Exercise & Mobility

Heres a new reason for watching your waistline and keeping active thats worth listening to: Extra weight and greater waist circumference are linked to a higher risk of hearing loss with aging, while moderate physical activity is associated with reduced risk.

How you spend your free time may affect how much life time you have to spend. While nothing beats regular exercise, a new Swedish study reports that older adults who are more active in their leisure time were less prone to cardiovascular problems and lived longer than their sedentary peers. The benefits were seen regardless of whether the seniors also engaged in vigorous exercise.

When the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association released new guidelines for preventing cardiovascular disease in November, the headlines all focused on their controversial recommendations for statin use. Almost lost in the coverage was another set of ACC/AHA recommendations, which looked at diet and physical activity rather than drugs for reducing cardiovascular risk. Whether your physician has prescribed statin medications or not, these Lifestyle Management Guidelines can help protect your heart.

Unhealthy behaviors such as inactivity, poor diet and smoking have long been associated with a wide range of chronic diseases and risk of death. But a new study reveals that such lifestyle factors can also affect older adults' risk of disability and loss of independence.

While US obesity rates remain at historic highs, only Arkansas has seen an increase in the percentage of adults who are obese, while the other 49 states hit pause in a three-decade trend of ever-fatter populations.

Can you get the same health benefits from walking as from running? As long as you walk for a longer time, to expend a comparable amount of energy, a new study says the answer is yes. And those health benefits are significant, whichever form of physical activity you choose, including reduced risks of high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol levels, diabetes and coronary heart disease.

Are you feeding your bones a healthy diet? If not, the consequences could be serious. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF), some 10 million Americans suffer from osteoporosis, which makes bones less dense and more susceptible to fractures. Another 34 million people are at risk for the condition. Osteoporosis will cause about half of all women over 50 to break a bone at some point in their lifetime, the NOF estimates. One-third of those who suffer hip fractures will require nursing-home care, and one-fifth will die in the first year after the fracture.

Answer : A Studies that have focused on the dangers of a big belly point out that waist circumference is strongly associated with the presence of fat tissue surrounding the organs in the abdomen.

Answer : The good news (unless youre looking for an excuse to slack off exercising)...

Answer : Rebecca Seguin, PhD, an adjunct assistant professor at Tufts Friedman School and an assistant professor at Cornell University, replies...