It was recently discovered that middle-aged men and women who engage in too much physical activity might be at risk for developing arthritis.

According to a study that was released during the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), it was found that those with higher physical activity levels were at a greater risk for developing knee abnormalities, which could lead to osteoarthritis.

Researchers looked at 136 women and 100 men, aged 45 to 55, and were of healthy weight. The participants were given a questionnaire to determine their physical activity levels and then were separated into groups based on their answers.

“The prevalence of the knee abnormalities increased with the level of physical activity,” said researcher Dr. Christoph Stehling. “In addition, cartilage defects diagnosed in active people were more severe.”

The study also found that physical activity levels determined the risk for osteoarthritis, and that gender and age were not factors in the results.

Nutritional supplements such as fish oil and zinc may help ease arthritis pain for those who are suffering from the condition.

Walter Willett, who chairs the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, argues that there is a “direct causal link” between sugar-sweetened soft drinks and energy drinks and obesity, which is in turn linked to heart disease, some types of cancer, arthritis, and type 2 diabetes.

So he and a colleague, Lilian Cheung, a lecturer in the nutrition department, are suggesting that we all start focusing on drinks with a far lower sugar and calorie content: things like water, tea, seltzer with a splash of juice, and coffee with one lump of sugar. They call on beverage makers to create reduced-calorie beverages with no more than 1 gram of sugar per ounce, without using noncaloric sweeteners like aspartame and stevia.

[See why VitaminWater is a poster child for the importance of reading food and drink labels.]

That kind of beverage would have about 3 teaspoons of sugar per 12 ounces and about 50 calories. Look at Harvard’s chart to see how soft drinks, juices, and sports drinks stack up next to that standard—the worst offender, cranberry juice cocktail, has 200 calories and 12 teaspoons of sugar in a 12-ounce serving. (No word yet on how the beverage industry trade group has received this suggestion, but I will write a post if it does respond.)

[Here's the skinny on caloric sweeteners like agave and corn syrup.]

Why the fuss over sugary beverages rather than, say, candy bars? Willett and Cheung say that these drinks are the largest source of added sugar in the diet of young Americans, with teen boys drinking more than a quart per day. In addition, other researchers, such as Barry Popkin, have suggested that liquid calories don’t prompt our bodies to feel full the way calories in solid form do.

The Harvard folks say we need to retrain our bodies away from intense sweetness, which is why their hypothesized beverages don’t include low-calorie sweeteners like stevia, either. “When adults get conditioned to everything being sweet, it’s hard to appreciate the gentle sweetness of a carrot or an apple,” says Willett. That means using even low-calorie sweeteners may lead to weight gain, he says. (Or it may not: A study published last year suggesting low-calorie sweeteners led to overeating was done in rats, not people.)

As I’ve written before, whether or not you buy the idea that sugary soft drinks and energy drinks are any worse than sugar in solid form, cutting them out may be an easy way to lose weight. Harvard suggests alternatives including low-sodium miso soup, infused waters, and homemade fresh fruit coolers. If you’re not willing to give up your soda habit and are trying to lose weight, at least be aware of the calories and sugar the drinks are adding to your diet, and make up for that by paring back elsewhere.

Spinach contains vitamins A, C, E, K, B1, B6, minerals like potassium, calcium, zinc, and so

Vitamin A helps with things like vision, gene transcription, immune function, embryonic development and reproduction, bone metabolism, haematopoiesis, skin health, reducing risk of heart disease, antioxidant activity. Vitamin C helps in the development of healthy gums and in protecting against infections. Additionally, it strengthens many parts of your body such as blood vessels and muscles.

Vitamin E helps with the formation of muscle tissues and red blood cells. It also helps reduce the stress from exercise and reduces muscle damage. Vitamin K is important for blood clotting. Vitamin B1, or thiamin, helps fuel your body by converting blood sugar into energy. This keeps your mucous membranes healthy and is essential for nervous system, cardiovascular and muscular function. Potassium is a mineral that helps the kidneys function normally. It is also crucial to heart function and plays a key role in skeletal and smooth muscle contraction, making it important for normal digestive and muscular function, too. The body stores more than 99 percent of its calcium in the bones and teeth to help make and keep them strong.

Your body needs calcium to help muscles and blood vessels contract and expand, to secrete hormones and enzymes and to send messages through the nervous system.

-Spinach Helps Prevent Cancer

Research shows that spinach contains over a dozen phytonutrients. These phytonutrients have certain properties that can help fight cancer. Some researchers have used spinach extracts to reduce the occurrence of skin cancer in animals, and lessened cell division in stomach cancer cells. The risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer may also be reduced with the consumption of spinach.

-Spinach Promotes Better Cardiovascular Health

A substance called homocysteine is believed to be an important marker of heart disease and high levels are associated with increased risk of stroke. However folate, a component of spinach, helps neutralize the harmful homocysteine.

-Helps with Arthritis

If you suffer from arthritis spinach may be able to help you. Spinach contains anti-inflammatory nutrients to help the pain of arthritis.

-Spinach Helps Prevent Eye Diseases

Spinach may be able to help prevent macular degeneration, and even cataracts. Spinach contains lutein which, in many government studies, is shown to protect against both macular degeneration and cataracts, which cause blurriness and even blindness, mostly in the elderly.

There are too many good things about spinach to not add it to your diet. Go ahead and start eating that green vegetable whenever you can. The rewards will be invaluable.

Although the name may sound a lot like “Chai tea,” don’t be confused, I assure you these two items only share the common bond of a long and healthy tradition: Tai Chi in China and Chai tea in India. Tai Chi is the culmination of mind and body working together as an alternative cure, helping the body heal itself.

In recent years, exercise has started to dominate the chat rooms, forums, and medical office brochures offering to ease the pain of arthritis through different forms of exerting your body physically. Although some call it “moving meditation,” the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) says that the movements attributed to Tai Chi are slow and gentle, showing great awareness of the space and body as well as paying attention to the depth of your breaths.

By showing restraint while exerting force and power with your body, your mind can help calm you as well as building a closer connection to the physical being in order to help heal. Not that long ago, HealthNews ran an article about thebenefits of Tai Chi among the elderlyl, citing that among the positive effects of Tai Chi on the older generations were: better concentration, more energy, greater quality of sleep, better balance and posture, muscle strength, and less stress among others that may occur like a boost in the immune system.

A new study has emerged with evidence pointing to Tai Chi being beneficial for more than just senior citizens, this time the target group is arthritis sufferers, which can start at anytime, even as a child. Recently published in Arthritis & Rheumatism, the study was done by the George Institue for International Health in Australia. The researchers found that Tai Chi is beneficial for musculoskeletal pain, by improving frequency of pain and offering a better range of movement for the afflicted person.

With millions of Americans living with arthritis and hundreds of thousands of children also suffering, it is promising that Tai Chi has developed a following in North America. Used as a common exercise routine for general health in China, the practice Tai Chi is quickly being spread across the world. Already classified as a trend in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) here in the U.S., the slow practice of movement linked with meditation is now more helpful than many may have realized.

As a low-impact form of movement, Tai Chi can be done in solitude or in a group healing environment and is recommended for all ages because of its slow and gentle approach to the positions.

Tai Chi is also an inexpensive way to let off steam, meet new people if you like, or just have fun while also staying fit. Author, Dr. Chris Maher of the George Institute says that these positive results will hopefully yield more positive results by transferring to chronic lower back pain; a study they hope to be working on next. A colleague at The George Institute Ms.

Amanda Hall, says that their research should encourage those living with arthritis pain, “This research should reassure people with musculoskeletal conditions such as arthritis to seek exercise to relieve the pain. The fact that Tai Chi is inexpensive, convenient, enjoyable and conveys other psychological and social benefits supports the use this type of intervention for pain conditions.”

Even if you don’t have arthritis or the fear of getting it later in life, you may want to try a Tai Chi class just to spice up your workout routine and as an added bonus afterwards, spice up your taste buds with a nice soothing cup of Chai tea.

That’s according to a University of Iowa study published this week, which found that women who had the strongest thigh muscles were about 50 percent less likely to develop knee pain compared with those with the weakest muscles. (The study didn’t find the same association in men.)

Previous research has shown that strong quadriceps muscles (located in the upper half of the leg) help protect against cartilage loss behind the kneecap and also provide crucial support for the joint. However, strong thigh muscles don’t appear to actually prevent osteoarthritis in the knee; about 10 percent of the female participants developed knee arthritis over the 2½-year study, according to X-rays.

Even those without symptoms still had signs of arthritis. “But I think these women wouldn’t have otherwise known they had arthritis,” says study author Neil Segal, “since they wouldn’t have gone to doctor with symptoms.” The study wasn’t designed to see whether building thigh muscles actually prevents painful knee arthritis, but Segal says it’s reasonable to assume that it may.

What should you do? You’ll probably need more than a basic aerobic workout like brisk walking or biking to avoid age-related muscle loss in your thighs, as my colleague Katherine Hobson recently reported. You need to supplement your regular exercise routine with specific strengthening exercises that target the quadriceps, for about 15 minutes, two or three times a week. (Inspired by this study, I decided this morning to hit the weight machines at my gym adding the leg press and quad extensions to my triceps curls and chest presses.) Here’s a basic move you can try in your living room.

Lunges

1. Stand with your back straight and abdomen pulled in, with right leg forward and left leg back. Try to distribute your weight evenly between your legs.
2. Maintaining control, slightly move your hips back (like you are sitting down in a chair) and squat directly down.
3. Stop where your feel comfortable (try not to let your back come forward) and push your weight directly back up.5. Stop just before your knees are straight and reverse the motion back down.
4. Repeat for a total of 15 repetitions.
5. Reverse the position of your legs with left leg forward and right leg back.
6. Repeat above for a total of 15 repetitions.

http://health.usnews.com