Skip to content

Wellness

BlogHer: Through My Lens

Health. When you hear that word, what comes to mind? What about when someone says, โ€œIโ€™m living a healthy lifestyle?โ€ What does that mean to you? What does it mean to the world? Today, when celery cleanses and keto diets are all the rage, it appears the meaning of health is directly related to oneโ€™s waistline. However, โ€œhealth,โ€ as defined by the World Health Organization, is โ€œa state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmityโ€ (WHO 2019).

Muscle Mass as a New Vital Sign

Fitness professionals understand the importance of building and maintaining lean body mass for functional mobility and health. New research shows that medical professionals should also be promoting this message to their patients. โ€œMuscle mass should be looked at as a new vital sign,โ€ said principal investigator Carla Prado, PhD, RD, associate professor at the University of Alberta, Canada. โ€œIf healthcare professionals identify and treat low muscle mass, they can significantly improve their patientsโ€™ health outcomes.

Feeling Blue? Eating More Fiber Could Help

Lifting your spirits might be as easy as adding more beans and other fiber-rich foods to your plate. A study published in the journal Nutrition in October 2018 found that people who reported eating the most fiber overall (including from cereal grains, vegetables and fruits) had fewer depressive symptoms. The data came from 16,807 American adults enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

Exercise Is Good for Mental Health

STUDY REVIEWED: Chekroud, S.R., et al. 2018. Association between physical exercise and mental health in 1.2 million individuals in the USA between 2011 and 2015: A cross-sectional study. Lancet Psychiatry, 5 (9), 739โ€“46.

Exercise has proven benefits for improving physical health. But what about mental health? For starters, active people are nearly 45% less likely to have depressive symptoms than inactive people (Booth, Roberts & Laye 2012). But a deeper look at the connections between exercise and mental health raises complicated questions:

Wonder Women

CLIENT: Kim Emery | PERSONAL TRAINER: Tanya Roark | LOCATION: Balance Health + Fitness, Sarasota, Florida

โ€œSheโ€™s the real Wonder Woman,โ€ says Tanya Roark, an ACE-certified personal trainer, speaking of her client Kim Emery, โ€œone of the most amazing women you could ever meet.โ€

Dig a little, and youโ€™ll find there are really two superheroes in this storyโ€”a client overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds and a trainer willing to power through to help that client reach her goals.

The Confidence-First Approach to Weight Loss

Benefiting from family ties. When 20-year-old Erick first met Ethan Kopsch, NASM-certified personal trainer and owner of Bird Rock Fit in La Jolla, California, Erick was less than eager to start a training program. Kopsch had been training Erickโ€™s mom for some time, and she was so pleased with her progress that she encouraged Erick and her daughter, Michelle, to work with the trainer.

Integrated Wellness Programs Create Fitness Opportunities

With 28% of employers offering workplace fitness competitions and challenges, according to the Society for Human Resource Managementโ€™s 2017 Employee Benefits report, corporate wellness programs continue to supply good news for fitness professionals.

Employers are encouraging people to be more active because research has shown that sitting for long periods of time is associated with negative health outcomes like obesity, heart disease and an increased risk of earlier death.

Stay Strong to Increase Longevity

Hereโ€™s more motivation to stay on top of your functional strength training program. Researchers from China and Indiana University analyzed data from 4,449 older adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and found that older people with low muscle strength had more than twice the risk of dying during the study than those with normal muscle strength.

Dehydration Impairs Cognitive Performance

Keep reminding clients to drink plenty of fluids. New research shows that cognitive abilitiesโ€”attention, coordination, complex problem solving and reaction timeโ€”begin to decline with as little as 1% loss of body mass from dehydration, with more severe impairments showing up at 2%. Dehydration affects attention first and with more severity than other cognitive abilities.

Healthy Habits Save Lives

A healthy lifestyleโ€”including being physically active, eating a nutritious diet and not smokingโ€”plays a significant role in living a longer, healthier life. This conclusion emerged from an observational study of 7,000 men and women aged 25โ€“74 who were periodically assessed over a 35-year period. Researchers based the analysis on the American Heart Associationโ€™s definition of ideal cardiovascular health. This definition includes absence of clinical heart disease, together with positive outcomes on โ€œLifeโ€™s Simple 7โ€ health metrics:

Full-Fat Dairy Makes a Comeback?

An ever-expanding pile of research papers is challenging the idea that we need to avoid full-fat varieties of dairy products like yogurt and milk. There may be no need to settle for fat-free versions that could be less satisfying: For instance, a new study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition involving more than 2,900 U.S. seniors aged 65 and above found that whole-fat dairy consumption appears to do little harm when it comes to cardiovascular disease.