Age against the machine is usually about longevity and healthy living from the perspective of how adults can make a difference in their own lives. Age management doesn’t just begin in adulthood, though. The wages of childhood and adolescence are something we all carry forward.

The CDC has taken the first stand against childhood obesity which has risen to almost 20% of children between the ages of 5 and 11. Teens have it nearly as bad. These kids are at very real long term risk of heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and arthritis. Some already show signs of disease such as poor glucose tolerance, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Fortunately, there is an alternative. A study presented at the American Heart Association’s 2010 Conference on Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism showed that physical fitness was directly correlated with academic achievement. Read the rest of this entry »

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Normally the news media is all over reports on how fat America has become, but this one somehow slid under radar. Gallup — the nice people who bring you so many political polls — has been working with Healthways since 2008 to deliver a regular snapshot of Americas fattest and slimmest cities.

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Maybe you’ve heard that to be healthy, you should have “moderation in all things.” Eat, but don’t eat too much; drink, but not to drunkenness; exercise, but not to exhaustion, and so forth. A new study suggests that we even need to use moderation in the way we sleep!

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One interesting new thing that hit my desk was an article on America’s worst french fries. Better yet, this article gives you suggestions on what you should eat instead. However, some of these fries are so bad for you, that in one case an order of chicken fingers is a better bet, and in one odd case you would be better off making your burger a double and skipping the fries altogether!

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Much ado has been made about yogurt as a treatment for “irregularity,” so much so that one major vendor of yogurt specifically markets their new blend of bacteria and fermented milk for the improvement of “long intestinal transit time.” It all sounds wonderful, just eat a cup of yogurt and the trains run on time. That’s actually proven to be true in multiple studies, which is great for most people.

For those who suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), a condition that makes a mockery of regularity, things are always a little more vexing. For them, yogurt induced regularity would be a godsend. Publishing in Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, researchers have taken a good look at this very question. Read the rest of this entry »

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