November 12, 2012 Clippings

Kids need 7 mins of exercise daily

Children need only seven minutes of exercise a day to stay fit, according to new research.

"If you watch late-night television, or look in the backs of magazines, you''ll see magical ads saying you need just 10 minutes a day or five minutes a day of exercise to stay fit. And for those of us in the medical field, we just rolled our eyes at that. But surprisingly, they may actually be right and that''s what this research shows," says co-principal investigator Richard Lewanczuk, a researcher with the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta.

"Our research showed children don''t need a lot of intense physical activity to get the health benefits of exercise - seven minutes or more of vigorous physical activity was all that was required. But the seven minutes had to be intense to prevent weight gain, obesity and its adverse health consequences. And most kids weren't getting that."

More than 600 children, between the ages of nine to 17 from Leduc and surrounding areas, wore monitors that tracked their physical activity levels for seven days. These children also had their weight, waist circumference and blood pressure regularly monitored.

Researchers reviewed the data and determined the children spent almost 70 per cent of their time doing sedentary activities; nearly 23 per cent was devoted to light physical activity; almost seven per cent to moderate physical activity and 0.6 per cent to vigorous physical activity.

Overall, boys were less sedentary than girls. And the more vigorous the physical activity, the less apt the children were to be overweight.

Children who were overweight had improved fitness levels and shrinking waist lines when they increased the amount of time spent doing vigorous activities.

"This research tells us that a brisk walk isn''t good enough," says Lewanczuk, a professor in the Department of Medicine who has been studying this topic for eight years.

"Kids have to get out and do a high-intensity activity in addition to maintaining a background of mild to moderate activity. There''s a strong correlation between obesity, fitness and activity. Activity and fitness is linked to a reduction in obesity and good health outcomes," he added.

The study was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

12.11.2012

Dengue affects LPG cylinder delivery too

Dengue is causing a peculiar problem for residents and LPG agencies in the Wakad area. While most of mthe LPG agency delivery men have taken ill due to the mosquito menace, the agencies do not want to take chances in view of the spread of dengue and are granting them leaves. This has affected the schedule of LPG delivery to consumers.

A visit to Ratan Gas Agency in Wakad highlighted this. A huge crowd of consumers had gathered there to collect the cylinders from the agency personally, as they have not received the delivery for more than a month.

When the agency owners were asked about the delay. Agency owner Anita Kamble said, “Though we have enough supply of gas cylinders, we are facing a crunch in manpower. Most of the men have taken ill showing symptoms like dengue and are on leave.

That has slowed down the delivery process resulting in a huge backlog. We are expecting to overcome this in the next 10 days.”

She added, “We are concerned about our delivery men’s health. With this dangerous fever spreading about, I am worried about them. I have 25 vehicles for distribution with 25 delivery men and a helper to go with every vehicle.”

The HM Gas Agency in Sangvi too, is facing the same dilemma.

Agency partner Anil Mehta said, “The workload has increased considerably over the last 20 days, as many staffers have taken ill. Today, three of the delivery men called in sick. In addition to the regular business, the government has added the load of KYC (know your customer), for which I have outsourced the work and employed 16 members to finish the work in time.”

Source: www.dnaindia.com

12.11.2012

Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength

Erich Hoffer