Is there a really a pizza tree?

If the fact that Congress is pushing to have French fries and tomato sauce on pizza considered as “vegetables” wasn’t so scary, it would be funny. There was obviously no serious thought given to this, this is the result of our government being bought off by special interest groups. They attack efforts to give our kids healthier food choices at school and ridicule those, like Michelle Obama, who are making sincere efforts to make a difference at the expense of our kids.

There are too many agri-businesses and politicians who are willing to allow our childhood obesity epidemic to continue. They don't care that our military is telling us that young people are too fat to fight, with only one in four meeting the fitness requirements for military service. They don't care that one in three children under the age of 18 will develop Type II Diabetes within their lifetime. They don't care that the rate of childhood obesity has doubled since 1980.

Everyone complains about healthcare and there are few real solutions offered. Basic simple suggestions, like our kids’ diets, that should be obvious to even our challenged representatives are thrown under the bus. The fact that the US spends twice as much on healthcare as other countries while we rank much lower on our actual health should be a wake-up call to everyone. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

LouAnn Good
Fitness Together

A Warrior for Health

I’ve become a Warrior for Health!

Our world has become more complicated. Modern warfare and terrorism has taught us that foreign armies amassing at our borders will not be what invades our country and threatens our way of life. What If our country were threatened by an outside force, one that had the potential to bankrupt our economy, destroy our way of life and make our children so sick that children dying before their parents became commonplace. What if this threat was already within our borders, living amongst us? Would we surrender? Would we say we’re too tired to fight? Would we say we can’t change and deny the threat?

Our country’s health and the skyrocketing cost of healthcare is THE biggest threat to our economy, to our way of life and to the pursuit of happiness that is our birthright. Our country spends twice as much on healthcare as most other industrialized countries in the world. Our healthcare system, according to the World Health Organization in 2000, ranked 37th in the world (just after Costa Rica). Since we spend so much, shouldn’t we be healthier?

It is estimated that 70% of our illnesses are the result of our lifestyle and our habits. The Milken Institute estimates that chronic disease cost the US economy over one trillion dollars a year through healthcare costs and lost productivity, an amount that could rise to six trillion dollars a year by 2050.

According to the Center for Disease Control:
Chronic Diseases are the Leading Causes of Death and Disability in the U.S.
•7 out of 10 deaths among Americans each year are from chronic diseases. Heart disease, cancer and stroke account for more than 50% of all deaths each year.
•In 2005, 133 million Americans – almost 1 out of every 2 adults – had at least one chronic illness.
•Obesity has become a major health concern. 1 in every 3 adults is obese and almost 1 in 5 youth between the ages of 6 and 19 is obese (BMI ≥ 95th percentile of the CDC growth chart).
•About one-fourth of people with chronic conditions have one or more daily activity limitations.
•Arthritis is the most common cause of disability, with nearly 19 million Americans reporting activity limitations.
•Diabetes continues to be the leading cause of kidney failure, non-traumatic lower-extremity amputations, and blindness among adults, aged 20-74.7
The four most common causes of chronic disease are a lack of physical activity, poor nutrition, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol consumption.

So fellow warriors, who is the enemy? Do we blame Phillip Morris, McDonalds, too much TV , the beer industry? As Pogo said, “we have met the enemy and he is us!”

Forget expecting the government to rescue us, forget expecting our teachers to do for our kids what we haven’t done for ourselves, forget denial and forget hoping to just get “lucky”! It’s time to take action and take responsibility for our health, our kid’s health and our country’s health.

Get off the couch and go sweat somewhere! Man up and stop eating all that stuff you know you shouldn’t be eating! Take a look at the habits that you know, and we all know, are killing us and quit!

Modern marketing has convinced us that we’re weak (“bet you can’t eat just one!”). We are strong, we are powerful! Vote with your feet, vote with your dinner plate, and vote for the future of our country by becoming a Warrior for Health!

Exercise and Children's Intelligence

This is an excellent article on the positive effects of exercise on learning!


Exercise helps overweight children think better, do better in math
February 10, 2011
By Toni Baker
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Regular exercise improves the ability of overweight, previously inactive children to think, plan and even do math, Georgia Health Sciences University researchers report.

They hope the findings in 171 overweight 7- to 11-year-olds – all sedentary when the study started – gives educators the evidence they need to ensure that regular, vigorous physical activity is a part of every school day, said Dr. Catherine Davis, clinical health psychologist at GHSU’s Georgia Prevention Institute and corresponding author on the study in Health Psychology

“I hope these findings will help reestablish physical activity’s important place in the schools in helping kids stay physically well and mentally sharp,” Davis said. “For children to reach their potential, they need to be active.”

To measure cognition, researchers used the Cognitive Assessment System and Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement III that measure abilities such as planning and academic skills such as math and reading. A subset of the children received functional magnetic resonance imaging highlighting increased or decreased areas of brain activity.

MRIs showed those who exercised experienced increased brain activity in the prefrontal cortex – an area associated with complex thinking, decision making and correct social behavior – and decreased activity in an area of the brain that sits behind it. The shift forward appears consistent with more rapidly developing cognitive skills, Davis said.

And the more they exercised, the better the result. Intelligence scores increased an average 3.8 points in those exercising 40 minutes per day after school for three months with a smaller benefit in those exercising 20 minutes daily.

Activity in the part of their brain responsible for so-called executive function also increased in children who exercised. “In kids you just don’t know what impact you are going to have when you improve their ability to control their attention, to behave better in school, to make better choices,” Davis notes. “Maybe they will be more likely to stay in school and out of trouble.”

Similar improvements were seen in math skills; interestingly, no improvements were found in reading skill. Researchers note that improved math achievement was “remarkable” since no math lessons were given and suggests longer intervention could produce even better results.

Children in the exercise program played hard, with running games, hula hoops and jump ropes, raising their heart rates to 79 percent of maximum, which is considered vigorous.

Cognitive improvements likely resulted from the brain stimulation that came from movement rather than resulting cardiovascular improvements, such as increased blood and oxygen supplies, Davis said. “You cannot move your body without your brain.”

The researchers hypothesize that such vigorous physical activity promotes development of brain systems that underlie cognition and behavior. Animal studies have shown that aerobic activity increases growth factors so the brain gets more blood vessels, more neurons and more connections between neurons. Studies in older adults have shown exercise benefits the brain and Davis’s study extends the science to children and their ability to learn in school.

About one-third of U.S. children are overweight. Davis suspects exercise would have a similar impact on their leaner counterparts.

Co-authors include Dr. Jennifer E. McDowell, neuroscientist, and Dr. Phillip Dr. Tomporowski, exercise and cognition expert, at the University of Georgia.

Diabetes and our future

Our children have a target on their back, and we put it there! In 1992, it was rare for most pediatric centers to have patients with type 2 diabetes. By 1994, type 2 diabetes accounted for up to 16% of new cases of pediatric diabetes in urban areas, and by 1999, it accounted for 8–45% of new cases depending on geographic location.

Type II diabetes used to be called “adult onset” diabetes, because children rarely got it. Because of our sedentary lifestyle and poor diet, our children are now dealing with an affliction that used to target older Americans.

Unfortunately we, as adults, have become a model for our kids. The Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index finds the reported incidence of diabetes on the rise in the United States, climbing to 11.3% of American adults -- or about 26 million Americans -- in the third quarter of 2009, up from 10.4% in the first quarter of 2008.

The US has extraordinarily high medical costs compared to the rest of the world, we spend about twice per capita that most countries in western Europe. Medical expenses for diabetics are, on average, approximately 2.3 times higher than for those people who do not have diabetes, with approximately 10% of healthcare dollars spent on the condition and its complications. If current trends continue, 15% of American adults -- or more than 37 million Americans -- will be living with diabetes by the end of 2015. The growing diabetes epidemic and the unfortunate rise in the cost of diabetes is placing an increasing burden on our healthcare funds, which is already facing the strain from costs associated with the advancing age of the baby boomer generation.

The stakes are high and getting higher. The number of people with diabetes has increased 13.5 percent since 2005. At the current rate, 1 of every 3 people born in 2000 will develop the disease, putting them at higher risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, and nerve damage, among other medical problems.

If you have diabetes, you need to do what your body is meant to do: move! You also need to take a hard look at your diet. Exercise plays a vital role in controlling your blood sugar levels. It doesn't matter how long you've been sitting there doing nothing -- it's time to get up and move!

An exercise program requires a positive state of mind, it has to and can be fun. You can't view it as something that is strenuous or tedious or being forced to do. Exercise, in its various forms, can be quite enjoyable. When you rode your bike as a kid or climbed a tree, was it tedious or torturous?

The latest findings show that exercise such as strength training has a profound impact on helping people manage their diabetes. In a recent study of Hispanic men and women, 16 weeks of strength training produced dramatic improvements in sugar control that are comparable to taking diabetes medication. Additionally, the study volunteers were stronger, gained muscle, lost body fat, had less depression, and felt much more self-confident.

Another exercise modality is aerobic exercise. Any activity that raises your heart rate and keeps it up for an extended period of time will improve your aerobic fitness. Aerobic exercise helps decrease the risk of type 2 diabetes and helps those with diabetes to better manage their blood sugar levels. Besides the health benefits, exercise is fun and boosts your mood. It's hard to feel stressed when you're walking fast on a treadmill, riding a bike or swimming laps in a pool.

Exercise helps control type 2 diabetes by:
Improving your body's use of insulin.
Burning excess body fat, helping to decrease and control weight.
Improving muscle strength.
Increasing bone density and strength.
Lowering blood pressure.
Helping to protect against heart and blood vessel disease.
Increasing energy level and enhancing work capacity.
Reducing stress, promoting relaxation, and releasing tension and anxiety.

We, as personal trainers, can give you the support and guidance that you need to start and maintain an exercise program. The key to our health is oftentimes in our own hands. We can use this key to unlock the door to a future of well being, or not. It’s up to you, for your own health as well as the health of our children.

Exercise and Breast Cancer

In the US, around 40,000 women are dying each year from breast cancer. It is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, exceeded only by lung cancer. The greatest risk factor for developing breast cancer is gender (female) and the second is age. Between 2000-2004, 95 percent of new cases and 97 percent of breast cancer deaths occurred in women aged 40 and older. Like most cancers, the causes are uncertain. While no one knows with any certainty how to prevent the occurnce of breast cancer, we do have control over many aspects of our lives that can protect our health and also enhance our recovery, Regardless of our genetic make-up, there are a number of things that we, as women, can do to protect ourselves. Mamograms and self-examinations are critical to our health, as well as our lifestyle choices, such as exercise and diet.

So what can we do if are diagnosed with breast cancer and undergo treatment and therapy? Fitness Together in Fort Myers has some suggestions.

A daily walk around the block, a few laps in the pool, a vigorous game of soccer: studies are now suggesting that exercise is extending the lives of women who've survived breast cancer, even as it lifts their spirits and increases their sense of well being. Being physically active boosts the odds that breast cancer patients will survive the disease, according to the first study to produce evidence that exercise improves the prospects of beating any malignancy.

The findings, from a large, well-respected study of U.S. nurses, found that breast cancer patients who walk or do other kinds of moderate exercise for three to five hours a week are about 50 percent less likely to die from the disease than sedentary women.

"Women with breast cancer have little to lose and much to gain from exercise," said Michelle D. Holmes of the Harvard Medical School in Boston, who led the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. "This is good news for women with breast cancer."

Dealing with any life threatening disease is much more than just therapies and protocols. The diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer can often leave women feeling hopeless and powerless, in addition to the fear associated with any type of cancer. Besides the obvious physical benefits coming from exercise, being active, especially with others, can ease the sense of fear and loneliness that often comes from such a diagnosis. Exercise gives us all the opportunity to view our bodies as a friend instead of a part of our lives that we must “deal” with. Exercise and activity, regardless of one’s condition, increases our general outlook and sense of well-being.

"Exercise empowers these women with a tool that's there at their disposal," said Dr. Cheryl Perkins, senior clinical advisor at the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, one of the nation's largest organizations dedicated to fighting the disease. "The benefit correlated with the amount of exercise. So, the more exercise, the better survival," Perkins said.

"One of the biological theories as to why exercise might be a good tool for reducing risk or in prevention is that it can reduce obesity, and obesity is known to increase circulating estrogen," Perkins said. High levels of circulating estrogen are thought to greatly increase a woman's risk for breast cancer and breast cancer recurrence.

Still, for most breast cancer survivors past the active-treatment stage of their care, "there's no limit as far as the capacity to do vigorous exercise," she said.
Of course, exercise can be a tonic for the mind as well as the body.
"It simply increases your sense of wellness," Perkins explained. "It helps increase your stamina in the long run. It's good on a lot of levels."

Perkins should know, since she's a long-term breast cancer survivor herself. She credits regular exercise with helping her stay fit in her fight against the disease.
We have been honored at Fitness Together to have many breast cancer survivors as clients and to be considered part of their return to a normal and healthy life. All of our programs are tailored to fit the exact needs of our clients, regardless of their condition.

LouAnn Good
Fitness Together Fort Myers

Being Obese Can Cost a Man Eight Years

Health
By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor
posted: 13 July 2010 12:33 pm ET

Men who are obese at age 20 die about eight years earlier than other men, a new study in Denmark suggests.

Researchers tracked more than 5,000 men starting at the age of 20 until up to age 80. They found that at any given age, an obese man was twice as likely to die as a man who was not obese, and that obesity at age 20 appeared to be a constant factor in death rates up to 60 years later.

"As the obesity epidemic is still progressing rapidly, especially among children and adolescents, it is important to find out if obesity in early adulthood has lifelong mortality effects," said the study's leader, Esther Zimmermann, a researcher at the Institute of Preventive Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital and the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Toronto.

Zimmermann told LiveScience she isn't sure whether the results would hold for Americans, but that a recent study in Sweden echoed her study results. The study will be presented Tuesday at the International Congress on Obesity in Stockholm.

BMI and death risk:

Zimmermann and her colleagues compared mortality among military draftees, including 1,930 obese men and a random sample of 3,601 non-obese men. (Zimmermann said she wasn't sure which men actually were accepted into the military.) They looked at participants' body mass index, or BMI, at the average ages of 20, 35 and 46 and then matched the results with death rates in the next follow-up period.

BMI is an indicator of body fat calculated from height and weight. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a BMI below 18.5 means the person is underweight; between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered normal; 25 to 29, overweight; and anything higher, obese.

The results were adjusted to eliminate any influence on the findings from year of birth, education and smoking.

A total of 1,191 men died during the follow-up period of up to 60 years. Of the survivors at age 70, about 70 percent had not been obese at age 20. Though the other 70-year-old survivors had been obese, just as many obese men had died by then.
Results showed men with a BMI of 25 at age 20 had the lowest death risk. Underweight men had a slightly elevated risk, and the risk of early death crept up steadily by 10 percent for each BMI unit above 25.

Obesity is persistent:

Zimmermann said it is unclear whether the higher death risk was a result of being obese at age 20 or of remaining obese for many years afterward.

"More than 70 percent of the obese young men were still obese at the follow-up examinations, whereas only 4 percent of the men in comparison group developed obesity during follow-up," Zimmermann said. "Obesity seems to be a persistent condition, and it appears that if it has not occurred in men by the age of 20, the chance[s] of it developing later are quite low."

Zimmermann said her group planned to study what diseases might be responsible for the early deaths in the obese group. She suspects the known obesity-linked diseases played a role, including cardiovascular diseases, endocrine disorders and some cancers. In addition, looking at these diseases over time could shed some light on the mechanisms through which obesity works at different ages.

Her study was funded by grants from the Cluster for Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Copenhagen.

Did You Forget to exercise?

We’ve all read about the effect that our mind has on our health as well as our outlook on life. And what’s good for your body apparently is also good for your mind. Regular exercise is one of the best things we can do to improve overall health and well-being. Successful aging studies are consistently showing that higher levels of physical activity are correlated with better brain aging. And exercise has also emerged as a factor that may prevent (or at least delay) the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

“We know that exercise is the one intervention that has the most powerful and consistent effect on the prevention of dementia and Alzheimer’s,” says William J. Evans, director of the Nutrition, Metabolism and Exercise Laboratory with the Institute for Aging at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

We Baby Boomers can improve our memory ability and decrease memory loss, not through a pill, but by simple exercise. This is the result an 18-month study, conducted by the University of Western Australia, of 170 men and women over age 50 who reported experiencing memory problems but did not meet the criteria for dementia.

The volunteers were divided into two groups. One group continued with usual activities while the other group participated in a 24-week home-based physical activity program that encouraged participants to walk for 50 minutes, three times a week.

At the end of the six-month trial, participants in the exercise group scored better on cognitive and memory tests. Those results held steady when participants were retested six months later, and again after 12 months. The study was published Sept. 3in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

It’s been determined that consistent exercise increases levels of brain chemicals that encourage the growth of nerve cells. This may explain why aerobic activity enhances memory skills, and why moderately strenuous physical activity is strongly associated with successful brain aging.

Recent neuroscience reports have shed new light on the basic question of how exercise affects the brain. "It's sort of surprising to think about," says Carl W. Cotman, PhD, neurobiologist at University of California-Irvine and a Dana Alliance member. "You're literally building the structure of the brain, just by moving your feet."

Brain imaging studies show that highly-fit older adults have faster reaction times—an indication of better concentration—than their less-fit counterparts. They also are better able to focus on relevant information and ignore irrelevant cues, indicating better attention.

Also fit people show less of a decrease in gray matter in the cortex than is normally seen with aging, which may suggest a protective effect of exercise against nerve cell death. This effect is most pronounced in areas of the brain involved in executive cognition that typically decline most with aging. Laboratory animals that are allowed to voluntarily run on an exercise wheel show increases in the generation and survival of new neurons (brain cells) in the hippocampus (the area of the brain involved in short term memory). This increased neurogenesis is associated with improved learning.

Exercise induces changes in the expression patterns of a wide array of genes, with some becoming more active and some showing less activity. Many of the genes that become more active are known to play roles in the structure and adaptability of synapses, suggesting a direct role for exercise in synapse density.

A growth factor called BDNF (for brain-derived neurotrophic factor) increases significantly in the brains of animals that run voluntarily. And of great importance to those of us who aren’t animals, separate studies show that when people with depression exercise in addition to taking antidepressants, their BDNF levels go up and their depression symptoms decrease.

Obviously exercise is a pill we all should be taking, but like taking medications, we need to do it correctly and do it effectively without getting injured. Personal training is a great way to assess your present situation and to effectively design and implement an exercise program that works for you and gives you attainable goals. Life is best enjoyed with a healthy body and a healthy mind, the path to this is not that difficult. So put your mind to it!

LouAnn Good
Fitness Together Fort Myers