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ScienceDaily (Mar. 10, 2011) — Man's best friend may provide more than just faithful companionship: A new study led by a Michigan State University researcher shows people who owned and walked their dogs were 34 percent more likely to meet federal benchmarks on physical activity. The results, said epidemiologist Mathew Reeves, show that promoting dog ownership and dog walking could help many Americans -- of which fewer than half meet recommended levels of leisure-time physical activity -- become healthier. "Walking is the most accessible form of physical activity available to people," Reeves said. "What we wanted to know was if...

Michael Strautmanis had no sooner started his White House job as a deputy assistant to the president when his boss began badgering him. "Am I working out? Am I eating right?'' Strautmanis recalled President Obama asking. "And then he told me that I should use his trainer.'' The very fit president has sent other White House aides to Cornell McClellan, the trainer, a genial master tormenter who is the secret weapon behind Michelle Obama's famously toned arms and who has overseen both Obamas' exercise programs for more than a decade. Strautmanis made one — and only one — appointment with...

America’s first lady is hell bent on fighting the obesity epidemic. For now it is focused on the nation’s children. She has interfered in school lunch and snack programs, and has even gotten one of the largest companies in the world, Wal-Mart, to comply with her plea to sell foods with less sugar and salt. In a Daily Caller op-ed, Orit Sklar, spokeswoman for My food. My Choice! wrote, “Now, one of the largest companies in the world is the vehicle through which all American food and health policy will flow. As Wal-Mart begins to institute the five-year plan, aimed...

Famous fitness guru Jack LaLanne died yesterday, Sunday Jan 23, 2011 in Morro Bay, California at the age of 96. Jack LaLanne was the son of French immigrants, born in San Francisco, California on September 26, 1914. So he was actually 96.3 years old. Not bad considering the average age of death in the United States is now 78.3 yrs, and man's years may now be limited to 120 according to the Bible. (Genesis 6:3) Jack LaLanne's life was changed at age 15 when he heard Paul Bragg speak about health and nutrition in Oakland, California. Jack went so far...

<p>Jack LaLanne, the fitness guru who inspired television viewers to trim down, eat well and pump iron for decades before diet and exercise became a national obsession, died on Sunday. He was 96.</p> <p>LaLanne died of respiratory failure due to pneumonia Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay on California's central coast, his longtime agent Rick Hersh said.</p>

You might catch one late at night as you devour that leftover moo shu pork with a beer, watching TV in your underwear. The P90X infomercial. It's a guilt-inducing display in which a smiling 50-year-old man and several young cohorts, all rippling muscles and enthusiasm, knock out a couple of choice moves from what appears to be a scary-hard workout. That's followed by “regular” people vouching for the effectiveness of the workout, showing off their own pale, moo shu-ravaged bodies in pictures labeled “before,” and their newly rippling abs and rocky arms under “after.”

I am curious if any freepers are doing the P90X fitness program....i have to say that it is an excellent system...chime in if you like....would be interested in your experience or maybe questions.

CHAMPAIGN, lll. – Researchers have found an association between physical fitness and the brain in 9- and 10-year-old children: Those who are more fit tend to have a bigger hippocampus and perform better on a test of memory than their less-fit peers. The new study, which used magnetic resonance imaging to measure the relative size of specific structures in the brains of 49 child subjects, appears in the journal Brain Research. “This is the first study I know of that has used MRI measures to look at differences in brain between kids who are fit and kids who aren’t fit,”...

Mark Trahanovsky likes the way the world looks from the top floor of some very tall buildings. He's been to the top of the Sears Tower in Chicago a few times, and is a big fan of the 63-floor Aon Center in Los Angeles. The thing is, when Trahanovsky visits skyscrapers across the country, the 51-year-old Yorba Linda resident only believes in taking the elevator down. Trahanovsky competes in the growing sport of stair climbing. In fact, he is ranked no. 27, among male stair climbers in the world and climbed the Willis (Sears) Tower in 16:46 minutes in 2008....

Hitting the gym every day might do little to decrease your risk of death if you spend the rest of your time sitting down, a new study suggests. The results show the time people spend on their derrieres is associated with an increased risk of mortality, regardless of their physical activity level. Women who reported more than six hours per day of sitting (outside of work) were 37 percent more likely to die during the time period studied than those who sat fewer than three hours a day. Men who sat more than six hours a day (also outside of...

Russia’s N. Korean Refugee Drill JULY 07, 2010 11:21 Russia conducted over the weekend an emergency drill to respond to a massive inflow of North Korean refugees in the settlement of Khasan, Primorsky Krai. Russian soldiers played the role of refugees and others set up camps and provided food and medical supplies. The drill was the second of its kind following one in August 2003. Moscow apparently believes that a contingency could erupt at any time due to internal instability in North Korea. The drill was part of Vostok 2010, a military maneuver conducted by the Russian armed forces, that...

A mathematical model suggests that aggressively pursuing low blood pressure and cholesterol levels may not benefit, and could even harm, some patients with diabetes, according to a report in the June 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Almost all treatment guidelines for patients with diabetes suggest aggressively treating high low-density lipoprotein (LDL or "bad" cholesterol) and blood pressure levels to reduce patients' risk of developing heart disease, according to background information in the article. "These recommendations, which are based on the average results of trials evaluating the relative benefits of intensive risk factor control,...

(June 23) -- When most people get in line at Orlando, Fla.'s new Harry Potter theme park, they're worried about the wait -- not their weight. But according to some Harry Potter lovers, pudgy muggles -- those who weigh about 265 pounds or more -- are getting tossed from line at the most-hyped ride in Universal Studios' Wizarding World of Harry Potter amusement park. For them, the ride "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" is truly living up to its name -- and that's a big disappointment for fans who resemble Harry's rotund cousin Dudley. Harry Potter fanatic Jeff Guillaume...

This week President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order establishing the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council. The task of this council will be to monitor the nation’s health and prescribe the behavior modifications needed to ensure optimal health. “Now that the federal government has taken on the responsibility of ensuring that all persons residing in America will have health insurance it is only fitting that we take aggressive steps to control the cost of this undertaking,” the President said. “We all know that bad habits are the major cause of preventable illnesses. Individuals who are unable to...

BOSTON — The word “Paleolithic” might evoke images from the 1980s film “Quest for Fire” — or, more recently, the scruffy cavemen in those Geico commercials. But Nate Rosenberg says going back in time to eat like a Neanderthal doesn’t make him one. “It’s obviously not a reenactment of Paleolithic life,” Rosenberg says. The 27-year-old foraged through his contemporary kitchen in the cute Somerville apartment he shares with his Paleo partner Michal Naisteter. “We eat modern foods,” he says. “In the Paleolithic era they did not have ground beef or, you know, dried oregano from Whole Foods and stuff life...

A few months back, the commander in chief of our Armed Forces, that erstwhile community organizer Barack Hussein Obama, denigrated a large cross section of Americans who identify with the Tea Party movement -- those who advocate for Essential Liberty and Rule of Law. Obama identified them as malcontents, "waving their little tea bags." Since then, the Obama administration and their Leftmedia sycophants have endeavored to characterize Tea Party attendees as rude, radical, racist, redneck, enemies of the state. They have attempted to tie high-profile acts of violence against the government to the Tea Party, including the pilot who crashed...

Traditional treatments of cognitive behavioral therapy and pharmacotherapy don't reach everyoneExercise is a magic drug for many people with depression and anxiety disorders, and it should be more widely prescribed by mental health care providers, according to researchers who analyzed the results of numerous published studies. "Exercise has been shown to have tremendous benefits for mental health," says Jasper Smits, director of the Anxiety Research and Treatment Program at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "The more therapists who are trained in exercise therapy, the better off patients will be." Smits and Michael Otto, psychology professor at Boston University, based their...

Losing weight is difficult, and keeping it off may be even harder. So Harvard researchers set out to determine exactly how much physical activity women need in midlife to avoid gaining weight as they age. The researchers found that an hour of moderate activity a day — including such recreational activities as brisk walking, leisurely bicycling, ballroom dancing and playing with children — prevented women of normal weight from gaining more than five pounds over any three-year period. Half that amount of vigorous activity, like running, jogging or fast biking, will do the trick as well, they said. Women who...

"5 Simple Wellness Strategies Sometimes Simple is Best" Posted: Tuesday, March 9, 2010 BRYAN FASS Fitness Contributor Officer.com SNIPPET: "This month, as we rapidly roll into the holiday season I thought it would be a good idea to start thinking about our wellness. As the weather got colder and most of us became less active out doors the pounds slowly began to sneak on and we slowly become more sedentary. As I have been fond of saying year after year, now that it is officially spring, SUMMER IS COMING. So instead of going into a tirade on fitness and nutrition,...

Michelle Obama Plays Football First lady Michelle Obama took to the pitch with a group of children to encourage them to exercise regularly. 05 Mar 2010 US first lady Michelle Obama kicks a ball as she attends a free soccer clinic Photo: REUTERS Mrs Obama's participation in a football clinic in Washington coincided with the announcement of a new partnership between the US Soccer Foundation and the National Alliance for Hispanic Health. The groups are launching a 25-city tour to provide children and their families with free health screenings and soccer clinics. The scheme is part of the first lady's...