Pre-registration for WesWELL Non-Credit Classes is now open through Thursday, February 12, 2009 for members of the Wesleyan community. We offer a range of different non-credit classes that will help enrich your life and perhaps even fit in that physical activity that helps keep you healthier. Fees are reasonable — usually lower than similar off-campus classes — and students may elect to charge the fee to their student account for convenience.  Best of all, many classes are taught by current Wesleyan students, alumni or members of the extended Wesleyan family.

For complete information visit the WesWELL Class Information Pages.

Registration is now open for the non-credit fitness classes offered by WesWELL. Fall 2008 offerings are:

• Yoga (6 sections)
• Practical Self Defnese (2 sections) –> new this semester!
• Hung Ga Five Animal Kung Fu
• Meditation
• Tai Chi
• Temple Lineage Shaolin Kung Fu
• Cardio Kickboxing
• Mat Pilates –> new this semester!

Many classes are taught by Wesleyan students and alumni who are certified to teach their respective class. Each class meets for 12 weekly sessions, stating the week of September 14 and running through Reading Week, except during Fall Break and Thanksgiving Break. Fees vary and are payable by student account charge, cash or check at the first class attended.

Visit the Non-Credit Classes website for complete details on how to register, fees, equipment needed and all policies governing the classes.

Contact Lisa Currie, Director of Health Education at 860.685.2466 or lcurrie@wesleyan.edu with questions.

Now the Mayo Clinic reminds us that asking for help by creating your own support system is key to your health, by sharing the story of East African distance runners. Lessons learned?

1. We need to take care of ourselves as did these runners.
2. If we are isolated, if we are marginalized, if we are without a support system, we are at a profound disadvantage dealing with life’s stresses.

Stress is probably the most common health complaint I hear about from students; it’s even worn as a badge of honor by some. But dealing with life’s stressors — which will never completely go away, just change as time passes – is a skill that is best learned now when you’re in a supportive environment like a college campus.

Very simply put, stress management is about consciously choosing how to respond to what is happening in your life, rather than letting your stressors take charge. And your support system — your friends, family, Peer Advisor, RA or House Manager, professors, other campus offices, or whoever helps you — will make all the difference in your health and well-being personally and academically.

Wesleyan Resources:  Stress Management

Often, a visit to the doctor’s office starts with a weigh-in. But is a person’s weight really a reliable indicator of overall health?

Increasingly, medical research is showing that it isn’t. Despite concerns about an obesity epidemic, there is growing evidence that our obsession about weight as a primary measure of health may be misguided.

Last week a report in The Archives of Internal Medicine compared weight and cardiovascular risk factors among a representative sample of more than 5,400 adults. The data suggest that half of overweight people and one-third of obese people are “metabolically healthy.” That means that despite their excess pounds, many overweight and obese adults have healthy levels of “good” cholesterol, blood pressure, blood glucose and other risks for heart disease.

At the same time, about one out of four slim people — those who fall into the “healthy” weight range — actually have at least two cardiovascular risk factors typically associated with obesity, the study showed.

To be sure, being overweight or obese is linked with numerous health problems, and even in the most recent research, obese people were more likely to have two or more cardiovascular risk factors than slim people. But researchers say it is the proportion of overweight and obese people who are metabolically healthy that is so surprising.

“We use ‘overweight’ almost indiscriminately sometimes,” said MaryFran Sowers, a co-author of the study and professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan. “But there is lots of individual variation within that, and we need to be cognizant of that as we think about what our health messages should be.”

The data follow a report last fall from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute showing that overweight people appear to have longer life expectancies than so-called normal weight adults.

But many people resist the notion that people who are overweight or obese can be healthy. Several prominent health researchers have criticized the findings from the C.D.C. researchers as misleading, noting that mortality statistics don’t reflect the poor quality of life and suffering obesity can cause. And on the Internet, various blog posters, including readers of the Times’s Well blog, have argued that the data are deceptive, masking the fact that far more overweight and obese people are at higher cardiovascular risk than thin people.

Part of the problem may be our skewed perception of what it means to be overweight. Typically, a person is judged to be of normal weight based on body mass index, or B.M.I., which measures weight relative to height. A normal B.M.I. ranges from 18.5 to 25. Once B.M.I. reaches 25, a person is viewed as overweight. Thirty or higher is considered obese.

“People get confused by the words and the mental image they get,” said Katherine Flegal, senior research scientist at the C.D.C.’s National Center for Health Statistics. “People may think, ‘How could it be that a person who is so huge wouldn’t have health problems?’ But people with B.M.I.’s of 25 are pretty unremarkable.”

Several studies from researchers at the Cooper Institute in Dallas have shown that fitness — determined by how a person performs on a treadmill — is a far better indicator of health than body mass index. In several studies, the researchers have shown that people who are fat but can still keep up on treadmill tests have much lower heart risk than people who are slim and unfit.

In December, a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association looked at death rates among 2,600 adults 60 and older over 12 years. Notably, death rates among the overweight, those with a B.M.I. of 25 to 30, were slightly lower than in normal weight adults. Death rates were highest among those with a B.M.I. of 35 or more.

But the most striking finding was that fitness level, regardless of body mass index, was the strongest predictor of mortality risk. Those with the lowest level of fitness, as measured on treadmill tests, were four times as likely to die during the 12-year study than those with the highest level of fitness. Even those who had just a minimal level of fitness had half the risk of dying compared with those who were least fit.

During the test, the treadmill moved at a brisk walking pace as the grade increased each minute. In the study, it didn’t take much to qualify as fit. For men, it meant staying on the treadmill at least 8 minutes; for women, 5.5 minutes. The people who fell below those levels, whether fat or thin, were at highest risk.

The results were adjusted to control for age, smoking and underlying heart problems and still showed that fitness, not weight, was most important in predicting mortality risk.

Stephen Blair, a co-author of the study and a professor at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina, said the lesson he took from the study was that instead of focusing only on weight loss, doctors should be talking to all patients about the value of physical activity, regardless of body size.

“Why is it such a stretch of the imagination,” he said, “to consider that someone overweight or obese might actually be healthy and fit?”

Use the comments section below to discuss this issue.

Maybe that seems like something to worry about in the far-flung future, but new research indicates it may boil down to four simple things you can do that will prolong your life by an average of 14 years and improve your overall health in the meantime. The Mayo Clinic Health Letter reports on this research.

Does the bombardment of information on how to improve your health just leave you feeling confused? Try focusing on this straightforward advice:

1. Have no more than two alcoholic beverages a day.
2. Don’t smoke.
3. Get at least the equivalent of 30 minutes of moderate physical activity a day.
4. Eat five servings of fruit and vegetables a day.

According to a recent study published in the January 2008 edition of Public Library of Science Medicine, people who follow those steps live an average of 14 years longer than those who don’t. Mayo Clinic experts would further recommend that women of all ages — and men over 65 — have no more than one drink a day.

For the study, researchers interviewed and examined over 20,000 reasonably healthy men and women aged 45 to 79, living in Norfolk County, United Kingdom. Their health status was checked again after many years.

Researchers found that regardless of sex, social status — or even body weight — those who followed none of the recommendations listed above had four times the risk of dying over the course of a decade than did those who followed all of the recommendations. Not smoking offered the greatest benefits in terms of survival.

Discussion Question: If you knew you could live longer by doing these four things, would you? Or if you are already doing these things, does it help motivate you to maintain these choices? And what would you do with the extra time?

Video games designed to provide a workout are becoming big business.

As proof, look no further than last week’s Games for Health national conference at which health researchers and game-makers showed off their latest innovations. Specialized games about protein folding and nutrition shared a venue with Nintendo’s new mass-marketed exercise game Wii Fit, set to hit U.S. stores on Monday.

The Wii fit is the latest entry in a string of exercise video games, or “exergames.” Nintendo’s Power Pad, released in the 1980s, traded hand-held controllers for a floor mat that users jumped on. But the first exergame to make a real splash was Dance Dance Revolution after it was introduced in Japanese arcades in 1998. When schools in West Virginia documented that DDR helped kids dance their way to fitness, researchers and game-makers took note. read full article…

Discussion: Have you used any “exergames” to help you get fit? What are your favorites?

Research has long shown that exercise can improve brainpower and hold off age-related memory loss. New studies show that adding strength training to your normal exercise routine may improve your memory by stimulating a hormone that protects brain cells. It’s easy! Lift hand weights, use resistance tubing, or do squats or push-ups. read full article…

Discussion Question: What benefit could this have to your academic performance?

A warm-up can consist of anything that will raise your heart rate and get the blood flowing to your muscles. Walking, jogging, or any other low intensity exercises, are great ways to warm up for a cardiovascular workout. The increase in blood flow to your muscles makes them more pliable and increases their flexibility, making it easier to stretch them. Warming up before beginning your cardio workout will help to reduce the risk of injury, such as straining or pulling a muscle. In general, 5-10 minutes is usually adequate time for a proper warm-up, but different routines may call for a longer or shorter warm up period.

• Walk briskly for at least a half an hour every day, or one hour four times a week.
• Walk as much as possible. Skip elevators and escalators and take the stairs. Leave the car at home if you can walk to a friend’s house.
• Use a pedometer for motivation. Aim for 3,000 steps a day, then work up to at least 10,000 (about 5 miles for the average stride).
• If you want to go faster, instead of taking longer steps, take faster steps.
• Swing your arms. This can burn 5 to 10% more calories.
• Add some interval training. Speed up for a minute or two every five minutes.
• Walk up and down hills to build stamina and burn more calories.
• Choose varied terrains. Walking on grass or gravel burns more calories.
• Try a walking stick or poles to enhance your upper-body workout.
• Use hand weights, carefully. They can boost your caloric expenditure, but may alter your motion and lead to muscle soreness or even injury. Start with one pound weights.
• Try backward walking. Even at a slow pace, it provides fairly intense training. Be careful when going backwards outdoors; a deserted track is ideal. For added safety, go with a forward-walking partner.
• Choose the right shoes. Avoid stiff-soled shoes that don’t bend. “Walking shoes” have flexible soles and stiff backs to prevent side-to-side motion.

Discussion Question:
What do you (or can you) do to walk more?