1. Exercise Cuts Heart Disease Risk by 23% With Benefits Doubling for Those With Depression
Regular exercise can lower the risk of cardiovascular disease by as much as a quarter, in part by lowering stress, according to a new study.
The research revealed that exercising helped to reduce stress-related brain activity, which is associated with the development of cardiovascular diseases.
The study of more than 50,000 people found that those who met workout recommendations of 150 minutes a week had a 23 percent lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease than those not meeting these recommendations.
And those with stress-related conditions such as depression exhibited the most benefits from exercising.
Experts say the study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, demonstrates how physical activity can lead to beneficial effects in the brain.
To assess the mechanisms underlying the psychological and cardiovascular disease benefits of physical activity, the researchers analyzed the medical records and other information of 50,359 participants from the Mass General Brigham Biobank who completed a physical activity survey.
2. PE Coach Pairs Unmotivated Students to Run with Shelter Dogs–Adoptions Soar
A California gym coach who was looking for ways to drum up motivation for the students on his cross-country running team as they went away for the summer break came up with a brilliant idea: pair them with shelter dogs.
It was eight years ago when GNN first reported on it, and ever since it has become a mainstay of the training program at St. Joseph High School in Santa Maria, California.
It became so much more, however, after a simple video of the kids running with the dogs went viral, causing athletic directors around the country to phone St. Joseph and ask how they organized the program.
Steinbrenner High School in Lutz, Florida, was the second school that picked up on the shelter dog runs, and others followed suit like Rock Island High School in Rock Island, Illinois; all because of the viral video that occasionally resurfaces on social media to the delight of thousands.
“It was 60 seconds of genuine, organic kindness,” St. Joseph cross country coach Luis Escobar, who filmed the video, told the Washington Post. “The world needs kindness.”
“The dogs want to go out and run; the kids love dogs, and they love running. It was a perfect marriage,” said Escobar.
3. Bioengineered Corneas Stand to Cure Blindness For Millions of People Around the World
In an interview with the Brisbane Times, an Australian ophthalmologist and biotech entrepreneur lays out his vision for a world in which curing blindness in millions of people worldwide is easy and can be done with a bit of cell replication and a 3D printer.
Professor Gerard Sutton is co-founder of Bienco, which he claims now possesses a product—both physical and intellectual—that will soon be able to mass-produce natural corneas for transplantation into the blind.
Cornea transplantation is the most common way of restoring lost sight, but it’s a very technical procedure that relies on donors. The thin see-through “windscreen” of the eyeball, damage or disease to the cornea is a major cause of non-hereditary blindness worldwide.
In the interview, Sutton’s voice shrinks as he recalls a trip he took to Myanmar in 2004 when he was hoping to help the situation of blindness from the previous civil war by training surgeons to perform cornea transplants. On ice, he said, he had brought along four donated corneas from the NSW Eye Bank.
On his arrival at the clinic set to host him, 1,000 people were waiting, thanks to a small article in a local paper. Out of a thousand blind men and women, he had to select four who would be the most suitable for transplant: he picked young people.
This was a transformational experience, and when paired with a follow-up trip to Cambodia where a similar situation occurred, Professor Sutton realized he needed to do something more: something “out of left field” that would allow him to send as many corneas to these parts of the world as was needed.
