HEADLINES / TRENDS l STATS l RESEARCH l MEDIA l PEOPLE

July/August 2009

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Finding the Yoga Style
That’s Best For You

More Americans are using yoga to become stronger and more flexible. But like most other fields of physical endeavor, not all types of yoga are suitable for all students. Here’s a quick intro to the various styles of this ancient art.

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Fighting Age With Movement

Of all the factors associated with aging, regular exercise is one of the most controllable—and one of the most neglected. But it does not have to be that way. Physical therapist Randy Raugh, fitness director at über-spa Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona, has distilled 25 years’ worth of experience into Prime for Life: Functional Fitness for Ageless Living (Rodale). Raugh stresses both building exercise into your daily routine and minimizing the pain that can lead to inactivity. Separate chapters on critical body areas—foot and ankle, knee, hip, back and neck, and shoulder—let you build a workout that addresses your own areas of need.

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Easy Cooking With Mariel

In the world of professional foodies, words like “seasonal” and “local” get tossed around like salad ingredients. But there’s often a gap between people who cook for a living and those of us who love to cook well but don’t have all day to shop, prepare and serve our families’ meals.

Mariel Hemingway is an actress, model and mother of two teenagers (and the subject of our ET July/August 2007 cover story) who enjoys spending time in what she describes as a “medium-sized, unpretentious and instantly welcoming” kitchen. Her desire to create tasty, healthy meals without undo fuss is evident in the pages of Mariel’s Kitchen: Simple Ingredients for a Delicious and Satisfying Life (HarperOne). Hemingway bases her 75 recipes on such “pantry essentials” as coconut oil and such readily available produce as onions. She then features foods suited to the seasons in each of four chapters; a winter grass-fed pot roast with wild mushrooms, for example, or summer squash julienned into strips of “linguini.” A seasoning chart for common ingredients is a nice touch (chili powder and corn, anyone?), as are sections on shopping tips, simple entertaining and greening your kitchen.

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Exercise Elation Lasts Longer
Than Thought

Physical activity has long been known to provide a boost in mood for an hour afterward. But that effect may linger much longer, according to a report presented at the American College of Sports Medicine’s annual meeting in May. University of Vermont scientists divided 48 healthy adults into two groups, one that exercised on a stationary bike for 20 minutes and one that didn’t exercise.
The participants reported on their emotional state six times in the subsequent 24 hours; the exercisers reported improved mood for up to 12 hours compared with the control group.

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Vitamin B6 May Cut Colon Cancer Risk

Having higher blood levels of vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) has been linked to a reduced risk for
colorectal cancer, the third most common malignancy in the US. Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School looked at levels of PLP, the active form of vitamin B6, in blood samples given by 14,916 men between 1982 and 1984.

By 2000, 197 of the men had developed colorectal cancer; they were matched with 371 healthy controls by age and smoking status. The cancer risk in individuals with higher PLP levels was
up to 58% less than the risk seen among those with the lowest amounts of PLP. What’s more, high PLP levels were associated with reductions in several inflammation markers.

Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention 4/09

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U P D A T E

Job Loss Linked to
Increased Health RIsks

In our March story “Number Crunch: Surviving a Stressful Economy,” we discussed possible health
consequences of the current recession, the worst economic setback since the Great Depression. So it isn’t surprising that, according to a recent study, employees who lost jobs due to workplace closure were 54% more likely to report being in fair or poor health while their risk of developing a new ailment rose by 83%. What’s worse, these workers were at an increased risk of developing a stress-related illness even if they found other employment. The study, published in the May 8 issue of Demography, was conducted by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health.

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N U M B E R S

Great Expectations?

83
Life expectancy for a child born in Japan in 2007
(number 1 in the world; 14 countries have life expectancies of 81 or older)

78
Life expectancy for a child born in the US

8.1%
2006 health expenditure in Japan as percentage of GDP

15.3%
2006 health expenditure in the US

Source: World Health Organization, World Health Statistics 2009

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S T U D Y

Multivitamins Reduce “Biological Age”

Multivitamins may be able to retard the rate at which cells age, according to a study from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Scientists there looked at telomeres, bits of DNA at the end of chromosomes that shorten as the cell ages and which are known to be affected by oxidative stress. The telomeres came from 586 women between the ages of 35 and 74 who completed questionnaires on their diet and multivitamin use. The telomeres from study participants who took vitamins daily were an average of 5.1% longer than those from women who didn’t take vitamins. Telomere length was particularly linked to the intake of antioxidant vitamins C and E.

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 6/09