Elixir

It may still be your arms, legs and lungs that are doing the work, but the new “intelligent” fitness machines on the market are like virtual personal trainers, taking all the guess work out of achieving optimal fitness and making boring, ineffectual workouts a think of the past.

Most treadmills allow you to test your heart rate or select from a variety of pre-set workouts (hills, intervals, weight loss), but many new models are upping the ante. The Platinum Club Series treadmill from Life Fitness has gotten personal with a virtual trainer, which both motivates and educates users over the duration of their workout. Push a button and a male or female trainer appears on the integrated LCD touch screen and advises the user on every aspect of the workout, from describing workout programs to updates on workout statistics including distance, time and calories burned.

“The virtual trainer takes the intimidation out of beginning a new workout, helps users choose the best workout to meet their goals and provides ongoing encouragement while exercising,” says Bob Quast, vice president of brand management for Life Fitness.

Many new machines on the market now offer iPod integration, which allows users to plug in and charge their iPods, control their iPod playlists from the console and watch iPod-delivered video on the equipment’s large LCD screen. Users can also store customized workouts on a USB memory stick they plug directly into the treadmill so they can view and select a workout program on the integrated LCD screen. At the end of the workout, they can save the results on the USB stick and track progress over time online.

The demand for tech-savvy workout has led Curves, the women’s-only gym, to create the CurvesSmart full body fitness training system, which can tell the person exercising, qualitatively, if she isn’t doing enough work.

Users initially are weighed and measured, and they have their blood pressure taken; this information is then entered into a computer and the member is given a scanning tag with a computer chip in it, explains Becky Frusher, director of corporate communications for Curves International. The user then does the full 30-minute Curves circuit (including hydraulic weights machines, interspersed with brief bouts of cardio, such as marching in place) two times – the first time to see how fast she can do three reps of each move; the second time to test her range of motion. Finally, a personalized exercise profile will be created, which customizes the workout for her body, dictating how much effort it is healthy for her to expend.

Once the member’s fitness profile is established, she selects from one of four programs, including Fit ‘ n’ Trim, Muscle Size ‘n’ Strength, Cardio and the most difficult program, Endurance, and then moves through the circuit accordingly. As she scans her ID card at each machine, a series of colored lights will tell her how well she’s doing. If she’s working out at a level within her personalized training zone, she gets a green light; if she isn’t working out to her full potential, she gets a yellow light; if she overdoes it, the light is red. (There is also a set of lights for range of motion.) Periodically the member will monitor her pulse at an integrated Recovery Stepper machine, and if her pulse is too high, the subsequent machines will have her pause in order to bring her heart rate back into a healthy range.

Afterward, the member goes to a computer kiosk and uploads the information from her workout, where she can see where she did well and where she had a difficult time in this workout, how many calories she burned, how much residual energy she could have used to make her workout more powerful and her progress as compared to her 10 previous workouts. The computer will then inform her if she should stay where she is, move up or actually move back down – the system includes beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, all with varying degrees of difficulty within the level.

“You’ll realize that you really have to get your game on, or you will be sent back to an easier level,” Frusher says. “You have to put the effort in by responding to the lights, but the beauty is that you can never ceiling.” In fact, an initial study found that the fittest athletes at Baylor University were able to burn up 522 calories in 30 minutes when they did the circuit at maximum calorie burn.

Now if only these smart machines could dispense pre-workout smoothies and give you a post-workout massage, they’d be just about perfect.

A stroke requires immediate hospital care, but most Americans don’t recognize the symptoms of this potentially deadly “brain attack.” This widespread lack of awareness often results in long-term disabilities that could have been prevented.

A survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 13 states and the District of Columbia reveals that most people can’t identify the five most common symptoms of stroke, which include sudden confusion or trouble speaking; numbness, weakness or paralysis of the face or appendages, especially on one side; sudden vision impairment; dizziness and loss of balance; and severe headache.

Less than 44 percent of respondents in the 2005 survey correctly identified all five stroke symptoms, though awareness of individual symptoms ranged from 60.4 percent for severe headache to 92.6 percent for numbness or weakness.

These findings are concerning because prompt treatment is necessary to save brain tissue after a stroke occurs. With each passing minute, 2 million brain cells die, increasing the risk of permanent brain damage, disability and death.

When the cells die, abilities controlled by that area of the brain, such as speech, movement or memory, are impaired or lost. In the U.S., stroke is leading cause of adult disability and the third leading cause of death, killing 160,000 people each year, according to the National Stroke Association, Centennial, Co.

“Strokes cut off blood and oxygen flow to the brain, and the brain does not tolerate long periods of oxygen deprivation,” says Dr. Shalini Bansil, medical director, Overlook Hospital stroke center, Summit, N.J.

Stroke does not afflict just the elderly. Healthy, active individuals in their 20s and 30s suffer strokes, as well, Bansil says.

For the best possible outcome following a stroke, a clot-dissolving medication called tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, must be administered within three hours of the onset of symptoms.

“It’s kind of like Drano for the brain — it takes away the clog,” says Diane Mulligan, vice president of communications for the National Stroke Association.

Beyond that three-hour window, only hospitals with comprehensive stroke centers can provide advanced interventional procedures, such as mechanically removing the clot causing the stroke, to stall or reverse damage to the brain. (Visit www.stroke.org to locate your nearest stroke center.)

“Someone who is wheeled in unable to walk, speak or see has a shot, with prompt, appropriate treatment, to literally walk out of the hospital within two days with no disabilities,” Mulligan says. “Unfortunately, it takes the average American 12 to 24 hours to get to the hospital, which is a disaster.”

To determine if someone is having a stroke, think F-A-S-T:

Face: Can the person smile? Does the face droop on one side?

Arms: Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?

Speech: Can the person repeat a simple sentence, such as “The sky is blue,” without skipping or slurring words?

Time: If a person has difficulty with any of these things, call 911 and get to the nearest stroke center or emergency room FAST.

It’s time to get a little nutty everyday. The Chicago Tribune recently reported that a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine says eating a handful of nuts a day for a year may help undo the risk factors for heart disease, but it must be done while eating a Mediterranean diet which is rich in fruit, vegetables and fish.

The Spanish researchers found that adding nuts worked better to decrease metabolic syndrome, a combination of health risks that includes high blood pressure and abdominal obesity, than increasing olive oil in a Mediterranean diet, which overall worked better than those people who ate a low-fat diet did.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the study of 1,2000 people from the ages of 55 to 80 were randomly assigned one of three diets. The first group ate a low-fat diet, the second group ate a Mediterranean diet with extra nuts, and the third group ate a Mediterranean diet and added extra olive oil to their diet.

The people who improved the most were told to eat about three whole walnuts, seven or eight whole hazelnuts and seven or eight whole almonds. They didn’t lose weight on average, but more of them succeeded in reducing belly fat and improving their cholesterol and blood pressure. Researchers say nuts help people feel full while also increasing their body’s ability to burn fat.

According to the American Heart Association, 50 million Americans have metabolic syndrome. Although experts say that Americans should be cautioned since adding nuts to a Western diet, or a diet filled with too many calories and junk food, could lead to weight gain and more risks.

Who knew that being blue could lead to a larger jean size? According to a new study in the December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, older adults with symptoms of depression appear more likely to gain abdominal fat, but not overall fat, over a five-year period.

Participants were screened for depression at the beginning of the study and their overall and abdominal obesity was recorded and the same process was done after five years. Measures of overall obesity included body mass index and body fat percentage, while abdominal obesity was assessed using waist circumference, sagittal diameter (distance between the back and the highest point of the abdomen) and visceral fat (fat between the internal organs).

At the beginning of the study, 4 percent of participants had depression and the percentage grew up to 15 percent at the study’s end. After adjusting for sociodemographic and other characteristics associated with weight changes, depression was associated with an increase in visceral fat over five years.

Researchers say there are several mechanisms by which depression might increase abdominal fat like chronic stress and depression, which may activate lead to increased levels of the hormone cortisol and leads to the accumulation of visceral fat.

South of the chin, it’s pretty obvious where a woman plumps up during pregnancy. Less noticeably, her gums become swollen, too. Not only are puffy gums painful, but they also pose a risk to the unborn baby.

During pregnancy, blood vessels expand throughout the body, including the gums, says Dr. Dana Keiles, who practices dentistry in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. Enlarged vessels make the gums tender and more likely to bleed.

On top of that, about 50 percent of women experience pregnancy gingivitis, a gum disease caused by elevated hormone levels, according to the American Academy of Periodontology. The hormones react with plaque at the gum line, causing inflammation. Studies show that women with gum disease are more likely to give birth prematurely or bear full-term babies with low birth weights, which puts the infants at risk of developing serious health problems such as cerebral palsy, blindness and deafness. In addition, a study published in the April 2008 issue of the Journal of Dental Research suggests that women with gum disease are more likely to develop gestational diabetes.

The transfer of bacteria from a mother’s mouth to her unborn child and the rest of her body is probably to blame for these systemic health problems; however, other factors such as stress may come into play as well, says Dr. Jennifer Holtzman, assistant professor of clinical dentistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

In the general population, gum disease has been linked to heart disease and stroke.

“The best way to prevent and control gum disease is to make sure you clean the plaque off your teeth,” Holtzman says, adding that there are over-the-counter “disclosing agents” people can buy to dye and reveal any bacteria they missed while brushing and flossing.

Keiles recommends that women undergo a thorough dental exam if they are planning to get pregnant and that they have their teeth professionally cleaned every three months once they’re expecting.

She also recommends that pregnant women who suffer morning sickness or nausea rinse their mouths out if they vomit because stomach acid can damage tooth enamel.

“There’s a saying, ‘Have a baby, lose a tooth.’ It’s an old wives’ tale,” she says, “but there are a lot of hormonal things going on during pregnancy that can cause serious problems, so it’s important to practice good oral hygiene.”

Spreading some holiday cheer can make the season bright for you, for you, for you and, yes, for you.

According to a study publishing in the British Medical Journal, happiness spreads through a social network, traveling from one person to another and even to people up to three degrees removed.

“Scientists have been interested in happiness for a long time,” says James Fowler, associate professor in political science at the University of California, San Diego. “They’ve studied the effect of everything from winning the lottery to losing your job to getting sick, but they never before considered the full effect of other people. We show that happiness can spread from person to person to person in a chain reaction through social networks.” His research partner Nicholas Christakis, M.D, a professor of medical sociology in the department of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, says, “One of the key determinants of human happiness is the happiness of others. An innovative feature of our work was exploring the idea that emotions are a collective phenomenon and not just an individual one.”

Fowler and Christakis used data from the Framingham Heart Study to recreate a social network of 4,739 people whose happiness was measured from 1983 to 2003. To assess the participants’ emotional wellbeing, they relied on answers to four items from the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale: “I felt hopeful about the future”; “I was happy”; “I enjoyed life”; and “I felt that I was just as good as other people.”

Their research shows that happiness loves company. Happy people tend to cluster together, and, on the surface, people with more social contacts seem generally happier. However, Fowler and Christakis observe that what matters there is not just the total number of connections but the number of happy ones.

According to Fowler and Christakis, happiness spreads in a social network up to three degrees of separation.

You are 15 percent more likely to be happy if directly connected to a happy person; 10 percent if it’s the friend of a friend who is happy; and 6 percent if it’s the friend of a friend of a friend.

To be happier, Fowler suggests to take greater responsibility for your own happiness because it affects dozens of others.

“The pursuit of happiness is not a solitary goal. We are connected, and so is our joy,” Fowler says.