Dawn breaks at this, the Army’s largest training post, with the reliable sound of fresh recruits marching to their morning exercise. But these days, something looks different.
That familiar standby, the situp, is gone, or almost gone. Exercises that look like pilates or yoga routines are in. And the traditional bane of the new private, the long run, has been downgraded.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/us/31soldier.html?ref=nutrition
Wearing higher heels – although perhaps not stilettos – may improve your pelvic floor muscles and in doing so boost your sex life, a study suggests.
An Italian urologist and self-professed lover of the sexy shoe set out to prove that high heels were not as bad for women’s health as some suggest. A study of 66 women under 50 found that those who held their foot at a 15 degree angle to the ground – the equivalent of a two inch heel – had as good posture as those who wore flat shoes, and crucially showed less electrical activity in their pelvic muscles.
A regular weight training regime may help treat rheumatoid arthritis, research suggests.
Study leader Dr Andrew Lemmey said muscle loss was a major contribution to the disability associated with the condition.
“It is logical that if you can restore muscle, that strength and consequently functional capacity will also be restored. And this is what we have found.”
He said the patients, who were mainly women in their 50s and had the disease for up to a decade, had responded well.
“In fact, the improvements in function were so significant that following training these patients with established RA were performing as well as or better than healthy individuals of the same age and sex.”
read on at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-10864601
Dr. MacDonald, a criminology professor and behavioral scientist, was interested in determining whether the installation of mass transit would have an impact on the physical activity, and therefore the body-mass index, of people who started using it.
Those residents surveyed who stopped driving to work and started walking to the light rail (sometimes taking a bus to a bus stop, then walking from there to the rail stop) walked on average 1.2 miles over their two commutes. And yes, it translated into a change in B.M.I: the average weight reduction found (after about six months of light-rail use) was 1.18 B.M.I. points.
cont http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/nyregion/17bigcity.html?_r=1&ref=nutrition
Drinking alcohol can not only ease the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis it appears to reduce disease severity too, research suggests.
Scientists at the University of Sheffield asked two groups of patients with and without the disease to provide details of their drinking habits.
They found that patients who had drunk alcohol most frequently experienced less joint pain and swelling.
Experts say this should not be taken as a green light for drinking more.
Exercise scientists say they have stumbled on an amazing discovery. Athletes can improve their performance in intense bouts of exercise, lasting an hour or so, if they merely rinse their mouths with a carbohydrate solution. They don’t even have to swallow it.
And the scientists think they have figured out why it works. It appears that the brain can sense carbohydrates in the mouth, even tasteless ones.
“You can get an advantage from tricking your brain,” said a discoverer of the effect, Matt Bridge, a senior lecturer in coaching and sports science at the University of Birmingham in England. “Your brain tells your body, ‘Carbohydrates are on the way.’ ” And with that message, muscles and nerves are prompted to work harder and longer.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/health/nutrition/20best.html?ref=nutrition
A new study finds that from 1990 to 2007, nearly a million Americans wound up in emergency rooms with weight-training injuries, and that annual injuries increased more than 48 percent in that period.
Women were more likely to injure their feet and legs, while men’s injuries were more common in the trunk and hands; men had more sprains and strains, and women had more fractures.
Overexertion, muscle pulls and loss of balance accounted for about 14 percent of emergency room visits. More than 90 percent of the injuries occurred while using free weights rather than weight machines.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/health/22stat.html?ref=nutrition
YOU have been playing a lot of tennis recently, and now you think you have tennis elbow. Or you’re a swimmer with an aching shoulder. A cyclist with sore knees. A runner with pain in your heel.
Now, before you read on and decide I’m a therapeutic nihilist, I have to tell you that the idea for this column was suggested by a doctor-athlete, Paul D. Thompson, a marathon runner and a cardiologist at Hartford Hospital in Hartford.
And his answer to his own question?
“I think most folks should not go, because most general doctors don’t know a lot about running injuries,” he said, adding, “Most docs, often even the good sports docs, then will just tell you to stop running anyway, so the first thing is to stop running yourself.”
In fact, he said, because you probably will have to make a co-payment if you see a doctor, you will be adding insult — the fee — to your injury.
Dr. Volker Musahl, an orthopedist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, had the same sort of response. He competes in marathons and triathlons.
“If you want to continue to run, don’t see a doctor,” Dr. Musahl said.
Read the rest of the story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/fashion/01best.html
Anterior cruciate ligament injury is one of the most common knee injuries in athletes, especially in sports requiring rapid acceleration or deceleration and sudden change of direction. Athletes participating in soccer, volleyball, basketball or badminton are at a higher risk of ACL injury due to the nature of the games.
Symptoms of an ACL injury include hearing a sudden popping sound, swelling, and a “wobbly” feeling in the knee. Pain is also a major symptom in an ACL injury. Continued athletic activity on a knee with an ACL injury can have devastating consequences, resulting in cartilage injury leading to an increased risk of developing osteoarthritis later in life.
Conservative treatment may include strengthening the muscles around the knees so that they can compensate for the injured ligament. But if an athlete is keen on returning to the field and performs at a level before the injury, then ACL reconstruction surgery is required. An ACL reconstruction is an arthroscopic surgery in which a surgical graft tissue is put in place as a replacement for the injured ligament allowing normal functions of the knee.
Once the surgery is done, physiotherapy should commence immediately to optimize the potential of the knee. The initial goal is to reduce pain and minimize swelling so that knee movements are still possible allowing the athlete to slowly regain the range of motion in the knee and prevent muscle atrophy. This initial phase could take between 6-8 weeks depending on the patient. The second phase is moderate protection phase, with the goal of full range of motion and therapeutic exercises for strengthening, stretching, and balance. The third and final phase is when the fun starts, with advanced strengthening and balance. Plyometrics, agility drills, pivoting and cutting maneuvers are incorporated into the exercises.
Call us today if knee pain has hindered your performance or if you have just received your acl reconstruction surgery. We’ll monitor your rehabilitation process and allow you to return to your previous level of activity and competitiveness.
It’s not small talk but a valid medical query. Being stuck in traffic raises blood pressure and triples heart attack risk. So if a patient has had a tough commute and her BP is elevated, he’ll recheck it later in the appointment. There are other surprising situations and times when the chance of heart attack rises dramatically. If you or someone you know has a history of heart trouble, here’s when to be watchful.
http://shine.yahoo.com/event/hearthealth/5-scary-times-for-your-heart-652424/
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