Older Women Sedentary for Most of Their Day, Study Find

Older women spend two-thirds of their day not moving around, generally getting up every half hour for periods of movement, according to a study designed to help researchers understand patterns of sedentary behavior.

About 32 percent of all sedentary time occurred in blocks of at least 30 minutes, while about 12 percent occurred for at least 60 minutes, according to a research letter published today in the Journal of theAmerican Medical Association.

The study of more than 7,000 women with an average age of 71 is one of the first to quantify how sedentary they are during the day, and future studies will examine what role movement outside of exercise has on health, said Eric Shiroma, the lead study author. The researchers will follow the women to see how sitting or standing in place for many hours each day can affectheart disease, cancer and diabetes risk, he said.

“It’s too early to know a lot of these answers,” Shiroma, a researcher in preventive medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said today in a telephone interview. “I would like to be able to describe to people what an active lifestyle should be outside of just physical activity. There’s a lot of activity we can do without just going to the gym. It’s a far more complex relationship than just your 30 minutes of moderate physical activity a day.”

The research released today included participants in the Women’s Health Study who in 2011 joined an additional investigation assessing physical activity using accelerometers. The women were asked to wear the accelerometer for seven days while they were awake.

Sedentary Day

The study showed that women spent about 66 percent of their waking day in sedentary behavior, totaling about 9.7 hours a day.

Future studies may help researchers better understand if recommendations to move every 30 minutes benefit health and whether exercising for a half an hour a day but not moving for many other hours is healthier than not exercising yet spending waking hours in motion, Shiroma said.

“We need to really look more into what it means to be sedentary and active,” he said. “It’s not simply the time in the gym. There is the whole rest of the day out there. We need to be able to do that before we can make recommendations.”

The Women’s Health Study is a U.S. project that began in April 1993 to test the benefits and risks of low-dose aspirin and vitamin E to prevent heart disease and cancer in women, according to the study website. Researchers have culled the data for information about how other issues such as stress and exercise affect women’s health.

8 Nutrients in Food That Boost Winter Immunity

1. Selenium

According to the National Institutes of Health, most people in the U.S. are not at risk for selenium deficiency. It is nutritionally essential in a person’s diet, containing more than two dozen selenoproteins, which are important for reproduction, DNA synthesis, thyroid hormone metabolism, and protection from oxidative damage and infection. The recommended intake of selenium is 55 micrograms. The foods that are highest in selenium are organ meats and seafood. Dairy, muscle meats, and cereals also tend to be good sources of the nutrient. Examples include tuna, halibut, brazil nuts, oatmeal, spinach, milk, and baked beans.

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/calliope/

2. Vitamin A

This vitamin is composed of fat-soluble retinoids, like retinol, retinal, retinoic acid, and retinyl esters. A key aspect of vitamin A’s functions is its ability to maintain the normal function of organs like the lungs, kidneys, and heart. Adult men need about 900 micrograms, women 700. Vitamin A also regulates cell growth and associations between certain cancers and vitamin A has been observed. When proper levels of vitamin A are not present in a diet, researchers have noticed impaired immunity and a higher risk for infectious diseases. Vitamin A can be found in milk, eggs, and a variety of fruits and vegetables. Sweet potatoes, carrots, peppers, ricotta cheese, and pistachios are all good sources of vitamin A.

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3. Vitamin B2

Also known as Riboflavin, this nutrient is important for keeping energy levels up. B2 doesn’t only keep you going, but it also will regulate the other B vitamins necessary for your health. There is a strong relationship between B1, and B2. When you reach proper amounts of B1 in your diet, it can help boost your B2 levels. It is important to keep this in balance with neither too much nor too little. Eating green beans, eggs, asparagus, and eggs are ways to incorporate vitamin B2 into your diet.

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4. Vitamin B6

Vitamin B6 is the generic name given to six compounds.  It preforms numerous functions in the body, including a healthy, functioning immune system. Adults need between 1.3 and 2 micrograms, depending on age, gender, and other factors. There have been several studies linking B6 deficiency to depressed immune response when a moderate dose was added, the immune functions were restored to proper levels. Foods containing vitamin B6 include bananas, cottage cheese, seedless raisins, and chickpeas.

5. Vitamin C

Although there is no solid support that vitamin C improves the immune system, even if it does not, it is possible the nutrient works in conjunction with others. The research does not indicate that it prevents a cold or the flu, but it may lessen the amount of time you are sick. It is important to regularly eat foods with vitamin C, because adding it after you are already ill does not appear to be beneficial. Vitamin C is necessary to form a protein that is used to make skin, ligaments, blood vessels, and tendons. It also has reparative functions for wounds, bones, and teeth. Most fruits and vegetables will have some amount of vitamin C, but cantaloupe, citruses, strawberries, tomatoes, and winter squash are all rich with the nutrient.

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6. Vitamin D

Researchers are investigating whether the same properties that cause vitamin D respond to the bacterium that causes tuberculosis can also trigger a similar response with other diseases. Vitamin D is also known for its bone-health properties and ability to prevent osteoporosis. More groups are at risk for vitamin D deficiency than other nutrients on the list, including older adults and those with limited sun exposure.

Many people get their vitamin D from sunlight, and not many foods do not naturally contain vitamin D. Those that do are salmon, tuna, cheese, and egg yolks. Fortified milk is an important source of vitamin D for many in the U.S., and breakfast cereals will have the nutrient added as well.

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7. Vitamin E

A number of fat-soluble compounds fall under the vitamin E umbrella. Three surveys have found that most Americans do not meet the daily requirements of vitamin E. Research indicates that when taken at proper levels, it may have anti-inflammatory and immune-enhancing properties. Studies show it is at least involved in immune function and metabolic processes. Nuts, seeds, and vegetable oils all contain vitamin E. Specifically, almonds, hazelnuts, sunflower oil, and mango are all sources.

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8. Zinc

When a person does not consume enough zinc, T cells, and other immune cells lose their ability to function as they should. Taking too much zinc also causes problems. In addition to immune system functions, zinc is important for protein synthesis, and would healing. There is no zinc storage system in the body, so it important to get the recommended intake daily. Men need 11 micrograms and women 8. Most Americans get zinc from meat and poultry, but it is also in cashews, yogurt, fortified breakfast cereals, kidney beans, peas, and cheese. Oysters are also incredibly high in zinc.

Growing old vs. aging: The 5 Cs to successful aging

Most of us are aware that people are living longer today. There is, in fact an intense hunger for knowledge on how to successfully age. One of the cornerstones of this philosophy is realizing that you can separate aging (a largely physical process) from growing old (a largely attitudinal process).

Aging reflects the relationship of time on our being. Aging describes, in large part, the state of our body. Old, on the other hand, describes our state of mind.

Look around you and you will see the role spirit and attitude play in relationship to the concept of being old. Do you know any 75 year-olds that act like they’re 35? Do you know any 40 year-olds that act like they’re 80? If you answered “yes” to either question you are affirming the attitudinal and spiritual source of what separates those who are aging from those who are old. This distinction was described by Paul the apostle in his letter toCorinth where he stated, "though our outward man perishes, our inward man is renewed day by day."

There is no denying the effects of time on our bodies. Though we can slow certain physical impacts we cannot prevent them altogether. Hair turns gray or falls out. Skin wrinkles. Senses can begin to dull as can short term memory. As George Burns once quipped, "you know you're getting older when everything hurts, and what doesn't hurt doesn't work."

Choosing to live an engaged life until the day we die is no accident; it is the purposeful and intentional discipline of those souls who choose to live every day they are living. They are not in denial of the inevitability of death; they simply have chosen to not give it a head start.

Attitude is the rudder that steers our ship in this journey called life. Release the rudder for a single day and you can sense a sort of existential seasickness. Release it for a week and you will drift aimlessly or be tossed upon the rocks. Release it for any longer period and shipwreck is inevitable.

In observing the forever young, forever passionate and forever engaged, I have come across five internal focuses and patterns that constitute what I refer to as the vitamin C's of successful aging because all the words that describe them happen to start with that letter and like vitamin C, provide essential energy to our lives:

• Vitamin C1: Connectivity — Many people disconnect themselves from important social networks when they retire and don’t realize it until it’s too late. Be sure you stay connected to people and places you love and enjoy.
• Vitamin C2: Challenge — Just because you are retired, doesn’t mean you should stop using your brain. Being intellectually challenged literally has the effect of a finger in the dike holding back the degenerative processes leading to both Alzheimer’s and dementia.
• Vitamin C3: Curiosity — Don’t ever stop exploring or asking questions. Curiosity is critical to surviving and thriving, especially if you are retired. Think you’re too old to go back to school or learn a new skill? Think again—being inquisitive can be the difference between getting old and aging.
• Vitamin C4: Creativity — A creative soul looks at the shoreline and sees something new everyday. This might help explain whyB.B. King still tours, and why Peter Druckerwas able to write a business best-seller in his 90s. You may not be a world-class musician or best-selling author, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore your own creativity.
• Vitamin C5: Charity — A woman in her 70s had more money than she could ever hope to spend but no charitable interests. Her financial adviser challenged her to look around her city for places she might like to make a difference. As a result, she had more adrenaline than ever. It doesn’t require money to live charitably — just concern, generosity and discovering the joy of self-transcendence

For Fitness, Intensity Matters

This year, exercise science expanded and fine-tuned our understanding of how physical activity affects our brains, joints, hearts, and even genes, beginningbefore birth and continuing throughout our lifespans, which can be lengthened, it seems, by exercise, especially if we pick up the pace.

This year’s fitness news, as a look back through 2013’s Phys Ed columns shows, was variously enlightening, validating (if, like me, you never bothered cooling down after a workout anyway), and practical (D.I.Y. concussion testing,anyone?). It was also occasionally deflating, at least if you hoped that barefoot running invariably would reduce the risk of injury, gentle exercise would quash your appetite, or training for a marathon would automatically exempt you from being a couch potato.

But the lesson that seemed to emerge most persistently from the fitness-related studies published this year was that intensity matters, especially if you wish to complete your workout quickly. The most popular column that I wrote this year, by a wide margin, detailed “The Scientific 7-Minute Workout,” a concept that appealed, I have no doubt, because the time commitment was so slight. But the vigor required was considerable; to gain health benefits from those seven minutes, you needed to maintain a thumping heart rate and spray sweat droplets around the room.

Almost halving the time spent exercising was also effective, a later and likewise popular column showed. In that study, out-of-shape volunteers who ran on a treadmill for a mere four minutes three times a week for 10 weeks raised their maximal oxygen uptake, or endurance capacity, by about 10 percent and significantly improved their blood sugar control and blood pressure profiles.

The results undercut a common excuse for skipping workouts. “One of the main reasons people give” for not exercising is that they don’t have time, said Arnt Erik Tjonna, a postdoctoral fellow at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, who led the study.

But they emphasize, too, the potency of hard effort. The volunteers ran at 90 percent of their maximum aerobic capacity for those four minutes, a level that is frankly unpleasant. But, in four minutes, they were done.

There were other hints throughout the year that exerting yourself vigorously may have unique payoffs, compared with less strenuous exercise. In a study that I wrote about a few weeks ago, for instance, people who walked briskly, at a pace of 17 minutes per mile or less, generally lived longer than those men and women who strolled during their walks, at a pace of 20 minutes per mile or slower, although the study was not designed to determine why the intensity of the exercise mattered.

And in September, I wrote about two studies showing that strenuous exerciseblunted volunteers’ appetites after workouts more effectively than longer sessions of easy exercise did. The studies were small, though, and involved only young-ish, overweight men. Whether the results are applicable to other people, including those of us who are not male, requires additional experiments. I expect to be covering the results in 2014.

Meanwhile, other studies that I wrote about this year emphasize how pervasive the impacts of any amount and type of exercise can be. One of my favorite experiments of 2013 detailed how rodents that ran on wheels for several weeks responded far better to stressful situations than sedentary animals, in large part, it seems, because their brains contained specialized cells that dampened unnecessary anxiety. At a molecular level, the runners’ brains were calmer than those of their sedentary lab mates.

But perhaps the most remarkable studies of the year examined the effect of exercise on our DNA. In several experiments, which I wrote about in July, scientists found that exercise reshapes genes in human cells, changing how atoms attach to the outside of individual portions of our DNA. As a result, I wrote, the behavior of the gene changes. In one of the studies, researchers found that six months of moderate exercise profoundly remodeled genes related to the risk for diabetes and heart disease. But for those of us too impatient to wait six months, the other study found that a single session of bike riding altered genes in volunteers’ muscle cells. The effects showed up whether the pedaling was easy or strenuous, but, in line with so much of this year’s exercise science, were more pronounced when cyclists rode vigorously.

Still, for everyone, as one of the scientists told me, the studies are an important and inspirational reminder of “the robust effect exercise can have on the human body, even at the level of our DNA.”