Even a Little Exercise Helps

A study published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation found that just a little exercise by older women is better than none, at least when it comes to lowering the risk of heart disease, stroke and blood clots.

Being active just a few times a week is all it takes. In fact, researchers were surprised to find that more frequent physical activity didn’t result in further reductions in risk.

The study revealed that: 

• Women who performed strenuous physical activity – enough to cause sweating or a faster heart beat – two to three times per week were about 20 percent less likely to develop heart disease, strokes or blood clots compared to participants who reported little or no activity.
•  Among active women, there was little evidence of further risk reductions with more frequent activity.
•  Physical activities associated with reduced risk included walking, gardening and cycling.

“To prevent heart disease, stroke and blood clots, our results suggest that women don’t need to do very frequent activity as this seems to provide little additional benefit above that from moderately frequent activity,” said Miranda Armstrong, M.Phil., Ph.D., the study’s lead author and a physical activity epidemiologist at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

To learn more about this study, visit http://newsroom.heart.org/news/women-active-a-few-times-weekly-have-lower-risk-of-heart-disease-stroke-and-blood-clots?preview=6863http://newsroom.heart.org/news/women-active-a-few-times-weekly-have-lower-risk-of-heart-disease-stroke-and-blood-clots?preview=6863.  

Research Suggests Meditation Reduces Risk of Aging Brains

Ongoing research points to a variety of ways to maintain brain health through the aging process including eating a healthy diet and exercising. And, now, a new study shows meditation could be another way to minimize the risks of brain damage associated with aging.

 Building on their earlier work that suggested people who meditate have less age-related atrophy in the brain’s white matter, a study by UCLA researchers found that meditation appeared to help preserve the brain’s gray matter, the tissue that contains neurons.

These scientists looked specifically at the association between age and gray matter. They compared 50 people who had mediated for years and 50 who didn’t. People in both groups showed a loss of gray matter as they aged. But the researchers found among those who meditated, the volume of gray matter did not decline as much as it did among those who didn’t.

Dr. Florian Kurth, a co-author of the study that appeared in the online edition of the journal Frontiers in Psychology and postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Brain Mapping Center, said the researchers were surprised by the magnitude of the difference.

“We expected rather small and distinct effects located in some of the regions that had previously been associated with meditating,” he said. “Instead, what we actually observed was a widespread effect of meditation that encompassed regions throughout the entire brain.”

For more about the study, visit http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/forever-young-meditation-might-slow-the-age-related-loss-of-gray-matter-in-the-brain-say-ucla-researchers.

Living Alone Risky After Stroke, Study Reveals

People who live alone are less likely to take medicine, wait longer to see a doctor and live less healthy lives, the research revealed. A study of adults in western Sweden, who had experienced a stroke before the age of 70, found those who live alone are the most likely to die within 12 years, but men have a considerably greater risk of dying prematurely than women or men who live with a partner. 

 

As part of the Sahlgrenska Academy Study on Ischemic Stroke (SAHLSIS), Petra Redfors examined the long-term prognosis for 1,090 victims of ischemic stroke before the age of 70 and compared the results with 600 controls.

According to her findings, 36 percent of patients who were living alone, as opposed to 17 percent of those with partners, died within 12 years after a stroke. Among men, the gap widened to 44 percent when living alone versus 14 percent when living with a partner. “Among the conceivable causes are that people who live alone lead less healthy lives, are less prone to take their medication and tend to wait longer before going to the emergency room,” Dr. Redfors says. 

For more information about the research, visit http://sahlgrenska.gu.se/english/news_and_events/news/News_Detail/men-who-live-alone-run-a-greater-risk-of-dying-prematurely-after-stroke-.cid1251064.