Industry News

Fending off fitness fatigue

BY DORENE INTERNICOLA, REUTERS

NEW YORK – Runners stumble, yogis yawn, and even the bulkiest body builders get bored.

But fitness experts say there are specific tricks to help people get and stay motivated.

Connecticut-based exercise physiologist Tom Holland, who has coached clients on everything from losing weight to climbing mountains to running marathons, said set a date.

“Whether it’s a wedding or a race or a reunion, there has to be a date,” said Holland, author of “Beat the Gym: Personal Trainer Secrets Without the Personal Trainer Price Tag.”

“We need clear, defined goals,” he added. “A new year’s resolution or a desire to lose weight is not enough.”

And if the goal is big, cut it down to size.

“I train a lot of people to run marathons,” Holland said. “Doing five Ks (three miles) and half-marathons add little victories along the way.”

Sometimes, he said, the trick is to get their minds off what they’re doing.

“If the goal is weight loss, it helps to take the focus off weight loss,” he said. “See what gets clients excited, and get them so engrossed in the workout that it just happens.”

If the goal is running, Holland will often run with them.

“You can’t motivate, but you can provide incentives,” said Holland, who has a degree in sports psychology. “The science lies in finding a goal that is challenging but not too challenging.”

As the national director of the Equinox Fitness Training Institute, Geralyn Coopersmith is in charge of training the personal trainers for the Equinox chain of fitness centers. She said it’s not motivation that trips people up.

“People are motivated when they put on a bathing suit that doesn’t fit,” said Coopersmith. “We’re about giving them measurable goals and small changes in habit.”

She recommends that trainers add something to a client’s routine every week.

“Maybe it’s just drinking more water every day, or spending an extra 15 minutes on a treadmill,” she explained. “We’ll also ask clients how likely they are, on a scale of one to 10, to do it.”

Variety is the spice of workout enthusiasm to Santa Monica, California-based group fitness instructor Amy Dixon, creator of the “Give Me 10” and “Breathless Body” DVD series.

“Don’t go to the same class every week,” said Dixon.

If five classes a week is the norm, she advises dropping one and adding another every seven days.

“I love seeing my regulars in other peoples’ classes,” she said. “As a teacher I know it’s important to do.”

For good old fashioned motivation, Dixon said, the dynamic of a group fitness class is a powerful thing.

“The collective energy drives you, keeps you motivated, and gives you that little extra oomph.”

Jessica Matthews, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise, suggests scheduling a workout time like an important appointment.

“Research has shown it takes 21 days to establish a habit,” said Matthews, who is based in San Diego, California.

She said being in a class is a huge draw for some people, because they make friends and are expected at a certain time.

“It depends on what resonates with you,” Matthews said. “The options for physical activity are pretty much limitless.”

© Copyright (c) Reuters

Helmet head or heart attacks?

 BY CRAIG MCINNES, VANCOUVER SUN

Are bicycle helmets causing more harm than they are preventing?

That’s a claim that’s been making the rounds for a few years that was floated again last week by former city councillor and mayoral candidate Peter Ladner in a column for Business in Vancouver magazine.

It’s an argument that suggests a lot more people would be taking part in Bike to Work Week – that started today – if they weren’t forced to arrive at work with helmet hair.

By dissuading potential riders from taking up cycling on a regular basis, helmets stand in the way of the health benefits that could be achieved through cycling, better fitness and less cardiovascular disease over time.

More cyclists would also merit a greater share of the road, making cycling safer by reducing the chance of being run down by a car, according to this argument against mandatory helmets.

In Vancouver, the helmet law has also been cited as an impediment to starting a bike-share system, that could encourage more people to ride when they otherwise wouldn’t have access to a bicycle.

While acknowledging that helmets can reduce head injuries, the argument concludes that the net effect of making them mandatory is a lost opportunity to achieve better health for the population as a whole, even when the extra head injuries are factored in.

Add the general bias that most of us have against governments telling us what to do, and it sounds like a pretty good argument for getting rid of the mandatory bike helmet law that was brought in by the NDP government 16 years ago.

The question isn’t whether bike helmets are useful. I’ve answered that question to my satisfaction. I’ve seen my sister stretched out on the ground after plowing into a car that cut across her path. I credit the fact that she survived that accident with no permanent brain dam-age to the helmet that split on impact, absorbing some of the pressure that would otherwise have transferred to her skull.

The question is whether people should be required to wear them if they want to ride a bike. If helmets are really a significant barrier to people gaining the health benefits of cycling, then maybe it’s time, as Ladner suggests, to reconsider the law in B.C.

There have been many studies both on whether helmets offer much protection and whether mandatory helmet laws do any good. Many of them are not very persuasive because it’s a difficult area to study.

B.C.’s Chief Medical Health Officer Perry Kendall says he hasn’t seen anything to persuade him that the helmet requirement is a significant impediment to cycling in this province.

“Overall, the population based studies that I’ve seen refute that,” he said.

“I don’t think there is any evidence, really, that bike helmets stop people riding bikes.”

Ladner points to a newspaper article that cites an article in the New Zealand Medical Journal that found a drop in the aver-age hours cycled per person in that country after helmets were made mandatory there in 1994.

No similar drop has been documented here after the helmet law was brought in.

In the Netherlands, a country with a high rate of cycling, no helmet law and not much public support to bring one in, research shows a higher rate of head injuries than we have here, Kendall says.

He argues that the safety-in-numbers argument against helmets is undermined by the fact that three quarters of the head and brain injuries among cyclists in the Netherlands are caused by crashes that don’t involve cars.

He also doesn’t see mandatory helmets as much of an impediment to a bike-share program.

“I think that most people who use a bike-share program plan to use a bike and therefore are quite likely to stick a helmet in their backpack or [have one] strapped to the outside of their briefcase.”

For me the most compelling argument for mandatory helmets is that children are the most likely to suffer permanent brain damage from a bike accident. The research clearly shows that in jurisdictions where helmets are mandatory, the percentage of children who wear helmets goes up.

While some jurisdictions, including Manitoba last week, have brought in mandatory helmet laws just for children, as a parent it was always much easier to get my kids to follow safety rules if the adults had to follow them too.

cmcinnes@vancouversun.com

Perform athletically into your golden years

At the age of 48, Barbara Freedman ran her first marathon in a time of 3: 59.58. Seven years later at 55, she dropped her time to 3:33.34. Last year, at 60 years of age, she crossed the line at 3:50.13.

“That’s damn respectable,” said the Montrealer who, when she’s not running, is the dean of Instructional Development at Montreal’s Dawson College.

Freedman’s accomplishments fly in the face of the commonly held theory that age slows us down. Up until a few years ago, nobody questioned studies suggesting that after the age of 35, aerobic endurance deteriorates as much as 10 per cent per decade. But it’s performance histories such as Freedman’s that have caused researchers to take another look at the effect aging has on athletic performance.

“Less attention has been paid to the fact that reductions in endurance performances can also be caused by lifestyle changes (e.g. higher occupational or social demands like starting a family),” stated Dieter Leyk in a 2009 study published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine.

Leyk uses marathon finishing times as an indicator of athletic performance. His initial findings, based on a review of 160,000 marathon and 140,000 half-marathon finishers between 20 and 80 years of age, indicated that times stayed pretty stable until about 50 years of age. Even after 50, he says, the decline in performance wasn’t as drastic as previously reported.

“Our main finding is that there are virtually no relevant differences in marathon and half-marathon running times of subjects aging from 20 to 50 years,” said Leyk in his 2006 research paper titled Age-related Changes in Marathon and Half-Marathon Performances. “Moreover, the age-related performance declines of 50 — to 69-year-old participants are just in the range of 2.6 to 4.4 per cent per decade.”

Yet despite this seemingly telling statistic, finishing times don’t tell the whole story behind a runner’s success. According to Leyk, performance-related factors such as training volume, body weight, body mass index, etc., also play a significant role in how long it takes to cross the finish line.

Freedman says her running improved considerably when she started training under the guidance of a coach. The resulting change in her training and preparation led to some of her best marathon performances at an age when many runners are seeing the opposite effect — a steady increase in their marathon finishing time.

That doesn’t mean that she hasn’t felt her age. She has. Which is why Freedman reduced her training load slightly (from five to six days a week to four days a week), added cross-training to her workout schedule and got rid of some extra pounds that were becoming increasingly difficult to lug around while on the run.

According to Russ Hepple, an exercise physiologist at McGill who studies aging, Freedman’s intense training, experience and healthy lifestyle were strong determinates in helping reach her potential. He also suggests that every athlete, regardless of their age, has a window of opportunity to improve given the right training, lifestyle and health conditions.

And then there’s Keijo Taivassalo, a 73-year-old Torontonian who just happens to be Hepple’s father-in-law. He’s another outlier who is seemingly untouched by the march of time.

Taivassalo ran his first marathon in 1979, posting an impressive time of 3: 22.54. Twenty years later, at the age of 60, his marathon time was 3: 12.00. In 2004, he ran a 3: 15.12 marathon and was crowned Canadian champion of the over-65 pack. In 2011, at 72 years of age, he still managed to finish sub-3: 30 at 3: 27.40.

What’s interesting about Taivassalo’s running history is unlike Freedman, he has never trained under a coach and his regimen hasn’t changed much over the decades. So that rules out better training as a reason why he has kept his speed — though he does admit that it was easier to keep pace when he was younger.

“I have to work harder to keep the times up as I get older,” Taivassalo said.

Still his consistency over the years is just as impressive as his finishing times. Poor marathon performances often have nothing to do with age, but are the result of injuries, illness, weather, poor preparation or poor race-day strategy. Yet he has only exceeded the sub-3: 30 mark a few times in a marathon career that spans more than three decades and includes more than 42 marathons.

Researchers don’t know why people like Taivassalo and Freedman continue to perform at a level long thought out of reach of people their age, though there’s an assumption that it’s related to differences in lifestyle, genetics, disease and other factors that nip away at performance.

“It’s my feeling that’s it’s not exercise that makes a difference,” Hepple said.

What he does acknowledge is that a tolerance for high-intensity training is a strong factor in reducing the effects of an age-related drop in athletic performance.

He also points out that there’s not much going on aging-wise between 48 and 60 years of age, especially when compared with the age-related changes that occur in the gap between 25 and 48.

“Not everybody is impacted at the same time and in the same way,” Hepple said.

So while the secret to maintaining your athletic vigour is elusive, the important message is that athletic success is possible at any age and that no matter when you start, your best race is still ahead of you.

jbarker@videotron.ca

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

Checking up on your fitness form

BY DORENE INTERNICOLA, REUTERS

From jumping rope to swinging a kettle bell to pounding a treadmill, a finely-tuned form can spell the difference between a sound body and a sore knee.

Experts say often a professional tweak can go a long way towards firming up your workout.

“People usually injure themselves on basic exercises, like a squat or a bench press,” said New York-based personal trainer Tiffany Boucher.

But Boucher, who works for the national chain of fitness centers Equinox, said form is relatively easy to fix.

“Something is being overused, usually in tandem with some type of muscle imbalance,” she said. “So it’s often about getting people to put their shoulders in a certain place, find their center of gravity, engage their abdominals, or tilt their pelvis in a certain direction.”

She said even a small adjustment can be transformative.

Knees are the most common focus of client complaint, according to Boucher. Once form is corrected, relief often comes within weeks.

“People don’t have that continued inflammation,” she said.

Dr. Daniel Solomon, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, believes in getting the help of a professional trainer before embarking on a new routine.

“Most of what we see are strains and really preventable muscle-type injuries,” said Solomon, a California-based physician specializing in sports medicine. “People just do things their bodies aren’t ready to do or capable of sustaining for long.”

Another big mistake is skipping the warm up.

“They jump right in instead of spending 15 minutes to do a good cardio warm up and stretching before grabbing the weight,” he said.

He said some workouts just require more expertise than others.

“I’m a proponent of using free weights,” he said. “But you’ve got to make sure you have the technique correct.”

Jessica Matthews, an exercise physiologist for the American Council on Exercise, said many highly effective workouts, such as kettle bells, medicine balls, and plyometric (jumping) moves, can be dangerous if done incorrectly.

“Some workouts are trickier,” said Matthews, who is based in San Diego, California. “I’ve seen a lot of people use free weights incorrectly. There is a much greater margin of error than with machines, which move on a fixed path.”

Before going all-out on the plyometric training that characterizes so many home DVD workouts, she said it’s important to learn to land safely, which means softly and on the mid-foot.

“The body is one big kinetic chain. Dysfunction in one area will create dysfunction in another,” she said. “So suddenly your hip is bothering you because of instability in your ankle.”

Before tackling the latest high-intensity, technique-based workout, Matthews advises strengthening your stability and mobility through back-to-basic exercises such as plank, side plank, lunges and squats

“Build that solid foundation first,” she said. “Then progress to more explosive workouts that take more advanced skills.”

If don’t have your own personal trainer, Boucher said, don’t hesitate to ask a fitness professional at your gym to observe your form for a few seconds. Then be open to the feedback.

“Do you hunch your shoulders? Hunch your back? ” she said. “Maybe one side of your body is tighter than the other. Or the left hip is more rotated than the right.”

“Sometimes it’s that little thing that you can’t catch on your own,” she said.

© Copyright (c) Reuters

World on your shoulders

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Johanna Steinfeld, For Postmedia News  April 20, 2012 10:19 AM

Why do we tell our children to sit up tall and not slouch?

Because we know that how we carry our shoulders says a lot about who we are.

When we stand with our shoulders open and back, we feel positive, confident and happier — and this is what we project to others.

When our shoulders round forward, we may not feel as good — and we may end up projecting to others that we lack confidence or have low self-esteem.

How we carry our shoulders also strongly affects our ability to take deep and full breaths.

Try this little experiment: while sitting, intentionally round your shoulders forward, and slouch your spine. Exaggerate this rounding and take three to five deep breaths.

Now sit up with a tall spine, and draw your shoulders up to your ears, then back and down. Do you feel your shoulder blades come into place and support the back of your heart? Now take three to five deep breaths.

A pretty significant difference, isn’t it?

Now that you have discovered how it feels to have your shoulders in healthy alignment, notice where you are feeling the muscles stretching. This will let you know where your shoulder muscles are weak.

Shoulders tend to be where we hold the most tension and stress. Tight and restrictive shoulders lead to tightness in the neck and will transfer down the spine and into the hips.

By adding some of the following shoulder exercises into your day, you will encourage your entire body to function properly and help to increase your current level of flexibility.

Remember to be careful when working with your neck and shoulders. Move slowly and deliberately. Pay attention to which muscles are being used, and never go beyond your edge of comfort.

Shoulder circles

Raise your shoulders up, rotate them back, down, forward and up again.

Repeat several times, and then go in the opposite direction.

Shoulders to ears

Inhale and raise your shoulders up to your ears, pulling them up as high as they’ll go. Then let go with an “ahhh” and drop your shoulders back down.

Repeat several times.

Chin-to-chest

Inhale; as you exhale, slowly lower your chin to your chest, creating a long, gentle stretch along the back of the neck.

Take several slow, deep breaths with the chin down, and draw your shoulder blades down your back and away from your ears. Lift your head back up as you inhale.

Simple shoulder stretch

Begin standing up straight with shoulders relaxed and back.

Reach your right arm straight up toward the ceiling, turn your palm to face behind you, bend your elbow and reach your hand behind your neck. Place your left hand on your right elbow and gently pull it toward your ear. Continue sliding your right palm down your back without straining.

Hold for 10 to 20 seconds, relaxing both your left and right shoulders and encourage both shoulders to soften down your back and away from your ears.

Release as you exhale, and repeat with the opposite arm. Keep your head up and resist the urge to bend your neck forward.

Johanna Steinfeld can be found at itsjustyoga.com.

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/World+your+shoulders/6492351/story.html#ixzz1sbZ8oiTW

Innovative standup bike turns heads

Christy Lynn takes the ElliptiGo out for a ride in Coal Harbour Thursday. The three-speed model sells for $1,800 and the eight-speed sells for $2,600.  Photograph by: Nick Procaylo, PNG , Vancouver Sun

Outdoor elliptical trainer puts runners on wheels without stressing their knee joints

By Erin Ellis, Vancouver Sun April 20, 2012

“Whoa, what is that?

If you like to create a trail of comments along those lines, then gliding around town on the latest California fitness trend could be for you.

The ElliptiGo, an outdoor elliptical trainer, looks like a standup, seatless bicycle. Users appear to be running, propelling the machine by pumping two narrow foot platforms with their feet.

“The target groups are athletes who are looking for low-impact cross-training and marathoners looking for something different that’s outside,” said local sales representative Christy Lynn, who gets lots of questions and attention as she cruises around town drumming up interest in her unusual mode of transportation.

The ElliptiGo, which has been on the market for less than two years, was created for the sore-knee set.

Bryan Pate, a former long-distance runner with knee injuries, enlisted fellow athlete and engineer Brent Teal to start working on the project about seven years ago in Southern California’s Solano Beach.

After a number of prototypes were built in a local garage, they hit the market with a limited number of machines in 2010.

That’s about when University of B.C. psychiatry professor Dr. Derryck Smith saw one while on a trip to San Francisco.

There was no Canadian distributor at the time, so he tracked one down for a test run during a subsequent visit to the U.S. That led to a day riding around New York’s Central Park and a done deal.

He’s an avid cyclist – with bad knees – and riding it on the seawall around Stanley Park and False Creek gives him a change of pace.

“I bought it because it gives you a different workout than on a bike. It sort of feels like running and I can’t run because of my knees.”

He hasn’t had to fix it so far, but says any potential repairs could be the only drawback because it’s an unusual piece of equipment.

The ElliptiGo is manufactured in Taiwan. Co-founder Pate said in an email that he doesn’t want to give out specific figures, but thousands have been sold in the first two years.

The most popular eight-speed model costs $2,600 with a three-speed avail-able for $1,800.

Former Olympic long-distance runner Peter Butler says the price won’t be an issue for people who spend that much on bikes.

The founder of Forerunners sports stores in Vancouver says it’s a boon to athletes.

“If you’re an aging runner and you’re starting to develop injuries, it’s a way to stay fit without the pounding.

“It’s much more like running. When you cycle, a lot of the time you’re gliding, there’s a lot more coasting. In this, you’re getting a much better workout in one hour.”

The ElliptiGo is heavier than a road bicycle at 40 pounds or 18 kg, but Lynn says it can get up to 48 km/h on flat roads. It comes with hand brakes and a handle-mounted gear shifter.

And it gives people a different perspective.

“Your vision is much higher. A lot of people are more comfortable on the ElliptiGo in traffic. Since you’re standing up, drivers have a better opportunity to see you and you have a better opportunity to see them.”

She says it could work for commuters, but only if they don’t have to carry a lot of gear since the ElliptiGo isn’t set up for saddle bags. On shorter commutes, there’s no need for special clothing.

“You could wear a skirt … but I wouldn’t recommend heels.”

A ElliptiGo is on display at the Fore-runners store in Kitsilano. Distributors hope to have some available for rent near Stanley Park this summer.

For more information, visit elliptigo. ca.

eellis@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Innovative+standup+bike+turns+heads/6490370/story.html#ixzz1sbXiYdIW

New website reaches out to young people facing mental-health challenges

Brent Seal (right) says that he was fortunate to get treatment and to have the support of his family and friends
By Gail Johnson, April 10, 2012, Georgia Straight

Brent Seal was in his first year of university in 2004 when he started feeling overwhelmed by stress. The business student went on to feel excruciatingly paranoid in social situations. Things got worse.

“I started losing track of reality,” Seal says in an interview with the Georgia Straight. “It led to psychosis.”

Ultimately, he tried to kill himself and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Seal, who’s now a peer support worker at F.O.R.C.E. (Families Organized for Recognition and Care Equality) Society for Kids, says he was fortunate to finally get treatment and to have a supportive family and circle of friends by his side. But he says a new online resource for youth struggling with mental-health problems and substance use could have been just the kind of help he needed to get help sooner.

Mindcheck.ca also has the support of the Vancouver Canucks, with Kevin Bieksa being a vocal advocate of reaching out to young people facing mental-health challenges.

“A lot of youth don’t get any support,” says Seal, who graduated from SFU as valedictorian in 2010. “I think there’s a lack of understanding, lack of awareness; people are still afraid to talk openly about mental-health challenges. It’s seen as embarrassing, a shameful thing to talk about. Mindcheck is a safe place for people to get help.

“I’m such a big supporter of this website,” he adds. “Had a friend told me about it, maybe I could have got help a year earlier and avoided what happened, which was a suicide attempt.”

Mindcheck—a Fraser Health initiative that now reaches people throughout B.C. with the support of the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA)—aims to help people in their teens and early 20s identify the signs of conditions such as depression, anxiety, stress, psychosis, and problem substance use through self-assessment quizzes. It then points them in the direction of help, resources, and support.

“We know that mental-health and substance-use problems are the primary health concern for young people, and more than half of those who need help are not getting the help that they need,” says Karen Tee, manager of Fraser Health’s child, youth, and young adult mental-health and substance-use services. “Youth and young adults go to the Internet first before picking up books on mental-health and substance-use problems or going to a counsellor.

“Our goal was to help young people find intervention earlier by giving them interesting and nonstigmatizing content about mental-health and substance-use issues in a way that can help them learn the signs and symptoms, seek help, and hopefully prevent emerging problems from getting worse.”

According to Mindcheck, 75 percent of all mental-health conditions begin by age 24. One in five youth and young adults in B.C. experiences distressing feelings and thoughts that cause problems with school, work, family, and friendships. However, symptoms or behaviours are often mislabelled as being just a phase or part of someone’s personality.

Canucks defenceman Bieksa appears on the Mindcheck site in a video about his late friend Rick Rypien.

“I’m the friend of somebody who experienced depression,” Bieksa says in the Mindcheck pledge to support mental health. “I know it isn’t a choice. It’s not a weakness, self-inflicted, or a result of not trying. Sometimes you just can’t get over it. It won’t just go away. Pretending it isn’t happening doesn’t help. Talking about it does. I pledge to learn the signs. I will not judge. I will have compassion. I will reach out, listen, talk, help, and find help. My name is Kevin Bieksa, and I will not stay silent.”

Connie Coniglio, executive director for children and women’s mental-health and substance-use programs with the PHSA, says that having the support of the Canucks has helped boost awareness of mental illness, and Mindcheck, significantly.

“The hockey crowd is a very diverse group of people, and it includes men, which is a big target audience,” Coniglio tells the Georgia Straight. “They’re not the easiest to reach around health issues in general, and mental health is no different. We wanted to reach both men and women of the youth and young-adult population.

“We’re talking about young adults aged 17 to 25, who are often hard to reach with mental-health messages. They might not be in university or college; they’re people who are out in community and away from some of the places where structured opportunities to give those messages exist.”

Mindcheck is clearly resonating with people. Coniglio says that there were more than 58,000 unique visitors from 98 countries between January 24 and March 16 of this year alone. Plus, 28,000 self-assessments have been completed.

The year ahead will see new features added to the site as well as the development of related mobile apps.

“Obviously, people are interested enough and concerned and curious enough about their mental health that they’re using the site,” Coniglio says. “The Canucks are keeping it on people’s radar screens and have really opened up the dialogue. It’s become a bit of an antistigma campaign.”

Canadians choose Facebook over fitness at work: survey

By Natalie Stechyson, Postmedia News April 9, 2012

While almost 90 per cent of working Canadians say they find time for Facebook and other personal activities during their work day, just one in five find time for physical activity, according to a new survey.

The survey, commissioned by ParticipACTION and released Monday, said the main reason Canadian employees are not taking a break for physical activity during work hours is because they say they don’t have the time

But fitting physical activity into your work day is easier than you might think, according to Kelly Murumets, president and CEO of ParticipACTION.

And research shows that, while adults need 150 minutes of physical activity per week, it doesn’t have to be done in one shot. A 10-minute physical activity break is still associated with increased fitness.

“If you can fit in a coffee break, you probably have time to sneak in physical activity too,” Murumets said in a news release.

“A short activity break can actually count towards the recommended level of physical activity per week adults require for health benefits.”

The survey also found that 34 per cent of Canadians said they would like to find the time to take a physical activity break during work hours.

To squeeze in 10 minutes of activity, ParticipACTION recommended grabbing coffee or lunch a few blocks away, having a walking meeting, parking 10 minutes from your building’s entrance, or going “power shopping” to be active while running errands.

The organization also encouraged Canadians Canadians to wear running shoes to work to make it easier to sneak in some physical activity. ParticipACTION launched ‘Sneak It In Week’ Monday.

“If you cannot get to the gym, think of other simple ways to get active at work like starting a lunchtime walking group or booking a conference room to do a power yoga session,” Murumets said.

ParticipACTION, established in 1971, is the national voice of physical activity and sport participation in Canada.

The online questionnaire, conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion, surveyed 2,001 randomly selected adult Canadians from March 16-19. The survey included 1,091 Canadians employed full- or part-time.

 

Bilingualism helps fight off dementia: Research

By Sharon Kirkey, Postmedia News March 29, 2012

Bilingualism helps protect the aging brain and may even postpone signs of dementia, a new review of recent studies indicates.

The paper by Canadian researchers, published Thursday, suggests that bilingual people have higher cognitive reserves as they get older.

Higher cognitive reserve is associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s and other memory-destroying dementias.

More than half the world’s population is bilingual, the researchers write in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences. In the United States and Canada, about 20 per cent of the population speaks a language other than English at home.

Lead author and psychologist Ellen Bialystok, of Toronto’s York University, had already begun accumulating evidence that the bilingual advantages seen in children could also be found in healthy adults. In a 2004 study, her team reported that bilingual adults, young and old, performed better than monolinguals on “conflict tasks” — situations where people need to ignore distracting stimuli to perform properly. (Think of driving on a busy highway).

In hundreds of interviews with reporters and science writers, Bialystok said, she kept being asked one question: What about dementia?

In a study published in 2007 involving about 200 Alzheimer’s patients, half of whom were lifelong bilinguals, her team found that the bilingual patients had been diagnosed 4 1/2 years later on in the disease than people who spoke only one language, a difference Bialystock calls “huge.”

Others have recently shown that bilingual Alzheimer’s patents are better able to cope with the disease and can function longer without showing symptoms, even when CT scans of their brains show more advanced “pathology” or disease.

It has to do with cognitive reserve, Bialystok says — “a building up of resilience that comes from certain experience that allows you to cope.

“If what you have to cope with is cognitive impairment from nasty things like Alzheimer’s disease, the finding is that (bilinguals) can appear to function for a longer time than they otherwise would,” she said. “Cognitive reserve is an extra resource that enables you to keep functioning.”

It’s not exactly clear why. But one theory is that managing two different languages boosts brain regions that are critical for general attention and cognitive control.

“We know that if you know two languages, and that there are two languages you could be speaking at any time, then both of those languages are always active — they’re always kind of ‘available’ in your mind,” she said

“That means that every time you want to say something or understand something or write something, there’s potential interference from the other language.”

When that happens, the brain’s executive-control system kicks in to manage the conflict between languages.

The executive-control system is the basis for our ability to multi-task and to stay focused on what’s relevant and avoid distraction.

In bilinguals, that brain network gets “massive practice,” said Bialystok, a Distinguished Research Professor at York.

The new science into aging bilingual brains has implications for children. “For parents, one important implication is not to be afraid of languages. You’re not damaging your children if you give them a variety of language experiences,” Bialystok said.

For older adults, “bilingualism is a very powerful road to cognitive reserve, and cognitive reserve is a very powerful defence against dementia,” she said. “It sort of comes for free to a lot of people who only have to keep up their heritage language, or keep up their languages.”

It’s not clear whether learning another language later in life could modify brain processing and give people this resilience in brain reserve.

“Will it make you bilingual if you start learning another language at age 57, or 62 or even 49? Probably not,” Bialystok said.

“But going through the process, which is effortful and requires a lot of sustained attention and a lot of executive control, that process, in its own way, is going to contribute to cognitive reserve.”

According to the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada, more than half a million Canadians have dementia, with roughly 71,000 of those under the age of 65.

The organization estimates that within a generation, about 1.1 million Canadians will be living with some form of dementia.

New programs help veterans overcome trauma

By Gail Johnson, March 7, 2012, Georgia Straight

After heading the UN mission in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide in which machete-wielding forces killed at least 800,000 people in 100 days, Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire blamed himself for everything that happened. He became suicidal and made headlines when he was discovered on a park bench in Ottawa after drinking himself into oblivion.

New programs are now being launched to help veterans overcome devastating but hidden wounds of war, conditions such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia, all of which struck Dallaire. Such initiatives mark a huge step forward in healing trauma and in the recognition of the mind-body connection, according to a local therapist.

A U.S. group called Bands for Freedom has just introduced its National Veteran Wellness Program, which will focus on treating physical and mental-health conditions. In Canada, meanwhile, the enhanced New Veterans Charter is being touted for its shift from disability management to a more modern, holistic model of wellness.

“One of the things people like Roméo Dallaire have done is bring trauma out of the closet,” says Catherine Fallis, a Vancouver movement therapist. “It’s so important that the military is now understanding those things.”

Underscoring people’s ability to overcome trauma is new research into the brain and neuroplasticity.

Fallis specializes in “somatic experiencing”, a body-awareness approach to trauma-healing developed by Boulder, Colorado, medical biophysicist and psychologist Peter Levine. The former NASA stress consultant’s methodology is based on what he calls an appreciation of how wild animals aren’t traumatized by routine threats to their lives whereas humans are readily overwhelmed.

“Fortunately, the very same instincts (and related survival-based brain systems) that are involved in the formation of trauma symptoms can be enlisted in the transformation and healing of trauma,” Levine writes on his website. “Therapeutically, this ‘instinct to heal’ and self-regulate is engaged through the awareness of body sensations that contradict those of paralysis and helplessness.”

Toronto MD, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and researcher Norman Doidge outlined the way people’s thoughts can alter the structure and function of their brains in his groundbreaking 2007 book, The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph From the Frontiers of Brain Science.

“Neuroplasticity not only gives hope to those with mental limitations, or what was thought to be incurable brain damage, but expands our understanding of the healthy brain and the resilience of human nature,” Doidge wrote. “We learn that our thoughts can switch our genes on and off, altering our brain anatomy.”

Fallis also subscribes to what’s known as the “polyvagal theory” of the autonomic nervous system formed by Chicago psychiatrist Stephen Porges. Proponents claim it will have huge implications for trauma therapies.

Porges maintains that everything from autism to panic attacks stems from the evolution of the human nervous system and that emotional disorders are biological in nature.

According to this theory, the autonomic nervous system has three, not two, branches: the sympathetic, parasympathetic, and social-engagement systems. Under stress, human beings first use the brain’s most sophisticated system, its relational tactics, as a survival strategy. If that fails, the fight-or-flight response kicks in. If that also fails, they end up in a state of immobility.

“The thing that I find very encouraging and inspiring about doing this work is that when people hear that they’re biologically programmed to go into freeze or shutdown when it becomes apparent that fight or flight aren’t going to work, they can forgive themselves for not fighting back or not doing enough or thinking ‘I should have done this or that’ in face of an accident or assault or anything like that,” Fallis says. “It’s not a failing of character if you can’t manage those kinds of things; it’s your biology.”

Trauma can result from a vast array of experiences, not just horrific events such as war, violence, or natural disasters, Levine contends. Rather, many seemingly ordinary situations can be traumatic.

“So-called minor automobile ‘whiplash’ accidents frequently lead to bewildering and debilitating physical, emotional, and psychological symptoms,” Levine writes. “Common invasive medical procedures and surgeries (particularly those performed on frightened children who are restrained while being anesthetized) can be profoundly traumatizing.”

The purpose of somatic experiencing is to help people find effective ways to address the lasting emotional effects of such events.

“The point is to expand people’s capacity to manage intense emotion,” Fallis says.

Jeanette Barrett is a Vancouver practitioner of self-regulation therapy (SRT), another form of trauma-healing centred on the mind-body connection. “I personally believe chronic conditions all have their roots in trauma, and that if we handle the trauma by default the chronic conditions by and large get resolved,” says Barrett in a phone interview.

Like other SRT practitioners, she maintains that stress and trauma can be physically discharged from the body. “That discharge is fairly physical in nature. It could be heat, tingling, twitching, yawning; that’s the stress information leaving the nervous system and leaving you free to reclaim your health or reclaim your life.

“The brain comes with its own operating system that allows us to self-correct,” she adds. “It’s quite extraordinary what it’s capable of doing.”

Connect with JR Rehab

Join us on Facebook

© Copyright JR Rehabilitation Services