STRENGTH TRAINING AND OTHER HEALTH TIPS

Older women who did resistance training once a week were still reaping the cognitive, physical, and even financial benefits a year later, according to a study in the December 13, 2010, issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers assigned a monetary value of falls based on healthcare costs. The weekly muscle-building group had fewer falls compared with a control group that didn’t strength-trained twice a week. As a result they spent less on health care.

Waistline Creep: Adults, especially women, who maintain regular, vigorous workouts gain less weight as they age than those who exercise moderately or rarely, a 20-year study found.

Boosting mood enhances learning: People who watched a video of a laughing baby and listened to upbeat music did better on a cognitive test than those who watched a report on earthquake and heard sad music, according to a study published in the December 2010 issue of Psychological Science.

No safe Cigarette: There is no safe level of your exposure to cigarette smoke, according to a December 2010 report from the U.S. surgeon General. That’s because hundreds of hazardous chemicals are rapidly absorbed by the body’s cells, which can eventually lead to serious illness, and premature death. Cigarette smoking raises blood pressure, decreases exercise tolerance, promotes plaque buildup in arteries, and makes blood more likely to clot. It roughly doubles the risk of ischemic strokes and triples the likelihood of a type of hemorrhagic stroke. Studies now find that secondhand smoke also boosts stroke risk. When smokers quit their smoke risk is cut in half within a year and falls to a nonsmoker’s risk after five years. If you smoke, talk to your doctor about quitting. Options include counseling, nicotine replacement, and other medication.