Steps vs Cardio | Which is Best for Fat Loss, Health, & Performance?
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“Move more”, they say; but does it matter how quickly?
Use it or lose it
For general performance:
- More steps per day do offer slight aerobic benefits but do not significantly improve endurance.
- Higher-intensity cardio (ideally, HIIT) is essential for improving aerobic fitness.
- Training should match endurance goals (e.g. long-distance running vs team sports vs whatever it is that you care about for you).
For general health:
- Both cardio and step tracking reduce mortality risk and improve longevity.
- 2–3 hours of cardio per week provides most health benefits, with diminishing returns after 8 hours per week.
- 10,000+ steps/day is optimal, but 5,000+ steps/day still benefits health. And, not mentioned in this video, but really (per science) there seem to be diminishing returns after about 8,000 steps per day.
Fun fact: the reason it’s 10,000 steps per day that everyone talks about as the default goal, is just because the Japanese person who popularized it noted that the kanji for 10,000 looks a bit like a walking person: 万
For fat loss:
- Both step tracking and cardio do help.
- Step tracking better reflects total daily movement, while cardio burns calories in sessions—but if it’s not HIIT, there is likely to be a compensatory metabolic slump afterwards.
- High-intensity cardio increases fatigue, which may impact resistance training and diet adherence.
- Excessive endurance training can slightly inhibit muscle growth, but low-intensity steps have minimal interference.
So for fat loss, it’s best to get those steps in, and throw in a few HIIT sessions per week, with adequate recovery time between them.
For more on all of these things, enjoy:
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Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
How To Do HIIT (Without Wrecking Your Body)
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How does the drug abemaciclib treat breast cancer?
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The anti-cancer drug abemaciclib (also known as Vernezio) has this month been added to the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) to treat certain types of breast cancer.
This significantly reduces the cost of the drug. A patient can now expect to pay A$31.60 for a 28-day supply ($7.70 with a health care concession card). The price of abemaciclib without government subsidy is $4,250.
So what is abemaciclib, and how did we get to this point?
It stops cells dividing
Researchers at the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly developed abemaciclib and published the first study on the drug (then known as LY2835219) in 2014.
Abemaciclib is a type of drug known as a “cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor”. It’s taken as a pill twice a day.
To maintain our health, many of the cells in our bodies need to grow and divide to produce new cells. Cancers develop when cells grow and divide out of control. Therefore, stopping cells from dividing into new cells is one way that cancer can be fought.
When cells divide, they have to make a copy of their DNA to pass onto the new cell. “Cyclin-dependent kinases” (CDKs for short) are essential for this process. So, if you stop the CDKs, you stop the DNA copying, you stop cells dividing, and you fight the cancer.
However, there are different types of CDKs, and not all cancers need them all to grow. Abemaciclib specifically targets CDK4 and CDK6. Thankfully, a lot of cancers do need these CDKs, including some breast cancers.
The drug targets CDK4 and CDK6. Photoroyalty/Shutterstock But abemaciclib will only be effective against cancers that rely on CDK4 and CDK6 for continued growth. This specificity also means abemaciclib is fairly unique, so it can’t easily be replaced with a different drug.
Two other CDK4/6 inhibitors were developed around the same time as abemaciclib, and are called ribociclib and palbociclib. Both of these drugs are also on the PBS for specific types of breast cancer. As the drugs differ in their chemical structures, they have slight differences in the way they are taken up and processed by the body. The preferred drug given to a breast cancer patient will depend on their unique circumstances.
What are the side effects?
Research is still ongoing into the differences between each of these CDK4/6 inhibitors, but it is known that the side effects are largely similar, but can differ in severity.
The most common side effects of abemaciclib are fatigue, diarrhoea and neutropenia (reduced white blood cells). The gastrointestinal issues are generally more severe with abemaciclib.
If these side effects are too severe, abemaciclib treatment can be stopped.
What types of cancer has abemaciclib been approved for?
In 2017, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved abemaciclib for the treatment of patients with metastatic HR+/HER2- (hormone receptor-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative) breast cancer who did not respond to standard endocrine therapy.
Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) similarly approved abemaciclib in 2022 as an “adjuvant” therapy (after the initial surgery to remove the tumour) for patients with HR+/HER2- invasive early breast cancer which had spread to lymph nodes and was at high risk of returning.
The drug is approved for people with early breast cancer which is at high risk of returning. PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock As of May 1 2024, the PBS covers this use of abemaciclib in combination with endocrine therapy such as fulvestrant, which is also listed on the PBS. Endocrine therapy, also known as hormonal therapy, blocks hormone receptor positive (HR+) cancers from receiving the hormones they need to survive.
Could abemaciclib be used for other cancers in the future?
Abemaciclib is of great interest to scientists and medical practitioners, and testing is ongoing to assess the effectiveness of abemaciclib in treating a range of other cancers, including gastrointestinal cancers and blood cancers.
Abemaciclib may even be usable in brain cancers, as it has long been known to be capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, a common stumbling block for potential anti-cancer drugs.
Time will tell whether the role of abemaciclib in health care will be expanded. But for now, its inclusion on the PBS is sure to bring some relief to breast cancer patients nationwide.
Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and John (Eddie) La Marca, Senior Resarch Officer, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Rice vs Buckwheat – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing rice to buckwheat, we picked the buckwheat.
Why?
It’s a simple one today:
- The vitamin and mineral profiles are very similar, so neither of these are a swaying factor
- In terms of macros, rice is higher in carbohydrates while buckwheat is higher in fiber
- Buckwheat also has more protein, but not by much
- Buckwheat has the lower glycemic index, and a lower insulin index, too
While buckwheat cannot always be reasonably used as a substitute for rice (often because the texture would not work the same), in many cases it can be.
And if you love rice, well, so do we, but variety is also the spice of life indeed, not to mention important for good health. You know that whole “eat 30 different plants per week” thing? Grains count in that tally! So substituting buckwheat in place of rice sometimes seems like a very good bet.
Not sure where to buy it?
Here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon
Want to know more about today’s topic?
Check out: Carb-Strong or Carb-Wrong?
Enjoy!
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Why Many Nonprofit (Wink, Wink) Hospitals Are Rolling in Money
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One owns a for-profit insurer, a venture capital company, and for-profit hospitals in Italy and Kazakhstan; it has just acquired its fourth for-profit hospital in Ireland. Another owns one of the largest for-profit hospitals in London, is partnering to build a massive training facility for a professional basketball team, and has launched and financed 80 for-profit start-ups. Another partners with a wellness spa where rooms cost $4,000 a night and co-invests with “leading private equity firms.”
Do these sound like charities?
These diversified businesses are, in fact, some of the country’s largest nonprofit hospital systems. And they have somehow managed to keep myriad for-profit enterprises under their nonprofit umbrella — a status that means they pay little or no taxes, float bonds at preferred rates, and gain numerous other financial advantages.
Through legal maneuvering, regulatory neglect, and a large dollop of lobbying, they have remained tax-exempt charities, classified as 501(c)(3)s.
“Hospitals are some of the biggest businesses in the U.S. — nonprofit in name only,” said Martin Gaynor, an economics and public policy professor at Carnegie Mellon University. “They realized they could own for-profit businesses and keep their not-for-profit status. So the parking lot is for-profit; the laundry service is for-profit; they open up for-profit entities in other countries that are expressly for making money. Great work if you can get it.”
Many universities’ most robust income streams come from their technically nonprofit hospitals. At Stanford University, 62% of operating revenue in fiscal 2023 was from health services; at the University of Chicago, patient services brought in 49% of operating revenue in fiscal 2022.
To be sure, many hospitals’ major source of income is still likely to be pricey patient care. Because they are nonprofit and therefore, by definition, can’t show that thing called “profit,” excess earnings are called “operating surpluses.” Meanwhile, some nonprofit hospitals, particularly in rural areas and inner cities, struggle to stay afloat because they depend heavily on lower payments from Medicaid and Medicare and have no alternative income streams.
But investments are making “a bigger and bigger difference” in the bottom line of many big systems, said Ge Bai, a professor of health care accounting at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Investment income helped Cleveland Clinic overcome the deficit incurred during the pandemic.
When many U.S. hospitals were founded over the past two centuries, mostly by religious groups, they were accorded nonprofit status for doling out free care during an era in which fewer people had insurance and bills were modest. The institutions operated on razor-thin margins. But as more Americans gained insurance and medical treatments became more effective — and more expensive — there was money to be made.
Not-for-profit hospitals merged with one another, pursuing economies of scale, like joint purchasing of linens and surgical supplies. Then, in this century, they also began acquiring parts of the health care systems that had long been for-profit, such as doctors’ groups, as well as imaging and surgery centers. That raised some legal eyebrows — how could a nonprofit simply acquire a for-profit? — but regulators and the IRS let it ride.
And in recent years, partnerships with, and ownership of, profit-making ventures have strayed further and further afield from the purported charitable health care mission in their community.
“When I first encountered it, I was dumbfounded — I said, ‘This not charitable,’” said Michael West, an attorney and senior vice president of the New York Council of Nonprofits. “I’ve long questioned why these institutions get away with it. I just don’t see how it’s compliant with the IRS tax code.” West also pointed out that they don’t act like charities: “I mean, everyone knows someone with an outstanding $15,000 bill they can’t pay.”
Hospitals get their tax breaks for providing “charity care and community benefit.” But how much charity care is enough and, more important, what sort of activities count as “community benefit” and how to value them? IRS guidance released this year remains fuzzy on the issue.
Academics who study the subject have consistently found the value of many hospitals’ good work pales in comparison with the value of their tax breaks. Studies have shown that generally nonprofit and for-profit hospitals spend about the same portion of their expenses on the charity care component.
Here are some things listed as “community benefit” on hospital systems’ 990 tax forms: creating jobs; building energy-efficient facilities; hiring minority- or women-owned contractors; upgrading parks with lighting and comfortable seating; creating healing gardens and spas for patients.
All good works, to be sure, but health care?
What’s more, to justify engaging in for-profit business while maintaining their not-for-profit status, hospitals must connect the business revenue to that mission. Otherwise, they pay an unrelated business income tax.
“Their CEOs — many from the corporate world — spout drivel and turn somersaults to make the case,” said Lawton Burns, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “They do a lot of profitable stuff — they’re very clever and entrepreneurial.”
The truth is that a number of not-for-profit hospitals have become wealthy diversified business organizations. The most visible manifestation of that is outsize executive compensation at many of the country’s big health systems. Seven of the 10 most highly paid nonprofit CEOs in the United States run hospitals and are paid millions, sometimes tens of millions, of dollars annually. The CEOs of the Gates and Ford foundations make far less, just a bit over $1 million.
When challenged about the generous pay packages — as they often are — hospitals respond that running a hospital is a complicated business, that pharmaceutical and insurance execs make much more. Also, board compensation committees determine the payout, considering salaries at comparable institutions as well as the hospital’s financial performance.
One obvious reason for the regulatory tolerance is that hospital systems are major employers — the largest in many states (including Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Arizona, and Delaware). They are big-time lobbying forces and major donors in Washington and in state capitals.
But some patients have had enough: In a suit brought by a local school board, a judge last year declared that four Pennsylvania hospitals in the Tower Health system had to pay property taxes because its executive pay was “eye popping” and it demonstrated “profit motives through actions such as charging management fees from its hospitals.”
A 2020 Government Accountability Office report chided the IRS for its lack of vigilance in reviewing nonprofit hospitals’ community benefit and recommended ways to “improve IRS oversight.” A follow-up GAO report to Congress in 2023 said, “IRS officials told us that the agency had not revoked a hospital’s tax-exempt status for failing to provide sufficient community benefits in the previous 10 years” and recommended that Congress lay out more specific standards. The IRS declined to comment for this column.
Attorneys general, who regulate charity at the state level, could also get involved. But, in practice, “there is zero accountability,” West said. “Most nonprofits live in fear of the AG. Not hospitals.”
Today’s big hospital systems do miraculous, lifesaving stuff. But they are not channeling Mother Teresa. Maybe it’s time to end the community benefit charade for those that exploit it, and have these big businesses pay at least some tax. Communities could then use those dollars in ways that directly benefit residents’ health.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
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What are ‘Ozempic babies’? Can the drug really increase your chance of pregnancy?
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Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are taking drugs like Ozempic to lose weight. But what do we actually know about them? This month, The Conversation’s experts explore their rise, impact and potential consequences.
We’ve heard a lot about the impacts of Ozempic recently, from rapid weight loss and lowered blood pressure, to persistent vomiting and “Ozempic face”.
Now we’re seeing a rise in stories about “Ozempic babies”, where women who use drugs like Ozempic (semaglutide) report unexpected pregnancies.
But does semaglutide (also sold as Wegovy) improve fertility? And if so, how? Here’s what we know so far.
Remind me, what is Ozempic?
Ozempic and related drugs (glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists or GLP-1-RAs) were developed to help control blood glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes.
But the reason for Ozempic’s huge popularity worldwide is that it promotes weight loss by slowing stomach emptying and reducing appetite.
Ozempic is prescribed in Australia as a diabetes treatment. It’s not currently approved to treat obesity but some doctors prescribe it “off label” to help people lose weight. Wegovy (a higher dose of semaglutide) is approved for use in Australia to treat obesity but it’s not yet available.
How does obesity affect fertility?
Obesity affects the fine-tuned hormonal balance that regulates the menstrual cycle.
Women with a body mass index (BMI) above 27 are three times more likely than women in the normal weight range to be unable to conceive because they are less likely to ovulate.
The metabolic conditions of type 2 diabetes and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are both linked to obesity and fertility difficulties.
Women with type 2 diabetes are more likely than other women to have obesity and to experience fertility difficulties and miscarriage.
Similarly, women with PCOS are more likely to have obesity and trouble conceiving than other women because of hormonal imbalances that cause irregular menstrual cycles.
In men, obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome (a cluster of conditions that increase the risk of heart disease and stroke) have negative effects on fertility.
Low testosterone levels caused by obesity or type 2 diabetes can affect the quality of sperm.
So how might Ozempic affect fertility?
Weight loss is recommended for people with obesity to reduce the risk of health problems. As weight loss can improve menstrual irregularities, it may also increase the chance of pregnancy in women with obesity.
This is why weight loss and metabolic improvement are the most likely reasons why women who use Ozempic report unexpected pregnancies.
But unexpected pregnancies have also been reported by women who use Ozempic and the contraceptive pill. This has led some experts to suggest that some GLP-1-RAs might affect the absorption of the pill and make it less effective. However, it’s uncertain whether there is a connection between Ozempic and contraceptive failure.
Some women have reported getting pregnant while taking the contraceptive pill and Ozempic. Cottonbro Studio/Pexels In men with type 2 diabetes, obesity and low testosterone, drugs like Ozempic have shown promising results for weight loss and increasing testosterone levels.
Avoid Ozempic if you’re trying to conceive
It’s unclear if semaglutide can be harmful in pregnancy. But data from animal studies suggest it should not be used in pregnancy due to potential risks of fetal abnormalities.
That’s why the Therapeutic Goods Administration recommends women of childbearing potential use contraception when taking semaglutide.
Similarly, PCOS guidelines state health professionals should ensure women with PCOS who use Ozempic have effective contraception.
Guidelines recommended stopping semaglutide at least two months before planning pregnancy.
For women who use Ozempic to manage diabetes, it’s important to seek advice on other options to control blood glucose levels when trying for pregnancy.
What if you get pregnant while taking Ozempic?
For those who conceive while using Ozempic, deciding what to do can be difficult. This decision may be even more complicated considering the unknown potential effects of the drug on the fetus.
While there is little scientific data available, the findings of an observational study of pregnant women with type 2 diabetes who were on diabetes medication, including GLP-1-RAs, are reassuring. This study did not indicate a large increased risk of major congenital malformations in the babies born.
Women considering or currently using semaglutide before, during, or after pregnancy should consult with a health provider about how to best manage their condition.
When pregnancies are planned, women can take steps to improve their baby’s health, such as taking folic acid before conception to reduce the risk of neural tube defects, and stopping smoking and consuming alcohol.
While unexpected pregnancies and “Ozempic babies” may be welcomed, their mothers have not had the opportunity to take these steps and give them the best start in life.
Read the other articles in The Conversation’s Ozempic series here.
Karin Hammarberg, Senior Research Fellow, Global and Women’s Health, School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, Monash University and Robert Norman, Emeritus Professor of Reproductive and Periconceptual Medicine, The Robinson Research Institute, University of Adelaide
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Peaceful Kitchen – by Catherine Perez
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The author, a keen cook and Registered Dietician with a Master’s in same, covers the basics of the science of nutrition as relevant to her recipes, but first and foremost this is not a science textbook—it’s a cookbook, and its pages contain more love for the art than citations for the (perfectly respectable) science.
Mexican and Dominican cuisine are the main influences in this book, but there are dishes from around the world too.
The recipes themselves are… Comparable in difficulty to the things we often feature in our recipes section here at 10almonds. They’re probably not winning any restaurants Michelin stars, but they’re not exactly student survival recipes either. They’re made from mostly non-obscure whole foods, nutritionally-dense ingredients at that, with minimal processed foods involved.
That said, she does take a “add, don’t subtract” approach to nutrition, i.e. focussing more on adding in diversity of plants than on “don’t eat this; don’t eat that” mandates.
If there’s any criticism to be levelled at the book, it’s that in most cases we’d multiply the spices severalfold, but that’s not a big problem as readers can always judge that individually; she’s given the basic information of which spices in which proportions, which is the key knowledge.
Bottom line: if you’re looking to expand your plant-based cooking repertoire, this one is a fine choice.
Click here to check out Peaceful Kitchen, and try some new things!
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What families should know about whooping cough
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What you need to know
- Whooping cough is a bacterial respiratory illness that can cause long-term symptoms and even death.
- Two types of vaccines protect against it: The DTap vaccine is given to babies and children up to 6 years old, while the Tdap vaccine is given to children 7 years and older and adults.
- If you or your child has symptoms of whooping cough, isolate them from vulnerable family members and seek treatment early to reduce the risk of serious illness.
Whooping cough, also called pertussis, is a highly contagious respiratory illness that’s particularly dangerous for babies. Cases are now at least four times as high as they were at this time last year. Fortunately, vaccines are extremely effective at preventing the disease across age groups.
Read on to learn about the symptoms and risks of whooping cough, who should get vaccinated, and what to do when symptoms appear.What are the symptoms of whooping cough?
Early symptoms of whooping cough typically appear five to 10 days after exposure and may include a runny or stuffy nose, a low fever, and a mild cough. One to two weeks later, some people may experience extreme coughing fits that can cause shortness of breath, trouble sleeping, vomiting, fatigue, and rib fractures. These fits usually last one to six weeks, but they can last up to 10 weeks after infection.
About one in three babies under 1 year old who contract whooping cough require hospitalization, as they may experience life-threatening pauses in breathing (called apnea), pneumonia, and other complications. Children and adults who have asthma or are immunocompromised are also more likely to develop severe symptoms.
Which vaccines protect against whooping cough, and who is eligible?
Two types of vaccines protect against whooping cough: The DTap vaccine is given to babies and children up to 6 years old, while the Tdap vaccine is given to children 7 years and older and adults. Both vaccines protect against infections from diptheria, tetanus, and pertussis.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that pregnant people receive a single dose of the Tdap vaccine between 27 and 36 weeks of pregnancy, as this lowers the risk of whooping cough in babies younger than 2 months old by 78 percent.
Multiple doses are required for the best protection. Learn more about DTaP and Tdap vaccine schedules from the CDC, and talk to your health care provider about how many doses you and your children need.
What should families do when whooping cough symptoms appear?
If you or your child has symptoms of whooping cough, isolate the infected person from vulnerable family members. It’s also important to seek treatment early to reduce the risk of serious illness. Health care providers typically prescribe antibiotics to those recovering at home.
Over-the-counter cough and cold medicine is not recommended for children under 4 years old. However, limiting smoke, dust, and chemical fumes at home and using a humidifier can reduce coughing. If you are caring for someone with whooping cough who exhibits pauses in breathing or develops gray or blue skin, call 911 immediately.
For more information, talk to your health care provider.Don’t Forget…
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