4 February, 2015

Jogging fast could do more harm than good: Research

Just an hour of slow running per week could bolster your chances of living long. ‘If your goal is to decrease risk of death and improve life expectancy, jogging a few times a week at a moderate pace is a good strategy. Anything more is not just unnecessary, it may be harmful,’ said Peter Schnohr, researcher at the Frederiksberg Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Jogging from one to 2.4 hours per week was associated with the lowest mortality rates and the optimal frequency of jogging was no more than three times per week. The researchers looked at 5,048 participants in the Copenhagen City Heart Study and questioned them about their activity. They identified and tracked 1,098 healthy joggers and 413 healthy but sedentary non-joggers for 12 years.

While strenuous joggers were as likely to die as sedentary non-joggers, light joggers had the lowest rates of death, the findings showed. ‘It is important to emphasize that the pace of the slow joggers corresponds to vigorous exercise and strenuous jogging corresponds to very vigorous exercise,’ Schnohr said. ‘When performed for decades, this activity level could pose health risks, especially to the cardiovascular system,’ Schnohr added. The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

04.02.2015

Switch off WhatsApp for healthy sleep

 The more your teenage son chats on Facebook during the sleep hours, more he or she is at an increased risk of sleep problems and depressive symptoms, finds a study. Researchers from University of Basel in Switzerland analysed more than 300 students and found that that teenagers who own smartphones spend more time online – also during the night which may affect their sleep.

‘Due to wireless internet connections and cheap flat rates, teenagers with smartphones spend more time online and communicate with their peers for less money – for example via WhatsApp – which has changed their digital media use pattern profoundly,’ they noticed. The results showed that during weekdays, teenagers with smartphones spent more time on the internet than their peers with conventional mobile phones; on average two hours compared to one hour. In addition, they wrote more text messages daily – on average 85 messages compared to seven messages.

A particularly noticeable difference was found for the time when the teenagers were in their beds at night. Only 17 percent of smartphone owners switched their devices off or put them on silent during the night compared to 47 percent of the teenagers with conventional mobile phones. Moreover, teenagers with smartphones indicated to watch videos, to be online, and to text with friends more often during the night than their counterparts with conventional mobile phones. ‘Most importantly, teenagers who used digital media at night had an increased risk for poor sleep and depressive symptoms,’ the team said.

The researchers recommend that teenagers who suffer from sleep disorders or severe daytime tiredness to switch their digital media devices off at least one hour before bedtime. The findings were published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.  

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

04.02.2015

A minute's success pays the failure of years

Robert Browning