Walking is a biological imperative like eating

 

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Stone Hearth News

  

(Reuters) – Walking may never become as trendy as CrossFit, as sexy as mud runs or as ego-boosting as Ironman races but for fitness experts who stress daily movement over workouts and an active lifestyle over weekends of warrior games, walking is a super star.
For author and scientist Katy Bowman, walking is a biological imperative like eating. In her book, “Move Your DNA: Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement,” she suggests there are movement nutrients, just like dietary nutrients, that the body needs.
“Walking is a superfood. It’s the defining movement of a human,” said Bowman, a biomechanist based in Ventura, California.

  

“It’s a lot easier to get movement than it is to get exercise.”
Researchers say emerging evidence suggests that combined physical activity and inactivity may be more important for chronic disease risk than physical activity alone.
“Actively sedentary is a new category of people who are fit for one hour but sitting around the rest of the day,” Bowman said. “You can’t offset 10 hours of stillness with one hour of exercise.”
Last year researchers at the University of Texas School of Public Health asked 218 marathoners and half marathoners to report their training and sitting times.
Median training time was 6.5 hours per week.
Median total sitting time was eight to 10.75 hours per day, suggesting that recreational distance runners are simultaneously highly sedentary and highly active.
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US gov’t to spend $31 million to “empower people to make healthy eating choices”

            Posted on September 29, 2014 by Stone Hearth News

 Richmond, VA, Sept. 29, 2014 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is making up to $31.5 million in funding available to help participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) more easily afford healthy foods like fruits and vegetables. Secretary Vilsack made the announcement with Virginia First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe in Richmond.

“Too many struggling families do not have adequate access to nutritious food,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Helping families purchase more fresh produce is clearly good for families’ health, helps contribute to lower health costs for the country, and increases local food sales for family farmers. Public-private partnerships with non-profit organizations and other community groups are already proving to have great success across the country. These resources will allow partnerships like these to help even more families.”

The Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) program, a new Farm Bill program, brings together stakeholders from distinct parts of the food system and fosters understanding of how they might improve the nutrition and health status of SNAP households. Under FINI, applicants may propose relatively small pilot projects, multi-year community-based projects, or larger-scale multi-year projects. Funded projects will test community based strategies that could contribute to our understanding of how best to increase the purchase of fruits and vegetables by SNAP participants through incentives at the point of purchase, supported by effective and efficient benefit redemption technologies, that would inform future efforts.

NIFA will give priority to projects that:

Maximize the share of funds used for direct incentives to participants

Test innovative or promising strategies that would contribute to our understanding of how best to increase the purchase of fruits and vegetables by SNAP participants, which would inform future efforts

Develop innovative or improved benefit redemption systems that could be replicated or scaled

 Use direct-to-consumer sales marketing

Demonstrate a track record of designing and implementing successful nutrition incentive programs that connect low-income consumers and agricultural producers

Provide locally- or regionally-produced fruits and vegetables, especially culturally-appropriate fruits and vegetables for the target audience

Are located in underserved communities, particularly Promise ZonesThis is an external link or third-party site outside of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) website. and StrikeForce communities.

 All FINI projects must (1) have the support of a state SNAP agency; (2) increase the purchase of fruits and vegetables by low-income consumers participating in SNAP by providing incentives at the point of purchase; (3) operate through authorized SNAP retailers, and be in compliance with all relevant SNAP regulations and operating requirements; (4) agree to participate in the FINI comprehensive program evaluation; (5) ensure that the same terms and conditions apply to purchases made by individuals receiving SNAP benefits as apply to purchases made by individuals who are not SNAP participants; and (6) include effective and efficient technologies for benefit redemption systems that may be replicated in other states and communities.

Applications are requested in each of the following three categories: (1) FINI pilot projects (awards not to exceed $100,000 over one year); (2) multi-year, community-based FINI projects (awards not to exceed $500,000 over no more than four years); and (3) multi-year, FINI large-scale projects (awards of $500,000 or more over no more than four years).

 FINI is a joint effort between NIFA and USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, which oversees SNAP and has responsibility for evaluating the impacts of the incentive projects. This solicitation combines funds for fiscal years 2014 and 2015. There will not be a solicitation in fiscal year 2015. Applications are due Dec. 15, 2014. NIFA will host a webinar for applicants on Oct. 2 at 2 p.m., EDT.

Funding for the FINI program is authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill. The Farm Bill builds on historic economic gains in rural America over the past five years, while achieving meaningful reform and billions of dollars in savings for taxpayers. Since enactment, USDA has made significant progress to implement each provision of this critical legislation, including providing disaster relief to farmers and ranchers; strengthening risk management tools; expanding access to rural credit; funding critical research; establishing innovative public-private conservation partnerships; developing new markets for rural-made products; and investing in infrastructure, housing and community facilities to help improve quality of life in rural America. For more information, visit www.usda.gov/farmbill.

SNAP – the nation’s first line of defense against hunger – helps put food on the table for millions of families experiencing hardship. The program has never been more critical to the fight against hunger. Nearly half of SNAP participants are children, and 42 percent of recipients live in households in which at least one adult is working but still cannot afford to put food on the table. SNAP benefits provided help to millions who lost their jobs during the Great Recession. For many, SNAP benefits provide temporary assistance, with the average new applicant remaining on the program 10 months.

Through federal funding and leadership for research, education and extension programs, NIFA focuses on investing in science and solving critical issues impacting people’s daily lives and the nation’s future.

More information is at www.nifa.usda.gov.

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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.

To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD).

Last Date Modified: 09/29/2014

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New hamstring tester may keep more players on the field

walk? →

 

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Stone Hearth News

 

   

  

Elite sporting stars can assess and reduce their risk of a hamstring injury thanks to a breakthrough made by QUT researchers.
The discovery could be worth a fortune to football codes, with hamstring strain injuries accounting for most non-contact injuries in Australian rules football, football and rugby union, as well as track events like sprinting.
Using an innovative field device, a research team led by Dr Anthony Shield, from QUT’s School – Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, and former QUT PhD student, Dr David Opar, now at the Australian Catholic University, measured the eccentric hamstring strengthof more than 200 AFL players from five professional clubs.
The in-demand device, the only portable ‘machine’ in the world capable of measuring strength during the Nordic hamstring curl, has attracted attention from some of the world’s biggest sporting teams, including French football giants Paris Saint-Germain and several top English Premier League sides, and National Football League teams in the United States.
The researchers found that higher levels of eccentric hamstring strength in pre-season could dramatically reduce a player’s chances of suffering a hamstring injury during the season.
The results have been e-published in leading sports medicine journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise and accepted for publication in an upcoming print edition.

  

“We showed, for the first time, that hamstring injury risk can be quantified by measuring an athlete’s hamstring strength when they’re performing the Nordic hamstring curl exercise,” Dr Shield said.
“The greater the athlete’s hamstring strength, the less likely they were to injure their hamstring, with the probability of a hamstring strain injury dropping to less than 10 per cent in the strongest athletes.
“Improving hamstring strength by 10 Newtons decreased the risk of hamstring injury by approximately 9 per cent. This is a significant benefit and it is likely that players new to the exercise could improve hamstring strength by 30 Newtons in a month.
“This means it’s possible to effectively counter the additional risk conferred by having a prior hamstring injury by improving the eccentric hamstring strength through exercises such as the Nordic curl.
“This is particularly important for athletes who are already at an increased risk of injury due to their age or because they have sustained a hamstring injury in the previous season.”
Dr Shield said players considered to have weak hamstring in early pre-season testing were 2.7 times more at risk of a hamstring injury than stronger players.
The trial, which included players from five professional AFL clubs, is part of proof-of-concept study funded by QUT’s innovation and knowledge transfer company qutbluebox (bluebox) to develop the patented device for the market.
Major sports clubs in Australia are already using prototypes of the device and the research team is also in the early stages of trials with rugby union, NRL, cricket and A-League clubs. Hockey Australia will also begin a trial shortly.
Source

Over-hydrating can be lethal, though it rarely happens

 

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Stone Hearth News

 

   

  

Newswise — MAYWOOD, Ill. (Sept. 2, 2014) – The recent deaths of two high school football players illustrate the dangers of drinking too much water and sports drinks, according to Loyola University Medical Center sports medicine physician Dr. James Winger.
Over-hydration by athletes is called exercise-associated hyponatremia. It occurs when athletes drink even when they are not thirsty. Drinking too much during exercise can overwhelm the body’s ability to remove water. The sodium content of blood is diluted to abnormally low levels. Cells absorb excess water, which can cause swelling — most dangerously in the brain.
Hyponatremia can cause muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting, seizures, unconsciousness, and, in rare cases, death.
Georgia football player Zyrees Oliver reportedly drank 2 gallons of water and 2 gallons of a sports drink. He collapsed at home after football practice, and died later at a hospital. In Mississippi, Walker Wilbank was taken to the hospital during the second half of a game after vomiting and complaining of a leg cramp. He had a seizure in the emergency room and later died. A doctor confirmed he had exercise-associated hyponatremia.
And in recent years, there have been more than a dozen documented and suspected runners’ deaths from hyponatremia.

  

Winger said it’s common for coaches to encourage athletes to drink profusely, before they get thirsty. But he noted that expert guidelines recommend athletes drink only when thirsty. Winger said athletes should not drink a predetermined amount, or try to get ahead of their thirst.
Drinking only when thirsty can cause mild dehydration. “However, the risks associated with dehydration are small,” Winger said. “No one has died on sports fields from dehydration, and the adverse effects of mild dehydration are questionable. But athletes, on rare occasions, have died from over-hydration.”
Winger is co-author of a 2011 study that found that nearly half of Chicago-area recreational runners surveyed may be drinking too much fluid during races. Winger and colleagues found that, contrary to expert guidelines, 36.5 percent of runners drink according to a present schedule or to maintain a certain body weight and 8.9 percent drink as much as possible.
“Many athletes hold unscientific views regarding the benefits of different hydration practices,” Winger and colleagues concluded. Their study was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Winger is an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

  

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Do you heel strike or are you a forefoot runner?

 

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Stone Hearth News

  

If you have no idea what that question means this wearable probably isn’t for you. RunScribe is aiming for serious running geeks who want to nerd out over exactly how, where and when their feet connect with the ground — and use that data to improve their running technique and (hopefully) avoid injury.
Running has been a popular target for fitness focused wearables up to now, with fitness bands and running-focused smartwatches mushrooming forth as forerunners of the nascent wearables category. But as more and more generic fitness bands crop up, an appetite for greater specialism is likely to gather momentum.  So enter RunScribe: a device that attaches to the back of your running shoe in order to be well-placed to figure out exactly how you are running.

  

The data its motion sensors capture is stored locally on flash memory during each run and synced to a cloud service after — visualised via various granular charts and graphs — allowing the athlete to do a deep data dive analysis of their gait. (A top tier of the service — called runScribe Science — will even give the user access to the raw sensor data captured by the device.)
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