Health & Fitness

As the childhood obesity epidemic continues in the United States, more kids are developing an array of heart risk factors linked to obesity known as the “metabolic syndrome.”

Now, a study suggests that these obesity-linked changes may be affecting kids’ minds as well as their bodies.

The study of 110 American teenagers found those with metabolic syndrome — a combination of obesity, pre-diabetes, high blood pressure, high triglycerides and low levels of good HDL cholesterol — scored lower on math and spelling tests and shorter attention spans than their metabolically healthier classmates. They also had smaller hippocampi — brain areas involved in learning and memory — according to brain imaging.

Who wants to count calories or diet? We hear you. But you can keep your weight steady or even drop a few pounds without any special effort. It’s true! It’s the little, everyday moves that make the weight melt off naturally.

Push Yourself A Little More

If you ride the bus, walk part of the route. If you walk, walk faster. If you run, run farther. These small tweaks will raise your body’s metabolic rate, and you’ll see a few pounds drop off in a few months without changing anything else.

No exercise is more popular than walking, and more people walk these days than they did five years ago, according to a new CDC report. But is it enough to prevent disease and get in better shape?

According to experts, the majority of adults still need to increase the amount of exercise they get each week in order to meet federal health guidelines. Nearly a third of American adults still get no exercise at all.

Call it “The Midas Touch.” Dr. Randal Pinkett, season four winner of NBC’s The Apprentice and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, BCT Partners, a national consulting firm delivering a full-range of program management, research and evaluation, technical assistance, and information technology services to the U.S. Government, has been awarded two contracts with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) and National Institutes of Health (NIH).

BCT Partners will provide a broad range of research, evaluation, technical assistance, and training services to SAMHSA as well as mission critical IT requirements such as Cloud Computing, Mobile Applications, Information Security and Health IT across the entire federal government. In doing so, BCT will capitalize on the anticipated opportunities resulting from the Supreme Court’s ruling to uphold President Obama’s health care law.