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BOONE, N.C. Research conducted by Amelia Bruce 19 while a graduate student at Appalachian State University suggests ankle injuries can be better treated by targeting the brain. The results of this groundbreaking study have been published in the February issue of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.

Bruce, who is from Taylorsville, earned an M.S. in exercise science from Appalachian and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in kinesiology at the University of Virginia.

While clinicians primarily treat the musculoskeletal side (during the rehabilitation phase), there is a whole neural system that is impacted by these injuries and needs just as much attention during treatment.

Appalachian alumna Amelia Bruce 19 on her research into treating ankle injuries.

While at Appalachian, Bruce worked with Dr. Alan Needle, associate professor in the Beaver College of Health Sciences Department of Health and Exercise Science. Needles previous research had shown the brains of people with ankle instability need more brain activation to do simple tasks. Bruce took the lead with the next step, testing the impact of brain stimulation in treating ligamentous injuries.

Appalachian alumna Amelia Bruce 19, standing, prepares a study participant in order to measure the effect of brain stimulation on treating ankle injuries. Photo submitted

Highlights of the study:

This topic was of importance to me because injuries in ligaments happen every day. If this intervention worked, it could reshape how clinicians treat these types of injuries during the rehabilitation phase, Bruce said.

While clinicians primarily treat the musculoskeletal side (during the rehabilitation phase), there is a whole neural system that is impacted by these injuries and needs just as much attention during treatment, she added.

When a sprain occurs in ankle ligaments, the brain directs the body to compensate by changing the patients gait, Bruce explained. This subconscious compensation causes a weakness in the ankle that leads to recurrent sprains over a patients lifetime potentially leading to inactivity and related obesity, cardiovascular disease and other health problems.

We want to nip that in the bud before it gets to that point by changing the way the brain reacts to the injury, Bruce said.

Amelia Bruce 19, a 2019 graduate of Appalachians M.A. in exercise science program from Taylorsville. Photo submitted

Bruce presented her research findings at several conferences, including the following:

Bruce plans to continue her research at the University of Virginia by testing patients with knee ligament injuries.

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The Master of Science degree in Exercise Science prepares qualified professionals for employment in athletics programs, exercise/fitness centers and other locations, or for advanced study. Students can choose one of three concentrations: Research, Clinical Exercise Physiology, and Strength and Conditioning.

May 3, 2019

Undergraduates Bryson Honeycutt, Carly Maas and John Stevens IV, along with graduate students Amelia Bruce, Liz Derrick and Tom Hastings, were recognized as the winners of the celebrations 10th Student Poster Competition.

The Department of Health and Exercise Science in Appalachian State Universitys Beaver College of Health Sciences delivers student-centered education that is accentuated by quality teaching, scholarly activity and service. The department includes two undergraduate academic disciplines: exercise science and public health. The department also offers two masters degrees: athletic training, which leads to professional licensure, and exercise science, which prepares students for advanced study in a variety of related fields as well as research. Learn more at https://hes.appstate.edu.

Appalachian's Beaver College of Health Sciences opened in 2010 as the result of a strategic university commitment to significantly enhance the health and quality of life for individuals, families and communities in North Carolina and beyond. In 2015, the college was named for an Appalachian alumnus and pioneer in the health care industry Donald C. Beaver 62 64 of Conover. The college offers nine undergraduate degree programs and seven graduate degree programs, which are organized into six departments: Communication Sciences and Disorders; Health and Exercise Science; Nursing; Nutrition and Health Care Management; Recreation Management and Physical Education; and Social Work. Learn more at https://healthsciences.appstate.edu.

Appalachian State Universitys Cratis D. Williams School of Graduate Studies helps individuals reach the next level in their career advancement and preparedness. The school offers 70 graduate degree and certificate programs in a range of disciplines, including doctoral programs in education (Ed.D.) and psychology (Psy.D.). Classes are offered at the main campus in Boone as well as online and face-to-face at locations around northwestern North Carolina. The graduate school enrolls nearly 1,800 students. Learn more at https://graduate.appstate.edu.

As the premier public undergraduate institution in the state of North Carolina, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives as global citizens who understand and engage their responsibilities in creating a sustainable future for all. The Appalachian Experience promotes a spirit of inclusion that brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically, to act with passion and determination, and to embrace diversity and difference. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Appalachian is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System. Appalachian enrolls more than 19,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors.

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Research by App State alumna shows ankle injuries can be treated by targeting the brain - Appalachian State University

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ST. CLOUD --An app used by local law enforcement officers has the potential to help seniors with dementiastay in their homes longer.

"Memory Loss and Public Safety" is the topic of Thursday's ACT on Alzheimer's program. The once-monthly info session, held at the Whitney Senior Center, covers a variety of topics on living with memory loss, dementia and Alzheimer's.

St. Cloud Police Sergeant Tad Hoeschen says this month, officers will be on hand to talk about Vitals, a mobile app that stores important information about vulnerable people and shares it with law enforcement. Information loaded into the app can include a person'snicknames, emergency contact information, triggers, typical behaviors, or detailed instructions for working withthem in a crisis situation.

An officer is alerted when the Vitals app is activated and within 80 feet of the person, says Hoeschen.

"We just encountered a gentleman not too long ago who suffers from dementia," Hoeschen explained. "His information includes, 'I get confused; here's what happens when I get confused; here's what I may look like.' All that stuff may be in there to help officers relate to them as good as we can."

Laura Hood, Whitney's Director of Aging Services, says ACT on Alzheimer's is an essential program, as one in three seniors age 85 and older suffers from some form of dementia.

"We've got a lot of people over 80 in this community," Hood said. "They're vibrant, and healthy and they're moving around. But, that risk factor increases at that age, and it can be very problematic when you're trying to navigate everyday life."

Hood says the topic of Alzheimer's and public safety relates to more than just the work of law enforcement officers.

"How can we as neighbors be more supportive?" said Hood. "For instance, I should be aware of the fact that my next-door neighbor has memory loss. And, his wife may be running out for groceries, and I should be keeping an eye out and notice that hes now walking down the street in his stocking feet.

Along with police officers, ACT will have experts on hand to discuss how to handle the sensitive topic of safe driving for seniors.

"At what point do we make the decision to give up that drivers license?" asked Hood. "What does that conversation look like? Maybe its okay to just drive to the grocery store or church. Its a very difficult thing.

Hood says the overall purpose of ACT month over month is to helpseniors with memory loss issuesremain as independent as possible - for as long as possible.

"It's where you're going to be the most comfortable," Hood said. "It's the most economical place for you to be, and it's more than likely where your support system is. That's the whole initiative of ACT on Alzheimer's."

ACT on Alzheimer's is Thursday, March 5 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. It's free and open to seniors, family members, caregivers and any interested community members. For more information, call 320-255-7245.

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Ed Boland worked in Yales admissions office before becoming Preps head of external affairs. (He left Prep in 2018.) He first heard about Prep, he told me, during the admissions season of 1989. Everybody had a vague sense of what a prospective Yale student looked like, he said. Theyve got grades like this, and scores like this, and attended a summer camp in Maine with a Native American name, and worked at a soup kitchen in France, and had internships at their fathers bank, he said. These experiences are how we have shaped our leadership class for a very long time. He went on, But, on this particular afternoon in 89, there was this whole crop of kids who had the same kind of Park Avenue pedigree, but with outer-borough addresses. This was not, I hate to say it, your typical scholarship kid. These kids were every bit as strong, and every bit as credentialledand Im not just talking grades and scores. The whole package was very Park Avenue. Prep had helped its students not only do well at demanding schools but also signify a kind of social standing. Prep for Prep is like a stimulus package for an individual, Jack told me. My friends often joke that, instead of a rich parent or a working social safety net, we had Prep.

In 2002, I left New York City for Vermont, to attend Middlebury. There, I learned what a Wasp was. I met kids who had gone to East Coast boarding schools and their analogues in the Midwest and San Francisco. They wore Patagonia fleeces and drank entire glasses of milk at meals. They carried Nalgenes full of water which never seemed to empty. They were friendlier than I knew what to do with.

I also met black kids from other statesNorth Carolina, Washington, Massachusettswho belonged to the suburban middle class. We couldnt read one another: they came from families richer than mine, but my education had been tonier. Many of the black Middlebury students who came from New York had attended segregated public high schools in Harlem and the outer boroughs. A few had applied to Middlebury directly, but most had come through programs like the Posse Foundation. (Equality, I was learning, depends so much on mediation, at every step along the way.) These other New Yorkers mostly seemed smarter than I was, but they had not spent the previous several years being initiated into upper-crust education and its folkways. In my early days on campus, I was told more than once, by basically nice white classmates, how much different my speaking voice was from those of the other kids from New York theyd met. What this meant, I knew, was that I sounded, to their ears, sort of white, and that the others didnt.

The academic work wasnt any harder than it had been at Horace Mann, but, by my sophomore year, something in my approach to it had unscrewed itself, fallen loose. I was still diligent about artsinging and doing my best in plays and beginning, tentatively, to writebut, that spring, I stopped going to class, and let late essays pile up. After a flunked semester, I was sent home to New York for a probationary term: I would take classes at Hunter College, part of the City University system; if I earned a B average, I could return to Middlebury. I went home, got the Bs, and headed back north. Then I found out mid-semester that I was going to be a father, and I promptly flunked out again.

Twenty years old, frazzled, living with my mother, and in terrifying need of a job, I landed a low-level position at a hospital. On the day I was supposed to start, I couldnt will myself to go. Maybe I was feeling squeamish about the blood and shit that my interviewer, a kind-looking black woman, had taken pains to inform me, in a dont-act-surprised-when-you-show-up tone of voice, would be a constant part of the job. Or perhaps it was the way that shed said, with something like suspicion, but also with something like concern, Do you think youre maybe overqualified? Im surprised you want this job. As if, really, she meant to say, It looks like youre on a much different path from this one. Keep going.

My daughter was born in the fall of 2005, when I shouldve been a college senior. I got another job interview, at a well-known education nonprofit in Harlem. The interviewer was tall and heavyset and wore a T-shirt bearing the nonprofits name in bright letters. As he looked at my rsum, he dragged his eyebrow upward, squinching his forehead into folds. In the summers between school years at Middlebury, Id worked as a teaching assistant at Prep. Im sure that was really nice, he said. Lotta smart kids. I knew where this was headed. But, you know, real classroomsclassrooms like oursarent really like that. Have you ever broken up a fight? Had a kid curse at you?

It is an odd feeling to watch yourself be seenor, worse, read. I was being interpreted, reasonably but not totally accurately, according to the schools Id gone to and the kinds of jobs Id had. I didnt feel like a member of the class to which my education said I was someday supposed to belong. I felt like what I was: young, black, jobless, an unmarried father. I wanted to tell those interviewers that I was afraid.

Then Prep stepped back into my life. Luck. A stimulus package. I got a job at the programs headquarters, a brownstone on West Seventy-first Street, shuffling papers in the basement. The job required focus, bureaucratic speed, and an ability to communicate regularly and clearly with a Prep administrator whom Id known since I was a kid. I was not good at this job. Piles of paper turned my desk into a model skyline. Information went unfiled, spreadsheets unfilled. Whatever Id learned at school, it hadnt been this.

So Prep recommended me as a tutor for the teen-age son of a black investment banker who was on Preps board of directors. The banker paid me directly, by the hour, and I sent him occasional e-mail updates on his sons progress. We read plays and short stories and articles from the sports pages, and ran through long sets of simple algebra. The kid didnt like to concentrate; I could relate. One day, I got a call from his stepmother, who was from Chicago. She was supporting a young Illinois senator who was preparing to run for President. His campaign was setting up a fund-raising office in New York, and theyd need an assistant. I knew that I was stumbling into another unmerited adventure. Without having finished college, I rode the first Obama campaign all the way to Washington, D.C., where I worked at the Democratic National Committee, raising money, and then at the White House, where I helped recruit minor functionaries to work at Cabinet agencies. On Friday evenings, Id throw clothes into a duffel and catch a BoltBus home to hang out with my daughterand to spend most of each Saturday on the Upper East Side, pecking away at a degree from Hunter College.

I had run up student-loan debt at Middlebury, and I was paying my way through Hunter credit by credit, up front and in cash. Some semesters, out of fatigue or because I was flat broke, I gave up school entirely. Once or twice, I convinced myself that I should quit, that Id made a fine beginning for myselfunreasonably fine, given the circumstancesas a college dropout. But something about the difficulty of this arrangement, and its maddening slowness, helped me focus. At Hunter, what I learned, I learned well, and in a hungry way I hadnt really experienced since high school. It was the first time since fifth grade that Id attended a public school. I wasnt advancing anyones notion of diversity. My classmates were New Yorkers, and therefore from everywhere. Everybody had at least one job, and lots of them had two or three. Nobody strolled across a quad to classHunter has no grassand everybody was always on the train. Many of my teachers were adjuncts, shuttling between one city campus and another; they managed, mostly, to project total sincerity about the subjects at hand. Nobody complained when, lacking a babysitter, I sometimes brought my kid to class. Nothing depended on my presence. I didnt signify.

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Prep for Prep and the Fault Lines in New Yorks Schools - The New Yorker

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Testosterone Replacement Therapy Market research is an intelligence report with meticulous efforts undertaken to study the right and valuable information. The report encompasses the competition landscape entailing share analysis of the key players in the Testosterone Replacement Therapy market based on their revenues and other significant factors. Report analyzes changing trends and competitive analysis which becomes essential to monitor performance and make critical decisions for growth and development. It also provides market information in terms of development and its capacities.

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Table of Contents

Global Testosterone Replacement Therapy Market Research Report 2020 2026

Chapter 1 Testosterone Replacement Therapy Market Overview

Chapter 2 Global Economic Impact on Industry

Chapter 3 Global Market Competition by Manufacturers

Chapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by Region

Chapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions

Chapter 6 Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type

Chapter 7 Global Market Analysis by Application

Chapter 8 Manufacturing Cost Analysis

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Chapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders

Chapter 11 Market Effect Factors Analysis

Chapter 12 Global Testosterone Replacement Therapy Market Forecast

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Massive Demand of Testosterone Replacement Therapy Market by 2020-2026 with Top Key Players like Endo International, AbbVie, Eli lilly, Pfizer,...

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People running on an athletics track. (Pexels/Snapwire)

A bill that would bar transgender students from girls sports teams and force girls whose gender is questioned to submit to a genital examination was dealt a heavy blow by lawmakers last week.

New Hampshire politicians voted 13-7 to kill off the bill, saying it is inexpedient to legislate.

House Bill 1251 would bar transgender athletes from girls sports teams with a requirement that participants be cisgender.

The bill would mean that any female athlete whose gender was called into question would need to prove their sex via an analysis of their chromosomes, medical testing of their testosterone levels, and an examination of their external genitalia.

According to the sponsors of the bill, all 11 of whom are Republicans, this is necessary to protect fairness in sport, because they claim that trans athletes have an unfair physical advantage.

While Republicans said that passing the bill would preserve opportunities for female athletes, Democrats said it would take away opportunities for trans girls, an already marginalised group.

I have to tell you, Im really outraged by this bill, said Rosemarie Rung, a Merrimack Democrat.

I read where in primary school, a fourth grader who may identify as a female would have to be subject to internal and external reproductive anatomy. An analysis of the individuals chromosomes.

Currently there is no state-level guidance on trans students participation in sports, but many already play for female sports teams.

The New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association has previously issued guidance to schools urging them to include trans girls on female sports teams.

This really is a wolfs in sheeps clothing, said Stephen Woodcock, a Conway Democrat. This is about not allowing transgender youth to participate.

A separate lawsuit seeking to bar trans girls from student sports on the basis they have an unfair physical advantage was seriously undermined last month, when one of the cisgender girls bringing the case beat her trans rival in a race.

The New Hampshire bill has been blasted by Democrats and LGBT+ activists, who point out that it would discriminate against trans athletes and could make trans students feel isolated.

They also argue that House Bill 1251 would set New Hampshire back, after gains made for LGBT+ rights in the past two years.

In May 2018, New Hampshire became the first Republican-controlled state to pass trans rights protections, and a year later it became the 13th US state to add an X gender option to drivers licenses.

House Bill 1251 will be taken up by the full House at a later date.

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Disgusting anti-trans bill forcing girls to face a genital exam so they can play sports is dealt a heavy blow - PinkNews

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Don't go for the newest diet people are talking about, just eat healthier foods instead

LAUREN PETTIT | DAILY EVERGREEN ILLUSTRATION

Move over paleo, these diets don't solve the issue of being a healthier person. Instead focus on foods that are healthier and cutting calorie counts to achieve a healthier lifestyle for yourself.

There are so many options when looking for a newdiet plan. There is keto, vegan, intermediate fasting, vegetarian, paleo, detoxor juice cleanse and much more to choose from. These diets are trendy andunhealthy.

Fad diets often lead people to believe that there is a one-size-fits-all diet, and this is the one. The secrets out there isnt one perfect diet for all of us, said Lauren Keeney, a registered dietitian nutritionist and the owner and operator of Integrated Health LLC located in Moscow.

College is a colliding environment of lack of money and energy. When a student is lacking money, it is easier to buy staple items. These items look like ramen, canned veggies or soup and anything else that can be found at a low price. These low-price items are high in cholesterol and fat and they lack many of the key nutrients that are needed in a balanced diet. Low-cost foods also increase weight gain and fatigue.

It can come as no surprise that many college students are hopping on diet trends to lose weight fast, in the high stress and low energy environment. These fad diets are used to change a students look, weight and energy level.

I have done every diet you can do, from keto to fasting, said Hannah Bidon, a WSU junior majoring in nutrition and exercise physiology and minoring in psychology.

The diet is a quick fix that can have little tono effect on a students daily eating habits.

In my experience, I gave up and I couldnt doit. This was because it was unnatural for my body, Bidon said.

Starting a new diet can be exciting at first. Eventually the diet will come to an end, leaving the body feeling unhealthy and overall useless. Cutting out key components to a diet can harm the body.

Eat foods that your body craves and foods that make your body feel good, energized and satisfied. This means, eat what you enjoy and enjoy what you eat physically, mentally and emotionally, Keeney said.

Cutting out just carbsand fat can affect the body. Unless there are dietary restrictions or religiousguidelines, an individual should provide their body with all food groups.

The students that want to change their diets for ethical and environmental reasons are very different from those who want to lose 10 pounds in eight days. They try the new diets of detox, juice cleanse, one large meal a day, keto, paleo and much more. There are fewer extreme ways of dieting and healthy choices.

Diets come to an end and so does that healthy eating. Many times, the diet trend does not change an individuals overall eating habits or relationship with food.

In the end I gained the weight back or felt unhealthy after the diet, Bidon said.

Diets dont last forever, it is easier to makelife changes.

What many young adultslack in their diet is having a healthy relationship with food, Keeney said.

The best advice I was given was to balance the plate. Have all the food groups represented on the plate. Fruit and veggies, grain (bread, potatoes and more), protein (fish, eggs, tofu and nuts) and dairy (milk, yogurt and cheese).

Add more color to your diet, this way you canensure youre getting a variety of nutrients to support your overall health,Keeney said.

Students can add nutritious and need food groupsby adding in diverse veggies and sides to their main dish.

Take top ramen, for example. Overall it is not healthy. But it is cheap, so it is a staple in any students dorm, apartment, or house. It can be made healthier by adding a protein (I like an egg or two) and some green veggies. It not only looks more appetizing it can be more nutritious and filling.

Why even diet when it can end in gaining the weight back? I suggest making little healthy changes that can improve overall attitudes towards food. Little changes can make a big difference.

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OPINION: Research before you try a diet - The Daily Evergreen

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There are a million diets out there some more effective than others. But at the end of the day, it all boils down to one thing: if you want to lose weight, calories in must be lower than calories out. Its as simple as that.

Or is it?

The calories in vs calories out calculation is essentially correct, but it leaves out a few things. For starters, having a healthy diet isnt only about calories ignoring nutrient intake is not a wise thing to do, and many diets sacrifice healthiness for the same of losing weight (Im looking at you, keto).

Secondly, theres the human aspect: were not exactly good at controlling ourselves, and the odds are that simply making a calorie plan isnt going to work out. It needs to consider our lifestyle and preferences in order to be successful. A diet needs to become a lifestyle in order for it to work.

Lastly, its also not only about what we eat and how much we eat, but also about when we eat, as a new study has shown.

Our bodies are not machines that you can program and expect to function in the same way day in and day out. Our biological clocks and sleep patterns (the circadian rhythm) regulate how the food we eat is metabolized. Our bodies do burn fat when we sleep, but our metabolism generally tends to slow down at night, so eating right before going to sleep is rarely a good idea.

In the new study, researchers monitored the metabolism of mid-aged and older subjects in a whole-room respiratory chamber (essentially a calorie-measuring room) over two separate 56-hour sessions.

In each session, lunch and dinner were offered at the same time: 12:30 and 17:45, respectively but the timing of the third meal was changed. For one half of the study, the additional meal was presented as breakfast (8:00), and the other as a late-evening snack (22:00).

The duration of the overnight fast was the same overall, it was just the time of eating that was changed.

The two sessions did not differ in overall energy expenditure, but the respiratory exchange ratio was different during sleep.

Essentially, while the subjects were consuming the same amount of energy during sleep, they were metabolizing nutrients differently. Specifically, they were less likely to burn fat during sleep when they had the late-night snack

Therefore, the timing of meals during the day/night cycle affects how ingested food is oxidized or stored in humans, with important implications for optimal eating habits, the researchers write.

Previous research has suggested that this downside is negated by an intensive training regime, but for most of the population, the takeaway is pretty clear: if you want to get rid of that extra fat, you might want to stop having late-night snacks.

The results were published in PLoS Biology.

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Want to have a healthy weight? Eat breakfast, not late-night snacks - ZME Science

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We're all creatures of habit. We tend to wake up at the same time each day, brush our teeth, have morning coffee and commute to work, following the same patterns every day.

So why is it so hard to form new healthy habits?

Behavioral scientists who study habit formation say that many of us try to create healthy habits the wrong way. We make bold resolutions to start exercising or lose weight, for example, without taking the steps needed to set ourselves up for success.

Here are some tips, backed by research, for forming new healthy habits.

The best way to form a new habit is to tie it to an existing habit, experts say. Look for patterns in your day and think about how you can use existing habits to create new, positive ones.

For many of us, our morning routine is our strongest routine, so that's a great place to stack on a new habit. A morning cup of coffee, for example, can create a great opportunity to start a one-minute meditation practice. Or, while you are brushing your teeth, you might choose to do squats or stand on one foot to practice balance.

Many of us fall into end-of-the-day patterns as well. Do you tend to flop on the couch after work and turn on the TV? That might be a good time to do a single daily yoga pose.

B.J. Fogg, a Stanford University researcher and the author of the book Tiny Habits, notes that big behavior changes require a high level of motivation that often can't be sustained. He suggests starting with tiny habits to make the new habit as easy as possible in the beginning. Taking a daily short walk, for example, could be the beginning of an exercise habit. Or, putting an apple in your bag every day could lead to better eating habits.

In his own life, Fogg wanted to start a daily pushup habit. He started with just two pushups a day and, to make the habit stick, tied his pushups to a daily habit: going to the bathroom. He began by, after a bathroom trip, dropping and doing two pushups. Now, he has a habit of 40 to 80 pushups a day.

British researchers studied how people form habits in the real world, asking participants to choose a simple habit they wanted to form, like drinking water at lunch or taking a walk before dinner. The study, published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, found that the amount of time it took for the task to become automatic a habit ranged from 18 to 254 days.

The median time was 66 days!

The lesson is that habits take a long time to create, but they form faster when we do them more often. So start with something reasonable that is really easy to do. You are more likely to stick with an exercise habit if you do some small exercise jumping jacks, a yoga pose, a brisk walk every day, rather than trying to get to the gym three days a week.

Once the daily exercise becomes a habit, you can explore new, more intense forms of exercise.

Habit researchers know we are more likely to form new habits when we clear away the obstacles that stand in our way. Packing your gym bag and leaving it by the door is one example of this.

Wendy Wood, a research psychologist at the University of Southern California, said she began sleeping in her running clothes to make it easier to roll out of bed in the morning, slip on her running shoes and run.

Choosing an exercise that doesn't require you to leave the house like situps or jumping jacks is another way to form an easy exercise habit.

Wood, author of the book Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick, calls the forces that get in the way of good habits "friction." In one study, researchers changed the timing of elevator doors so that workers had to wait nearly half a minute for the doors to close. (Normally the doors closed after 10 seconds.) It was just enough of a delay that it convinced many people that taking the stairs was easier than waiting for the elevator.

"It shows how sensitive we are to small friction in our environment," Wood said. "Just slowing down the elevator got people to take the stairs, and they stuck with it even after the elevator went back to normal timing."

Wood notes that marketers are already experts in reducing friction, inducing us to spend more, for example, or order more food. That's why Amazon has a "1-Click" button and fast-food companies make it easy to supersize. "We're just very influenced by how things are organized around us in ways that marketers understand and are exploiting but people don't exploit and understand in their own lives," she said.

REWARD YOURSELF

Rewards are an important part of habit formation. When we brush our teeth, the reward is immediate a minty fresh mouth. But some rewards like weight loss or the physical changes from exercise take longer to show up. That's why it helps to build in some immediate rewards to help you form the habit.

Listening to audiobooks while running, for example, or watching a favorite cooking show on the treadmill can help reinforce an exercise habit. Or plan an exercise date so the reward is time with a friend.

Style on 03/02/2020

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VIDEO: Building better habits is easier when you don't try to hard - NWAOnline

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By 2050, the worlds over-65s will outnumber the under-15s for the first time in history. The root cause of this is simple: infant mortality has decreased. In 1910, about 15% of British babies died shortly after being born. By 1950, this had dropped to about 3%, and last year it was about 0.3%. This reduction is a global trend that only grouches fail to hail as a triumph.

But success brings its own problems. Every surviving baby is a potential pensioner, and by the age of 85, nobody is disease free. Being old is not in itself a problem, but being old and ill is quite another matter.

Over 40% of the UKs National Health Service (NHS) budget goes on the over-65s. Spending on a patient in their mid-80s is more than seven times higher that on someone in their mid-30s. Unless we improve healthy lifespan, by 2050 either healthcare expenditure will become impossibly high or care standards unacceptably low.

Conscious of this, the British government has set itself a commendable target for everyone to have five extra years of healthy, independent life by 2035 and to narrow the gap between the richest and the poorest. The second part of the sentence is key. Simply committing to increase the average healthy lifespan, as the European Union did some years ago, carries the risk that you hit your target by making the healthiest healthier.

Avoiding this is crucial for the UK where the health gap between rich and poor is bad (24% fewer of the poorest British people are in good health relative to the richest) compared with countries such as New Zealand and France (where the gap is only 5%-10%).

An authoritative new report, The Health of the Nation, from the All Party Parliamentary Group for Longevity lays out potential measures the UK government could take, and some traps to avoid, to meet its target. Drawing on contributions from many disciplines, there is something in it for everyone, from what you can do personally to stay healthy, through what your doctors can do to help you, to what scientists can do to help your doctors.

What you can do should come as no surprise. Stop smoking which would cut UK health inequalities in half if everyone did so. Drink less alcohol although you probably shouldnt be a teetotaller. And stay a healthy weight and get enough exercise.

The trap with encouraging people to adopt healthy behaviour, for example by running a lose-weight campaign, is that the people who diet as a result tend to be health-conscious folk already worried theyre fat. So catch everyone measures, such as hiking the prices of beer and cigarettes, have a better chance of raising average lifespan by reducing health inequality. Just dont expect smokers to thank the government for doing it.

Your doctors could help by putting more effort into preventing illness. The NHS focuses on healing the sick. It is extremely efficient at this but spends only 5% of its budget on prevention. This is because its key targets are for treating disease, not enhancing wellness. (Surgeons arent paid for the operations they didnt need to perform.)

One recommended way around this is to shift NHS performance metrics and money away from payment by activity towards payment for meeting population health status targets, such as blood pressure. Healthcare systems worldwide are looking to do this, but the potential for unintended consequences is high. For example, it is not implausible that linking financial incentives to a healthy population would create incentives for doctors not to diagnose people as sick.

Scientists can help because the single greatest risk to your health is your number of birthdays or, in other words, the operation of the mechanisms causing ageing. Social circumstances and individual behaviour affect ageing, but its underlying biological drivers affect every tissue in the body.

Fortunately, we now know that a few fundamental processes cause both ageing and age-related disease. For older people who are already sick, this breakthrough in understanding could add decades to healthy life expectancy.

It took 50 years to establish that senescent cells cells that dont divide or support the tissues of which they are part caused ageing but less than five to develop a drug cocktail that removes them from humans. So the first anti-ageing drugs are coming. But to get them to the clinic fast enough to meet the governments target, the new report recommends establishing a dedicated British Institute for Ageing to lead scientists, entrepreneurs and industrialists in a unified effort.

The global race to patent anti-ageing treatments is firmly on, the human need for them undoubted, and the nations that already have such dedicated agencies are out in front. So this last recommendation is one every country on Earth without these institutions will be well advised to carefully consider.

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Adding five healthy years to UK life expectancy how to achieve it - The Conversation UK

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When Jeff Lewis first started to develop symptoms of multiple sclerosis, he brushed them off. I couldnt get my right and left leg in sync when I was walking my right leg was delayed, the Houston-area chef tells Yahoo Lifestyle. But I was a typical male and I ignored it for a very long time.

Things got progressively worse from there, Lewis says. It wasnt until his vision started deteriorating at a concert that he finally admitted something was wrong. I was at a concert and, whenever I looked at the exit sign, everything would shake, he explains. I later found out that I was going completely blind in my right eye and my left eye was trying to compensate. At this point, Lewis says, he finally told his wife that, something was wrong.

Lewiss symptoms would get worse from there. I also lost the ability to speak, he says. Lewis finally saw his family practitioner who referred him to a neurologist. He was given four different MRIs and, finally, a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and usually progressive autoimmune disease that damages the sheaths of the nerve cells in a persons brain and spinal cord, according to theNational Multiple Sclerosis Society. MS patients can have symptoms like difficulty with balance, trouble walking and involuntary muscle spasms. They can also struggle with invisible symptoms like fatigue, numbness and tingling, weakness, pain, cognitive changes and bladder and bowel issues.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society reports that more than 2.3 million people have MS worldwide.

Former chef Jeff Lewis in his element, the kitchen. (Photo courtesy of Jeff Lewis)

At the time of his diagnosis, Lewis had started his own catering business and was even cooking for NBA players. My diagnosis happened around the same time as my company took off, he says. I had also just had my son. I just thought, Why did this happen to me?

Lewis says he was initially shocked by the diagnosis but, I wanted to be strong for my family. But three days later, he says, he went on his porch and cried like a baby. I just didnt understand why this was happening, he says. I couldnt see and I could barely talk. MS symptoms can be exacerbated by heat and stress two factors that were common for Lewis in his job and his neurologist recommended that he stop his work as a caterer. My entire world was crashing, Lewis recalls. But that night, I just decided Im going to fight this thing as hard as I can and make sure that Im doing everything I can.

Lewis started taking medication a shot he took every other day but it gave him flu-like symptoms. My quality of life sucked, he says. But he eventually transitioned to a newer medication that involved taking a pill a day, and didnt have the same side effects.

Despite his doctors recommendation, Lewis wasnt quite ready to give up his work yet. That came later, when he was cooking at the 2013 NBA All-Star game. While I was in the kitchen, it got too hot and my legs went out on me, he says. I had to stop and I sold the business.

Lewis eventually transitioned to working in real estate, but food has remained an important part of his life and treatment. I started eliminating a lot of the fried foods that I love, limiting my red meat intake and trying to have as many fruits and vegetables as possible, he says. Lewis also avoids processed foods and limits alcohol to social occasions. I was never a heavy drinker, so that transition was much easier for me, he says.

And, Lewis says, changing his diet has had its benefits. I feel like the combination of my diet and medication has helped. I can now see with both eyes and my speech is back.

While Lewis says he has symptoms from time to time,, he adds that, for the most part, my quality of life and outlook is so much better.

Lewis has also experimented with what he calls unconventional foods like Caribbean sea moss. A friend recommended it to me, he says. I take a tablespoon a day. It tastes horrible, but I genuinely feel like its helping me to stay afloat, along with eating better and taking my medication.

Experts generally recommend that patients with multiple sclerosis strive to follow the samelow-fat, high-fiber diet recommendations from the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

While theres no set diet, a number of diets have been proposed, Amit Sachdev, MD, medical director for the Department of Neurology at Michigan State University, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Most diets that people with autoimmune diseases adhere to are focused on limiting carbohydrates and processed foods, he adds. Those can include diets that are gluten-free, paleo, Atkins, ketogenic and even Weight Watchers. The key is to maintain a healthy body environment, says Sachdev. A healthy body is important for all organ systems, including the brain and spinal cord.

The role of diet in MS symptoms is still being studied in humans, but eating well can cause improvements in fatigue and improvements in quality of life, Barbara Giesser, MD, neurologist and MS specialist at Pacific Neuroscience Institute at Providence Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., tells Yahoo Lifestyle.

Its generally recommended that people with MS also limit how much alcohol they have. Its not the alcohol affects MS per se, but its a neurotoxin in anybody, Giesser explains. Alcohol can also impair balance and coordination, which can be a problem for some people with MS anyway. It also doesnt interact well with some MS medications.

Processed foods should also be kept to a minimum, says Sachdev. Good nutrition is an important part of avoiding bad days, he explains. Getting the most out of your meal times is the most important part of good nutrition. Its far more important than trying to supplement afterward.

Jeff Lewis enjoying life with his wife, Angela, and their two children. (Photo courtesy of Jeff Lewis)

Lewis says its important for him to eat well to stay healthy. You are what you eat, and thats true with MS too, he says.

Now, he says hes trying to be flexible with what every day will bring. With MS, you dont know whats coming, he says. Im not fearful about it, though. I just do my best and go about my day.

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'You are what you eat': Why this former chef changed his diet after being diagnosed with MS - Yahoo Lifestyle

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