Thursday, August 30, 2012

Couch potato kids top health concern!

8-30-12:  The C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health conducted their 6th annual survey on top health concerns for kids, and for the first time, adults rate ‘not enough exercise’ as the leading health concern for children in their communities. You can read the full report here.

Number 2 is Childhood Obesity and September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness month, so now i is a good time to tackle the top 2 concerns of US parents!


Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Cooper Institute gets into serious video games!

8-28-12: The world-famous Cooper Institute, the non-profit arm of the Cooper Aerobic Center in Dallas, TX, has gotten into serious video games. Just came across this entry for The Quest to Lava Mountain in a contest for childhood obesity. You can see the trailer here and vote for it if you like it! Strictly a nutritional video game, but with the Cooper Institute getting into serious games, do you think that an exergame can't be far behind??? ;-)

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Obamacare and Lifestyle Medicine

8-28-12: Found this article to be an excellent review of Obamacare and the state of our healthcare system. It focuses on what is going to collapse our system, and that it does NOT have to head this way, IF we take the necessary changes NOW!!! Unfortunately, Obamacare fixes some things, but it does NOT address the CAUSE of the problem.

Please read this and see what I'm talking about. PA is a BIG part of what needs to change in our current healthcare system. Exercise IS medicine, as is nutrition...and we're not using either no where near enough in our current healthcare system. That's why it will continue to break down if we continue on this path.

Here's the article, by Dr. Hyman:

http://drhyman.com/blog/2012/08/24/why-obamacare-is-not-enough-turning-off-the-demand-for-health-care/

Let me know what you think!!! Do you agree or disagree with his analysis?

Thursday, August 23, 2012

CDC: More people walking, but less meeting 150 min/wk

8-23-12: Some new data about Americans and PA just came out from the CDC:

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, based on a telephone survey from 2010, found that 62 percent of adults walk 10 minutes or more a week, up from 55.7 percent in 2005.
However, only 48 percent of adults exercise enough to improve their health, which was up from 42.1 percent in 2005, the CDC said."
So while the percentages are improving, we still have a long way to go in getting more Americans meeting the minimum recommended 150 mins. cardio per week goal. 
For more on this study, click here.

Monday, August 13, 2012

FREE Beg's Tri clinic!


8-13-12: I just registered for this...anyone want to join in? Check it out...Ernie

Are you interested in becoming a triathlete, but don’t know where to start? Join us for the….

PossAbilities Triathlon & Swim Clinic

Coach Tony Troccoli, IronMan competitor and USA Triathlon certified coach, will be conducting a beginner triathlon clinic for able and challenged athletes. The clinic will cover how the sport came to be, explain the
various distances, talk about equipment and how to prepare, how to setup your transition area, and walk you through a race from start to finish.

Date: Sunday, September 16, 2012
Time: 7am to 9 am
Where: Drayson Center
Martinson Conference Room
25040 Stewart Street
Loma Linda, CA 92354

Orientation: 7am to 8 am
in the Martinson Conference Room
Swim Clinic: 8am to 9 am
NOTE: No bikes are required.

Register online at www.teampossabilities.com. Click on “Upcoming Events” then on “Triathlon Clinic”. Reserve your spot today.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Tech and hypokinetic disease

8-8-12: Another interesting Medscape article on how tech, media, and communications can play a part in fighting hypokinetic diz.


The implications of megatrends in information and communication technology and transportation for changes in global physical activity.

Lancet.  2012; 380(9838):282-93 (ISSN: 1474-547X)

Pratt M; Sarmiento OL; Montes F; Ogilvie D; Marcus BH; Perez LG; Brownson RC;
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA. mpratt@cdc.gov

Physical inactivity accounts for more than 3 million deaths per year, most from non-communicable diseases in low-income and middle-income countries. We used reviews of physical activity interventions and a simulation model to examine how megatrends in information and communication technology and transportation directly and indirectly aff ect levels of physical activity across countries of low, middle, and high income.

The model suggested that the direct and potentiating effects of information and communication technology, especially mobile phones, are nearly equal in magnitude to the mean effects of planned physical activity interventions. The greatest potential to increase population physical activity might thus be in creation of synergistic policies in sectors outside health including communication and transportation.

However, there remains a glaring mismatch between where studies on physical activity interventions are undertaken and where the potential lies in low-income and middle-income countries for population-level effects that will truly affect global health.

Evidence-based interventions to decrease hypokinetic dz

8-8-12: This just in from Medscape Abstracts! Another clip on the Lancet series on physical activity:


Evidence-based intervention in physical activity: lessons from around the world.

Lancet.  2012; 380(9838):272-81 (ISSN: 1474-547X)

Heath GW; Parra DC; Sarmiento OL; Andersen LB; Owen N; Goenka S; Montes F; Brownson RC;
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USA. gregory-heath@utc.edu

Promotion of physical activity is a priority for health agencies. We searched for reviews of physical activity interventions, published between 2000 and 2011, and identified effective, promising, or emerging interventions from around the world.

The informational approaches of community-wide and mass media campaigns, and short physical activity messages targeting key community sites are recommended.

Behavioural and social approaches are effective, introducing social support for physical activity within communities and worksites, and school-based strategies that encompass physical education, classroom activities, after-school sports, and active transport.

Recommended environmental and policy approaches include creation and improvement of access to places for physical activity with informational outreach activities, community-scale and street-scale urban design and land use, active transport policy and practices, and community-wide policies and planning.

Thus, many approaches lead to acceptable increases in physical activity among people of various ages, and from different social groups, countries, and communities.

CDC highlights walking!

8-8-12: This was in an e-mail I received from a fellow PAE, Pam Sampson, of the San Bernardino County Public Health Dept. She's a real advocate for physical activity!!! Thanks for sharing, Pam...


Six in 10 Adults Now Get Physically Active by Walking, According to a New CDC Vital Signs Report
Sixty-two percent of adults say they walked for at least once for 10 minutes or more in the previous week in 2010, compared to 56 percent in 2005, according to a new Vital Signs report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

“More than 145 million adults are now getting some of their physical activity by walking,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “People who are physically active live longer and are at lower risk for heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, depression and some cancers.” 

You can help promote this month’s CDC Vital Signs report on Walking by encouraging your subscribers to:
·         Become a fan on CDC Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/CDC  Description: Description: Description: cid:7AC034F7D2920344B26C4E3C796AF584@cdc.gov
  • Follow us on CDC Twitter every day this week at http://twitter.com/CDCgov/ and retweet our tweets  Description: Description: Description: cid:DA416BEB67D3B04DA53DDB7201EC8320@cdc.gov
  • Get CDC Content Syndication: To syndicate the Vital Signs information, simply select “Syndicate Page” from the right navigation on the Vital Signs site and you will be directed to the Content Syndication site for additional instructions, including the option to self register if you have not previously.  Description: Description: Description: cid:7D124D8803B2E142803B47F0EBCE190C@cdc.gov
Share links to CDC Vital Signs Report

Additional Resources
MMWR Vital Signs- Walking Among Adults — United States, 2005 and 2010 http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm61e0807a1.htm?s_cid=mm61e0807a1_w            

Exergames good first step...great for hypokinetic dz!

8-8-12: I posted the following in my Exergaming Evanglist blog, and wanted to re-post here with some edits, because it talks about how exergames can combat hypokinetic disease!


From Exergaming Evanglist blog:  For those who have been in the field of exergaming for some time, this just published article on the effectiveness of exergames to increase physical activity is not new. We all know that certain games, in certain settings, can get the target population--sedentary Americans--in the moderate to vig. level fairly easily, while many other exergames will only get them in the "low intensity" level.

That's like saying swimming isn't as good a cardiovascular workout as it's cracked out to be because some just splash around or walk in the shallow end...even though many swim competitively or play water polo, both very vigorous cardiovascular activities.

Read this review about this RWJF sponsored research in this e-health newsletter I subscribe to.

By the way, some of the latest research in physical activity and hypokinetic disease is focusing on the "other 23 hours"...and how sedentary we are, even AFTER doing our 1 hour of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity a day! Here is where exergaming can really make a huge impact!!!

Some of the latest cancer research talks about how just 1-2 minutes of movement every hour will lower cancer biomarkers...and this is independent of your doing the prescribed 1 hour a day of MVPA!!! (Read more about that in my Physical Activity Evangelist blog)

So instead of blasting exergames for not being "exercise" enough, why not focus on how exergames can help REDUCE CANCER biomarkers and impact the "other 23 hours"???