Encouraging Health

Taking more exercise and eating the right foods may help increase levels of an enzyme vital for guarding against age-related cell damage, work suggests.

Among 24 men asked to adopt healthy lifestyle changes for a US study in The Lancet Oncology, levels of telomerase increased by 29% on average.

Telomerase repairs and lengthens telomeres, which cap and protect the ends of chromosomes housing DNA.

As people age, telomeres shorten and cells become more susceptible to dying.

It is the damage and death of cells that causes ageing and disease in people.

Several factors such as smoking, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle are associated with shorter-than-average telomeres.

Professor Dean Ornish, from the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in California, and his team wanted to find out if improvements in diet and lifestyle might have the opposite effect.

They asked 30 men, all with low-risk prostate cancers, to take part in a three-month trial of comprehensive lifestyle changes.

These consisted of a diet high in fruit and vegetables, supplements of vitamins and fish oils, an exercise regimen and classes in stress management, relaxation techniques and breathing exercises.

Telomerase activity was measured at the beginning of the trial and again at the end.

Among the 24 men who had sufficient data for analysis, blood levels of telomerase increased by 29% on average.

Increases in telomerase activity were linked with decreases in “bad” LDL cholesterol and decreases in one measure of stress - intrusive thoughts.

The researchers say it is too early to tell if the boost in telomerase levels will translate to a change in telomere length.

But there is evidence to suggest that telomere shortness and low telomerase activity might be important risk factors for cancer and cardiovascular disease.

“This might be a powerful motivator for many people to beneficially change their diet and lifestyle,” they told The Lancet Oncology.

Professor Tim Spector, from King’s College London, who has been researching ageing and telomeres, said: “This work builds on what we already know.

Nope, it’s not a time machine you need if you want to be a decade younger. It’s a treadmill. Or a bike. Or just a good pair of sneakers.

That’s right. The most physically active folks in a recent study showed signs of being as much as 10 years younger on a cellular level.

Go Long on Protection
How does exercise do that? By keeping your telomeres long and healthy. What on earth are those, you ask? Simple. They’re like the plastic tips on shoelaces. But in your body, they cap the ends of the DNA strands (chromosomes) in all your cells. Over time, your telomeres can shorten to the point where cells stop regenerating, and even die (think accelerated aging). Shortened telomeres also leave your chromosomes vulnerable to the kind of damage that may trigger diseases such as cancer. (Here’s a whole slew of ways to keep your telomeres from getting shorter.)

Running from Old Age
The fact that exercise keeps your cells renewing themselves and protects your DNA is good motivation to get out there. But if you need another push:

To get the results you want from a workout, holding your body in a proper position is just as important as the workout itself. Doing exercises correctly will help you:

• Burn fat
• Reduce stress
• Improve health
• Decrease your waist size

And you can do it all without bulking up to the size of a Miami condo.
No matter what moves you’re doing, from a push-up to a lunge, try to follow these 10 form guidelines.
(If possible, use a full-length mirror to check the position of your body.)

1. Look out at eye level or above to spare your neck and keep you from rolling your shoulders forward.

2. Keep your face relaxed and tension free.

3. Relax your shoulders and lift up your chest.

4. Pretend the top of your head is being pulled up by a string to elongate your spine and keep you from rolling forward.

5. Count the reps for each exercise out loud; counting helps you remember to breathe continuously. (Many people hold their breath while doing strength training.)

6. Keep your abs tight to support your lower back. (Practice sucking in every time you enter a car, bus, train, plane, elevator, escalator, everywhere — that way, it becomes automatic.)

7. Keep your knees slightly bent, so you don’t lock them.

8. Make sure you can (if you want to) always see your hands when doing shoulder exercises.

9. Keep moving in between exercises to keep your heart rate up, or move directly to the next exercise. If you can’t hold a conversation, you’re exercising too hard. If you can talk a blue streak, you may not be going hard enough.

10. As you get fitter, go longer rather than harder with cardio exercises, and stronger with weight exercises — that is, do more repetitions. But it’s more important to follow perfect form and do fewer reps than to do a lot of repetitions with form that’s sloppier than spaghetti in a high chair.

For one 21-year-old muscle man, the quest to build a perfect body ended in grotesque, lifelong scars.

Doctors were shocked when the young man came into their Dusseldorf clinic with one of the worst cases of acne conglobata any of them had ever seen: His chest and upper back were canvassed in craterlike ulcers and abscesses oozing with pus.

“He had these deep, ulcerating lesions with bloody crusts,” says Dr. Peter Arne Gerber, a dermatologist who treated the young man at Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany. Adding insult to injury, the poor young man’s sperm count had plummeted and his testicles were in a sad little shrunken state.

“For me, personally, it was the worst case that I had ever observed,” says Gerber, who wrote an article about the case study that appeared in a recent issue of the medical journal The Lancet.

He and his colleagues immediately suspected the young amateur body builder was abusing steroids, because acne is a typical reaction to rampant roid usage.

“Steroids increase the amount of sebum, or oil, production from the sebaceous gland, and acne is a bacteria that thrives on the sebum,” says Dr. Bruce Robinson, a Manhattan dermatologist who represents the American Academy of Dermatology.

Robinson describes the sebaceous gland’s normal oil offering as a light lunch for a few bacteria, but steroid users’ glands produce enough sebum to provide the bacteria with a lavish oily feast to which they invite all of their friends. “That results in this explosive steroid acne,” he explains.

It took a persistent amount of badgering, but the amateur bodybuilder finally admitted his doping habits: He’d been using two types of anabolic steroids twice a week for several months, and the high dosage and long-term usage kicked his bloody brand of acne up a notch.

Happily, his manhood issues – the tiny testicles and paltry sperm count – returned to normal after he quit using the steroids. But Gerber says the lesions, ulcers and abscesses that covered his unfortunate upper torso crept deep into the skin’s basal membrane, the cell layer that separates the outer skin from the deeper dermis. And when that happens, from acne or any kind of damage to the skin, scarring is inevitable.

Just one more reason to stay off the juice, kids.

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Know those little aches and pains you feel in the morning? You could do something right now to keep them from getting worse when you’re older.

Just jump to it. Okay, you don’t have to literally jump. But do be active. People who pick up their feet and commit to regular aerobic exercise have much less muscle and joint pain as they age.

How Much Less?
A 14-year study that followed a healthy over-60 crowd found that consistent exercise — be it running, biking, swimming, dancing, or brisk walking — led to as much as 25 percent less musculoskeletal pain down the road. Yes, even with the high-impact runners. Researchers aren’t sure why, but they suspect that exercise’s endorphin release may play a role.

Looking Ahead
Less pain when you’re older means a more active and independent life. Here are a few other ways to lower your risk of chronic future aches:
Hit the mat. Yoga boosts endorphins and improves flexibility and joint-supporting strength.

Cross-train. Mixing up your activities helps keep your back in good shape.

Have a cup or two . . . of green tea.

Bone loss, back pain, high cholesterol . . . very different problems. But there’s a single solution.

It’s cross-training. Research shows that increasing the variety of exercises you do increases the range of benefits you get. The triple reward for consistently mixing it up: stronger bones, a limber back, and a healthier cholesterol profile.

When women who went through menopause early combined a number of different physical activities — from strength training to jumping rope — the results were clear: broadening their fitness menu expanded their physical benefits. After 2 years of doing cross-training workouts at varying speeds and intensities, the women had increased their bone mass, boosted their muscle strength, reduced their back pain, and improved their cholesterol profiles.

The lesson for everyone: The more you mix up your workouts, the more rewards you’re likely to reap. And adding variety helps keep your interest up, too. Doing yoga or Pilates, jogging, hiking, lifting weights, biking, playing racquetball or golf, jumping rope, dancing, walking, swimming . . . it’s hard to get bored when you have so many get-moving options.

Check out Watching Simpsonsand find out what blogger Richard Ristow means when he writes ‘x-files meets simpsons’.

Curls and sit-ups can definitely help tone your abs, but a new study suggests something else might work better.

Seems counterintuitive, but working your upper body may be the quickest path to a really sculpted middle.

Above-the-Belt Action
In a study, women did isometric exercises for their stomach, back, shoulders, and arms while researchers measured muscle activity. The results? Shoulder extensions made middle-body muscles contract most — apparently they work extra hard to stabilize your trunk when your wings are flapping.

Full-Body Fitness
Some more ways to get your midsection — and whole body — into mint condition:
Roll out the ball. For strong core muscles and better balance, do tummy and back toners on an exercise ball.

Add resistance. Use weights or resistance bands for extra burn.

The benefits of sneaking in some extra calorie burning are enormous. In a recent study, seniors who exercised in their leisure time were 25% less likely to die of any cause during a 12-year period. With a little creativity, you can make exercise part of your routine no matter how long your to-do list is.

You can use this simple 2-step plan to sneak some calorie-burning intensity into most of the activities that dominate the typical list of household chores.

Step 1: Add intensity
The key to turning any household task into exercise is to pick up the pace or intensity and sustain it for as long as comfortably possible without resting.

Step 2: Get creative
Some activities already require a high level of energy, such as Top 10 household chores for burning calories*

Chore Calories
1. Moving furniture 225
2. Scrubbing floors 189
3. Raking leaves 171
4. Gardening 162
5. Mowing the lawn 162
6. Washing the car 153
7. Cleaning windows 153
8. Vacuuming 84
9. Washing dishes 76
10. Doing laundry 72

* Estimations based on a 150-pound person and 30 minutes of activity

weeding the garden or raking the lawn. Turning up the burn on some other, less intense activities, such as washing dishes or dusting, may require you to be a little more creative.

Find out how you can work for Diddy.

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Getting toned arms and legs sounds like a job for Mr. Nautilus. But Mr. Peach?

Maybe. Seems potassium-rich produce — like peaches — gives your muscles what they need to stay toned, healthy, and able to do their jobs.

It’s a Balance
A diet heavy in proteins and cereal grains can cause blood to become too acidic. When this happens, muscle tissue can waste away. Fruits and vegetables, though, make your body’s pH more alkaline — mostly thanks to their high potassium content. So it makes sense that people in a recent study who loaded up on potassium-rich produce had more lean muscle mass than their produce-shirking peers.

Your Body, Years Ahead
Some other ways to shape up now and stay buff-looking long into your retirement years:
Shape your core. These foundational muscles — hips, tummy, back — are where it all starts.

First, grab an exercise ball. Using an exercise ball for stomach toning gives you stronger muscles than if you did the exercises on the floor. Plus, you get bonus benefits, like better balance. Now, follow these three easy “Ab Curl” steps:

1. Sit on the exercise ball, feet flat on the floor, knees hip-width apart and bent at a 90-degree angle.

2. Place your hands behind your head, elbows pointed out, and slowly roll back until your mid to lower back rests on the ball.

3. Pull your ribs toward your pelvis to raise your upper back 3 to 4 inches off the ball. Hold for a second and then return your shoulders to the ball. Repeat 10 times.

Your core — the 29 muscles surrounding the middle of your body — is responsible for keeping you stable and strong. Core workouts not only give you firm, flat abs but also help you out-drive your golf group, add aces to your tennis game, kick up your carving quotient when you’re skiing or snowboarding, and make you look better in jeans.

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