Practice: The best medicine

4 recently published studies all offer the same prescription for health improvement: exercise.

They added recent evidence that regular practice can improve aging brains, increase children's learning outcomes, and bring others to a dose of brain stimulation.

Better bone

A study shows that exercise can prevent or limit osteoporosis, which affects more than 200 million people worldwide . Researchers at the University of Missouri found that strength training (heavy lifting) or exercise (running) all helped increase the density of bone minerals (BMD). Running can be a better choice.

Professor Pam Hinton, lead author, said: 'Exercise programs to improve bone health should be designed using known knowledge of bone response to exercise. Only the bones that receive the pressure from the training will be stronger. High-impact, multi-directional activities will be more effective '.

The study was published in the February issue of Strength Conditioning No.

Pain relief

Another study found that exercise is one of the few successful doses for people with back pain. In the February issue of Spine, Washington University physicists summarized 20 different medical tests to find solutions to alleviate pain.

Dr. Stanley J. Bigos, emeritus professor of orthopedic surgery and environmental health, said: 'Many solid and consistent evidence suggests that many common methods are not effective while practicing. Significant impact, both in preventing symptoms as well as reducing back pain. Passive interventions do not achieve the desired effect '.

Better eyes

Active exercise also significantly reduces the attack of cataracts, and age-related macular degeneration (blindness). In the study, published in the Journal of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, researchers looked at eye health of 41,000 jogging practitioners for more than 7 years , and found that both men and women had ratios. The two diseases mentioned above are significantly lower.

New studies show better eye training, chronic pain relief, stronger bones and even some cancers. (Photo: Dreamstime)

Men who run more than 5.7 miles a day are 35% less likely than those who run less than 1.4 miles a day . While the correlation is clear, the cause is still not well understood. '

'We know some of the physiological benefits of practice, and we know the basic physiological information of those diseases, so we need to find out where there is a coincidence , ' said Pau Williams, an epidemiologist. studied at Lawrence Berkeley National Life Science Laboratory, said.

Prevent cancer

Every year in the United States, more than 100,000 people have colon cancer . To test the impact of exercise on this reduction, researchers at Washington University and Harvard University combined to analyze 52 studies over the last 25 years about the relationship between practice. and cancer. They found that the most trained people (brisk walking 5-6 hours a week) had 24% less cancer risk than those who exercised the least (brisk walking less than 30 minutes a week).

The main author, Kathleen Y. Wolin, of the University of Washington, said: 'The beneficial effects of exercise are expressed in all types of activities, for both men and women. More and more evidence that our behavioral choices affect cancer risk. Leading physical activity on the list of methods you can reduce your risk of colon cancer '.

So does any research show the relationship of practice with negative results?

In a recent study published in Obesity magazine, Dolores Albarracín, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, found that people who watch posters with messages like 'join the bodybuilder' or ' Let's walk ' , actually eat more than people who are exposed to messages like ' making friends'.

Albarracín said : 'People who watch messages about practice eat significantly more. They eat more than a third when exposed to ad practice. '