about | contact | home

In the News

Have you ever heard of a health study that made you feel better about yourself? It doesn’t happen to me very often. I’m usually on the wrong side of the results. But occasionally I get lucky, like when I read the other day that coffee may help prevent skin cancer. Yet another reason to have the three or four cups I depend upon each morning.

And early last year, several studies reported that vitamin pills didn’t make any difference in the rates of heart disease and cancer among study participants. Since I’ve never been very good at remembering to take my vitamins, I thought this was pretty good news. One less thing I was doing wrong.

But then there is the research linking vitamin D deficiencies with a whole range of diseases. As we’ve reported in Seattle Woman, it is thought that a lack of vitamin D, which the body synthesizes with the help of sunlight, is one of the reasons women in the Northwest, where skies are frequently gray, have high rates of breast cancer, multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases. A blood test showed recently that I have a deficiency, so I’m back trying to be consistent about taking vitamins.

On the plus side of this vitamin D research is the recommendation to get outside for at least 15 minutes each day. Recently I used this advice to justify gardening smack in the middle of a workday. The unusually lovely spring weather was enticing enough, but, heck, I needed to soak up some of that sunshine for my health.

Then, last week, I was floored by a blog posted by Olivia Judson on opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com. It summarized several new studies that show sitting may be bad for us. We all know that being physically active makes a huge difference in our overall health, but for those of us who work at computers for our livelihood, this report was just plain depressing. Apparently, even if you have a healthy body weight, and even if you exercise regularly, sitting a lot still has an unhealthy influence on how you metabolize blood sugar and body fats.

This may be because a crucial part of our metabolic process slows down when we just sit. Studies in rats have shown that lipoprotein lipase, a molecule that plays a central role in helping the body process fats, is only produced when muscles are actively being flexed. And, wouldn’t you know it, low levels of lipoprotein lipase are associated with a variety of health problems. Apparently, active muscles produce lots of other molecules that also help us better process sugars and fats.

I did cheer up, however, when I read one of Judson’s suggestions for solving the desk worker’s dilemma: sit on an exercise ball.

I started using a large exercise ball in place of a chair last year after a long journey through sciatic hell, and I’ve found that the ball helps my back far more than the VERY expensive office chair my son now uses. It forces me to sit up straight, and moving around on it helps release tension that builds up in my lower back. When I get fidgety, I roll around and sometimes even stretch out over the ball while I read or talk on the phone. I was thrilled to learn that this fidgeting and rolling is especially good for me.

I’ve been recommending exercise balls to my friends with back issues for a while, but now it seems they are good for everyone. And at about $15, they are a lot cheaper than Judson’s other suggestion: purchase a treadmill and raise your desk so you can walk or run while you work.

Marianne Scholl
Publisher & Editor

©April 2010, Caliope Publishing Company