Exercising once a week is enough
Going for a brisk walk or bike ride at the weekend can make up for sitting around the office all week, according to new research. People who managed 150 minutes exercise on one or two days of the week were just as healthy as others doing the same amount stretched over a longer period, a new study shows.
Dr Ian Janssen, of Queen’s University, Toronto, said: “The findings indicate it does not matter how adults choose to accumulate their 150 weekly minutes of physical activity.”
Current guidelines recommend adults perform moderate to vigorous physical activity on most or all days of the week for a total of 150 minutes but does not advise when this must be done.
Weight loss improves one’s memory
Swedish researchers found that older, overweight women who dieted went on to score better in memory tests after they had lost weight.
Previous studies had shown that obese people have worse episodic memory — the ability to remember events that happen during your life — but the new findings suggest this may be reversible, the scientists said.
Andreas Pettersson, a medical doctor and PhD student at Umea University, assigned 20 overweight women with an average age of 61 to six-month diets. Before and after dieting, the women’s episodic memory was tested. The women’s performance on the test improved after they lost weight, and brain scans taken during the exercise suggested that they had become more efficient at storing and recalling memories.
Trivial anger a result of ‘modern’ life
Whereas people’s energies were once focussed on keeping a roof over their head and food on their plate, most 21st century Westerners have no concerns about their basic needs. Our comfortable lifestyles may have spoiled us and boosted our expectations to the point where anything short of perfect causes us to act like petulant children, Dr Sandi Mann said.
Consciously challenging ourselves by questioning whether things that make our blood boil are actually threatening our survival could help “rein the anger in” and take a more relaxed attitude, she claimed. In an article in Reader’s Digest, Dr Mann, a senior lecturer at the University of Central lancashire’s school of psychology, wrote that anger was once key to our survival but has now become targeted at trivial annoyances.