Let's Walk the Talk on Obesity

Let’s replace lip service

with ‘hip service’!

Dr. Delos Cosgrove, CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, reported in the February 18, 2010 issue of FORTUNE magazine that, “Obesity accounts for 10% of the cost of health care in the U.S. — we will never be able to control the cost of health care until we begin to control the epidemic of obesity. Two-thirds of the U.S. is overweight, and one-third is obese. We are the fattest nation in the world. Our rate of obesity is going up so much that probably half the U.S. will be obese in the next 20 years. We have to do something, and there are plenty of things we can do.”

How about insisting on Daily Physical Education with a fitness focus in our preschools and beyond? Let’s replace lip service with ‘hip service’!

Hypo-Slow Vestibular System (video)

‘Fidget is Legit’ in classrooms to aid

our learning challenged students

Video: We are creating learning handicaps in our classrooms for students with vestibular weakness when we don’t provide enough physical movement that stimulates the vestibular and connected visual, auditory, tactile, and proprioception (muscular) sensory systems. Attention deficit may result as the RAS, Reticular Activation System is under-stimulated by a hypo-slow vestibular system.

NCLB, Leave No Child Behind by insisting our learning challenged students have frequent opportunities to strengthen their body brain systems called upon to succeed in school. Daily Physical Education strengthens the vestibular system with repeated movements (e.g., rolling, spinning, bouncing, stop and go, balancing, etc.). Let’s move on this!

Hyper-vestibular system (video)

Know why so many are challenged in school and life

People with an oversensitive or ‘hyper’ vestibular system often feel overwhelmed. Visual, auditory, tactile, proprioceptive (muscle and joint) and the attentional systems are directly connected to the vestibular apparatus located within the inner ear. Sitting in the back seat of a car, walking over a bridge, being on the playground, gym, or a class where there is excessive talking, writing or movement can be very challenging.

Rocking, walking, and other linear movements can soothe the oversensitive vestibular system, helping people relax and focus. As the video shows, at times we need to “rock it, to calm it.”

Physical exercises designed to strengthen the vestibular system can greatly help academics. Daily Physical Education taught by movement specialists enhances the body-brain helping students with a hyper-vestibular system achieve their living and learning potential.

Obesity and Early CV Disease

Childhood Obesity Alone May Increase Risk of Later Cardiovascular Disease

Newswise reports research conducted at Nemours Children’s Clinic, showing that obesity alone can predispose individuals to developing cardiovascular disease early in adulthood. Abnormalities in C-reactive protein, high fibrinogen, and other markers for predicting the development of cardiovascular diseases occurred in obese children as young as age 7, long before the onset of puberty.

Nelly Mauras, MD, senior author concludes, “It would be prudent for health care providers to advise more aggressive interventions to limit calories and increase activity in “healthy” overweight children, even before the onset of puberty.

Once again Daily Physical Education with an emphasis on fitness is advocated by researchers, within the medical community.

Note: The health cartoon is taken from Health Care-toons Calendar by Jeff Haebig and cartoonist Ed Fischer.

Exercise and Children

Children need at least sixty minutes of physical activity every day

Medline Plus, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Health offers a collection of evidence-based, documented articles on popular health topics.

This article on Exercise and Children points to the need for Daily Physical Education in our schools. 4,299 additional articles relating to exercise are posted on this comprehensive Medline Plus website

Amygdala De-Dah! (video)

Shift from fear to cheer, harnessing the brain’s amygdala with vibrant movement

The Amygdala part of the brain’s limbic system registers intense feelings, preparing the body to fight, flee or freeze instantly should there be a threat. Some people overreact to stressors rather than stepping back, analyzing the situation and taking a more rational approach.

Why not harness the amygdala, using cheers, handshakes, and other energetic actions like dancing and sports to arouse intense feelings of joy? At the Illinois conference for Health Physical Education, Dance and Recreation professionals showed ‘A-Mig-Dah-La’ gestures then created De Dah! with a simple cheer!

Daily Physical Education with vibrant movement is an excellent way to help students regulate intense feelings in wholesome ways – important during these stressful times.

Stronger, Faster, Smarter (Video)

Physical exercise boosts brainpower for students and the elderly

Mary Carmichael’s article in Newsweek cites research showing how aerobic exercise increases Nerve Growth Factors, such as BDNF, Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor, called Miracle Gro for the brain by Dr. John Ratey in his book, SPARK, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.

Understand why we need Daily Physical Education in our schools, and why all people throughout life, especially the elderly need daily exercise to maintain their mental sharpness.

Kudos to scientists William Greenough, Charles Hillman, Arthur Kramer, and physical educators performing a short Genetic Expression -- BDNF movement routine, all from Illinois, involved with moving this science forward!

Daily Physical Education Rush

Go to NFLRush.com and become an advocate… huh?

I can appreciate the NFL’s advertizing campaign through this football season, emphasizing the need for 60 minutes of childhood play and exercise every day. The ads encourage people to go to NFLrush.com and become a fitness advocate. I went to this website and was deeply disappointed. The “Kids Club Fitness Alarm” displayed poorly produced videos encouraging leg squats, side lunges, Triceps dips… as if these calisthenics are key to fitness… Whoa! The videos kept playing despite my many efforts to turn them off.

Nowhere on the site was a compelling case made for physical fitness. Nor was there a way to influence school boards to add daily physical education to the curriculum. Click on ‘Fuel Up to Play 60’ and come to the National Dairy Council’s answer to fitness… Ugh!

This Body-BrainBoogie blog has repeatedly emphasized the importance of Daily Physical Education, with many researched articles making the case. I wish the NFL would have taken time to study, then present the benefits of exercise for disease prevention and academic success.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Quest Cryptogram answer from December 22nd
"Resolve to do it and then do it"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Fit Teenage Boys are Smarter

Cardiovascular fitness positively influences higher cognition

Newswise.com reports research conducted by Nancy Pederson of the University of Southern California and colleagues in Sweden showing how cardiovascular fitness (not muscular strength) correlates with higher cognitive functioning including verbal ability, to logical performance, to geometric perception and mechanical skills.

Over a long term, boys who were most fit at the age of 18 were more likely to go to college than the less fit counterparts.

Once again, Daily Physical Education is scientifically supported to optimize cognitive performance, as seen time and again on this blog.

Why Kids Need Recess

Even the Kids Who Misbehave!

Rae Pica originator of Moving and Learning.com, author of 18 books related to movement and active learning has written a number of excellent articles including, 7 Reason Why Kids Need Recess. Check out her other insightful articles, like Linking Literacy and Movement along with her blog, The Pica Perspective.

All the research Rae Pica reports establishes the need for Daily Physical Education, morning and afternoon recess for children, and frequent use of physical movement teaching classroom concepts in order to optimize the body brain and firmly establish new neural networks that comprise in depth learning.

Physical Education Smarter

Yes! One sort of exercise can make you smarter

Compelling research suggests that aerobic types of exercise benefit brain growth and cognition. Gretchen Reynolds writing for The New York Times Well Blog, cites several interesting research projects supporting aerobic conditioning for students, even the elderly, to gain and maintain improved brain function.

Research and comments by researchers Charles Hillman, Arthur Kramer, C.J. Jen, and Henriette van Praag are mentioned.

Insist on daily Physical Education if your local schools and nursing homes don’t offer it!

Pump Dopamine Naturally

Use your body to pump this essential brain-boosting chemical

Good-feeling dopamine is a pleasure/reward neurochemical that boosts attention, raises motivation, and orchestrates the prefrontal cortex – the executive brain that focuses on learning and minimizes impulsivity. Stimulant drugs are sometimes prescribed to help people diagnosed with ADD and ADHD produce more dopamine. Brisk, large muscle movements do the same, especially aerobic exercise.

Daily physical education, morning and afternoon recess, frequent physical activity breaks, and subject matter taught with movement will get dopamine pumping naturally.

This is a great fix for frittering minds!

Note: The Health Care-toon shown above is taken from the Health Care-toon Calendar, 365 Ways to Look and Feel Great by cartoonist Ed Fischer and Jeff Haebig. Visit WellnessQuest.com for a daily Health Care-toon and related wellness ideas.

HPERD Boosts Learning Success

Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance are Key

Create ideal learning states shown to grow and speed body brain cells and systems responsible for enhanced learning. Exercise and relaxation are key, along with a healthy diet and wholesome living practices. Read these Body-BrainBoogie postings -- then take daily action creating new dendrite delight adding new receptor sites and more vibrant energy information bytes, making your hippocampus hop, synapses sing and cerebellum ring!

Obesity and Quick Fast Food

Proximity of ‘fast-food’ restaurants to schools is a major factor

Newswise reports a study by Baylor University relating adolescent obesity to how close fast-food restaurants are located to schools. The study was selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as “the most influential child obesity research for the past year.”

I wonder why compelling research relating childhood obesity to sedentary lifestyles and lack of sufficient daily exercise and movement wasn’t on top – then again this childhood ‘fat factor’ is most obvious… and who needs to prove the obvious?

Want to remedy childhood obesity? Insist on daily physical education with a fitness emphasis! Daily Health education is needed too, helping people understand high calories of certain fast-foods, and the best nutrition to maintain ideal body weight.