Alexandra Sifferlin

Why you shouldn't give up the gym

Despite conventional calorie-burning wisdom, some people appear to not lose weight when they exercise, says a new study published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. In fact, some actually gain weight, and it’s not all muscle mass.

The study, by Arizona State University in Phoenix researchers, looked at 81 sedentary, overweight women who exercised three times a week for 30 minutes in a lab. After 12 weeks, the researchers found that some women lost weight while others gained weight. But when they tried to identify what was causing the differences, they couldn’t come to any conclusions. “In reality, most people do not achieve or sustain weight loss, no matter what method they try,” wrote New York Times writer Gretchen Reynolds on Wednesday.

Basically, major bummer. But there are many other reasons to exercise besides trying to shed a few pounds, and they’re equally important for your health:

1. Memory Loss: Chronic inflammation and hormonal imbalances are a couple of factors that can play a part in memory loss, and exercise can help both. Exercise promotes better blood flow through the body, and the brain works better with a healthy blood supply. For example, a 2012 study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease showed that people who spent time on a stationary bike had better memory recall than those who were sedentary.

2. Stress: Exercise has long been prescribed as a way to burn off steam and relax. It’s even recommended as a way to fight depression. How? Exercise keeps the brain occupied, and keeps the stress hormone cortisol in check which can lower symptoms for anxiety and restlessness, according to The Exercise Cure, by sports medicine physician Dr. Jordan Metzl. After a rough day at work or before a big exam or interview, even just a walk around the block can ease nerves.

3. Fatigue: It may sound counterintuitive, but working out can actually make you less tired than skipping the gym. A 2007 University of Georgia study showed that sedentary people could lower their fatigue by 65% if they started engaging in regular low intensity exercise. Increasing energy through exercise is also a safer and cheaper alternative to turning to quick fixes like energy drinks.

4. Cardiovascular disease: Getting regular exercise does the heart some good. In a 2012 study, researchers found that people who partook in moderate intensity exercise like brisk walking compared to leisurely walking reduced their chances of developing risk factors for heart disease and diabetes. The effect might be related to exercise’s benefits on lowering inflammation in the body.

5. Lower back pain: Back pain is a very common ailment, and studies have shown that the right kind of exercises like strength training can lower pain. Exercise is also one of the simplest ways to protect your body from future injuries.

Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar isn’t the only thing getting people excited about space.

On Wednesday, the European Space Agency’s Philae lander made a news breaking touchdown on a comet. The event was unprecedented, and a thrilling result to a $1.3 billion for a 10-year mission.

You can see how Twitter reacted to the mission below.

Skip the sudoku, try learning French

Speaking more than one language does the brain some good.

A recent study found that bilingual speakers may actually process information more efficiently than single-language speakers. Researchers from Northwestern University and University of Houston used brain imaging to look at bilingual people’s comprehension abilities. They found that people who speak more than one language are comparatively better at filtering out unnecessary words than monolinguals, whose brains showed that they had to work harder to complete the same mental tasks.

The study, published in the journal Brain and Language, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at what’s called coactivation and inhibition in the brain. Coactivation is the ability to have both languages simultaneously active in the brain and inhibition is that ability to select a correct language while hearing more than one at a time. The researchers studied 17 Spanish-English bilinguals and 18 monolinguals, and had them undergo tests that assessed their brains’ ability to eliminate irrelevant words.

For example, in one task the participants heard the word “cloud” and were then immediately shown four pictures. One of the photos was of a cloud, and another was a similar-sounding word like clown. The goal was to watch how quickly the brain could make connections to the correct word. Bilinguals were consistently better at the task.

The results create a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg scenario. Is a bilingual person better at such tasks due to their expertise in both languages, or are people with greater comprehension capacity better equipped to master multiple languages? It could be a mixture of the two. The researchers of the new study believe that being bilingual is a constant brain exercise. So instead of tackling a puzzle, why not give a new language a shot, if not solely for the brain challenge.

A new study links low vaccination to higher cervical cancer rates

States that have the lowest vaccination rates for human papillomavirus (HPV) also have the highest rates of cervical cancer and deaths from the disease, a study released Tuesday shows.

HPV vaccination rates vary widely state to state, as do cancer incidence and mortality, so a team of researchers from the University of North Carolina analyzed the data to see how closely the two trends tracked. Their study, presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) conference, shows that HPV vaccination—which can protect against cervical, anal, vaginal, and vulvar cancers—was lower among girls living in states with higher cervical cancer mortality rates and vice versa.

Northeastern states including Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont had high vaccination rates and some of the lowest rates of cervical cancer. For example, about 6 per 100,000 women develop cervical cancer each year in Massachusetts, and 69% of teen girls have been vaccinated for HPV. In contrast, in states like Florida, Mississippi, and Arkansas, the opposite was true. In Arkansas, the cervical cancer rate is 10 per 100,000 women and vaccination rate is 41%.

“These states could really use some interventions to increase the rates of HPV vaccination now, and hopefully there will be big dividends in the coming decades in terms of cancer mortality,” says lead study author Jennifer Moss, a doctoral student the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health in Chapel Hill.

The researchers could not draw a causal link between the two trends, so they cannot say for certain that the vaccination rates are directly related to the number of women who get cervical cancer. The researchers did note, however, that the quality of preventive health care in each state was a strong determinant in whether young girls got vaccinated. “The factor that’s most strongly associated with HPV vaccination is whether a child’s health care provider recommends it,” says Moss. “We really need strong recommendations from health care providers to adolescent patients and their parents to get the vaccine.”

Moss says her team assessed the robustness of states’ preventive care by looking at factors like available health care providers compared to population size, whether kids were getting other vaccines before going to school, if children were seeing primary care physicians, if women were getting pap smears and whether vaccines were made widely available to low-income children. The link between quality health care and HPV vaccination was particularly strong in relation to how many people went through the whole HPV vaccination series—three vaccines given over a 6-month period.

To encourage compliance and follow-through, Moss says, providers need funding and infrastructure support. States can focus on creating policies and programs that support vaccination, such as funding vaccines for low-income or uninsured children and implementing policies that encourage adolescents to get all necessary vaccines before starting school.

“These are the sorts of things can change public opinions about vaccination and they are really effective in increasing the rates of vaccination in a state,” says Moss.

Spencer is third patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. and survive

New York City’s Ebola patient is now free of the disease.

Dr. Craig Spencer, 33, a physician with Doctors Without Borders, will be released from Bellevue Hospital Center on Tuesday morning, the New York Times reports.

Spencer is the third person to be diagnosed with the disease in the United States and survive. He was diagnosed shortly after having returned from treating Ebola patients in Guinea. And while his condition became quite serious, he has reportedly improved so much that he’s now able to pick up and play the banjo again.

[NYT]