IS YOGA GOOD FOR YOUR HEART?

Apparently it is no better than other forms of exercise as far as hardening of the arteries is concerned. But sedentary people have more hardening. The study below is extremely limited, however. It relies on self-report, the sample size was small and included obvious but unknown selection biases and the groups were also nutritionally different. I don't think I would have mentioned it except that it was reported in "The Times" of London. It actually proves nothing. Abstract below:

The influence of physical activity and yoga on central arterial stiffness

By Courtney M Duren

Purpose: Central arterial stiffness is an accepted risk factor for cardiovascular disease. While aerobic activity is associated with reduced stiffness the influence of practicing yoga is unknown. The aims of this study were to: 1) evaluate arterial stiffness in middle-aged adults who regularly practiced yoga, performed regular exercise, or were inactive, 2) evaluate the reproducibility of arterial stiffness measured in the left and right carotid artery and by pulse wave velocity (PWV).

Methods: Twenty six healthy subjects (male and female, 40-65 yrs old) were tested on two separate days. Carotid artery distensibility (DC) was measured with ultrasound. Physical activity was determined by questionnaire.

Results: Yoga and aerobic subjects had similar physical activity levels. Yoga and aerobic groups were not different in either DC (p = 0.26) or PWV (p = 0.21). The sedentary group had lower DC and higher PWV compared to the aerobic and yoga groups (both, p < 0.001). Stiffness measures were reliable day to day (coefficients of variation ~2.5%) and similar between left and right arteries (CV = 2.2%).

Conclusion: Physical activity was a strong predictor of both measures of arterial stiffness, although other factors such as nutritional status need to be accounted for. An independent effect of practicing yoga could not be detected. Stiffness measures were reproducible and left and right sides were consistent with each other.

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TERROR? OBESITY? WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE AUCTION

Should you be more scared of hoodies or terrorists? Ought global warming make us shiver more than the Cold War? Welcome to the apocalypse auction, where experts and authorities bid up their pet threats to public safety. In competing to win headlines, they all seem to lose a sense of perspective.

Sir Ian Blair, Metropolitan Police chief, now claims that "youth violence" is the greatest "threat to the whole of London, perhaps with the exception of terrorism". Only "perhaps"? After all, Sir Ian has previously said that Islamic terrorism poses a threat to London "far graver" than the Second World War. Prime Minister Gordon Brown prefers to compare terrorism today to the Cold War. Are we to conclude that the hoodies now present "perhaps" as big a threat to our society as the Luftwaffe or the Red Army?

But hold your four horsemen of the apocalypse a minute. An army of experts led by Sir David King, until recently the chief government scientist, has declared global warming an even bigger threat than terrorism. Should we focus all our fears on that instead? Then again, that might underestimate the threat of the enemy within our waistbands, since the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, has pronounced obesity "a potential crisis on the scale of climate change".

To recap the bids. Youth violence is perhaps as big a threat as terrorism, which is a far graver threat than the Nazis, but not as hot as global warming, which is the same size threat as obesity. We await news of more new little Hitlers and Stalins lurking out there.

What purpose is served by this apocalypse auction? Who does it help to compare the tragic killing of 11 London teenagers this year with a terrorist threat? Come to that, how can it further our understanding of Islamic terrorism - which killed 52 people in London in 2005 - to claim that it is more serious than the wartime Blitz that left 43,000 Londoners dead?

And how complex issues such as climate change and obesity might be clarified by overheated, fat-headed comparisons is anybody's guess.

As they compete to make a media impact, experts raise the scaremongering stakes ever higher. New research even claims that mobile phones are "more dangerous than smoking". (Maybe they'll ban mobiles in public...) The likely results of this my-risk's-bigger- than-yours talk will be to raise public anxieties further - and lower public trust in anything that officials say.

These comparisons are not only odious, but dangerous. In fact, it is surely no exaggeration to suggest that the apocalypse auction might pose a bigger threat to rational discussion than, er, anything else that ever happened before.

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Food Fascism hits New Zealand kids



Children in a New Zealand school have been banned from bringing cakes to share on their birthdays, due to new government healthy eating guidelines. Pupils at Oteha Valley primary school north of Auckland have been told they are allowed to celebrate their birthdays, but the cake must stay at home, the New Zealand Herald newspaper reported. The Ministry of Education has been on a fat-busting crusade, introducing sweeping guidelines against unhealthy food in New Zealand schools.

Oteha Valley has a large number of pupils born in September and October, and there can be up to four cakes a week in some classes, principal Megan Bowden told the paper. It had come to the point where parents thought they were required to provide a cake for their child's birthday. The school has advised parents in a newsletter to stop sending cakes to school from the next term.

A Ministry of Education spokesman told the newspaper the government guidelines only applied to food sold on the premises, and schools did not need to monitor food brought in from outside.

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