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Regular exercise may substantially lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, study finds

A new study has found some good news for people who carry the gene for Alzheimer’s disease.

The study published this week in Archives of Neurology concluded that those people who carry the Alzheimer’s gene (APOE-4) and who regularly exercised over a decade were 5 to 10 times less likely to have brain plaques linked to the disease than those people who did not exercise.

"It’s not proof that exercise is protective, but it’s a very strong association and it gives biologic credence that staying physically active may help us protect against Alzheimer’s disease,” said said John C. Morris, senior author of the study.

The Top Ten Fitness Trends of 2012 will be...

Do you suppose that someone can predict what's hot, and what's not for 2012 in terms of fitness?

The answer is of course "yes."

For six years now, "the American College of Sports Medicine has surveyed thousands of trainers, fitness instructors, exercise-science experts and clinicians around the world to try and pinpoint the top fitness trends—those with real staying-power—for the upcoming year. Their survey generates a list of the top 20 trends with commentary and analysis from industry experts," according to Phillymag.com.

So what will be the hottest fitness trends next year?

Some of these trends you can propably guess.

Exercise labels are better at keeping teens away from junk food researchers say

So what do you think is a better way to get teens to eat healthy foods.

1) Display the caloric count on food labels or

2) Display the amount of time and exercise it will take to burn the calories in the the food on the labels?

If you guessed number 2...you are correct according to a new study conducted at the Johns Hopkins's Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Busted: The Top Ten Most Popular Fitness Myths

- Does stretching before you work out really prevent injury?

- Is running barefoot better for you?

- Does the best strength training start with the core, and does core training make you a better endurance athlete?

- Is it really smart to jump into a tub of ice after a marathon to speed recovery?

- And of course...is long and slow a better and more efficient way to burn more calories?

Triathlon training can lead to damaged and stretched heart muscles researchers say

The health and fitness benefits of endurance training are too numerous to mention in just one paragraph, however researchers working in Australia at the University of Melbourne’s St. Vincent Hospital have found that hard endurance training for such sports as marathon running and triathlon pose a risk of heart damage.

Specifically, "Marathon runners and others engaging in extreme endurance exercise may temporarily damage the right ventricle of their hearts, researchers found," according to Bloomberg News.

The researchers followed 40 endurance athletes.

The good news?

The heart damage was temporary in all but a handful of the 40 endurance athletes that were studied. However 5 of the athletes showed more lasting damage the researchers found.

“The heart rebuilds in a manner such that it is more capable of sustaining similar exercise stimulus in the future,” said lead scientist Andre in a statement. “The question is whether there are some athletes in whom extreme exercise may cause injury from which the heart does not recover completely.”

Fit & fat trumps lean & inactive when it come to longevity new study finds

A new just published found that fit and fat trumps lean and inactive when it comes to living longer. The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found that fit men who maintained or even put on weight were less likely to die from any cause as long as they stayed active. 

This proved to be especially true when compared to men who were thin, but who's fitness level declined over the years.

"Many people worry about their weight and weight but based on our study, weight change is less important than fitness changes," said researcher Duck-chul Lee, PhD, an exercise physiologist at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health in Columbia.

Want to sleep well...get at least 150 minutes of exercise per week new study finds

You probably already know this but now a new study has confirmed it...exercise improves sleep.

Researchers studied 2,600 men and women, ages 18-85, and concluded that at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a week improved sleep quality by as much as 65 percent.

"We were using the physical activity guidelines set forth for cardiovascular health, but it appears that those guidelines might have a spillover effect to other areas of health," said Brad Cardinal, a professor of exercise science at Oregon State University and one of the study's authors.

How to easily increase your chance of cancer 23 fold

Back in the day, racers of the Tour de France used to light up a cigarette during the race. It was not unknown for many types of endurance athletes to smoke after a big race, but (for the most part) those days are long gone.

Today most endurance athletes know that smoking and sports don't mix.

However a new British research has gone a step beyond, and perhaps even a step too far, in the battle to stop smoking.

The new U.K. research shows that smoking in a car can exposes drivers and passengers to 23 times more toxins than a smoky bar.

"Smoking in enclosed spaces is especially dangerous," Dr. Jonathan Whiteson, director of the cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation and wellness center at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, told CBS News. "Outdoors, smoke gets carried away on the breeze - one puff and it goes away." But in a car, he said, the smoke is recycled.

Exercise can trump fat gene new mega-study concludes

If you are one of the millions of people with the so-called "fat mass and obesity associated" (FTO) gene, you might be more predisposed to obesity but that doesn't mean you should fret or give up on exercise.

Weight is of course a detriment to endurance athletes but a new study holds out hope for people with the FTO gene.

"We hope that studies like ours convince people that even when genetically susceptible, a healthy lifestyle will help in the prevention of weight gain," said study author Ruth Loos, group leader of the Genetic Aetiology of Obesity Programme at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, England.

New study finds hormonal reasons why you can't keep the weight off

Have you ever wondered why it is so hard to stay slim once you lose weight?

If so...a new study may have the answer.

Researchers working in Australian have discovered that a symphony of hormonal signals and changes tell the body to slow metabolism and increase the urge to eat up to a year after weight loss.

Counter-intuitive study concludes: Healthy Diet and Exercise leads to early-onset menopause

A new Japenesse study has concluded that a healthy diet and exercise cabn actually lead to Early-Onset Menopause.

The study followed 3,115 premenopausal women over the course of 10 years and concluded that women who exercised between 8 to 10 hours per week were 17 percent more likely to start menopause than those women who never exercised at all.

Who exercise more...married or single people?

A newly released study confirms what many have long suspected...that marriage is bad for exercise.

The study, commissioned for the British Department of Health, found that single people were more likely to meet the minimum level of 150 minutes of physical activity per week recommended by British authorities than married couples.

Dr Len Almond, a visiting professor at St Mary's University College said: "Because married people are often older and have more responsibility for children and other factors, it could be these responsibilities which are curtailing their activity patterns."

Obesity epidemic: half of all American adults will be obese by 2030 report finds

America's obesity epidemic is getting worse every day according to a study just published in the British medical journal the Lancet.

As you know weight is the enemy of endurance sports yet growing numbers of Americans are losing the battle of the bulge.

In fact, the new report found that not only Americans, but people all around the world are getting fatter and fatter each day.

The reason?

New Colorado study finds that exercise can curb memory loss

Perhaps being a lab rat on a exercise wheel is not such a bad thing.

A new study conducted at the University of Colorado has concluded that exercise can curb memory loss.

And that's a very good news for triathletes who not only race, but perhaps more importantly have to remember their spot in a sea of bikes in the transition area.

What's the best exercise weight training, aerobic training or both?

A new study has found that a combination of weight training & aerobic exercise is best for heart health.

The study recently published in the American Journal of Cardiology concluded that people doing only weight training gained strength but saw saw very little benefit in terms of heart health while those people only doing aerobic exercise dropped weight and inches off their waistlines.

"Aerobic plus resistance is clearly the optimal program," said Dr. Timothy Church, of the Louisiana State University's Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge.

As the economy went South...so did the amount of exercise a new poll concludes

You might think that as unemployment increase the level of exercise amoung American adults would increase given that more people have more time on their hands, but a new poll has found the exact opposite to be true.

A new Gallup poll concluded that adults curbed their exercise level starting in 2008, and that weekly levels of exercise have not yet rebounded to previous peaks.

According to the UPI:

"Gallup asked 1,000 U.S. adults daily about their exercise habits as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which indicates 53.4 percent of adults who reported exercising for at least 30 minutes three or more days per week in June still trails the 54.3 percent in the same month in 2008, the survey says.