In 2014 I wrote about how being able to stand on one leg for a small amount of time was an indicator of your long-term health. Well, it seems it is now an indicator of dementia and stroke.
Whatever is said, it is a good indicator of your balance, and can help you feel more confident with your body as you get older. It is vital you keep your balance in check. Even the Wii Fit programme tests you on balance. If it is bad, you get a fitness age of 70+. That can be soul-destroying if you are 35!
The test for standing on one leg is not as simple as you may think. Carrying out the exercise with your eyes open is one challenge, but doing it with your eyes shut is another challenge altogether. Both are vital.
Last year, such a test was suggested as a way to determine whether a man aged around 53 would be alive in 13 years’ time. Those who could stand on one leg, with their eyes closed, for up to 30 seconds were more likely to be alive at the age of 66, researchers believed (BMJ, 2014).
Now they think a similar test might help gauge the likelihood of dementia or stroke in the years ahead. This test isn’t quite so challenging. If you can stand on one leg for 20 seconds or more, with your eyes open, there is a good chance you will be fine.
The theory is that people who struggle to stay balanced are more likely to have narrowing or obstruction of the small blood vessels in the brain, increasing the chances of cognitive decline or stroke.
More than 1,300 men and women (average age 67) carried out the 20-second test: 34 per cent of the ones who couldn’t manage this had unknowingly suffered two, or more, ‘silent stroke’ lesions and 30 per cent had two, or more, micro bleeds in the brain (Stroke, 2015).
Although the participants were not experiencing any signs of cognitive decline, the researchers from the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine say the brain lesions indicate they are more likely to suffer dementia, cognitive decline or a stroke in the years ahead – although it is far from certain they will.
Basically, practising standing on one leg each day and increasing the time gradually will help your body strength, balance and overall health.
Interestingly, a recent study has found that doing mindfulness meditation in a small group is as effective as the standard individual therapy for treating depression and anxiety.
If you can stand on one leg for 20 seconds or more, with your eyes open, there is a good chance you will be fine
Meditating in groups of 10 or so works as well as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), say researchers from Lund University in Sweden. A group of 215 patients suffering depression, anxiety or symptoms of severe stress were given eight weeks of group mindfulness meditation or individual CBT. At the end of this period, similar improvements were seen in both groups.
This finding could open up new ways of treating depression, especially at centres and clinics, which often don’t have the resources to offer individual therapy (Br. J. Psychiatry, 2014). When I attended a group meditation, I found that I slept like a log the following night. Having too few hours of sleep is a recipe for worrying and negative thoughts, according to a new study.
People who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to be pessimistic and to have negative thought patterns. They worry excessively about the future, delve too much into the past and experience annoying, intrusive thoughts, all of which are typical symptoms of anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder.
Conversely, those who go to bed at a reasonable time and sleep well are far less likely to have negative thought patterns. Researchers from Binghamton University in New York surveyed around 100 students regarding their thought patterns and sleeping habits.
They discovered a marked association between the two. Those who slept for shorter periods and went to bed later were more likely to have repetitive, negative thoughts (Cogn. Ther. Res., 2014).
Finally, have you ever thought where the fat goes when you lose weight? It seems that most doctors, dieticians and personal trainers (who were all polled by researchers) believe it is converted into energy or heat. Apparently, the reality is that we breathe it out as carbon dioxide.
For every 10 kg of weight lost, 9.4 kg are exhaled, while the remainder becomes water, which we excrete. An article by a physicist and a professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia published the findings of their poll. Ruben Meerman, the physicist, said: “The misconceptions we have encountered reveal surprising unfamiliarity about basic aspects of how the human body works.” Less than half of the 150 doctors, dieticians and personal trainers got the answer right when polled.
kathryn@maltanet.net