|
E-mail this page to a friend!
Fitness & Exercise for Senior Citizens
Middle-Aged Women find it takes more than Diet to
Reduce the Abdomen
Five-year study shows exercise decreased fat cells
by 18 percent
August 7, 2006 Middle-aged women who participated
in a recent study found that it takes more than diet to reduce the size
of abdominal fat cells exercise should be added to the program. These
mid-body fat cells are a risk factor for diabetes and heart disease.
This new research is from a five year study at Wake
Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
| |
Related Stories |
|
| |
Senior Citizens Can Lower Death Risk with Just More
Daily Activity
Older adults who expend more energy through any
daily activity live longer than less active elderly
July 11, 2006 You may be old even in your 70s
or 80s and just cannot make yourself exert the energy for regular
exercise, but there is still hope for a longer life, says a new study,
if you just expend more energy through daily activity, even non-exercise
activity. Read
more...
Estrogen Loss is Culprit in Loss of Muscle Mass for
Older Women
Women lose 10 to 15% of muscle mass between 20 and
50, then the decline accelerates: resistance exercise can help
July 8, 2006 With the increase in longevity,
women now live about a third of their lives after menopause and in an
estrogen-depleted state. At has been believed that menopause plays a
part in the loss of muscle mass in aging women. And, it is known
inactivity can accelerate loss of muscle mass and strength as women age.
A University of Missouri-Columbia researcher studied the effect of
inactivity combined with the loss of estrogen and was surprised to find
the real culprit is loss of estrogen.
Read more...
Inability of Elderly to Walk Quarter-Mile is
Predictor of Death, Poor Health
May 2, 2006 Elderly people, who cannot walk 400
meters, or about a quarter mile, may not be here to try it six years
from now and may suffer considerable illness and disability during that
time, according to a study of senior citizens ages 70 through 79.
Walking fitness makes a significant difference in predicting the
likelihood of future disability in the elderly, according to a study
published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Read more...
Five Tips to Help Senior Citizens Begin Walking for
Better Health
Once begun, people
tend to stick with walking programs
May 1, 2006 - Walking isnt such a difficult thing
most of us have been doing it since we were very young. But starting
and maintaining a regular walking program can be daunting, especially
for senior citizens, even though the benefits have been well documented.
Read more...
Read more
on
Senior Citizen Fitness & Exercise |
|
"The message is very clear," said Tongjian You,
Ph.D., instructor in geriatric medicine at Wake Forest Baptist and lead
author. "Exercise is important to reducing the size of these cells, and
may one day be part of a prescription for treating the health
complications associated with abdominal fat."
The study is reported in the August issue of the
International Journal of Obesity. The results from 45 obese,
middle-age women with excess abdominal fat are part of an ongoing
study of up to 125 women. The goal is to determine what lifestyle
changes are needed to reduce the size of abdominal fat cells.
It is well known that overall obesity is a risk
factor for diabetes and heart disease. Not all obese people develop
these diseases, of course. Obese people who have more abdominal fat (an
apple shape) are at a higher risk than people who store excess fat in
their hips and thighs (a pear shape).
Abdominal fat is associated with metabolic
syndrome, a cluster of symptoms that increases the risk for heart
disease and diabetes. The syndrome is diagnosed when someone has at
least three of the following: abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, low
levels of high-density liprorotein ("good") cholesterol, high blood
pressure and increased levels of sugar in the blood.
The current research studied a lesser-known risk
factor for the syndrome the size of fat cells just under the surface
of the skin, known as subcutaneous fat.
"The size of these fat cells predicts type 2
diabetes, independent of whether the patient is obese," said You.
Earlier studies had shown that exercise can reduce
fat cell size, but it is not known if the intensity of exercise matters
during dietary weight loss. For the current study, all women had a
deficit of 2,800 calories a week, either through dieting or a
combination of dieting and exercise.
One group cut their calorie levels through diet,
but did not exercise. A second group walked at about 1 to 2 miles per
hour on a treadmill for 50 minutes three times a week. A third group
also walked three times a week, but at 3.5 to 4 miles per hour for 30
minutes. Both exercise groups burned 400 calories each week through
walking.
The women were provided food for their lunch and
supper, which was selected by a registered dietician. Body size and
weight, as well as total fat and abdominal fat cell size were measured
both before and after the 20-week study period. The results showed that
all groups lowered their fat mass, body weight (by 19 to 23 pounds),
percent fat, and waist and hip girths (by 3 to 4 inches in hips and 4
inches in waists) to a similar degree.
The diet-alone group had no changes in abdominal
fat cell size. However, both exercise groups had decreases of about 18
percent in the size of their abdominal fat cells.
"It is important to complete our larger study to
see if these results hold true," said You. "But, these early findings do
point to the importance of exercise in treating the complications of
abdominal fat."
You said it's possible that because of the small
size of the study, women in the diet-alone group did have small
reductions in fat cell size that weren't detected. "However, considering
the important role of abdominal fat cell size in predicting diabetes and
heart disease, our study does indicate that addition of exercise to
dietary weight loss is more beneficial than weight loss alone," he said.
About the study:
The research was supported by the National
Institutes of Health, the Wake Forest University Claude D. Pepper Older
Americans Independence Center, and the Wake Forest University General
Clinical Research Center. Other researchers were Karin Murphy, B.S.,
Mary Lyles, M.D., Jamehl Demons, M.D., Leon Lenchik, M.D., and Barbara
Nicklas, Ph.D., senior researcher, all from Wake Forest Baptist.
About Wake Forest University Baptist Medical
Center: Wake Forest Baptist is an academic health system comprised of
North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University Health
Sciences, which operates the university's School of Medicine. The system
comprises 1,282 acute care, psychiatric, rehabilitation and long-term
care beds and is consistently ranked as one of "America's Best
Hospitals" by U.S. News & World Report.
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
