physical activity

Last week in Moscow, the World Health Organization and Russian Federation held the First Global Ministerial Conference on Healthy Lifestyles and Noncommunicable Disease Control, which addressed the "slow-motion catastrophe" of rising rates of non-communicable illnesses like heart disease and diabetes. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan warned that diabetes rates have skyrocketed in both rich and poor countries, but in poor countries "health services are almost totally unprepared to cope with the onslaught of chronic demands that come with the rise of non-communicable diseases." As the WHO…
A few months ago, Travis Saunders wrote at the Scientific American Guest Blog about the dangers of excessive sitting. He warned that those of us who faithfully log our exercise hours might still be at an increased risk of negative health effects if we spend too many hours sitting at a desk or lounging on the couch. This isn't just because sitting burns fewer calories than walking or standing, but because sedentary behavior is associated with changes in triglyceride uptake, HDL cholesterol, and insulin resistance. (Go read the whole thing.) Now, the New York Times Magazine is taking on the…
Yesterday I mentioned sewer systems as an indispensable part of urban infrastructure, and today I want to focus on the more visible issue of transportation. The efficiency with which people and goods move into and within cities has a huge impact on both energy use and air quality. And the availability of non-driving modes of transportation can improve people's lives in a lot of ways. I read a few blogs that address transportation issues (Greater Greater Washington is indispensible for DC-area transportation nerds), and I'd like to address an assumption that I see a lot of commenters making:…
As we try to figure out how to curb an unhealthy increase in obesity, one of the factors under consideration is the built environment. Those who in live in places where few destinations are within walking/biking distance, public transit is limited, and the environment is unfriendly to pedestrians and cyclists may find it harder to get the recommended amount of physical activity. Studying the built environment's effect on obesity is challenging, though. People who live in pedestrian-friendly areas with good public transit may be more likely to get enough activity and less likely to be obese…
Image by shanevaughn Today is the first day of summer vacation here in Ontario, and I assume that the summer break has begun in most other parts of North America as well.  That means that millions of kids are looking at 8 gloriously school-free weeks in July and August.  Now while physical activity promotion folks like myself would hope that all of these kids are going to spend their summer outside being physically active, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that that is not the case for most kids.  Since these are kids, parents obviously have a huge amount of control over the way they…
Image by pugetsoundphotowalks. Apologies in advance for a very Warning - a proudly Canada-centric post today.  First, a bit of background - we Canadians pay two kinds of sales tax. The goods and services tax (5%) which is consistent across Canada, in addition to provincial sales taxes that varies from location to location (with the exception of Alberta, which has no provincial sales tax at all).  If I understand it correctly, neither the PST nor GST applies to all purchases (for example basic groceries are exempt from both, while in Ontario gym fees are exempt only from the PST).  Ontario…
One of the most interesting things about exercise is that it results in important health improvements even in the absence of weight loss.  For example, just a single session of exercise can result in improved insulin sensitivity, increased levels of HDL cholesterol (aka the "good" cholesterol) and reductions in plasma triglyceride levels - all tremendously important markers of disease risk.  In addition to these metabolic changes, new research by our friend and former labmate Lance Davidson suggests once-again that exercise can also prevent the accumulation of abdominal fat, independent of…
Image by MikeBaird. Last week ParticipACTION and the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP) released recommendations for updated Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines.  The previous guidelines were released between 1998 and 2002, and although they were based on the best research available at the time, from what I understand there simply wasn't a tremendous amount of evidence to draw on in some situations.  Since then there have been a number of advances in physical activity research, allowing for the creation of updated, and increasingly evidence-based guidelines.  The guidelines…
The Toronto Charter for Physical Activity As many of you know, I spent last week attending the 3rd International Congress on Physical Activity and Public.  It. Was. Awesome!  I've been to 5-6 conferences since I started grad school in 2006, and they've all been good experiences, but this one was by far the best.  And of the more seasoned researchers that I've spoken to, they all seem to rank it among the best they've attended as well.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to liveblog the conference as I'd hoped (the wifi was pricier than I'd expected) so I thought I'd recap my experiences here…
 Image by Randy Son of Robert. I love simple physical activity interventions.  We all know that physical activity is a good thing, and yet it can be really difficult for people to increase their physical activity levels, especially over the long-term.  So it's exciting whenever any intervention is shown to be effective, but even more so when it is simple.  And an intervention that is both simple and inexpensive is pure gold.  I wrote about one such intervention a few weeks ago, when I described a British study that showed that simply painting lines on a school-yard playground resulted in a…
 Image by Jespahjoy. Just before moving to our new home here on Scienceblogs, I asked our readers for ideas on what types of content they would like to see here on Obesity Panacea.  One topic that came up several times was the issue of injuries.  I'm not sure why we haven't discussed injuries in the past (aside from the fact that it's not the focus of our research), but it was a great idea, and I've come across a study on the topic that I think will be of real interest.  The study is titled "The influence of exercise and BMI on injuries and illnesses in overweight and obese individuals: a…
Over the next few months, Peter and I will be re-posting some of our favourite posts from our Obesity Panacea archives.  The following article was originally posted on December 2, 2009. Image by Mike Baird. There is a surprising amount of controversy about the ability of physical activity to prevent the development of obesity. Sure, obese individuals tend to perform less physical activity than their lean counterparts, but that doesn't prove causation. And almost every week it seems that there is a news story reporting that the obesity epidemic is caused by diet. Period. If you believe…
Image by atomicjeep I came across a very interesting article in the Ottawa Citizen this weekend, unpleasantly titled "For Canada's obese, exercise alone isn't going to cut it". The crux of the article is this - exercise will not help you lose weight. Every few months it seems that this issue pops up, including a cover article in TIME magazine last year, which Peter has previously dissected. This is a complicated issue, and given the sensational title, I wasn't expecting much from the Citizen article. But the article is actually very well written, and includes interviews with a number…
Photo by pugetsoundphotowalks. Regardless of your shape or size, physical activity has been shown to add years to your life, and life to your years. But believe it or not, the benefits of physical activity are not restricted to exercise performed in the gym. In fact, one of the easiest ways to improve your health may be through increasing the amount of low intensity physical activity you perform throughout the day. For example, simply increasing the number of steps that you take each day is very likely to reduce your risk for diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It's still…