You Got to Move it, Motion is life

Everything is in a constant state of motion. From the big picture we see cars moving, trees swaying, birds flying, waves crashing, and the sun moving through our sky. Molecules are always exchanging electrons and changing states. Our body requires movement. Our bodies are created to move! Look at your joints, arms, legs, fingers, and toes. Their job is to move us and do things.

Our spine needs movement as well. Moving through all range of motions actually helps us feel better. It improves out outlook and attitude. Get active and take time to dance, walk, run, and play. It will help your day.

In a recent discovery by researchers at Centenary Institute and Sydney Medical School they stopped cancer cells from growing by blocking the enzyme DPP9 in liver cells. This caused the cells to slow down cells so they could not move. “What this work has shown us is that this enzyme is absolutely critical to cell movement, and without cell movement, tumors can’t grow or spread,” says Prof. Mark Gorrell from Centenary’s Molecular Hepatology unit. What can we take away from this? Movement is life. Even cancer requires movement to live.

Reliability of Wearable Fitness Trackers

Over 22 million wearable fitness trackers were sold in 2014. These devices are used to track a person’s activity level, distances traveled, & calories burned. But are they accurate? That was the question that Anna Magee, editor of Healthista women’s health magazine asked. She found that users might not be getting an accurate reading from their devices.

She tested devices from Garmin, Nike, Fitbit, Jawbone, Misfit, & Ki by subjecting them to identical workouts. She then asked a Dylan Thompson, professor of exercise science at the University of Bath in the U.K. Dr. Thompson measured the caloric burn rate with an indirect calorimetry machine, the standard for how many calories are burned by measuring carbon dioxide and oxygen levels inhaled and exhaled during the exercise.

The Garmin faired the best, but was not accurate during cycling. Incidentally, most devices measured a significantly higher caloric burn rate than was actually measured by indirect calorimetry.

The Fitbit’s results were nearly 100% higher than the actual results. These artificially high readings are of concern because they create a misleading exercise outcome for the user.

None of the companies replied to the Mangee’s requests for comments or provided data to back up their device’s claims.