16 summer 2019
1
move THE LATEST By Lara McGlashan, MFA, CPT
26.2 Could Be Good for You
— or at least for your blood vessels. Recent research found that fi rst-time
marathoners actually reversed the biological age of their blood vessels.
“Novice runners who trained for six months and completed their fi rst
marathon had a four-year reduction in arterial age and a 4mmHg drop in
systolic blood pressure,” says study author Anish Bhuva, M.D., British Heart
Foundation fellow at University College London, adding that if maintained,
it can translate to a 10 percent lower risk of stroke over a lifetime. Even if
you’re not a big runner, take heart: Lifelong athletes were also shown to have
biologically younger blood vessels and a much lower risk for disease.The number of
workout sessions you
need to do in order to
prevent Alzheimer’s,
according to research
published in the Journal
of the International
Neuropsychological
Society. One 30-minute
workout increased
activation in the parts of
the brain associated with
memory — most notably
in the hippocampus,
which shrinks with age
and is the fi rst part
attacked by Alzheimer’s.
Flex your brain regularly
while you work your body
to easily keep your gray
matter in the pink.Three Minutes
for Memory
According to the British Journal
of Sports Medicine, a morning
bout of exercise combined with
light-intensity walking — so-called
brain breaks — for as few as
three minutes throughout the day
boosted both decision-making
and short-term memory, relative to
uninterrupted sitting. Researchers
found that brain-derived
neurotrophic growth factor, a
protein involved in the survival and
growth of information-transmitting
neurons in the brain, was elevated
for eight hours during both exercise
conditions. Yet another reason to
set your alarm a little earlier this
summer!TRAIN TO MAINTAIN
When it comes to weight-loss
maintenance, exercise takes
the prize over diet, according to
research published in Obesity.
Successful maintenance relies
more on physical activity to
prevent regain and stay in energy
balance rather than chronically
restricting calorie intake. In fact,
study participants maintaining a
loss ate about the same number of
calories as overweight and obese
individuals and were burning
300 calories more per day. Take-
home message: Keep sweating
and you won’t sweat the scale!
Can You
Eat To o
Clean?
Research says yes. A
pathological obsession
with healthy eating
or consuming only
healthy food is known
as orthorexia nervosa.
This preoccupation
can become physically
and socially impairing.
It also often leads
to malnourishment,
makes it diffi cult
to socialize, and is
expensive and time-
consuming. A healthier
way of looking at
nutrition is the 80/
approach: Eat clean 80
percent of the time and
indulge 20 percent of
the time to keep both
your body and brain on
a healthy track.