Prescription4Fitness & Health

We’ve heard over and over again that a well balanced diet and good exercise program are the building blocks of good health. So why don’t more people strive to achieve both?

Life Time Fitness, a national Healthy Way of Life company, is seeking to help people take charge of their health and wellness in the face of a national obesity epidemic. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 50-percent of U.S. adults - or approximately 100 million people - are overweight, and more than 33% are trying to lose weight.

Through strength training, muscles get larger, or hypertrophy. This increased muscle mass has many advantages, for men and women. First it yields a stronger, tighter athletic body that is resistant to injury, and is healthy. Second, increased muscle mass usually increases muscular strength. Third, the more muscle you have on your body the higher you metabolic rate. We all know, the higher the metabolism, the leaner the body mass.

The Arthritis Noncure?

Millions of Americans with osteoarthritis take glucosamine, often with chondroitin sulfate, making these two of the top-selling dietary supplements. These substances are involved in the production and maintenance of the cartilage that cushions joints, and many experts hope that supplemental doses may slow or prevent deterioration of cartilage and thus reduce pain and stiffness.

But do they really work? Research has yielded conflicting findings over the years, so scientists have been waiting eagerly for the conclusion of a large, well-designed government-sponsored study that has been in the works for several years.