Health News
???"Physical activity and muscle strength seem to contribute to everything from better memory to disease prevention. For example, even moderate exercise can help Type 2 diabetes, which has become epidemic among overweight Kentuckians. Muscles store most of the body's insulin." The center's director, Karyn Karyn Esser, told Eblen, "When you exercise and make muscles work, it creates a separate path for absorbing glucose." (Eblen photo: Caitlyn Kerins demonstrated equipment for measuring muscle control as faculty member Patrick McKeon watched.)
- Diabetes Is An Epidemic And Needs To Be Treated Like One, With A Public-health Approach, Lexington Policy Experts Say In New Book
Diabetes is often called an epidemic, but is not treated as such. Two Lexington health policy experts argue in a new book that this has to change, Tom Eblen reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. The Great Diabetes Epidemic: A Manifesto for Control...
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Tylenol and rest as a cure for back pain is a thing of the past, instead the preferred treatment is to keep moving, according to a news release from the Saint Louis University Medical Center. Seventy-five percent of people experience at least one episode...
- Most Overweight Diabetics Don't Know How Much To Exercise For Weight Loss, And They Don't Exercise Enough
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Many overweight people with diabetes don't exercise enough for weight loss, and they also don't have a clear understanding of the recommended amount of exercise, according to a study reported by...
- Mayo Clinic Experts Offer Advice On Preventing And Coping With Osteoarthritis, Especially In The Knees
Experts from the Mayo Clinic offer tips for both those trying to prevent and those suffering from a painful condition that affects at least 27 million Americans: osteoarthritis. It is the most common form of arthritis, which most almost everyone...
- Are You Exercising Enough?
by Dr. Madelyn Fernstrom When it comes to physical activity, there?s a lot of confusion about what the ?right? amount is to support good health. It?s time to set the record straight! Guidelines for daily physical activity are translated from scientific...
Health News
UK center probes the science of muscles and exercise
Exercise is good for you. But it's not that simple. "Doctors and scientists have a lot of questions about why exercise is so beneficial, how muscles work and the role muscle strength plays in overall health," columnist Tom Eblen writes on the front page of today's Lexington Herald-Leader, and reports that some of those questions are being addressed by the University of Kentucky Center for Muscle Biology, which was created three years ago. "With outside grants of more than $12 million, center researchers are looking at everything from injury prevention in young athletes to rehabilitation for elderly stroke patients," he writes.
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Two researchers are studying how to strengthen diaphragm muscles, which are essential in breathing, "to help patients get off ventilators. It is a huge problem: about 60,000 Americans are on ventilators at any given time, and it costs billions of dollars to care for them," Eblen writes. "The longer most people are on a ventilator, the more likely they are to die." And "muscle weakness is the main culprit in about 70 percent of ventilator patients." Other researchers are investigating why lifting weights can improve memory in the elderly, why certain patients lose muscle strength soon after being hospitalized, how injuries caused by repetitive motion can be avoided, and exactly how massage and ice help repair and strengthen muscles.
Eblen, who took up bicycling at 35 to lose weight and is still an enthusiast in his mid-50s, is writing a lot lately about exercise in response to Lexington's designation by Men's Health magazine as the nation's most sedentary city. And the center's Esther Dupont-Versteegden is even researching inactivity: "We know that people feel better when they exercise regularly, but why is that?" she asked. "What is inactivity doing to people?" (Read more)
- Diabetes Is An Epidemic And Needs To Be Treated Like One, With A Public-health Approach, Lexington Policy Experts Say In New Book
Diabetes is often called an epidemic, but is not treated as such. Two Lexington health policy experts argue in a new book that this has to change, Tom Eblen reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. The Great Diabetes Epidemic: A Manifesto for Control...
- Study Finds Tylenol And Rest Not Best Remedy For An Aching Back; Movement, Breathing And A Strong Body Is The Answer
Tylenol and rest as a cure for back pain is a thing of the past, instead the preferred treatment is to keep moving, according to a news release from the Saint Louis University Medical Center. Seventy-five percent of people experience at least one episode...
- Most Overweight Diabetics Don't Know How Much To Exercise For Weight Loss, And They Don't Exercise Enough
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Many overweight people with diabetes don't exercise enough for weight loss, and they also don't have a clear understanding of the recommended amount of exercise, according to a study reported by...
- Mayo Clinic Experts Offer Advice On Preventing And Coping With Osteoarthritis, Especially In The Knees
Experts from the Mayo Clinic offer tips for both those trying to prevent and those suffering from a painful condition that affects at least 27 million Americans: osteoarthritis. It is the most common form of arthritis, which most almost everyone...
- Are You Exercising Enough?
by Dr. Madelyn Fernstrom When it comes to physical activity, there?s a lot of confusion about what the ?right? amount is to support good health. It?s time to set the record straight! Guidelines for daily physical activity are translated from scientific...