Although some old fitness fictions, such as “no pain, no gain” and “spot reducing” are fading fast, plenty of popular exercise misconceptions still exist. Here are some of the most common exercise myths as well as the not-so-common facts based on current exercise research.
Exercise Myth 1. You Will Burn More Fat If You Exercise Longer at a Lower Intensity. The most important focus in exercise and fat weight control is not the percentage of exercise energy coming from fat but the total energy cost, or how many calories are burned during the activity. The faster you walk, step or run, for example, the more calories you use per minute. However, high-intensity exercise is difficult to sustain if you are just beginning or returning to exercise, so you may not exercise very long at this level. It is safer, and more practical, to start out at a lower intensity and work your way up gradually.
Exercise Myth 2. If You’re Not Going to Work Out Hard and Often, Exercise Is a Waste of Time. This kind of thinking keeps a lot of people from maintaining or even starting an exercise program. Research continues to show that any exercise is better than none. For example, regular walking or gardening for as little as an hour a week has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease.
Exercise Myth 3. Yoga Is a Completely Gentle and Safe Exercise. Yoga is an excellent form of exercise, but some styles are quite rigorous and demanding both physically and mentally. As with any form of exercise, qualified, careful instruction is necessary for a safe, effective workout.
Exercise Myth 4. If You Exercise Long and Hard Enough, You Will Always Get the Results You Want. In reality, genetics plays an important role in how people respond to exercise. Studies have shown a wide variation in how different exercisers respond to the same training program. Your development of strength, speed and endurance may be very different from that of other people you know.
Exercise Myth 5. Exercise Is One Sure Way to Lose All the Weight You Desire. As with all responses to exercise, weight gain or loss is impacted by many factors, including dietary intake and genetics. All individuals will not lose the same amount of weight on the same exercise program. It is possible to be active and overweight. However, although exercise alone cannot guarantee your ideal weight, regular physical activity is one of the most important factors for successful long-term weight management.
Exercise Myth 6. If You Want to Lose Weight, Stay Away From Strength Training Because You Will Bulk Up. Most exercise experts believe that cardiovascular exercise and strength training are both valuable for maintaining a healthy weight. Strength training helps maintain muscle mass and decrease body fat percentage.
Exercise Myth 7. Water Fitness Programs Are Primarily for Older People or Exercisers With Injuries. Recent research has shown that water fitness programs can be highly challenging and effective for both improving fitness and losing weight. Even top athletes integrate water fitness workouts into their training programs.
Exercise Myth 8. The Health and Fitness Benefits of Mind-Body Exercise Like Tai Chi and Yoga Are Questionable. In fact, research showing the benefits of these exercises continues to grow. Tai chi, for example, has been shown to help treat low-back pain and fibromyalgia. Improved flexibility, balance, coordination, posture, strength and stress management are just some of the potential results of mind-body exercise.
Exercise Myth 9. Overweight People Are Unlikely to Benefit Much From Exercise. Studies show that obese people who participate in regular exercise programs have a lower risk of all-cause mortality than sedentary individuals, regardless of weight. Both men and women of all sizes and fitness levels can improve their health with modest increases in activity.
Exercise Myth 10. Home Workouts Are Fine, But Going to a Gym Is the Best Way to Get Fit. Research has shown that some people find it easier to stick to a home-based fitness program. In spite of all the hype on trendy exercise programs and facilities, the “best” program for you is the one you will participate in consistently.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Vitamins and mineral supplements not helpful
December 29, 2008
They were some of the most promising medicines of the 1990s - wonder pills that appeared to fight cancer, heart disease and other ailments.
Laboratory tests and initial studies in people suggested that lowly vitamins could play a crucial role in preventing some of the most intractable illnesses, especially in an aging population. The National Institutes of Health gave them the same treatment as top-notch pharmaceutical drugs, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in elaborate clinical trials designed to quantify their disease-fighting abilities.
Now the results from those trials are rolling in, and nearly all of them fail to show any benefit from taking vitamins and minerals.
This month, two long-term trials involving more than 50,000 participants offered fresh evidence that vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium supplements don't reduce the risk of prostate, colorectal, lung, bladder or pancreatic cancer. Other recent studies have found that over-the-counter vitamins and minerals offered no help in fighting other cancers, stroke and cardiovascular disease.
Research has even suggested that, in some circumstances, vitamin and mineral supplements can be unsafe.
Some physicians now advise their patients not to bother with taking the pills and to rely instead on a healthy diet to provide needed vitamins and minerals.
Researchers have identified several reasons why vitamins don't lend themselves to randomized controlled trials. Chief among them is that there is no true placebo group when it comes to vitamins and minerals because everyone gets some in their diet.
Los Angeles Times
They were some of the most promising medicines of the 1990s - wonder pills that appeared to fight cancer, heart disease and other ailments.
Laboratory tests and initial studies in people suggested that lowly vitamins could play a crucial role in preventing some of the most intractable illnesses, especially in an aging population. The National Institutes of Health gave them the same treatment as top-notch pharmaceutical drugs, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in elaborate clinical trials designed to quantify their disease-fighting abilities.
Now the results from those trials are rolling in, and nearly all of them fail to show any benefit from taking vitamins and minerals.
This month, two long-term trials involving more than 50,000 participants offered fresh evidence that vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium supplements don't reduce the risk of prostate, colorectal, lung, bladder or pancreatic cancer. Other recent studies have found that over-the-counter vitamins and minerals offered no help in fighting other cancers, stroke and cardiovascular disease.
Research has even suggested that, in some circumstances, vitamin and mineral supplements can be unsafe.
Some physicians now advise their patients not to bother with taking the pills and to rely instead on a healthy diet to provide needed vitamins and minerals.
Researchers have identified several reasons why vitamins don't lend themselves to randomized controlled trials. Chief among them is that there is no true placebo group when it comes to vitamins and minerals because everyone gets some in their diet.
Los Angeles Times
Lessons for Other Smokers in Obama’s Efforts to Quit
December 29, 2008
By DENISE GRADY and LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
Will one of President-elect Barack Obama’s New Year’s resolutions be to quit smoking once and for all?
His good-humored waffling in various interviews about smoking made it plain that Mr. Obama, like many who have vowed to quit at this time of year, had not truly done so.
He told Tom Brokaw of NBC several weeks ago, for example, that he “had stopped” but that “there are times where I’ve fallen off the wagon.” He promised to obey the no-smoking rules in the White House, but whether that meant he would be ducking out the back door for a smoke is not known. His transition team declined to answer any questions about his smoking, past or present, or his efforts to quit.
Antismoking activists would love to see him use his bully pulpit to inspire others to join him in trying to kick the habit, but he has not yet taken up their cause.
The last president to smoke more than occasionally was Gerald R. Ford, who was quite fond of his pipes. Jimmy Carter and both Presidents George Bush were reportedly abstainers, but Bill Clinton liked cigars from time to time, though he may have chewed more than he smoked.
Mr. Obama’s heaviest smoking was seven or eight cigarettes a day, but three was more typical, according to an interview published in the November issue of Men’s Health magazine. In a letter given to reporters before the election, Mr. Obama’s doctor described his smoking history as “intermittent,” and said he had quit several times and was using Nicorette gum, a form of nicotine replacement, “with success.” Mr. Obama was often seen chewing gum during the campaign.
His pattern matches that of millions of other people who have resolved but stumbled in their efforts to give up cigarettes. Today, 21 percent of Americans smoke, down from 28 percent in 1988. Off-again-on-again smoking and serial quitting are common, as is the long-term use of nicotine gum and patches.
“It takes the average smoker 8 to 10 times before he is able to quit successfully,” said Dr. Steven A. Schroeder, director of the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California, San Francisco.
Dr. Schroeder said that counseling was helpful, and that if Mr. Obama were his patient, he would urge him to try it, even if only by telephone, toll free at 1-800-QUITNOW (1-800-784-8669). With nicotine replacements and counseling, quit rates at one year are 15 percent to 30 percent, Dr. Schroeder said, about twice that of those who try without help.
But Mr. Obama has apparently been chewing nicotine gum for quite a while. Is it safe? Dr. Neal L. Benowitz, another expert on nicotine addiction from the University of California, San Francisco, said that long-term use of the gum or patches, “if it keeps you off cigarettes, is O.K.”
He said people had the best chances of quitting if they used more than one type of nicotine replacement at the same time — like wearing a patch every day, but also using the gum when cravings took hold.
Studies have found that 5 percent to 10 percent of people who try nicotine replacements were still using them a year later, and nicotine itself appears not to be harmful, except possibly during pregnancy and for people at risk for diabetes, Dr. Benowitz said. The risks of cancer, other lung disease and heart problems come from other chemicals in tobacco smoke.
“If nicotine is harmful, it is a minuscule risk compared to cigarette smoking,” he said. “If people want to continue using gum or patches, and not cigarettes, their health will be enhanced.”
Nicotine can speed up the heart rate somewhat, he said, and it may raise blood pressure slightly. More important, it can reduce the body’s sensitivity to insulin and may aggravate diabetes or pre-diabetic conditions. It also constricts blood vessels in the skin and may interfere with wound healing.
But still, Dr. Benowitz emphasized, “if the choice is between taking nicotine or smoking, nicotine is far, far better.”
Falling off the wagon is typical. Three months, six months and a year are major milestones, and most people who can quit for a year will be able to stay off cigarettes for good, Dr. Benowitz said. But about 10 percent relapse even after a year or more.
“It’s generally prompted by a stressful situation, when they’re fatigued and they need to concentrate and focus,” Dr. Benowitz said. “Obama talked about that. People are used to having a cigarette in that situation.”
Nicotine is strongly addictive for many people, and withdrawal can leave them irritable, restless, sleepless, depressed and struggling to concentrate. Some experts say it is harder to give up than cocaine or heroin.
“Then there is something called hedonic dysregulation,” Dr. Benowitz said. “It involves pleasure. Nicotine involves dopamine release, which is key in signaling pleasure. When people quit smoking, they don’t experience things they used to like as pleasure. Things are not as much fun as they used to be. It’s something you get over in time.”
People become hooked on nicotine in part because, like alcohol and other addicting drugs, it alters the brain. Some of the changes are long-lasting, and the younger people are when they take up smoking, the stronger their addiction.
“There is increasing evidence that you lay down new neural circuits related to smoking, sort of memory tracks,” Dr. Benowitz said. “Nicotine does it, and other aspects of smoke do, too. Your brain is forever changed.”
Those memory tracks could be hindering Mr. Obama’s efforts to quit. Dr. Schroeder also noted that for someone who smoked fewer than 10 cigarettes a day, as Mr. Obama reportedly did, nicotine replacements may be less helpful because the addiction may be more to the habit than to nicotine.
One of the best things that President-elect Obama has going for him is that he is a jogger.
“There is increasing evidence that if you can exercise, it’s often helpful” in quitting, Dr. Benowitz said. “I hope Obama can still find time to play basketball on a regular basis.”
By DENISE GRADY and LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
Will one of President-elect Barack Obama’s New Year’s resolutions be to quit smoking once and for all?
His good-humored waffling in various interviews about smoking made it plain that Mr. Obama, like many who have vowed to quit at this time of year, had not truly done so.
He told Tom Brokaw of NBC several weeks ago, for example, that he “had stopped” but that “there are times where I’ve fallen off the wagon.” He promised to obey the no-smoking rules in the White House, but whether that meant he would be ducking out the back door for a smoke is not known. His transition team declined to answer any questions about his smoking, past or present, or his efforts to quit.
Antismoking activists would love to see him use his bully pulpit to inspire others to join him in trying to kick the habit, but he has not yet taken up their cause.
The last president to smoke more than occasionally was Gerald R. Ford, who was quite fond of his pipes. Jimmy Carter and both Presidents George Bush were reportedly abstainers, but Bill Clinton liked cigars from time to time, though he may have chewed more than he smoked.
Mr. Obama’s heaviest smoking was seven or eight cigarettes a day, but three was more typical, according to an interview published in the November issue of Men’s Health magazine. In a letter given to reporters before the election, Mr. Obama’s doctor described his smoking history as “intermittent,” and said he had quit several times and was using Nicorette gum, a form of nicotine replacement, “with success.” Mr. Obama was often seen chewing gum during the campaign.
His pattern matches that of millions of other people who have resolved but stumbled in their efforts to give up cigarettes. Today, 21 percent of Americans smoke, down from 28 percent in 1988. Off-again-on-again smoking and serial quitting are common, as is the long-term use of nicotine gum and patches.
“It takes the average smoker 8 to 10 times before he is able to quit successfully,” said Dr. Steven A. Schroeder, director of the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California, San Francisco.
Dr. Schroeder said that counseling was helpful, and that if Mr. Obama were his patient, he would urge him to try it, even if only by telephone, toll free at 1-800-QUITNOW (1-800-784-8669). With nicotine replacements and counseling, quit rates at one year are 15 percent to 30 percent, Dr. Schroeder said, about twice that of those who try without help.
But Mr. Obama has apparently been chewing nicotine gum for quite a while. Is it safe? Dr. Neal L. Benowitz, another expert on nicotine addiction from the University of California, San Francisco, said that long-term use of the gum or patches, “if it keeps you off cigarettes, is O.K.”
He said people had the best chances of quitting if they used more than one type of nicotine replacement at the same time — like wearing a patch every day, but also using the gum when cravings took hold.
Studies have found that 5 percent to 10 percent of people who try nicotine replacements were still using them a year later, and nicotine itself appears not to be harmful, except possibly during pregnancy and for people at risk for diabetes, Dr. Benowitz said. The risks of cancer, other lung disease and heart problems come from other chemicals in tobacco smoke.
“If nicotine is harmful, it is a minuscule risk compared to cigarette smoking,” he said. “If people want to continue using gum or patches, and not cigarettes, their health will be enhanced.”
Nicotine can speed up the heart rate somewhat, he said, and it may raise blood pressure slightly. More important, it can reduce the body’s sensitivity to insulin and may aggravate diabetes or pre-diabetic conditions. It also constricts blood vessels in the skin and may interfere with wound healing.
But still, Dr. Benowitz emphasized, “if the choice is between taking nicotine or smoking, nicotine is far, far better.”
Falling off the wagon is typical. Three months, six months and a year are major milestones, and most people who can quit for a year will be able to stay off cigarettes for good, Dr. Benowitz said. But about 10 percent relapse even after a year or more.
“It’s generally prompted by a stressful situation, when they’re fatigued and they need to concentrate and focus,” Dr. Benowitz said. “Obama talked about that. People are used to having a cigarette in that situation.”
Nicotine is strongly addictive for many people, and withdrawal can leave them irritable, restless, sleepless, depressed and struggling to concentrate. Some experts say it is harder to give up than cocaine or heroin.
“Then there is something called hedonic dysregulation,” Dr. Benowitz said. “It involves pleasure. Nicotine involves dopamine release, which is key in signaling pleasure. When people quit smoking, they don’t experience things they used to like as pleasure. Things are not as much fun as they used to be. It’s something you get over in time.”
People become hooked on nicotine in part because, like alcohol and other addicting drugs, it alters the brain. Some of the changes are long-lasting, and the younger people are when they take up smoking, the stronger their addiction.
“There is increasing evidence that you lay down new neural circuits related to smoking, sort of memory tracks,” Dr. Benowitz said. “Nicotine does it, and other aspects of smoke do, too. Your brain is forever changed.”
Those memory tracks could be hindering Mr. Obama’s efforts to quit. Dr. Schroeder also noted that for someone who smoked fewer than 10 cigarettes a day, as Mr. Obama reportedly did, nicotine replacements may be less helpful because the addiction may be more to the habit than to nicotine.
One of the best things that President-elect Obama has going for him is that he is a jogger.
“There is increasing evidence that if you can exercise, it’s often helpful” in quitting, Dr. Benowitz said. “I hope Obama can still find time to play basketball on a regular basis.”
Don’t Starve a Cold of Exercise
By GINA KOLATA
YOU have what seems to be a really bad cold. You are coughing and sneezing, and it is hard to breathe.
Should you work out?
And if you do, should you push yourself as hard as ever or take it easy? Will exercise have no effect, or make you feel better or worse?
It is a question, surprisingly enough, that stumps many exercise physiologists and infectious disease specialists.
“That question has not been actually studied,” said Dr. Aaron E. Glatt, a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society and the president of New Island Hospital in Bethpage, N.Y.
Many avid exercisers make up their own rules, and it seems that many of them, like Dr. Michael Joyner, an exercise researcher at the Mayo Clinic who is a swimmer and runner, decide to keep exercising if they possibly can.
“I can tell you that unless I am really wiped out, I still work out but maybe scale back a bit,” Dr. Joyner said. “I think that would be the answer from most relatively hard-core, old-school types.
“If I have an obvious fever and muscle aches,” he continued, “I do very little or take a day or two off, but I really have to be in a bad way to skip more than that.”
Dr. Bill Schaffner, chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University and a member of the board of directors of the Infectious Diseases Society, said he was unaware of any studies that addressed the issue.
Dr. Schaffner described himself as a jogger who runs a few miles most days and goes to a gym for resistance training. And, he said, he continues his workouts when he has a cold.
Exercise, he said, makes him feel better. He speculates that perhaps it is because his blood vessels are dilated when he exercises.
“I think exercise pushes me along a route to recovery,” Dr. Schaffner said. “Of course, I recognize that I might have been on a route to recovery anyway. But I can’t think of a reason why exercise would affect you adversely.”
It turns out that, even though they were unaware of them, the strategies of people like Dr. Schaffner and Dr. Joyner are actually supported by two little-known studies that were published a decade ago in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Results from the studies were so much in favor of exercise that the researchers themselves were surprised.
The studies began, said Leonard Kaminsky, an exercise physiologist at Ball State University, when a trainer at the university, Thomas Weidner, wondered what he should tell athletes when they got colds.
The first question was: Does a cold affect your ability to exercise? To address that, the researchers recruited 24 men and 21 women ages 18 to 29 and of varying levels of fitness who agreed to be deliberately infected with a rhinovirus, which is responsible for about a third of all colds. Another group of 10 young men and women served as controls; they were not infected.
At the start of the study, the investigators tested all of the subjects, assessing their lung functions and exercise capacity. Then a cold virus was dropped into the noses of 45 of the subjects, and all caught head colds. Two days later, when their cold symptoms were at their worst, the subjects exercised by running on treadmills at moderate and intense levels. The researchers reported that having a cold had no effect on either lung function or exercise capacity.
“I was surprised their lung function wasn’t impaired,” Dr. Kaminsky said. “I was surprised their overall exercise performance wasn’t impaired, even though they were reporting feeling fatigued.”
He said he also tested the subjects at different points in the exercise sessions, from moderate to intense effort, and found that their colds had no effect on their metabolic responses.
Another question was: Does exercising when you have a cold affect your symptoms and recovery time?
Once again, Dr, Kaminsky and his colleagues infected volunteers with a rhinovirus. This time, the subjects were 34 young men and women who were randomly assigned to a group that would exercise with their colds and 16 others who were assigned to rest.
The group that exercised ran on treadmills for 40 minutes every other day at moderate levels of 70 percent of their maximum heart rates.
Every 12 hours, all the subjects in the study completed questionnaires about their symptoms and physical activity. The researchers collected the subjects’ used facial tissues, weighing them to assess their cold symptoms.
The investigators found no difference in symptoms between the group that exercised and the one that rested. And there was no difference in the time it took to recover from the colds. But when the exercisers assessed their symptoms, Dr. Kaminsky said, “people said they felt O.K. and, in some cases, they actually felt better.”
Now, Dr. Kaminsky said, he and others at Ball State encourage people to exercise when they have colds, at least if they have the type producing symptoms like runny noses and sneezing. He is more cautious about other types of colds that produce fevers or symptoms below the neck such as chest congestion. Exercising with a head cold is not an issue for athletes, Dr. Kaminsky said, because most of them want to train no matter what. “If anything they tend to push too much,” he said.
Dr. Kaminsky also runs a fitness program at the university, dealing with regular exercisers. When he tells them it is all right to exercise when they have a cold, many are “a little suspicious,” he said. Often, they want to back off a little, lowering the intensity of their efforts.
“We tell them that’s O.K. if it’s for a short period of time,” Dr. Kaminsky said. “But what you have to be cautious of, where I see it as more of an issue, is with people who are trying to build that exercise habit. They’ve got all these barriers anyway.”
AND too often taking time off because of a cold is the start of falling away from the program entirely.
Dr. Kaminsky, who runs and works out on elliptical cross trainers and does resistance training, takes the studies’ findings to heart. Now when he has a cold, he continues to work out.
“It did give me the personal assurance that it was a good thing to do,” he said.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS First Look Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map
YOU have what seems to be a really bad cold. You are coughing and sneezing, and it is hard to breathe.
Should you work out?
And if you do, should you push yourself as hard as ever or take it easy? Will exercise have no effect, or make you feel better or worse?
It is a question, surprisingly enough, that stumps many exercise physiologists and infectious disease specialists.
“That question has not been actually studied,” said Dr. Aaron E. Glatt, a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society and the president of New Island Hospital in Bethpage, N.Y.
Many avid exercisers make up their own rules, and it seems that many of them, like Dr. Michael Joyner, an exercise researcher at the Mayo Clinic who is a swimmer and runner, decide to keep exercising if they possibly can.
“I can tell you that unless I am really wiped out, I still work out but maybe scale back a bit,” Dr. Joyner said. “I think that would be the answer from most relatively hard-core, old-school types.
“If I have an obvious fever and muscle aches,” he continued, “I do very little or take a day or two off, but I really have to be in a bad way to skip more than that.”
Dr. Bill Schaffner, chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University and a member of the board of directors of the Infectious Diseases Society, said he was unaware of any studies that addressed the issue.
Dr. Schaffner described himself as a jogger who runs a few miles most days and goes to a gym for resistance training. And, he said, he continues his workouts when he has a cold.
Exercise, he said, makes him feel better. He speculates that perhaps it is because his blood vessels are dilated when he exercises.
“I think exercise pushes me along a route to recovery,” Dr. Schaffner said. “Of course, I recognize that I might have been on a route to recovery anyway. But I can’t think of a reason why exercise would affect you adversely.”
It turns out that, even though they were unaware of them, the strategies of people like Dr. Schaffner and Dr. Joyner are actually supported by two little-known studies that were published a decade ago in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Results from the studies were so much in favor of exercise that the researchers themselves were surprised.
The studies began, said Leonard Kaminsky, an exercise physiologist at Ball State University, when a trainer at the university, Thomas Weidner, wondered what he should tell athletes when they got colds.
The first question was: Does a cold affect your ability to exercise? To address that, the researchers recruited 24 men and 21 women ages 18 to 29 and of varying levels of fitness who agreed to be deliberately infected with a rhinovirus, which is responsible for about a third of all colds. Another group of 10 young men and women served as controls; they were not infected.
At the start of the study, the investigators tested all of the subjects, assessing their lung functions and exercise capacity. Then a cold virus was dropped into the noses of 45 of the subjects, and all caught head colds. Two days later, when their cold symptoms were at their worst, the subjects exercised by running on treadmills at moderate and intense levels. The researchers reported that having a cold had no effect on either lung function or exercise capacity.
“I was surprised their lung function wasn’t impaired,” Dr. Kaminsky said. “I was surprised their overall exercise performance wasn’t impaired, even though they were reporting feeling fatigued.”
He said he also tested the subjects at different points in the exercise sessions, from moderate to intense effort, and found that their colds had no effect on their metabolic responses.
Another question was: Does exercising when you have a cold affect your symptoms and recovery time?
Once again, Dr, Kaminsky and his colleagues infected volunteers with a rhinovirus. This time, the subjects were 34 young men and women who were randomly assigned to a group that would exercise with their colds and 16 others who were assigned to rest.
The group that exercised ran on treadmills for 40 minutes every other day at moderate levels of 70 percent of their maximum heart rates.
Every 12 hours, all the subjects in the study completed questionnaires about their symptoms and physical activity. The researchers collected the subjects’ used facial tissues, weighing them to assess their cold symptoms.
The investigators found no difference in symptoms between the group that exercised and the one that rested. And there was no difference in the time it took to recover from the colds. But when the exercisers assessed their symptoms, Dr. Kaminsky said, “people said they felt O.K. and, in some cases, they actually felt better.”
Now, Dr. Kaminsky said, he and others at Ball State encourage people to exercise when they have colds, at least if they have the type producing symptoms like runny noses and sneezing. He is more cautious about other types of colds that produce fevers or symptoms below the neck such as chest congestion. Exercising with a head cold is not an issue for athletes, Dr. Kaminsky said, because most of them want to train no matter what. “If anything they tend to push too much,” he said.
Dr. Kaminsky also runs a fitness program at the university, dealing with regular exercisers. When he tells them it is all right to exercise when they have a cold, many are “a little suspicious,” he said. Often, they want to back off a little, lowering the intensity of their efforts.
“We tell them that’s O.K. if it’s for a short period of time,” Dr. Kaminsky said. “But what you have to be cautious of, where I see it as more of an issue, is with people who are trying to build that exercise habit. They’ve got all these barriers anyway.”
AND too often taking time off because of a cold is the start of falling away from the program entirely.
Dr. Kaminsky, who runs and works out on elliptical cross trainers and does resistance training, takes the studies’ findings to heart. Now when he has a cold, he continues to work out.
“It did give me the personal assurance that it was a good thing to do,” he said.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS First Look Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map
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