For middle-aged women who aren’t counting calories, how much exercise does it take to keep off extra weight? According to a new study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, roughly an hour per day. Though current recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services suggest that a weekly 150
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A large scale study of children between the ages of 2 to 19 finds that a growing number of young children are extremely obese—or have a body mass index greater than 35 kg/m. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), children who are in the 85th up to 95th percentile (or have a BMI higher than 25 kg/m,
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Sleeping too much or too little is associated with a higher prevalence of belly fat, according to a new study published this week in the journal SLEEP. The analysis of more than 1,000 blacks and Hispanics between the ages of 18 and 81 found that, in participants ages 40 and younger, sleeping fewer than five hours per night or more than
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As my colleague Bryan Walsh reported back in 2008, wind farms and solar panels aren’t the only places that scientists have been looking for some extra electricity. From knee braces that tap into the energy in a person’s stride to vibration harvesters that soak up energy from the buzz of a busy highway, researchers are hard at work coming
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Public health officials grappling with the obesity epidemic have debated a wide range of approaches to helping slim the American waistline. To some degree, everything from building more sidewalks to banning chocolate milk has been explored. Yet few tactics have been as polarizing as the possibility of introducing tariffs on treats.
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Holding on to the belief that children will shed their “baby fat” as they get older may be perpetuating the childhood obesity epidemic, and laying a foundation for obesity later in life among overweight tots. According to 2006 data from the Centers for Disease Control, 16% of American children were obese, and 32% overweight, with a
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In response to First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative to combat childhood obesity, the American Beverage Association (AmeriBev) announced this week that it will voluntarily add calorie counts to the front of soda cans, bottles, vending machines and soda fountains to better enable consumers to make informed choices. AmeriBev,
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Dietary silicon can help maintain bone strength and keep connective tissues in good shape, and is found in grains such as oats and barley—which also happen to be key ingredients to brewing beer. Previous studies suggest that, as a rich source of silicon, beer, in moderate amounts, might help fight the bone degradation of conditions
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A moving public service announcement from the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership in the U.K. has quickly become a viral phenomenon—with views in at least 89 countries and a Facebook group of 1,500 members and counting. The “Embrace Life” ad was launched on January 20, and added to YouTube on January 29, where it’s since been seen nearly
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Though sperm are generally considered pretty wriggly little guys, before they are launched into action, so to speak, they aren’t racing around. While researchers have long known that what gets them swimming is a change in internal pH level—the more alkaline their pH, the more aggressively they swim—until now, the mechanism by which
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According to a report from a Fort Worth, Texas newspaper, a previously healthy 26-year-old woman may now be permanently handicapped because long-term exposure to zinc in denture cream eroded her health. At age 26, Elizabeth Gilley, was rushed to the hospital after her unexpected symptoms—numbness in her feet and legs, labored
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Abnormal serotonin receptors, which may cause serotonin levels to dip dangerously and undermine a brain network responsible for regulating the body’s autonomic functions, could be a cause of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), according to new research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. An estimated two out of
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Wearing a helmet when you take to the slopes is commonly considered a good idea, but just how much of a difference does it really make? A big one. According to an analysis published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, for skiers and snowboarders, wearing a helmet reduces the risk of head injury by more than a third. And while,
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