A recent study extended the benefit of expressive writing to 111 female college students recruited from an undergraduate psychology class. The students were randomly assigned to either an expressive writing group or a control group. Students in the writing group were instructed to write about their deepest feelings and concerns regarding body image and eating concerns. Students in the control group were instructed to write about their plans over the previous week in a time-management context. Eight weeks later, students in the expressive writing group reported significantly less difficulty sleeping compared to students in the control group. This effect occurred even though the expressive writing didn’t concern sleep. Body image concerns presumably acted as a source of stress for the students. Expressive writing appeared to diminish the effects of the stress.
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Legacy Effects of Physical Training
Unsurprisingly, cardiorespiratory fitness, measured as peak oxygen consumption, declined for members of all four groups over 10 years. But the exercisers showed significantly lower decline (4.7 percent) than the control group (9.6 percent). Vigorous exercisers showed even lower decline (3.0 percent). Average waist circumference increased significantly more for the control group (2 inches) than the exercisers (less than one-half inch). Mean arterial blood pressure dropped for all participant groups over 10 years. Curiously, blood pressure for the low moderate exercisers declined the most (5 mm Hg) relative to the control group. Fasting insulin levels decreased significantly (in a healthy direction) for the lower moderate exercisers compared to the control group. Blood glucose increased for all groups over 10 years with no significant differences between the groups. This lack of differences may have reflected the fact that about half of the participants were taking medications that could affect blood sugar levels.
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Hazards of Ultra-processed Foods
Lots of salt, sugar, unhealthy oils, additives, and calories Cut back on ultra-processed foods to Eat Better In his wildly successful book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan proposed eating foods that grandma ate and avoiding highly processed foods that she didn’t eat. That sounds nice, but does evidence support this advice? A new study in…
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Brief, Intense Training Builds Cardio Benefits
Too frazzled, too out of shape, too old to exercise? Incidental physical activity takes no extra time but builds fitness Do you feel that you’re too busy to Keep Moving? Do you feel that you’re too sedentary or old to Keep Moving? If so, you’ve got lots of company. In spite of overwhelming evidence that…
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