Uphill, Downhill, any hill! 8 Reasons Hills Make You a Better Runner

(Health.com)

Quit your sitting! How making the change to a stand up desk at work can improve your life in more ways than you would think.

Wrap Sheet: Your Guide to Satisfying Green Wraps

(Shape.com)

7 minutes of working out and you’re done?! Read the article that’s trending in the health news industry

(nytimes.com)

Slipping at work? Maybe you should start sipping champagne. Toast with Champagne & Boost Your Memory.

(menshealth.com)

Late night munchies? The Surprising Reason You Snack at Night (and How to Stop It)

(Health.com)

Sponsored by the Bike League, National Bike Month is an opportunity to celebrate the unique power of the bicycle and the many reasons we ride. Whether you bike to work or school;  to save money or time;  to preserve your health or the environment; to explore your community or get to your destination, get involved in Bike Month in your city or state — and help get more people in your community out riding too!

Image Source: www.flickr.com

According to the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the amount of Americans commuting by bike has grown by 47 percent since 2000. Many Bicycle Friendly Communities have more than doubled their bike commuter share since 2000. Read more and find stats for your area: http://www.bikeleague.org/news/acs2010.php

Bicycle Friendly Communities, include Washington, DC, Oakland, Denver, Austin, Lexington, KY, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Anchorage, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Tulsa, and Kansas City, MO.

Keep in mind that this Friday, May 17th is National Bike to Work Day!

When biking, keep these 5 steps in mind to be a better rider:

1. Follow the Rules of the Road

• Ride with traffic and obey the same laws as motorists

• Use the rightmost lane that heads in the direction  that you are traveling

• Obey all traffic control devices, such as stop signs,  lights, and lane markings

• Always look back and use hand and arm signals  to indicate your intention to stop, merge or turn

2. Be Visible

• Ride where drivers can see you

• Wear brightly colored clothing at all times

• At night, use a white front light and red rear light  or reflector

• Wear reflective tape or clothing

3. Be Predictable

• Ride in a straight line and don’t swerve between  parked cars

• Make eye contact with motorists to let them  know you are there

• Do not ride on the sidewalk.

4. Anticipate Conflicts

• Be aware of traffic around you and be prepared  to take evasive action

• Learn braking and turning techniques to  avoid crashes. • Be extra alert at intersections

5. Wear a Helmet

• Make sure that the helmet fits on top of your  head, not tipped back or forward

• After a crash or any impact that affects your  helmet, visible or not, replace it immediately

To Learn More about National Bike Month visit bikeleague.com & if you’re a cyclist looking for a new routine check out this article at greatist.com!

Image Source: prevention.com

Many of us have heard the age-old diet advice “Never go grocery shopping when you are hungry”: You are more likely to buy fattening, unhealthy foods, so avoid it.   However,  weight loss maxims found in diet books do not always hold up in the real world. With this being said, two researchers at Cornell University recently devised an experiment that put this notion to the test.

The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, was carried out in two phases. In the first, 68 men and women were brought into a lab on two separate days after having been told not to eat for five hours. Then they were allowed to “shop” for food in a simulated grocery store, which offered low-calorie options like fruits, vegetables and chicken breasts, as well as higher-calorie junk foods.

Before shopping, half of the subjects were given a snack. Both groups ultimately purchased a similar number of items, but those who shopped while hungry picked the highest-calorie foods.

In the second phase of the study, the researchers followed 82 actual shoppers in a grocery store. Once again, they found that people shopping at times when they were most likely to be hungry opted for the foods that were more calorically dense.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Rita F. Redberg, a cardiologist, said the findings provided scientific support for common-sense advice.   “I think all diet guides include the advice to ‘never go grocery shopping when you are hungry,’ ” she wrote, “and when I had young children, I added ‘and never with young children’ – because either of these factors seem to lead to less wise food choices.”

THE BOTTOM LINE:   Shopping for groceries on an empty stomach does in fact influence food choices.

To Read More and to Find Related Articles Visit nytimes.com

taoism.about.com

Lose 10 percent of your body weight, and you (and everyone around you) will see a smaller, healthier you. But gain 10 percent and your loved ones will notice more than how you look—according to a new study recently published in Psychological Science, gaining a significant amount of weight alters your personality. Specifically, it may make you more impulsive.

Researchers examined data from more than 1,900 people who were participating in two large-scale studies. Participants’ body weight and personality traits were collected at two check points, nearly a decade apart. What researchers found was that those who gained 10 percent or more of their weight in that time period showed significantly increased impulsiveness and a heightened tendency to give into temptations.

But there was an unexpected twist lurking in the data: those same participants showed an increased deliberation—aka, the tendency to think before acting—nearly twice as much as those who maintained a consistent weight between check points.

“We suspect there is a social element to it,” explains Angelina Sutin, Ph.D., study author and assistant professor at Florida State University College of Medicine. “When people gain weight, it usually does not go unnoticed, and family and friends will often comment on it. This may translate into a greater tendency to think before acting, even if the individual isn’t able to control his or her impulses.”

This is just one of the many examples of the connection between our psychology and physiology. Stress, for example, while a psychological burden, prompts a number of physiological responses like headaches, weird dreams, and even bleeding gums.

Deliberation is generally a good trait to have, says Sutin. It’s keeping your impulses in check, especially the emotional ones, that will keep you from spiraling.

 
To learn more, visit Prevention.com.

By Nina Elias

The nation’s largest cardiovascular health organization has a new message for Americans: Owning a dog may protect you from heart disease.

Image Source: www.cartoonstock.com

The unusual message was contained in a scientific statement published on Thursday by the American Heart Association, which convened a panel of experts to review years of data on the cardiovascular benefits of owning a pet. The group concluded that owning a dog, in particular, was “probably associated” with a reduced risk of heart disease.

People who own dogs certainly have more reason to get outside and take walks, and studies show that most owners form such close bonds with their pets that being in their presence blunts the owners’ reactions to stress and lowers their heart rate, said Dr. Glenn N. Levine, the head of the committee that wrote the statement.

“We didn’t want to make this too strong of a statement,” said Dr. Levine, a professor at the Baylor College of Medicine. “But there are plausible psychological, sociological and physiological reasons to believe that pet ownership might actually have a causal role in decreasing cardiovascular risk.”   Nationwide, Americans keep roughly 70 million dogs and 74 million cats as pets.

The heart association publishes about three scientific statements each month, typically on more technical matters, but the group was prompted to take a stance on the pet issue by the growing number of news reports and medical studies linking pet ownership to better health.

Dr. Levine noted that the more traditional methods of risk reduction for heart disease had proven effective, and that now was a good time to investigate alternative approaches. “We felt this was something that had reached the point where it would be reasonable to formally investigate,” he said.   Dr. Richard Krasuski, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, viewed the new statement as an indictment of societal attitudes toward exercise.

“Very few people are meeting their exercise goals,” he said. “In an ideal society, where people are actually listening to physician recommendations, you wouldn’t need pets to drag people outside.”   The new report reviewed dozens of studies, and over all it seemed clear that pet owners, especially those with dogs, the focus of most of the studies, were in better health than people without pets.

“Several studies showed that dogs decreased the body’s reaction to stress, with a decrease in heart rate, blood pressure and adrenaline-like hormone release when a pet is present as opposed to when a pet is not present,” Dr. Levine said.

Pet owners also tended to report greater amounts of physical activity, and modestly lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Some research showed that people who had pets of any kind were also more likely to survive heart attacks.

In one of the only randomized controlled studies included in the report, 48 stressed stockbrokers with hypertension were put on medication that lowered their blood pressure, and then researchers divided them into groups. Those in one group were told to adopt a dog or cat. Six months later, the researchers found that when the stockbrokers who had adopted pets were around their new companions, they were markedly calmer in the face of stressful events than the stockbrokers without pets.

By Anahad O’Connor

To Read More Check Out nytimes.com