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What is the Best Type of Exercise?

Reader submission: "What is the best type of exercise to get a low heart rate"  The idea being that cardio-respiratory fitness, basically how well your heart and lungs are working, goes along with a lower resting heart rate as we can see marathon runners and sprinters with resting heart rates in the 40's or 50's.  It's also more recently been shown to have some beneficial long term effects on brain volume as people get older, which sounds like a good thing, unless you have a small head.  Fun fact:  For UFC fight clearance, they make us check people's heart rates before and after doing 100 jumps - it doesn't change much from what I've seen. There's a lot of different opinions out there, so instead of doing a lot of reading, I walked into the middle of our cardiology office and just asked the question loudly and the answers I got boiled down to either long-distance running or high-intensity interval training.  I'm assuming that you can also l...
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Trick or Treat or Toy

I was looking for something fun and Halloween based and I found this small study . If you've ever wondered how to give out healthier treats effectively on Halloween without getting your house destroyed, this study looked at close to 300 Trick-or-treaters between ages 3 and 14 to see what would happen if they were offered toy treats instead of candy.  It found that children were just as likely to choose toys as candy and there were no gender differences. The implication of this study is that children will not be disappointed by toy treats on Halloween!
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Osteoarthritis Overview

Why did the pirate have a peg leg?  ARRRRRRRthritis! What is osteoarthritis (OA)? Think of your joints as swinging like doors - the joint capsule is like the hinge to make sure that the door swings easily and quietly.  Over time, the hinge wears down due to a combination of the environment, how often it's used, and any extra pressure or injury to the point where the swinging is stiffer, louder, and the door may not shut completely.  The inflammation that occurs in the joint that leads to pain, popping sounds and sensations, and ultimately trouble using the joint, is osteoarthritis (there are some less common forms of arthritis, like rheumatoid arthritis, which is a very different thing, so we'll just talk about osteoarthritis for now). Who gets osteoarthritis? Short answer is everybody.  Under 35, you have less than 0.1% chance of having it.  Over 55, 80% of people have it to some degree.  It's a merit badge you get for living longer and a reminde...
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