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Not since 1984, just before the fall of the Soviet Union, has Russia ventured to launch dozens of nuclear bombers for an exercise in which Tu-95 Bear bombers will fire live cruise missiles. Exercise Stability 2008 will take place Oct.-6-12 over sub-Arctic Russia uncomfortably close to the US state of Alaska, and Belarus. DEBKAfile's military sources report that the exercise is part of a month-long war game described by Russian air force spokesman Col. Vladimir Drik as "practicing the strategic deployment of the armed forces including the nuclear triad." As part of the exercise, our sources reported exclusively on Oct.1,...

As Ashley Barrett-Carter left Ryan Memolo's Army recruiting station after their first meeting more than a year ago, the staff sergeant thought, "I'll never see her again." Sgt. Memolo had encountered overweight applicants before, including some who dropped the pounds and returned to enlist. But those people exceeded the weight requirement by 20 or 30 pounds. Ms. Barrett-Carter needed to lose 100.

CHICAGO — Maybe you CAN blame being fat on your genes. But there's a way to overcome that family history — just get three to four hours of moderate activity a day. Sound pretty daunting? Not for the Amish of Lancaster County, Pa.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People who want to live a long and healthy life might want to take up running. A study published on Monday shows middle-aged members of a runner's club were half as likely to die over a 20-year period as people who did not run. Running reduced the risk not only of heart disease, but of cancer and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, researchers at Stanford University in California found. "At 19 years, 15 percent of runners had died compared with 34 percent of controls," Dr. Eliza Chakravarty and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Any...

OK - I've started running again (dropped a pant size too!) but here is the problem: I have a bad knee that gets inflamed if I train too hard too quickly. I have always gotten good advice here in the past, so I am wondering if there are any runners on here that can point my way to a good set of shoes that provides maximum shock protection. I am currently using Asics gels.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)-If the trends of the past three decades continue, it's possible that every American adult could be overweight 40 years from now, a government-funded study projects. The figure might sound alarming, or impossible, but researchers say that even if the actual rate never reaches the 100-percent mark, any upward movement is worrying; two-thirds of the population is already overweight....

Women who want to lose weight - and keep it off - need to be exercising for almost an hour, five days a week, according to US experts. The University of Pittsburgh study found the 55-minute regime was the minimum needed to maintain a 10% drop in weight. Only a quarter of the 200 women in the study managed to lose this amount. A UK expert said it was clear that regular moderate exercise was the way to lose weight, and keep it off. Approximately two-thirds of adults in the UK are overweight or obese, with some estimates suggesting this...

Scientists concerned about use of the drugs in athletics. Just in time for the Olympics, scientists say they have discovered drugs that could cause the next athletic doping scandal. In a study published today in the journal Cell1, scientists say they have found the first targeted drugs that boost endurance. They are already working with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to develop tests to expose would-be cheats who use the drugs. The ultimate test of murine endurance.Courtesy of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies The scientists examined the effects of two compounds, called GW1516 and AICAR, on endurance in mice....

Moving Americans Toward Better Health Habits by: Audra Taylor, July 30, 2008 The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) hosted “Beyond More Health Insurance Coverage, toward Better Health Outcomes” last Wednesday to discuss health-related issues ranging from health education to disease treatment and prevention. Panelist Michael McGinnis of the Institute of Medicine discussed the option of utilizing prevention strategies to improve health and save lives. McGinnis addressed many of the leading killers of Americans including heart disease and tobacco addiction. “Diet and physical inactivity” lead to the deaths of 350,000 people per year, according to his presentation. Another speaker addressed the importance...

Thinking about a life of crime? You may want to hit the gym first. A new study that looked at the physical characteristics of about 5,000 Arkansas inmates found that most were athletically fit when they entered prison. The researchers referred to them as mesomorphs. Oh, there were also endomorphs and ectomorphs — fatties and skinnies to the lay people. But the study found that they were less likely to have been imprisoned for violent crimes. The researchers, whose study appears in The Social Science Journal, used body mass index, a measure of height and weight, to assess fitness. Scientists...

CARCASSONNE, France (AFP) — President Nicolas Sarkozy promised swift and severe punishment Monday after a soldier shot and wounded 17 people, including a three-year-old boy and both his parents, at an open day at an army barracks. The sergeant opened up with an assault rifle, firing live rounds instead of blanks into a crowd of hundreds of visitors watching a hostage-taking exercise Sunday at the base near the southwestern city of Carcassonne. A man who witnessed the shooting told AFP that "suddenly, people were falling, we thought it was part of the exercise, and then we saw blood."

Japan is taking fighting obesity to the extreme. CNN's Kyung Lah reports.

David Letterman Stupid Pet Tricks I don’t know why, but when we walk on treadmills it makes us twice as cute as we normally are. Don’t believe me? Take a gander…http://boknowsonline.com/2008/02/01/walk-on-the-wild-side/

Bo (woof) in commentary: Cool device for those younger than 106. Another machine that will allow your owner to get fatter than ever http://boknowsonline.com/2008/04/30/perpetual-motion-machine/

As someone who commutes by bicycle into Manhattan, I would normally applaud any scientific rationale for more bike lanes. But some calculations in the new issue of the Lancet make me uncomfortable. The authors argue that policies promoting cycling and walking are good for the planet because they could reduce obesity — and obesity, the authors calculate, contributes to global warming. Do we really need to give fat people one more reason to feel guilty? The Lancet authors, Dr. Phil Edwards and Dr. Ian Roberts of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, crunch the numbers and conclude: Compared...

People with diagnosed diabetes are nearly twice as likely to have arthritis, and the inactivity caused by arthritis hinders the successful management of both diseases, according to a new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) study released May 8 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is one of the first studies of its kind to look at the relationship between arthritis and diabetes and the outcomes associated with physical activity. The report finds that arthritis appears to be a barrier to being physically active for people with diabetes. Despite the fact that physical activity helps control...

Randi considers the Y.M.C.A. her lifeline, especially the pool. Randi weighs more than 300 pounds and has borderline diabetes, but she controls her blood sugar and keeps her bright outlook on life by swimming every day for about 45 minutes. Randi overcame any self-consciousness about her weight for the sake of her health, and those who swim with her and share the open locker room are proud of her. If only the millions of others beset with chronic health problems recognized the inestimable value to their physical and emotional well-being of regular physical exercise. “The single thing that comes close...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y., April 30, 2008 – The Army Physical Fitness Test would be a lot more demanding if “Sgt. Ken” was in charge. It would, in his world, gauge soldiers’ ability to do a lot more than perform a mandatory number of push-ups and sit-ups in two minutes and run two miles within a required time. The test would determine soldiers’ fitness for combat, if Sgt. Ken had his way. Tennessee Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Ken Weichert leads Army and Air Guard senior enlisted leaders through a strenuous workout in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in April. He is...

Simple brain exercise can boost IQ 22:00 28 April 2008 NewScientist.com news service Alison Motluk Can mental training improve your intelligence? No video game or mental puzzle has convincingly been shown to work. But now a group of neuropsychologists claims it has found a task that can add points to a person's IQ – and the harder you train, they say, the more you gain. So-called "fluid intelligence", or Gf, is the ability to reason, solve new problems and think in the abstract. It correlates with professional and educational success and it appears to be largely genetic. Past attempts to...

THE runner’s high: Every athlete has heard of it, most seem to believe in it and many say they have experienced it. But for years scientists have reserved judgment because no rigorous test confirmed its existence. Yes, some people reported that they felt so good when they exercised that it was as if they had taken mood-altering drugs. But was that feeling real or just a delusion? And even if it was real, what was the feeling supposed to be, and what caused it? Some who said they had experienced a runner’s high said it was uncommon. They might feel...

For years, scientists have been proclaiming the benefits of exercise. Studies showing that regular exercise benefits human health have exploded in number, examining many health problems ranging from cancer and diabetes to arthritis and pre-mature death. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found direct evidence to support the claim of the Centers for Disease Control that a reduction in daily physical activity is an actual cause of many of the risk factors for chronic diseases, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The research team also found that it only takes about two weeks of reduced activity for individuals to start...

Regular exercise makes you 10 years younger By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor Last Updated: 2:27am GMT 29/01/2008 Three hours of exercise a week can slow the ageing process and give you a body 10 years younger than a couch potato of the same age, say researchers. Fitness fans, such as Elle MacPherson, 44, have 'younger' bodies Scientists at King's College London measured the length of telomeres, which cap the chromosomes in cells and protect them from damage. These shorten with age, meaning more damage occurs. The team found that people who were active had longer telomeres than those of the...

Daily Exercise Dramatically Lowers Men's Death Rates ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2008) — Increased exercise capacity reduces the risk of death in African-American and Caucasian men, researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. The government-supported Veterans Affairs study included 15,660 participants and is the largest known to assess the link between fitness and mortality. "It is important to emphasize that it takes relatively moderate levels of physical activity -- like brisk walking -- to attain the associated health benefits. Certainly, one does not need to be a marathon runner. This is the message that we need to convey...

The treadmill and General Mills can both be your best friends. It's once again time for New Year's resolutions—the time of year when we solemnly vow to eat right, exercise, save more than we spend, and be nicer to the people around us (at least for a few days). Fortunately, the editors at the Journal of the American Medical Association were nice enough to provide us with a New Year's resolution holiday gift: a new study that says it's not so bad to be a bit overweight, as long you're in good shape. This study, led by Xuemei Sui of...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A gym member is suing over an inflated exercise ball that he said burst under him, dropping him to the floor. Pete Royal said he was leaning back on the exercise ball and about to lift a pair of 75-pound dumbbells when the ball burst. Royal weighs 200 pounds. He said he needed five surgeries and couldn't use either arm for six months after the 2005 incident. The 61-year Jacksonville man's lawsuit says the YMCA failed to maintain safe conditions in the gym. It also claims the manufacturers mislabeled the rubber ball as an "anti-burst" ball. Representatives...

Moderate Exercise Yields Big Benefits ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2008) — What’s the key to looking and feeling better and enhancing your health? Exercise. Moderately strenuous exercise, about 30 minutes a day, can lead to enormous benefits in terms of your mood, health, weight and the ability to live an independent and fulfilling life. The exercise doesn’t need to be athletic or difficult. Studies have shown that simply walking at a brisk pace for 30 minutes or more on most days can lead to significant health improvements. Add simple strengthening exercises two or three times a week and the benefits are...

Lance Armstrong's strength and endurance sometimes seem too extraordinary to be believed. Armstrong, a six-time winner of the Tour de France bicycle race who next month will try for his seventh straight victory, can cover 32 miles in one hour of riding. In contrast, the average cyclist covers 16 miles; a top marathon runner can cover 21 miles on a bike. Armstrong can ride up the mountains in France generating about 500 watts of power for 20 minutes, something a typical 25-year-old could do for only 30 seconds. A professional hockey player might last three minutes - and then throw...

WASHINGTON - Too little milk, sunshine and exercise: It's an anti-bone trifecta. And for some kids, shockingly, it's leading to rickets, the soft-bone scourge of the 19th century. But cases of full-blown rickets are just the red flag: Bone specialists say possibly millions of seemingly healthy children aren't building as much strong bone as they should — a gap that may leave them more vulnerable to bone-cracking osteoporosis later in life than their grandparents are. "This potentially is a time-bomb," says Dr. Laura Tosi, bone health chief at Children's National Medical Center in Washington. Now scientists are taking the first...

When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes the security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed. At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the technical wizardry of the world's only military superpower offers an invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders. That is the theory. Or, rather, was the theory. Uninvited guest: A Chinese Song Class submarine, like the one that sufaced by the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close...

Op-Ed Contributor FEELING a little less mentally quick than you did a few years ago? Maybe you are among the many people who do “brain exercises” like sudoku to slow the cognitive decline associated with aging. We’ve got a better suggestion. Computer programs to improve brain performance are a booming business. In the United States, consumers are expected to spend $80 million this year on brain exercise products, up from $2 million in 2005. Advertising for these products often emphasizes the claim that they are designed by scientists or based on scientific research. To be charitable, we might call them...

Having a beer after exercise could do you more good than drinking water, a new study suggests. Beer can help someone who has sweat regain liquid better than water, the bubbles help to quench thirst and the carbohydrate in beer help replace lost calories, Spanish researchers say.

LONDON: When you reach for an ice cold mug of suds after playing a game of football, cricket or a long run, you're not just quenching your thirst, you're actually doing something healthy for your body -- seriously! Researchers in Europe have carried out a study and found that a glass of beer is far better at re-hydrating the body after exercise than water as the sugars, salts and bubbles in a pint help people absorb fluids more quickly. "The carbon dioxide in beer helps quench the thirst more quickly, while beer's carbohydrates replace calories lost during physical exertion," the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Higher U.S. gasoline prices may slim more than just wallets, according to a new study from Washington University in St. Louis. Entitled "A Silver Lining? The Connection between Gas Prices and Obesity," the study found that an additional $1 per gallon in real gasoline prices would reduce U.S. obesity by 15 percent after five years. The report, written by Charles Courtemanche for his doctoral dissertation in health economics, found that the 13 percent rise in obesity between 1979 and 2004 can be attributed to falling pump prices. Gasoline hit a low of less than $1.50 per...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - For the men who practice it, it's about not just fitness but a connection with God. Zurkhaneh, an ancient Persian sporting ritual whose name means "House of Strength," is a historic breeding ground for wrestlers in Iran, and now enjoying something of a comeback. It looks to a Western eye like an exotic mixture of body-building and aerobics. But for the men whirling like dervishes to frenetic drumbeats, juggling heavy wooden clubs and doing push-ups in the pit of a "House of Strength" in northern Tehran, the ritual is about much more. "It is a holy thing,"...

OCALA, Florida (AP) - Arthur Jones, the inventor of Nautilus exercise equipment, died Tuesday. He was 80. Jones had been ill for several days but was kept at home, per his wishes, said his son, William Edgar Jones. He died of natural causes, according to his son, who was by his father's side when he passed, along with a longtime friend and a nurse. "He should be remembered as a man of extreme intelligence, extreme independence and probably one of the most unrecognized and unawarded inventors that ever existed," William Edgar Jones told The Associated Press. His father was particularly...

AN EPIDEMIC of obesity could have serious consequences for America's economy and its ability to defend itself, according to a leading politician. Self-confessed "recovering foodaholic" Mike Huckabee, a Republican Party presidential candidate, told a group of governors from the American South that the increasing numbers of people who were either over-weight or obese meant more and more people were having to take time off work for health reasons. And Mr Huckabee, who lost 110lb - nearly 8st - several years ago when he was governor of Arkansas, said he was concerned by reports that nearly two-thirds of American military personnel...

National Exercise Your Rights Day is just 10 days away! Buy a Gun or Ammo on August 28! Are you ready? Have you saved up some money? Have you notified your clubs and friends? Have you made sure your local gun stores know about National Exercise Your Rights Day so they can promote it and offer special discounts? Have you made plans to join friends at the range? Have you begun drafting your message to your legislators? The Reverend Jesse Jackson is joining in the celebration of National Exercise Your Rights Day though the good Reverend is only planning to...

Three walks a week 'cuts heart risk' By Nic Fleming, Medical Correspondent Last Updated: 1:26am BST 15/08/2007 Walking for just 30 minutes three times a week can lower blood pressure and heart disease risk, scientists say. Guidelines from the Chief Medical Officer suggest adults do moderately intense exercise five times a week. However, researchers found that those who take three brisk walks a week had reduced waist and hip circumference and lower blood pressure. The authors of the study, published yesterday in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, said their findings could help those with sedentary lifestyles take up...

In the '80s, rock musician Joe Jackson published a song called "Everything Gives You Cancer." Recent assertions by England's Green Party parliamentary candidate Chris Goodall suggest that sometime soon, someone - maybe Al Gore sycophant Sheryl Crow - is going to write a hit song called "Everything Causes Global Warming."As reported by the Times Online Saturday in a piece hysterically titled "Walking to the Shops ‘Damages Planet More Than Going By Car'" (grateful h/ts to all NBers and readers who forwarded this article for consideration, emphasis added throughout): Walking does more than driving to cause global warming, a leading environmentalist...

VIDEO:Inmates performanceAn unusual physical fitness regime at a jail in the Philippines has attracted worldwide attention on the video sharing website, YouTube. A clip of hundreds of prisoners in orange uniforms dancing to Michael Jackson's song Thriller has been watched more than 1.3 million times. The routine is the brainchild of Byron Garcia, a security consultant for the Cebu provincial government. He said it had helped "drastically" improve inmate behaviour. And two former inmates have since become dancers. 'Discipline in action' The dancing is compulsory for all 1,600 inmates at the prison in the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Centre,...

WASHINGTON - Why did humans evolve to walk upright? Perhaps because it's just plain easier. Make that "energetically less costly," in science-speak, and you have the conclusion of researchers who are proposing a likely reason for our modern gait. Bipedalism — walking on two feet — is one of the defining characteristics of being human, and scientists have debated for years how it came about. In the latest attempt to find an explanation, researchers trained five chimpanzees to walk on a treadmill while wearing masks that allowed measurement of their oxygen consumption.

Women drawn to men with muscles By Julie Steenhuysen Reuters - Monday, July 9 10:36 pmCHICAGO (Reuters) - Muscular young men are likely to have more sex partners than their less-chiselled peers, researchers at the University of California Los Angeles said on Monday. Their study, published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, suggests muscles in men are akin to elaborate tail feathers in male peacocks: They attract females looking for a virile mate. "Women are predisposed to prefer muscularity in men," said study author David Frederick of UCLA. [snip]

"If you're trying to figure out why men — especially young men — spend so much time at the gym, here's your answer," said David Frederick, lead author and a UCLA doctoral candidate in psychology. "The stereotype is that men work out to compete with each other, but our research suggests that pumping iron is a way for men to enhance their attractiveness to women."

The widely prescribed diabetes drug Avandia is linked to a greater risk of heart attack and possibly death, a new scientific analysis revealed, and the U.S. government issued a safety alert Monday. The Food and Drug Administration urged diabetics taking the pill to talk to their doctors, but stopped short of forcing a sharper warning label on the drug sold by GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) of London. More than 6 million people worldwide have taken the drug since it came on the market eight years ago. Pooled results of dozens of studies revealed a 43 percent higher risk of heart attack,...

Think work feels like a treadmill now? Try a new desk designed at the Mayo Clinic. They built what they called a "vertical workstation" -- a desk fitted over a standard treadmill. They persuaded 15 obese people to work at this treadmill-desk and measured how many calories they burned. If an overweight office worker used this vertical workstation all day, every day for a year, he or she could lose up to 66 pounds (30 kg), the researchers report in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. James Levine and Jennifer Miller measured how many calories their 15 volunteers burned using...

This undated MRI scan image released by Imperial College, London, provides a detailed look at where fat is stored internally in the human body. The image is of an average-sized man who is 1.9 meters tall, weighs 79 kilograms and has a normal index of 21.7. Internal fat is shown as yellow, external fat is green and muscles are red. Some doctors now think that the internal fat surrounding vital organs like the heart, liver or pancreas - invisible to the naked eye - could be as dangerous as the more obvious external fat that bulges underneath the skin....

know many of you use summer as the time to jump-start your lifestyle change. I thought it would be important for you to hear helpful tips from people who have lost 50-100 pounds. But before you blast through these tips, let me just ask you one thing: Aren't you ready to make the change? Come on, the sun is warming up our bones, and it's time to seize the chance to be healthier. As a result of improving some of your habits, you'll look and feel great. So if you want to go for it, make the decision, and then...

 "Cardio kills," says Jim Karas in his new book, "The Cardio-Free Diet." "Cardiovascular exercise kills a weight-loss plan, your internal organs, your immune system, your time and your motivation. If your true goal is to lose weight, interval strength training is the only way to go," says Karas, an ABC News correspondent, celebrity trainer and fitness expert.    When he first tried to lose weight as a 21-year-old, Karas found that he would work up an enormous appetite after running several miles. So while his cardiovascular health improved he still wasn't losing weight. The Program He grew more interested in strength...

AP Medical Writer As little as five minutes of exercise could help smokers quit, says a new study. Research published in the international medical journal Addiction showed that moderate exercise, such as walking, significantly reduced the intensity of smokers' nicotine withdrawal symptoms. "If we found the same effects in a drug, it would immediately be sold as an aid to help people quit smoking," said Dr. Adrian Taylor, the study's lead author and professor of exercise and health psychology at the University of Exeter. Taylor and colleagues reviewed 12 papers looking at the connection between exercise and nicotine deprivation. They...

Blue mats covered the floor, shoes lined the wall and 21 bodies in stocking feet followed instructor Kim Rich through poses with names like mountain, warrior and cobra. It could have been a scene from any neighborhood gym, but these yoga students were in the third grade. The studio was a classroom at Davie Elementary School. Yoga isn't just for stressed-out grown-ups anymore. Schools in South Florida and across the country are incorporating elements of the ancient exercise into the school day to help students focus, relax and get fit. Companies offering a yoga curriculum and teacher training have cropped...