Brain Fitness for Older Adults is a distance-learning program that requires 25 hours of home study to complete. Educational topics include brain anatomy and physiology, cognitive function in aging, links between physical exercise and memory, and brain health activities for use in senior exercise programs.

The plan for combining brain fitness with physical activity is the product of SFA’s ongoing Brain Fitness Project, which develops practical applications of new knowledge in neuroscience for use in the senior fitness setting. Older-adult fitness trainers work on a regular schedule with the population most at risk for cognitive decline, which is important since brain exercise, like physical exercise, must be performed regularly to produce and maintain results. The program is designed to take advantage of recent findings showing cognitive improvements from regular exercise among older adult participants.

Popular cultural trends currently reflect a widespread interest in brain health. Commercial products are being developed to inform laypersons and help them preserve their mental acuity. The technology industry has entered the brain health arena as well. According to the Associated Press, home-computer brain fitness software jumped from $100 million in revenues in 2005 to $225 million in 2007. By 2015, it is expected to reach $2 billion.

SFA president Janie Clark said, “Because brain health affects overall health, cognitive fitness activity is essential to comprehensive senior fitness programming. Our system does not involve installing brain fitness computers in health clubs. Instead, it integrates mental exercise into the participants’ physical activity sessions. One example is the use of mental imagery during cool-down exercises to sharpen seniors’ focus and attention skills.”

Since 1992, SFA has set the standard in senior-specific fitness education, recently earning the 2009 National Council on Aging Health Promotion Institute’s Best Practice Award for their educational programs. Expert peer review comments on Brain Fitness for Older Adults include “scientifically supported,” “outstanding,” “the most comprehensive study I’ve seen,” and “I would recommend this to anyone who works with the senior population.” The study package provides two textbooks, an educational DVD, a manual of brain fitness activity plans, and a CD-ROM of client handouts for each activity. The enrollment cost is $249.

By: American Senior Fitness Association – Thu, 01/15/2009 – 05:06

When the goal is to improve well-being and reduce stress–not necessarily to lose weight or prevent an illness—they tend to stick to their routines better, the study says.

“These findings suggest that the typical way that most women approach exercising may be undermining their participation in it,” said Michelle Segar, a women’s motivation and behavior researcher at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender.

The longitudinal study sampled healthy women who were between 40 and 60 years old and worked full time. Researchers collected data on women living in the Midwest at three intervals, including one-month and one-year periods. The subjects answered questions about how much they exercised, what their exercise goals were, and how committed they were to achieving these goals.

Segar says the findings challenge how society thinks about exercise.

“It’s counterintuitive,” she said. “Instead of prescribing exercise to prevent disease, healthcare providers who emphasize physical activity as a means to enhance women’s quality of life might better facilitate long-term participation among healthy women, making disease prevention more likely.”

Although regular physical activity helps prevent cardiovascular disease, the leading killer of women, most mid-life women do not exercise enough. Considering this, understanding which types of exercise goals motivate women to exercise, and which ones don’t, can offer clues to developing better primary prevention strategies.

“We wanted our research to be practical for women and their physicians to easily understand and use,” Segar said.

“Unfortunately, the standard approach to exercise taken in our culture has mainly taught Americans to consider exercise as a type of medicine to prevent disease and lose weight,” Segar said. “It turns exercise into something they should do rather than something they want to do, something that undermines and harms motivation and participation.”

The researchers also revealed another trend: women who exercised to lose weight reported exercising less than those who worked out to maintain their weight.

“Because research shows that exercise is effective for maintaining weight but less so for losing weight, we think that women who exercise to lose weight may not see results. They get discouraged and may quit working out,” Segar said.

So how can this research be used to help a woman exercise more? Segar says healthy women will embrace exercising if it nurtures them, not depletes them.

Women are more likely to be hooked on exercise and make it a priority if their reason for doing it is to enhance their day rather than prevent an illness that they may never get.

“With life enhancement as her goal, a woman is more likely to choose physical activities she enjoys doing, making it much more likely that she will stay motivated and remain physically active,” Segar said.

Segar collaborated on the paper with Jacquelynne Eccles, an IRWG senior research scientist, and Caroline Richardson, assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine. The study appears in the current issue of Women’s Health Issues.

By: University Of Michigan – Mon, 07/21/2008 – 14:41

Colleen Greene, wellness coordinator with MFit, the University of Michigan Health System’s health promotion division, says there are many ways you can get off the couch and get moving without hurting yourself — even during commercial breaks. If the Olympic frenzy has inspired you to start a new fitness routine, Greene offers these tips:

Speak with a professional. By working with a personal trainer, you can learn the best ways to perform your workouts to prevent injury. A trainer can also perform a fitness assessment, which provides baseline data — such as cardiovascular capacity, percent body fat, flexibility and strength — that can help you set challenging, realistic fitness goals. Also be sure to speak with your doctor if you have any health issues; he or she can provide insight on what kind of activities may be best and what should be avoided.

Avoid overtraining. Running sprints and swimming a few laps in a pool may look easy on the television screen, but Greene says that it is best to take it slowly when starting a fitness regimen in order to prevent injury. Be sure to incorporate various activities into your routine instead of only one or two to avoid overtraining, which occurs when muscles are overworked through the repetition of the same activities.

“What you need to do is cross train,” explains Greene. “It is great if you like to run, but don’t run everyday. Try biking or swimming some days; do some different things. That way you are giving your muscles a rest and using them in different ways.”

Find ways to stay motivated. Getting people involved in your fitness regimen in order to help you stay motivated and on track.

“One of the things to do is get a workout buddy because if that person is there and waiting for you to exercise, you’re less likely to blow things off,” Greene suggests.

Adding variety into your regimen keeps your exercises fresh, which will make you more likely to stick with it. Try playing pick-up games of sports, such as volleyball or basketball, with a group of friends, family or coworkers. This not only gets you active, it also is a fun, different way to spend time with the people in your life.

Make exercise part of your routine. There are easy ways to incorporate exercise into your daily tasks, Greene notes. “Incidental bouts of exercise” can be done by taking the stairs instead of the elevator or parking your car at the farthest parking spot instead of the closest. She points out that these small changes add up over time and keep you thinking about fitness on a daily basis. Even watching the Olympics does not have to be a sedentary activity.

“When you are watching the Olympics, there are commercials. Go outside, have a little bit of a walk, do a few crunches; keep moving as much as you can, because it all makes a difference,” says Greene.

Make fitness part of family time. You can use the Olympics as an opportunity to motivate your entire family to get fit.

“Parents need to get out there and have fun because the kids will see their parents doing it, and they’ll want to join in,” Greene explains. “Definitely set some family time aside each week so that you can go bike riding, play tennis or even go on a walk. As long as you’re doing it together, it’s not only family time, it’s fun.”

Overall Greene says the benefits of exercise on your health can be vast. Improved mood and mental acuity, an increase in flexibility and strength, improved blood pressure and decreased cholesterol are just a few results you may notice as you continue to workout.

“You don’t have to be an Olympic athlete to see the benefits of exercise,” she notes. “Three times of exercise a week to start and more as you progress will give you huge benefits.”

By: University Of Michigan – Tue, 08/12/2008 – 13:36

More than 60 million Americans have pre-diabetes, and most of them are unaware. Adults with pre-diabetes are at more than 10 times the normal risk for developing diabetes and at twice the risk for heart attack or stroke. Reaching this growing population is a concern for diabetes educators and physicians.

“Previous studies, such as the highly regarded national Diabetes Prevention Program, have shown that structured diet and physical exercise can significantly reduce the progression of pre-diabetes to diabetes. But these trials involved major lifestyle changes that are difficult to translate into large-scale, community-level programs. In our study we were able to train lay people in the community to deliver the program at the YMCA, an environment accessible to many people with pre-diabetes, to help them sustain lifestyle changes,” said the study’s principal author, Ronald Ackermann, M.D., M.P.H., IU School of Medicine assistant professor of medicine and an affiliated scientist of the Regenstrief Institute.

With more than 2,500 facilities serving more than 10,000 inner-city, suburban and rural communities nationwide and a long history of implementing successful health promotion programs, the YMCA is in a unique position to reach persons with pre-diabetes, according to Dr. Ackermann. In this study, 92 individuals were enrolled in two groups. The intervention group received a core curriculum involving 16 classroom-style meetings focused on building knowledge and skills for goal setting, self-monitoring and problem-solving. The control group was offered standard diabetes-prevention advice.

At the 4-6-month follow-up visit, body weight had decreased by 6 percent in the intervention participants and by 2 percent in the control participants. This was equal to a mean weight loss of 12.5 pounds for intervention participants and 4 pounds for the group that received the standard information. The difference in the amount of weight lost is a clinically meaningful and significant difference, as was the change in total cholesterol concentration, according to Dr. Ackermann. These differences persisted at the 12-14 month follow-up visits.

“This is the first study to demonstrate that the YMCA is a promising vehicle for the dissemination of the DPP lifestyle intervention into the community. In the DPP, a 5 percent weight loss was associated with a 58 percent reduction in risk of developing diabetes. In our pilot study, people at high risk for developing diabetes achieved and maintained a mean 6 percent reduction in baseline body weight and significant reductions in total cholesterol,” he noted.

The study concludes, “By lowering the cost of and expanding the accessibility to diabetes-prevention services, the YMCA may serve not only to increase the number of individuals with pre-diabetes who have access to and can pay for evidence-based diabetes prevention; it may also provide a compelling model for health-plan reimbursement. This provides yet another compelling reason to develop and test novel strategies that link community-based program delivery with existing clinical services that could help to identify and activate more adults with pre-diabetes.”

By: Indiana University – Tue, 09/09/2008 – 15:42

Now I do understand that half of all adults are really sluggish and don’t get this much exercise. I also understand that getting people to move “a little” is better than nothing at all. But considering all previous studies have shown that for optimal health, an hour a day of aerobic exercise is needed, this seems a little “dummied down”. We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic and diabetes crisis and raking leaves is not going to shift the pendulum to the healthy side.

Somehow these new recommendations fit with everything that we are hearing from our government now. Mediocrity is where we are headed. There are no stretch goals being presented. No need to develop new forms of energy (“drill, baby, drill”). No need to pull together as a nation to stop the genocide in Darfur or step up to the plate as a world leader. It’s enough keep the economy going by spending money and that tax stimulus refund really helped, didn’t it?

I will embrace the leader who asks me to set my vision high and strive for the best. In health, especially, I want the HHS to give me real science on what works and what doesn’t. I don’t want to just be pandered to; I want optimal health.

Reach for the stars. If you fail you’ll still be closer to heaven.

By: Toni Brayer MD – Wed, 10/08/2008 – 04:01

“We found that the cessation of daily exercise dramatically activates specific precursors known to promote hepatic steatosis,” said Jamal Ibdah, professor of medicine and medical pharmacology and physiology in the MU School of Medicine. “This study has important implications for obese humans who continually stop and start exercise programs. Our findings strongly suggest that a sudden transition to a sedentary lifestyle increases susceptibility to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.”

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is a reversible condition that causes fat to accumulate in liver cells of obese people. As Westernized societies are experiencing a weight gain epidemic, the prevalence of the disease is growing, Ibdah said.

In the study, researchers gave obese rats access to voluntary running wheels for 16 weeks. Scientists then locked the wheels, and transitioned the animals to a sedentary condition. After 173 hours, or about seven days, the rats began showing signs of factors responsible for promoting hepatic steatosis. In the animals tested immediately at the end of 16 weeks of voluntary running, there were no signs of hepatic steatosis.

“Physical activity prevented fatty liver disease by 100 percent in an animal model of fatty liver disease,” said Frank Booth, a professor in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine and the MU School of Medicine and a research investigator in the Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center. “In contrast, 100 percent of the group that did not have physical activity had fatty liver disease. This is a remarkable event. It is rare in medicine for any treatment to prevent any disease by 100 percent.”

The study, “Cessation of Daily Exercise Dramatically Alters Precursors of Hepatic Steatosis in Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) Rats,” was published in The Journal of Physiology.

By: Kelsey Jackson, Missouri.edu – Thu, 10/30/2008 – 13:50

These are just some of the questions that the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Institute of Musculoskeletal and Arthritis (IMHA) will tackle over the next five years through its strategic plan unveiled today at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S).

“As Canada’s population ages and grows, the burden of arthritis, osteoporosis, and other musculoskeletal, oral and skin conditions on our health care system will increase,” said Dr. Jane E. Aubin, IMHA’s Scientific Director. “We want to reduce this burden and improve the health and quality of life of Canadians of all ages by supporting research that increases our understanding of the relationship between physical activity, mobility and health.”

Over the next five years, the Institute will work with its partners to fund peer-reviewed research and training projects in the area of physical activity and health. This research may range from the cellular behavior of joint tissues to the psychosocial aspects of exercise, activity and sports on populations. Specific activities may include:

* Investigating the prevention or reversal of disease through physical activity and mobility.
* Applying physical medicine and rehabilitative strategies to tissue injuries in order to restore maximal function.
* Investigating issues related to access and delivery of health services and treatments that enhance physical activity, mobility and health.
* Examining the personal and environmental factors that influence the uptake and maintenance of a healthy lifestyle.
* Evaluating mechanisms for translating evidence into sustainable public policy.

The Institute will also promote the application of the research results into new physical activity policies and programs in collaboration with partners and communities.

“I commend IMHA for choosing physical activity as a strategic research priority,” said Dr. Karen Chad, Acting Vice-President Research at the U of S. “As a physical activity researcher, I know first hand the positive effect of regular exercise on health and quality of life. We have had tremendous success in getting people in Saskatchewan moving through our award-winning Saskatoon in motion project.”

With a team of researchers drawn from the U of S, the Saskatoon Health Region, the City of Saskatoon and ParticiPACTION, Dr. Chad led a CIHR-funded project that became the research arm for the in motion health promotion strategy aimed at encouraging all citizens to make regular physical exercise part of their daily lives. The impact of in motion stretches far beyond Saskatchewan. The program has become a model for communities across Canada. The in motion team has won local, national and international awards for their achievements.

While putting its focus on physical activity and mobility, IMHA will continue to support researchers working in the six areas that comprise its research community: arthritis, musculoskeletal rehabilitation, bone, skeletal muscle, skin and oral health, working not only in physical activity and mobility, but also in pain, disability and chronic disease, and tissue injury, repair and replacement. By funding excellent research in these areas, IMHA hopes to create knowledge that will help Canadians lead healthier and more active lives.

By: Canadian Institutes of Health Research – Sat, 11/08/2008 – 14:36

The study, conducted at the University of North Carolina (UNC) – Chapel Hill, is the first to compare brain scans of older adults who exercise to brain scans of those who do not.

“Our results show that exercise may reduce age-related changes in brain vasculature and blood flow,” said presenter Feraz Rahman, M.S., currently a medical student at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. “Other studies have shown that exercise prevents cognitive decline in the elderly. The blood vessel and flow differences may be one reason.”

The researchers recruited 12 healthy adults, age 60 to 76. Six of the adults had participated in aerobic exercise for three or more hours per week over the last 10 years, and six exercised less than one hour per week. All of the volunteers underwent MRI to determine cerebral blood flow and MR angiography to depict blood vessels in the brain.

Using a novel method of three-dimensional (3-D) computer reconstruction developed in their lab, the researchers were able to make 3-D models of the blood vessels and examine them for shape and size. They then compared the blood vessel characteristics and how they related to blood flow in both the active and inactive groups.

The results showed that the inactive group exhibited fewer small blood vessels in the brain, along with more unpredictable blood flow through the brain.

“The active adults had more small blood vessels and improved cerebral blood flow,” said the study’s senior author, J. Keith Smith, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of radiology at UNC School of Medicine. “These findings further point out the importance of regular exercise to healthy aging.”

By: Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) – Tue, 12/02/2008 – 04:58

In an accompanying editorial, John Brooks an injury expert for the Rugby Football Union, says that people participating in any sport at all levels should adopt a warm-up programme like this to reduce injury. Previous studies investigating the effect of warming up on the risk of injury have focused on key warm-up elements – raising the core temperature, stretching the muscles used, and conducting movement specific exercises – but the effect on injury has been unclear until now.

Torbjørn Soligard and colleagues recruited 1,892 female footballers from Norway between the ages of 13 and 17 and randomised them to perform either traditional warm-up exercises (1, 055) or the “11+” 20 minute warm-up intervention (837).

The “11+” 20 minute warm-up programme consists of slow and speed running, key exercises to improve strength and balance, and movements that focus on core stability, hip control and knee alignment. The whole programme emphasises the importance of internal muscular awareness.

The researchers reported no significant difference in the number of lower leg injuries between the groups, but substantially fewer severe injuries, overuse injuries and overall injuries were found in the intervention group.

Compliance with the study was boosted by providing coaches and players with a DVD showing all the exercises, posters and exercise cards, and step by step cards.

The authors conclude by calling for the programme to be implemented as a key element of coaching, education and training in football.

In the editorial, Brooks points out that one of the most important findings of this study is that teams using the “11+” programme sustained a lower incidence of severe injuries – it is these severe injuries which cause the most absence from sport, interfere with people’s lives and place the greatest burden on scarce medical resources.

Not every participant in the study performed the “11+” throughout the season as recommended, so the programme may reduce the injury even more with regular use. Health professionals should encourage anyone involved in sport to participate in similar warm-up programmes, Brooks concludes.

By: BMJ – Fri, 12/12/2008 – 12:11

* Buy a new toy. Exercise bands, weighted balls, hand weights and other tools can add new spark to your workout. A good book to learn how to use these new toys is the “American College of Sports Medicine Fitness Book” or the “Complete Home Fitness Handbook” by Ed Burke.

* Try working out to a video or DVD. There are hundreds of them, and you can work out on your own schedule in the privacy of your own home. If you don’t want to commit right away, borrow from the library or wherever you rent videos and DVDs. Go to www.collagevideo.com, a Web site that sells instructional videos and DVDs, but even better, offers mini-clips on each so you can tell if the music and instructor suit your taste.

* Enroll in a class at your local fitness club, senior center, community education location or dance studio.

* Join an indoor league for soccer, basketball, roller or ice hockey, etc.

* Pay for a membership at a gym or fitness center. You don’t have to commit long-term at most of them. As an added benefit, you’ll get a chance to check out big-ticket fitness equipment you might want to consider buying.

* If you’re already a walker, or if you’d like to become one, area malls welcome those who get their exercise by hoofing it. If your job is in a large building or complex, slip into those walking shoes and walk at work. You can even throw in walking up several flights of stairs to really get your heart pumping.

By: Beaumont Medical Center – Mon, 12/15/2008 – 13:21