So many of us have done it – you figure that going to the gym is quite an expensive hobby and see that it would be much more financially intelligent to get a treadmill for your own home. After all, you’ll be able to work out whenever you want no matter what the weather outside, and you don’t have to worry about people staring at you, either.

But then after the first few weeks of using the treadmill every day, you find yourself shying away from it, until it eventually becomes a dust covered furniture piece that gets hidden away in the cupboard or the garage, or even sold off on eBay. But now you’ve got a scientific reason for this behaviour.

Authors of the study, reasearchers Robin Tanner and Kurt Carlson has discovered what they believe to be the specific process that contributes to this behaviour, and have come up with a method to help consumers think about their next purchases:

“Consumers adopt the tentative hypothesis that they will behave in an ideal fashion when predicting their future behaviour. Unrealistic optimism by consumers may have negative consequences for both marketers and consumers.”

“For example, if a consumer holds unrealistically optimistic beliefs about how often they will work out in the future, then they may overpay for home exercise equipment.”

The research was carried out over many different studies by asking people for their ‘ideal’ estimates and their actual estimates of their behaviour and found that when people are asked both questions at once their second answer is more realistic.

So maybe if you know that your treadmill is never going to quite be the fitness solution you had hoped, you can use this technique next time and save yourself a little bit of money!

And we’re not talking about hours of walking around town either – just 20 to 40 minutes of brisk walking can reduce the risk of death in elderly men by as much as half according to a new study released in America this month.

Amazingly, for every two minutes of exercise between sedentary and more active older men found that the mortality rate dropped by 10% for every two minutes of exercise. The study compared the death rates in men aged between 70 and 92 with levels of fitness varying for none at all to heavy and regular exercise.

For every 100 men who died in the group with the lowest levels of fitness only 74 died in the next group up. 54 died in the moderately fit group while only 46 died in the high fitness category.

Obviously exercise becomes more of a challenge when you become older, so head of the study Fr. Peter Kokkinos warned that moderation is important and that trying to over exercise could prove to do more harm than good:

“The overall message is that although ageing and death are inevitable, the rate for both can be modulated by simply maintaining a physically active lifestyle at any age,”

“Although I cannot guarantee that regular exercise will add years to your life, I am quite certain that it will add life to your years. It is important nevertheless to emphasise moderation,”

What do you think? Do you think you’ll still be doing daily exercise when you’re in your 70s, 80s or 90s, or do you think you will have given up long before then? If these figures are anything to go by, we’re still going to be taking those walks!

The most common way to calculate a healthy weight has been using the Body Mass Indicator for many years. The BMI adjusts its health weight range depending on height and gender, so a tall man would need to weigh more than a shorter woman before he was considered to be overweight.

But a professor of applied statistics in Nevada, George Fernandez believe he’s come up with a better and even simpler way of finding out how much they should weigh, saying that the BMI calculation doesn’t often stick in people’s minds.

He said: “We need a Maximum Weight Limit, or MWL, one number that we know we can’t go over, just like a speed limit.”

Fernandez’s way of calculating his MWL comes up with similar results to the BMI but can be figured out without doing any maths, using an online calculator or having to already know what your BMI is.

There a baseline height and weights for women and men, using the new system. For men the baseline is 5 feet 9 with a maximum of 175 pounds, while for women its 5 feet tall and a maximum of 125 pounds.

The professor believes that from such a starting point people can easily work out their maximum weight limit. A man should add 5 pounds for each inch taller he is over the baseline, while a woman must add 4.5. If you’re less than the baseline, you simply take away the same amount.

Fernandez’s believes his easy to work out formula could be of particular use to people in third world countries who don’t have access to the technology to work out what their weight should be. Of course, the whole system relies on you already knowing exactly how tall you are in feet and inches.

If you’re in a country that doesn’t use that system you could find yourself needing to go online to find out the conversion to centimetres which certainly defeats the point!

Fernandez said: “Now people can calculate their own Maximum Weight Limit, based on the BMI index, but without any calculators or charts. And, all they have to remember is that one number, 185 pounds for example, which is easier for most people than retaining a weight range, such as 155 to 185 pounds.”

A new study has found that you don’t have to actually get physically fit in order to feel good about yourself when it comes to exercise, and then people that don’t achieve their fitness or weight loss goals still feel good about themselves due to simply doing a little exercise rather that dedicating serious time to fitness.

The study at the University of Florida by a UF exercise psychologist, Heather Hausenblas, has been published in the Journal of Health Psychology, and is the first to analyse the wider range of effects that exercise can have on things like body image and self confidence.

The study was conducted by examining evidence from 57 different intervention studies, and concluded that exercise changed how people feel about their bodies despite the fact the results weren’t always what they were expecting. The duration, intensity or type of exercise made no difference, and only the frequency at which the exercise was performed seemed to matter.

The study found that that was was no difference in improvement of body image between people who exercised 30 minutes a day, every day of the week and those did not. Apparently this applies to both men and women, although the body image is slightly more improved for women than men.

“Body dissatisfaction is a huge problem in our society and is related to all sorts of negative behaviour including yo-yo dieting, smoking, taking steroids and undergoing cosmetic surgery” Said Hausenblas.

“It affects men and women and all ages, starting with kids who are as young as five years old saying they don’t like how their bodies look.”

Most of us might be used to doing our exercise in our homes or in a gym with the air conditioning keeping the place cool, but if you’re looking to cut down on your calorie intake a change your diet, a run in the heat could help you out more.

The study was conducted in Australia and consisted of 11 physically active men. It found that people ate less after working out if they did their workout in hot conditions of around 36 Celsius than in more moderate 25 Celsius temperatures. There was an average difference of around 300 calories, which can make all the difference if you’re trying to lose weight.

During the study, the men ran on a treadmill for 40 minutes in 97 degree heat, and then again on a separate visit at 77 degrees. On a final visit, they simply rested in a reasonably warm room.

An all you can eat breakfast buffet was then offered to the men, who ate much more after the moderate conditions. The science behind the study? Hot workouts produce higher blood levels of peptide YY, which is a hormone that is produced by the digestive system that gives the brain the signal of the body being ‘full’.

An increase in overall body temperature due to both the room and the workout also meant that the men were less likely to eat. Some researchers have suggested that food intake is a natural mechanism for controlling body temperature as eating produces heat, so it’s the body’s way of trying to keep cool.

Researcher Dr. Kym Guelfi said:

Our findings suggest that if you exercise in a warmer environment you will eat less in the subsequent meal,” She was quick to note however that “exercise should not be performed in overly hot environments due to the risk of dehydration and heat illness”.

The average adult watches around five hours of television every day, although this number is slowly slipping as the internet begins to replace the television as many people’s primary form of entertainment – even if they are just using the net to watch TV programs!

A study has shown that people that watch TV less end up burning more calories. It was conducted on 36 adults who had their televisions fitted with an electronic lock out system that reduced their television watching time by half without changing their diet. All the members of the trial admitted to watching TV at least three hours every day.

The group was split into a study group and control group, with the study group having their TV shut down after around 50% of their daily viewing had been reached. The study group on average burned over 100 calories a day more than those who didn’t change their TV watching habits.

The study group also burned more calories than they consumed every day, while the control group actually consumed slightly more than they could manage to burn on average.

The report suggested that the finding were evidence that small behavioural changes could be a way of solving the obesity epidemic and getting more people to lose weight without having to commit to an exercise regime.

The authors said: “A recent task force report supports small behaviour changes as a more sustainable, long-term approach to help address the obesity epidemic.“

“It has been estimated that combined increases in energy expenditure and decreases in energy intake equalling only 100 calories per day could prevent the gradual weight gain observed in most of the population.”

Married people around the world finally have the comeback they need when they have an argument or a rough patch – being married is actually good for your health and can help majorly reduce the risk of both depression and anxiety for both members of the marriage.

However, it’s only as good as your relationship, and if you do end up breaking up you could see depression and anxiety returning at a much higher level than you saw before your marriage – and not just during the break up but years after, as well.

The study was conducted at the University of Otago, New Zealand and involved some 34,493 people from around 15 different countries based of the past decade of surveys conducted by the World Mental Health organisation.

Ending marriage through separation divorce or death (are there that many other ways?) could lead to increased risk of mental health problems although women are more likely to turn to substance abuse while men are likely to become depressed.

If you stay together though, the news is good. Comparing to those who remain unmarried, married people have better mental health. Although previous studies had been conducted in the area, they had only concluded that marriage was better to the mental health of the woman, this study includes both sexes.

The study found a few gender differences though – men are less likely to get depression in the first marriage, while women are less like to turn to substance abuse, possibly because women are often the primary caregivers for children in the traditional gender roles.

Clincal psychologist Kate Scott, head of the study said:

“What our study points to is that the marital relationship offers a lot of mental health benefits for both men and women, and that the distress and disruption associated with ending marriage can make people vulnerable to developing mental disorder.”
“What makes this investigation unique and more robust is the sample is so large and across so many countries and the fact that we have data not only on depression… but also on anxiety and substance use disorders.”

The possibility has been raised by scientists that cardiovascular disease could be linked to the disturbances in the body’s 24 hour clock.

The team based in Japan were working on mice. Scientists are already aware of the genes that are needed for the circadian clock commonly referred to as the body clock, and mice lacking in molecules called cryptochromes have an unusual circadian rhythm.

However, the Kyoto university study has observed that the mice missing these cryptochromes were more vulnerable to high pressure due to large levels of a hormone that prompts water retention in the kidneys.

The link? The circadian clock directly controls a gene which plays a large role in producing this hormone, and the same is true in humans, as well.

Experts believe this to be another cause of why people that work on shift work, long distance flight crews and simply people with sleeping problems like insomnia have a greater risk of cardiovascular problems throughout their lives. It is believed by the lead researcher of the study, Professor Hitoshi Okamura, that this could lead to finding new ways of treating hypertension.

An expert in hypertension at the University of Leicester, Professor Bryan Williams said: “We know that there is a strong correlation between time of day and cardiovascular events, which often coincide with the early morning surge in blood pressure. This does provide some insights into the mechanism that might underpin blood pressure deregulation in some people.”

However, Jeremy Pearson, associate director at the British Heart Foundation said that more study was needed before a target for new treatments could be identified and noted that the genetics involved in controlling the blood pressure were not yet well understood by scientists.

According to a new Danish study people who look ‘younger’ on average tend to live a long life, so if you’ve ever been told you look younger than your age or that you’ve got a baby face, perhaps now is the time to celebrate.

The study believes that simple appearance can go a long way to determining how long someone might live for. It was conducted with 387 pairs of twins. Participants were asked to look at the twins and guess their age from a photograph, and those who were rated as younger looking lived longer on average than the older looking siblings. All of the twins were already quite old themselves – in their 70s, 80s or 90s when photographed.

There is a scientific reasoning behind the study, however. It’s to do with telomeres, which are linked to how young a person will look. These pieces of DNA also indicate the ability of our cells to replicate, so shorter length telemores mean you’ll age faster and they have even be linked with a number of diseases.

The researched told the British Medical Journal: “Perceived age, which is widely used by clinicians as a general indication of a patient’s health, is a robust biomarker of ageing that predicts survival among those aged over 70.”

A similar study is being performed with twins in the UK by Professor Time Spector, who said that he had discovered similar findings:

“It’s probably a combination of genes plus environment over a lifetime that is important. If a patient looks older than their years then perhaps they should be more concerned.”

What do our younger looking readers think? Are you destined to live longer or is looking younger than you are more trouble than it’s worth?

According to a recent flurry of over 18 separate studies, people who regularly drink tea and coffee are at a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Even better news for those that drink coffee but stick to the decaf is that it’s not likely that caffeine has the greatest effect, according to the Archives of Internal Medicine researchers.

If you want to see the benefits though you’ll need more than just a single cup of tea in the morning, unfortunately. You’ll need to be drinking at least three cups of coffee or tea a day before you start seeing any major benefits, but doing so could cut the risk of diabetes by as much as 20%.

Drinking decaf coffee instead of regular coffee or tea reduces that risk even further as much as a third.

Type 2 diabetes is normally something that starts after the age of 40 and begins when the body is developing some of its own insulin, but not enough, or producing plenty that isn’t working the way that it should. Medication or insulin is often required to treat the illness, although it can be solved simply by increased exercise and a healthy diet.

Researchers found the each additional cup of coffee consumed in a day reduces the risk of getting diabetes by 7%. Compounds such as magnesium and antioxidants may well be involved.

Authors of the study stated: “”If such beneficial effects were observed in interventional trials to be real, the implications for the millions of individuals who have diabetes mellitus, or who are at future risk of developing it, would be substantial.”

While Dr. Victoria King from Diabetes UK pointed out a balanced diet can also prevent diabetes: “What we can be sure of is that the development of type 2 diabetes is strongly linked to lifestyle, which means that many cases could be prevented by keeping active and eating a healthy balanced diet that is low in fat, salt and sugar with plenty of fruit and vegetables.”