Six Easy, Fun Steps To Better Health

CIGNA and Healthy Kids Challenge, working together since 2004 to fight obesity, announced the launch of their latest initiative - an online CIGNA Mix Six for Healthy Balance Toolkit offering real-life ways for individuals, families and employers to incorporate better health into their daily routines.

Despite all of the dialogue about obesity, some 86 percent of Americans are expected to be overweight or obese by 2030.1 Businesses, individuals and families pay the price not only in higher health care costs but in human terms as well: loss of productivity, a shorter life expectancy due to conditions caused by obesity and poor health in general. The CIGNA and Healthy Kids Challenge collaboration is designed to help reverse the obesity trend through online coaching and interactive programs.

"It is critical that we continue to get the message out about the effects that everyday choices have on our health and on overall costs to the health care system," said Patty Caballero, director of sponsorships, CIGNA. "This toolkit is a great resource to reinforce this message in a fun and engaging - and hopefully habit-forming - way."

Drawing on CIGNA's experience with wellness in the workplace and Healthy Kids Challenge's expertise on children's health, the new collaborative toolkit offers simple, actionable solutions at a variety of levels. The goal is to enable everyone to eat healthier and exercise more both at home and at work. The educational and interactive materials can be adapted in any chronological order, therefore, Mix Six for Healthy Balance:

- Colorful Plates: Diets rich in fruits and vegetables not only keep weight in check but can lower the risk for stroke, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and even some cancers. Yet fewer than two in 10 adults - and fewer than one in 10 kids - eat the daily recommended amount of fruits and vegetables. Colorful Plates helps users add fruits and vegetables to their diets simply by adding color to their plates.

- Minutes in Motion: Regular physical activity lowers risk for stroke, heart attack, diabetes, and bone fractures and can help people stay mentally sharp as they age. Experts recommend 30 minutes of daily physical activity and agree that most adults are not meeting that goal. Minutes in Motion offers fun activities to help people of all ages get moving.

- Power Breakfast: Parents were right: breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Eating breakfast improves concentration, problem-solving ability, mental performance, memory and mood and helps people maintain a healthy weight. Power Breakfast offers easy tips and meal ideas to begin any day the right way.

- Snack Attack: It's estimated that in the U.S., one-quarter of daily calorie intake comes from snacks. An extra 100 sugary calories daily can add up to more than 10 pounds in a year. Snack Attack helps people learn how to make healthy snack choices by planning ahead and understanding which snacks are both nutritionally worthy and tasty.

- Smart Servings: Super-sized meals are not a value when you consider your waistline. Smart Servings helps users recognize eating distractions so that they can better watch what they eat and also shows how to better estimate serving sizes.

- Drink Think: Coffee used to cost a quarter - and came with a quarter of the calories when compared to today's café mochas. Drinks are often an overlooked culprit when it comes to weight control. Drink Think challenges users to assess calories in a particular drink to help them downsize or choose an alternate beverage.

"The new CIGNA Mix Six for Healthy Balance Toolkit features up-to-date, relevant and fun information and activities for a variety of ages, in a variety of settings," said Vickie James, RD, LD, executive director, Healthy Kids Challenge. "This latest initiative has been another great opportunity to partner with CIGNA to work towards our shared goal of improving health."

1 According to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

3,000 Steps Five Days A Week Wards Off Diabetes

If you walk three thousand steps a day, five days each week, your chances of developing diabetes and becoming obese are significantly reduced, Australian researchers report in the BMJ (British Medical Journal). Increase your daily steps over a five year period to 10,000 steps a day, and the benefits skyrocket. This is the first study to assess the impact of doing a daily step count on insulin sensitivity, the authors claim.
Previous studies have demonstrated how physical activity can reduce insulin resistance and BMI (body mass index), both indicators of looming diabetes. However, none had clearly shown how adding a certain number of steps each day to your physical activity can significantly improve your chances of remaining obese- and diabetes-free.
Most experts advise people to walk 10,000 steps daily. However, doing 3,000 steps five times a week can also work. Also, you don't have to start off with the 10,000 steps - you can gradually build up over a five year period.
Scientists from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia, gathered data on 592 adults, all of them middle-aged. They had taken part in a nationally representative study aimed at gauging diabetes rates throughout Australia between 2000 and 2005.
The participants underwent a comprehensive health check, and then completed a questionnaire that revealed details on their eating habits and lifestyle. Each adult was given a pedometer and shown how to use it.
A pedometer, also known as a step counter is a portable electronic device that counts each step you take by detecting the motion of your hips - you attach it to your side. It is usually worn on the belt and you keep it on all day - it records how many steps you have walked during the day.
The participants were followed-up again five years later. The researchers also took into account other lifestyle factors, such as smoking status and alcohol intake.
The investigators found that those with a higher daily step count over the five year period generally had a lower BMI, lower waist to hip ratio, and superior insulin sensitivity, compared to individuals with a low daily step count - regardless of what their dietary energy intake was. They added that the more active individuals enjoyed the above-mentioned benefits mainly because of a change in fatness (adiposity) over the five years.
The researchers worked out that sedentary individuals who gradually increased their daily step count to 10,000 over a five-year period would enjoy a threefold improvement in insulin sensitivity compared to those who managed to reach 3,000 steps a day (five days a week) at the end of five years.
It is important to remember that staying at 3,000 steps a day does have its benefits, compared to remaining completely sedentary.
The authors concluded:

"These findings, confirming an independent beneficial role of higher daily step count on body mass index, waist to hip ratio, and insulin sensitivity, provide further support to promote higher physical activity levels among middle aged adults."

According to the American Diabetes Association: 18 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes5.7 million Americans have diabetes but don't know it (undiagnosed)57 million individuals in the USA have pre-diabetes186,300 people under the age of 20 years have diabetes in the USA2 million US teenagers have pre-diabetes10.7% of Americans over the age of 20 have diabetes11.2% of American adult males have diabetes10.2% of American adult females have diabetesType 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disease - the person's body has destroyed his/her own insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. A person with Type 2 Diabetes does not produce enough insulin, or suffers from 'insulin resistance' (the insulin is not working properly). Type 1 Diabetes is unavoidable and is not caused by lifestyle. Type 2 Diabetes is usually caused by being overweight and having a sedentary lifestyle.
"Association of change in daily step count over five years with insulin sensitivity and adiposity: population based cohort study"
T Dwyer, A-L Ponsonby, O C Ukoumunne, A Pezic, A Venn, D Dunstan, E Barr, S Blair, J Cochrane, P Zimmet, J Shaw
BMJ 2011; 342:c7249 doi: 10.1136/bmj.c7249
Written by Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today


Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.
posted by W D Clark on 13 Jan 2011 at 8:55 pm
How much trouble would it have been for you to just tell me approximately how far 10,000 steps is?
Now I have to go see if I can look it up somewhere.
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posted by Me on 14 Jan 2011 at 6:49 am
Average stride 2-3 feet.
Mile 5280 feet.
(3,000 steps * 3 foot stride) / 5,280 feet = approx 1.7 miles
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posted by anon on 14 Jan 2011 at 6:54 am
Stride length depends on height.
Note a starting spot, take 10 normal steps, measure the distance in feet with a tape measure or yardstick, and write it down. Do this several times during the day and several places, average the distances and divide by 10 and you will have a good estimate of your stride length in feet over the day. Or, if you regularly do one long walk, do it several times at the beginning and the end.
(No. Feet/step)*(Number steps/day)*(mi/5280 feet)= No. miles/day
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Taking More Steps Every Day Can Help Ward Off Diabetes

Simply taking more steps every day not only helps ward off obesity but also reduces the risk of diabetes, finds a study published on bmj.com today.

While several studies have shown that physical activity reduces body mass index and insulin resistance - an early stage in the development of diabetes - this is the first study to estimate the effects of long-term changes in daily step count on insulin sensitivity.

A popular guideline is to do 10,000 steps every day, though a more recent recommendation is 3,000 steps, five days a week.

The research, by the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Melbourne, involved 592 middle aged adults who took part in a national study to map diabetes levels across Australia between 2000 and 2005.

At the start of the study, participants completed a detailed diet and lifestyle questionnaire and underwent a thorough health examination. They were also given a pedometer and instructed how to use it. Participants were monitored again five years later.

Other lifestyle factors, such as diet, alcohol and smoking were taken into account.

A higher daily step count over five years was associated with a lower body mass index, lower waist to hip ratio, and better insulin sensitivity.

These associations were independent of dietary energy intake and appeared to be largely due to a change in adiposity (fatness) over the five years, say the authors.

The authors estimate that, in their setting, a sedentary person who takes a very low number of daily steps but who was able to change behaviour over five years to meet the popular 10,000 daily step guideline would have a threefold improvement in insulin sensitivity compared with a similar person who increased his or her steps to meet the more recent recommendation of 3,000 steps for five days a week.

They conclude: "These findings, confirming an independent beneficial role of higher daily step count on body mass index, waist to hip ratio, and insulin sensitivity, provide further support to promote higher physical activity levels among middle aged adults."

Click here to view paper

Source: British Medical Journal

Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.

All opinions are moderated before being added.

Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.

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