Health Care

HAVE FUN, BURN FAT- Joining your kids in a game of Dog- and-the-Bone can be beneficial as certain gym workouts, according to a new study in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness. Just 20 minutes of playing soccer and dodgeball raised adult’s heartbeats to 88per cent of their maximum and burned 160 calories, researchers found; half an hour burned 240 calories-about the same as a moderate bike ride. The games were more than enough “to produce training effects and benefits from physical activity,” says study coauthor Philip Watts, Ph. D., of Northern Michigan University. 

SIZE MATTERS - Being bighearted can be a good thing-unless excess pounds are the cause, Risk of a ballooning heart wall and related irregular beats was 50% higher in obese people compared with those at a normal, healthy weight in a 14-year study of 5,300 by Harvard researchers. Overweight may cause the heart’s upper left chamber, the atrium, to stretch out and develop a too-rapid beat that’s out of sync with the rest of the heart, the scientists say. The condition, called atrial fibrillation (AF), raises stroke risk by four times and doubles the risk of death. Best way to prevent an enlarged atrium: Maintain a normal weight throughout life.

BITE THIS - Vitamin D, already known for boosting calcium absorption and bone health, may also help keep your gums healthy.
The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Looked at data on 6,700 Nonsmokers, ages 13 and up, from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination survey. Those with the highest blood levels of vitamin D were 20% less likely to show signs of gingivitis- gums that bleed on probing-than those with the lowest levels.
The results do not necessarily mean vitamin D is responsible for healthier  gums, cautions study author Thomas Dietrich, DMD, DMD, MPH, of Boston University’s Goldman School of Dental Medicine. But vitamin D has recently been shown to have possible anti-inflammatory benefits, which might explain its association with reduced inflammation and bleeding between the teeth and gums. The researchers are now testing this theory with an intervention study.

GUT REACTION - Vanderbilt University researchers have found that 10-15 minutes of giggling and hearty laughter can burn as many calories as in s medium square of chocolate. To gauge the energy expended by laughing, the Scientists shut 45 volunteers in a metabolic chamber and had them watch comedy clips on TV. The specially designed room measured how much oxygen the laughers breathed in and how much carbon dioxide they exhaled.