.

The study is scheduled for publication in the May issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

KICK NICOTINE , & WEIGHT

Nutritionist Neesha Bukht tells how to keep the kilos off when you quit smoking

  Vanity, in more cases than addiction, stops people from kicking the butt. Many people are afraid that they will put on weight if they stop smoking. But this need not be your excuse to stay addicted, says nutritionist Neesha Bukht. You can keep your figure and health if only you plan your Quit Smoking operation wisely.
    There are several reasons why smoking keeps your weight down: 1) It raises metabolism rate slightly and heavy smokers burn up to 200 calories a day. 2) Nicotine kills hunger as smokers replace snacks with cigs. When you are trying to quit, you turn to snacking not only for emotional support, it also eases the oral fixation. 3) Some studies have shown that nicotine could interfere with the release of insulin. The hormone controls glucose levels in the blood. When nicotine is withdrawn, a person will become slightly hyperglycaemic, and the body and brain may slow down the hormones and other signals that trigger feelings of hunger.
    On an average, most people gain three to five kilos after quitting. This can be avoided by a few simple lifestyle changes.
PICK THE RIGHT DAY TO QUIT: Try giving up at a time when you aren't stressed. Stress increases your urge to smoke and if you resist that, you will probably take comfort in food. Also, try to not quit during the festive season as that's when you will be even more tempted to give into high-fat, sugary treats.
BEAT WATER-RETENTION:
When your body is hooked on nicotine, its acidic balance is disturbed. When you give up, it stores water. Contradictory to how it sounds, drinking plenty of water will help eliminate excess water build up. If your body is assured that it will be given a constant supply of water, it will no longer hold on to water. Increase your water intake by one litre a day and even more if you are already overweight.
AVOID ALCOHOL: Alcohol contains empty calories and usually serves as a trigger to smoke.
START EXERCISING BEFORE YOU QUIT:
You need at least a half hour of exercise, five days a week. It doesn't have to be a high intensity aerobic workout — a brisk 30 minute will do. You can even break it into shorter sessions. Once you actually quit smoking, you may need more than 30 minutes of exercise. A work-out is also a great way to beat cravings. If you're itching for a smoke, get out for a walk. It will also reduce stress, which triggers smoking.
WORK ON YOUR FOOD HABITS: Change your eating habits gradually; anything drastic can add to the existing stress. Healthy snacks and light munchies is just what you need when you crave a smoke. Lean on cucumber and carrot sticks, fat-free popcorn, fruits, buttermilk, fat free yoghurt, herbal teas, hot cocoa with skimmed milk, puffed rice, bread sticks and sugarless chewing gum.
AVOID CAFFEINE: Avoid excessive drinking of coffee, tea and sodas. Nicotine withdrawal will make
    you jittery and nervous,
    and the caffeine will only
    make nicotine withdrawal
    worse. Also turn away
    from sugar and unhealthy
    starches. If you feel you
    must have sweets, go for
    sugarless and fat-free ones.
TAKE ONE CHALLENGE AT A TIME: People who quit smoking often decide it's time to clean up other areas of their lives as well. If you have too many self-improvement projects at once, you run the risk of failing at all of them. Deal with one problem area at a time.
DON'T SWEAT IT: Don't step on the scale while you're still suffering withdrawal symptoms. The extra kilos (which you will eventually lose) might weaken your resolve. Keep affirming that you be much healthier in the long run. — CO-ORDINATED BY KIRAN MEHTA (NEESHA MARIA BUKHT IS A REGISTERED DIETICIAN AND ISSA TRAINER ATTACHED TO TALWALKARS,BANDRA)

CASE STUDY
    Since I was past 40, I knew I would be prone to putting on weight when I quit smoking as my metabolism was slowing down. I used to do six days of weight training.To keep the weight off, I started mixing two days of cardio with four days of weight training. I followed this routine for several weeks before I quit smoking to get attuned to it.
    I also cut out carbohydrates, increased my protein intake and tried to avoid sugar. Despite this, I did put on about four kilos initially, but I did not go back to smoking. Every time I craved a cigarette and knew that I was likely to binge on something unhealthy, I would instantly head for a glass of warm water.This kept me feeling full.Also, I realised I did not crave a cigarette much as I was getting high on my work-outs! A few months later, I lost the four kilos and am back to my ideal weight.
— Sunil Prabhakar, 45, sales and
    marketing professional

Tastes like yoghurt? It’s a new vaccine!

 Instead of a dreaded injection with a needle, getting vaccinated against disease may soon be just eating a bowl of yoghurt.
    Mansour Mohamadzadeh – a professor of medicine in gastroenterology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in the US – has developed a new oral vaccine using probiotics, the healthy bacteria found in dairy products like yoghurt and cheese.
    Besides eliminating the "Ouch!" factor, the vaccine also has other benefits…
    Terrence Barrett, chief of gastroenterology at Feinberg, said delivering a vaccine to the gut is the most logical route.
    "Nature isn't used to seeing antigens injected into a muscle," said Barrett. "The place where your immune system is designed to encounter and mount a defence against antigens is your gut."
    Delivering the vaccine to the gut through swallowing – rather than injecting it into a muscle – harnesses the full power of the body's primary immune force.
    "You swallow the vaccine, and the bacteria colonise your small intestine and start to produce the vaccine in your gut, with which you get a much more powerful immune response than by injecting it," Mohamadzadeh said.
STILL, MORE ADVANTAGES…
There are other advantages to the new oral vaccine, the boffins said.
    Probiotics, which are natural immune stimulants, eliminate the need for an inflammatory chemical in vaccines. These chemicals are generally used to "tease" the body into triggering an immune response.
    Also, these probiotic vaccines are inexpensive to produce.
    Apart from using the approach in a preclinical study to create immunity to anthrax exposure, Mohamadzadeh has also used the technology to develop a breast cancer vaccine, and vaccines for various other infectious diseases.
    In his study – reported in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science – he fed mice the new oral anthrax vaccine, and then exposed them to anthrax bacteria.
    Eighty per cent of the mice survived, which is comparable to when they were injected with an anthrax vaccine.
    "And the immune response was more robust than the injected vaccine," Mohamadzadeh said.
    He has developed a 'multi-tasking' cancer vaccine against breast, colon and pancreatic cancer that will soon be tested in mice.
    "The technology can also be used to develop vaccines for HIV, hepatitis C and the flu," he added.

As the mercury rises, BT gives you tips to keep your body cool

SUMMER IS HERE!

 Here are some pointers which can come in very handy as the temperature rises. Add lots of citrus foods to your diet. Even simple water will do a lot of good. Coconut water is perfect during the summers. Fruits like mangoes and watermelons help to beat the summer heat. The most soothing vegetables for summer are water based like cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, pumpkin, lady fingers, etc. Yoghurt, buttermilk is ideal during the summertime.
    Avoid red meat, stick to fish or sprouts for protein.
    Hygiene is very important during summer. Have a shower atleast two to three times a day. Try to use an anti-fungal powder in the folds of your skin, specially the armpits, neck, groin, under the breasts (in woman) and webs of the toes especially if you are wearing closed shoes. Open sandals help to air the feet. The bacteria tends to breed more in the folds during the hot and humid weather of the summer months.
    Sunscreen is a must and the sun exposure should be minimal during summer.
    Due to excessive sweating skin loses its moisture during summer. So moisturising the skin is very important.
    Sunglasses should be worn while going out at all times.
    We sweat a lot during Summer which can breed bacteria and thus cause foul body odours. To prevent foul body odour specially in the underarms keep the area clean, shave the hair off in that area and try to use alcohol-free deodarants or perfumes.
    Always wear loose cotton clothes and avoid synthetic fibres.
    Cutting down on caffeine will go a long way in helping you this summer.

IT'S HOT: Drink a lot of juices to beat the heat