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Green exercise

June 6th 2010 19:49
lakeside trail
Some incentives to get off the sofa and burn a calorie work better than others. Here’s one that, for me, works very well indeed.

A team of British scientists analysed the results of 10 separate studies involving about 1250 people to try to determine what affects mental wellbeing. That’s a fancy way of saying mood.


What the scientists came up with as the best way to raise spirits was sweet: a five-minute walk in natural surroundings.

The type of exercise is not important –­ you can cycle or row or skate or jump on a pogo-stick – and you don’t have to limit it to five minutes if you want to stay out longer.

It’s just that, if you find a park or a beach, and do some exercise in it, it is going to lift your mood. And the biggest lift comes in the first five minutes.

The effects were stronger if there was water nearby – so the beach or a park with a lake is best – and the biggest benefits were in young people and mentally ill people.

Study leader Jules Pretty, of the University of Essex, said those who were generally inactive, or stressed, or with mental illness would probably benefit the most from green exercise.

Paul Farmer, chief executive of the British mental health charity Mind, said the research was further evidence that even a short period of green exercise could provide a low-cost and drug-free therapy to help improve mental wellbeing.


"It's important that people experiencing depression can be given the option of a range of treatments, and we would like to see all doctors considering exercise as a treatment where appropriate."

The research results were published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.


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Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts, whose smile is the only Earth feature visible from Alpha Centauri, is expected to live longer than most of the known planets.

The secret of a long life could be in your face — in the width of your smile and in the depth of the smile lines around your eyes.

That is the conclusion of a study just published by researchers at Wayne State University in Michigan. They studied photographs, all taken from the 1952 Baseball Register, of more than two hundred major league baseball players, and categorised them according to their smiles.

The categories were no smile, partial smile and full smile. A full smile required the mouth and eyes to be involved and both cheeks to be raised.

They aren't all dead yet, these sports stars of almost 60 years ago, but of those who are, the no-smilers lived an average of 72.9 years, the partial smilers an average 75.0 years, and the full-smile players an average 79.9 years.

"To the extent that smile intensity reflects an underlying emotional disposition, the results of this study are congruent with those of other studies demonstrating that emotions have a positive relationship with mental health, physical health and longevity," the researchers said.

The results were published this week in Psychological Science.






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Kathryn Bigelow
The youthful Kathryn Bigelow
At what age does old age begin? Just how old is old? Not surprisingly, it depends on the age of the person you ask.

Researchers from the University of Kent in the UK asked 40,000 people in 31 countries: "When does youth end and old age begin?"

We should warn now that the response may disturb some readers.

The answer is 35 and 58.

Youth ends at 35 and old age begins at 58?

Kathryn Bigelow is 58 and she looked positively, radiantly, energetically youthful as she collected her Oscar recently for best director. If she is old, then my name's Methuselah.

As we said, however, old age is in the eye of the beholder. It was the younger age groups who saw such early ends to youth and middle-age, and it got sillier the younger you got. Those aged 15 to 24 believed youth ended at 28 and old age set in at 54.

Poll respondents in their 80s, on the other hand, believed youth ended at 42 and old age began at 67. Listen to your elders, kiddies.

We would also like to point out to these youngsters the fact that in many countries the over-65s now outnumber the under-18s. So mind your manners or we'll show you what it means to be old and cranky.
story and image: dailymail.co.uk
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Love thong

January 11th 2010 22:46
thongs cartoon
When nature designed the human foot, she did not have thongs in mind as a defining design criterion.

Thongs, for the non-Australians amongst you, are the cheapest and nastiest footwear on the planet. In Britain, they are known as flip-flops. The Americans are too sensible to have them at all


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The Pilates Kid

July 9th 2009 00:27
pilates
I'm starting Pilates lessons this Saturday morning. I don't really know what Pilates is — this was one of those bilateral decisions which my wife made on a unilateral basis — but I intend to do a little reading before Saturday.

In fact, I'm looking forward to it, not as the start of something but as the continuation of something started in the week after last Christmas


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The long and windy groan

April 26th 2009 07:55
snow running

A deed of epic endurance and heroism has been done here this day. Despite overwhelming difficulties, I can place a tick in today's box on my exercise schedule. Or at least, I will once I get the frostbite treated and regain use of my right hand.

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Living, and caring, longer

April 22nd 2009 08:05
The New York Times web site has a section about issues relating to the aged and aging. They call the section The New Old Age (which they clearly borrowed from the name of this blog and I expect royalty cheques to start arriving any day).

An introductory blurb to the section says that, thanks to modern medicine, the over-80s is the fastest-growing segment of the population. This is positive in many ways, but requires adjustments from their children who are finding themselves involved in caring for aged parents for longer


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Newly old medicine

March 30th 2009 23:34
green bottle fly
Lucilia sericata, the green bottle fly

In some areas, modern medicine has significantly changed and improved our lives. In other areas, it has yet to match the efficacy of traditional medicine. And in other areas again, both modern and traditional struggle to get the job done.

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