Staying Healthy Archive

Celebrities can certainly help raise awareness of health issues, but these stories can't replace medical advice based on your personal situation.

It's having the strength and motor skills to carry out the activities that get you through each day.

You may think of exercise as something you do to keep your heart and lungs healthy or to maintain your weight, and those are great benefits. But exercise is also important to keep you functioning throughout your day, whether you're carrying a laundry basket or playing with your grandkids. The ability to do such ordinary activities is called "functional" fitness, and programs to help people stay functionally fit are a top trend in the exercise world, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.

Yet many older adults aren't aware of this type of exercise program. "It's not on people's radar," says Clare Safran-Norton, clinical supervisor of rehabilitation services at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Ask the doctor

Q. I'm very overweight, and my doctor has been urging me to consider bariatric surgery. I'm worried that, like the diets I've tried, it will work for a while and then stop working. Am I being too cautious?

A. Bariatric surgery involves any of several different surgical procedures on the stomach and intestine designed to reduce the calories your body absorbs from the food you eat. It also helps quell appetite. That's because, in all of us, when our stomach becomes empty following a meal, it starts to make a hormone (called ghrelin) that travels to the brain and stimulates appetite. Bariatric surgery seems to diminish the amount of that hormone.

News briefs

We know sedentary time is bad for us. Previous research has suggested a link between the total amount of time spent sitting each day and health problems or even early death. Now, an observational study published online Sept. 12, 2017, by Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that it also matters how many minutes at a time you spend sitting in an office chair or lounging on a couch. Researchers looked at the health and activity of about 8,000 men and women (ages 45 or older) who wore activity trackers for a week, and then they followed the participants for four years. Sitting for 30, 60, or 90 minutes at a time was associated with the greatest risk for death if sedentary time was more than 12 or 13 hours per day. Sitting less than 30 minutes at a time was associated with a lower risk of death during the follow-up period, regardless of the total amount of inactivity for the day. But study authors point out that an inactive lifestyle is hazardous no matter how you rack up sedentary time. The takeaway: Study authors say their findings support guidelines that recommend we all get up and move every 30 minutes.

Image: © Shalom Ormsby/Thinkstock

News briefs

Brace yourself for confusion when looking at food labels. The FDA is delaying the launch of its new Nutrition Facts label, which features clearer serving sizes, a new line for added sugars, and the actual amounts of vitamins and minerals (not just percentages of Daily Values). Large food makers were supposed to start using the updated design by July 2018, and smaller companies had until July 2019. Now the FDA is extending the deadlines to January 2020 and January 2021, respectively. The FDA says the extra time will give the agency a chance to lend guidance to manufacturers. But some food makers have already rolled out the new label on their products. This means consumers will see two different types of nutrition labels for years to come, which could be confusing. "Ironically, however, remember that fresh whole foods that don't have a label — especially fruits and vegetables — may be your wisest choice," says registered dietitian Kathy McManus, director of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Losing the desire to eat can lead to many health problems, but there are ways to make mealtime more inspiring.

Remember when you could eat almost anything, lack of hunger was never an issue, and meals were a high point of your day? But now, perhaps not so much. What has changed?

"It's common for your appetite to diminish as you age, but the problem is that this can keep you from getting enough of the vital nutrients you need and can contribute to poor health," says Vasanti Malik, a nutrition research scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Knowing your heart rate zone reminds you to maintain a proper level of exercise intensity.

 Image: © ninikas/Thinkstock

Are you working hard during exercise — or hardly working?

Guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week. But "moderate intensity" can vary per person. What is an effort to one person can be easy to another.

Foam rollers are easy-to-use fitness tools that can soothe pain, quicken recovery from exercise, and reduce injury.

As you age, occasional muscle soreness can become part of daily life, but if those aches and pains slow you down, you may find relief from a foam roller — a small, lightweight cylinder of compressed foam.

"A foam rolling routine is a simple way to keep your muscles loose and healthy, so you can stay more mobile and active," says physical therapist Erin Krey, clinical specialist with Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.