Description

An in-depth report on the benefits and types of exercise.

Overview

To enjoy a long and healthy life, everyone should make lifestyle choices that include a healthy diet, regular exercise, and maintaining normal weight. The combination of inactivity and eating the wrong foods is the second most common preventable cause of death in the United States (smoking is the first).

Most research on the benefits of exercise focuses on heart protection. Studies clearly show that exercise helps the heart. In addition, studies are reporting that even people with heart disease may gain important benefits from exercising, though they need medical clearance and special precautions.

Evidence suggests that our genes evolved to favor exercise. In other words, during prehistoric times, if a person couldn't move quickly and wasn't strong, that person died. Those who were fit survived to reproduce and pass on their "fitter" genes. Some researchers believe that with our current inactive lifestyle, these genes produce a number of bad effects, which can lead to many chronic illnesses.

The benefits of exercise include:

In addition, exercise can help change other dangerous lifestyle habits. A 2007 review of existing studies found that moderate exercise, for as little as 5 minutes at a time, can help combat the nicotine withdrawal symptoms people have when they try to stop smoking.

No one is too young or too old to exercise. The United States Surgeon General recommends at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise, such as brisk walking, nearly every day. However, vigorous exercise carries risks that people should discuss with a doctor. You should always check with your doctor before starting a new exercise program, especially if you have any of the following risk factors:

Fifty percent of all people who begin a vigorous training program drop out within a year. The key to reaching and maintaining physical fitness is to find activities that are exciting, challenging, and satisfying.

Read the rest here:
Exercise | University of Maryland Medical Center

Published: Saturday, 3/21/2015 - Updated: 15 hours ago COMMENTARY

TK BARGER BLADE RELIGION EDITOR

Friday was the first day of spring, with the vernal equinox marking the point when day and night are the same length. Thats the scientific start of the season, but some people look to the birds to know that its spring.

Weve been taught that robins are a mystical harbinger of better weather, because why would the birds be here if it were going to snow again or the temperature were likely to stay below freezing?

The robin escorting the new season in isnt so straightforward, though. Story and tradition dont hew so closely to science and nature.

Some robins dont migrate. In a field guide to birds you might see a map showing that northwest Ohio is year-round territory for the American robin. If the food is not covered by too much snow, robins will be here.

There are times Ive been discouraged seeing robins around and the weather not cooperating, and thinking that some human snowbirds who spend the winter in Florida are better indicators.

Even so, look to the robin. Theres some comfort in seeing the familiar red breast, the bird pulling worms from your yard, maybe, or hearing its brief song. The robin might indicate the promise of spring, but it doesnt actually usher it in.

The robins that stay through the winter demonstrate that there are complicating factors getting in the way of predicting how the world and our lives will go.

Its the same for spirituality for most of us. Being religious, or spiritual but not religious if you prefer that phrasing, is not always transcendent in the way we might like. The positive mysticism might be missing.

See more here:
Finding renewal in spring, and in our spirits

CNN is looking to a higher power in its quest to get new viewers.

The cable news network's original series lineup for 2016 includes "Believer," featuring religious studies scholar Reza Aslan, who will delve into different religious practices around the world. Think of it as "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown" with faith instead of food as a window to explore cultures.

The six-episode series, based on an idea that Aslan has been pitching for a few years, will be another element in CNN's strategy to get people to tune in when there isn't breaking news.

"It's an opportunity to show religious traditions, practices, rites and rituals that may at first seem weird and foreign and exotic and unfamiliar because you're unfamiliar with the metaphors underlying those ideas," Aslan said in a telephone interview from his Hollywood office. "At the end of an hour episode, they will all of a sudden become much more familiar and recognizable."

Religious programming has found an audience on television going back to when Bishop Fulton Sheen got big ratings just by dissecting inspirational topics on his chalkboard for the DuMont and ABC networks in the 1950s.

In recent weeks, CNN has been topping its cable news competition with "Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact, Forgery," in which scientific and archaeological methods are used to examine physical evidence of Christ's existence. The program has averaged 1.2 million viewers a week since its premiere.

Aslan, who wrote the controversial bestseller "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth," will cast a wider net with his program, undoubtedly influenced by his own personal experience. A creative writing professor at UC Riverside who holds a PhD in sociology with a focus on religions, Aslan became a born-again Christian after coming to the U.S. from Iran. He later converted to Islam.

On "Believer," Aslan could take viewers to Pakistan for the annual Shia mourning ceremony and flagellation exercises. Or he could go to Israel to observe members of Na Nach, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish movement that combines rave culture and all that that involves (yes, alcohol and drugs) with spirituality to create, as he describes it, "something brand-new."

The show is part of a broader effort by CNN President Jeff Zucker to expand the network beyond the 24/7 news cycle and into documentaries and other kinds of shows. Thanks to its original series' performances, CNN's prime-time audience was down 1% in 2014 compared with the previous year when it experienced double-digit declines. The channel still remains a distant second behind Fox News Channel.

Producing shows like "Believer" costs more than a live show with talking heads in the studio. But Zucker said the improved ratings from such series as "Parts Unknown," "The Hunt With John Walsh" and "The Sixties" have made the approach profitable.

Visit link:
In CNN's 'Believer,' Reza Aslan to aim for a window on world religions