February 6th, 2012
Some people may enjoy exercising before breakfast but it’s actually a bad time to try to get your body moving with strenuous activity.
Why? Because after fasting all night and lying mainly in one position for hours, it’s like asking your body to perform like a sports car without putting any gas in the tank. It’s a much better idea to boost your energy levels with a healthy breakfast before exercising so there is some fuel to call on.
A recent study by the University of South Carolina found that swimmers who raced at different times of the day performed worse in the early morning up to 8:00am and best in the evening. In fact, evening exercise has the extra benefit of replacing typically sedentary night-time activities such as watching TV and surfing the Internet.
But a really crucial factor in exercise is regularity. So it’s best to pick a time with the fewest distractions.
That may end up meaning early morning for some people because it’s the only time they can guarantee not skipping an exercise session by being asked to help with a child’s homework or having to stay late at the office.
Regular exercise combined with a balanced, nutritious PCOS diet can help reverse an underlying cause of excess weight and obesity, namely the imbalance of blood glucose and insulin called Insulin Resistance. This latter condition decreases insulin sensitivity. By reversing Insulin Resistance, it is possible to facilitate Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome weight loss.
February 3rd, 2012
Obese women are 70% more likely to develop pancreatic cancer if they carry most of their extra weight around the stomach area, according to new research.
The findings are among the first evidence that the link between obesity and pancreatic cancer is as strong in obese women as in men, Dr. Juhua Luo of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute reported in the British Journal of Cancer.
“We found that the risk of developing pancreatic cancer was significantly raised in obese post-menopausal women who carry most of their excess weight around the stomach,” said Dr. Luo.
Pancreatic cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Though it accounts for only about 2% of the cancers diagnosed each year, the first-year survival rate is less than 5%, according to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Until now, smoking and chronic pancreatitis were the most well-established risk factors for the disease in men and women, with much of the evidence also pointing to a stronger obesity link for men.
As part of a large study known as the Women’s Health Initiative, researchers followed more than 138,000 menopausal women in the U.S. for more than seven years to investigate the links between obesity and pancreatic cancer. They found that 251 women developed the disease.
Of these, 78 had the highest waist-to-hip ratios. After factoring in other risk factors, this was 70% more than the 34 women with the lowest excess stomach weight who developed pancreatic cancer. The findings also suggest that
a) excess weight around the stomach may better predict the disease than the traditional Body Mass Index ( BMI) measurement for obesity.
b) obesity could increase the risk of pancreatic cancer by affecting insulin levels, with Type 2 Diabetes also playing a role.
A balanced, nutritious PCOS diet combined with regular exercise can help reverse an underlying cause of excess weight and obesity, namely the imbalance of blood glucose and insulin called Insulin Resistance. This latter condition decreases insulin sensitivity. By reversing Insulin Resistance, it is possible to facilitate PCOS weight loss.
February 2nd, 2012
People who go for intense workouts over fairly long periods of time often fare less well at avoiding serious conditions than those who opt for more moderate exercise, according to a new study. However, length and intensity of exercise can also bring their own rewards.
Researchers at Duke University found that individuals who followed a relatively gentle exercise regime such as 30 minutes of daily walking had more success at reducing a significant risk factor for heart disease and Diabetes, namely levels of fat in the blood called triglycerides. The benefits also lingered longer.
The study team said they were “amazed” to discover that not only did triglycerides drop more with moderate but continuous exercise compared to intense workouts but also the levels stayed low even two weeks after the gentler exercise ended.
On the other hand, levels of HDL “good” cholesterol tended to improve with the length and intensity of the workout, with the benefits “sustained over time.” The higher the levels of HDL cholesterol, the less the chance of a heart attack or stroke.
One possible conclusion to draw from the research is that people should check their cholesterol levels, including LDL “bad” cholesterol, with their doctor and tailor the intensity and duration of their workouts to focus on specific problems.
A balanced, nutritious PCOS diet combined with regular exercise can help reverse an underlying cause of excess weight and obesity, namely the imbalance of blood glucose and insulin called Insulin Resistance, which decreases insulin sensitivity. By reversing Insulin Resistance, it is possible to facilitate PCOS weight loss.
January 27th, 2012
The excess weight that some people with PCOS carry around their middles could be making them fatter than ever, researchers have discovered.
A Canadian team found abdominal fat tissue produces a hormone called NPY, which also prompts the development of cells that turn into fat. High levels of NPY in the brain produce constant feelings of hunger.
Abdominal fat is known to be the most dangerous form of excess weight because it increases the risk of Pre- and Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
The researchers, from Lawson Health Research Institute linked to the University of Western Ontario, carried out tests on rats which showed that abdominal fat, as well as the brain, produces NPY – also called Neuropeptide Y. It is thought that excessive production of NPY in the brain is one of the main reasons why overweight people eat more food than they should.
But the scientists found NPY in abdominal tissues increases fat cell numbers by stimulating the replication of fat cell precursor cells, which then change into fat cells.
Lead researcher Dr Kaiping Yang said: “This may lead to a vicious cycle where NPY produced in the brain causes you to eat more and therefore gain more fat around your middle – and then that fat produces more NPY hormone which leads to even more fat cells.”
The team will now look at whether NPY produced in the abdomen is released into the body’s circulatory system and therefore affects hunger messages in the brain.
