Nick Palmby: The Blog

Stanford Wants Its Students To Be Healthy As Well As Rich

Stanford University, the Valley’s startup creating and employee providing uberhub have unveiled BeWell@Stanford, an online community that aims to promote healthy living among the school’s 30,000 students, faculty, and staff.

BeWell@Stanford is powered by and offers a central place where members can get personalized advice, discover wellness resources and activities available on and near campus, meet like-minded people, and form groups for support, advice and encouragement.

Eric Stein, senior associate athletic director at Stanford University said that the site was about creating “a healthier Stanford.”

It's a neat site -- Check it out.

Brain Food

In an article from Psychology Today, it states:

"We know that the foods we eat affect the body. But they may have even more of an influence on how the brain works—it's general tone and level of energy and how it handles its tasks. Mood, motivation and mental performance are powerfully influenced by diet."

We most commonly hear about eating the right foods when it comes to athletics.  But how much attention do we pay to food when it comes to how it affects our intelligence?  The article continues to state:

"The health of your brain depends not only on how much (or little) fat you eat but on what kind it is. Intellectual performance requires the specific type of fat found most commonly in fish, known as omega-3 fatty acids. Even diets that adhere to commonly recommended levels of fats, but the wrong kind, can undermine intelligence. What makes this finding awkward is that certain oils widely touted as healthy for the heart are especially troublesome for the mind."

So next time your in the grocery store or driving through the "drive-thru", think about what kinds of food power your brain.  Who knows they may fuel you to become the next Albert Einstein.

A Little Exercise Goes A Long Way

I'm trying to get my body back in shape again.  A new study holds out the promise of longevity and even increased heath. 

"Aerobic fitness alone is a key predictor of longevity," says Glenn Gaesser, an exercise physiologist at the University of Virginia. It doesn't matter whether the individual loses weight or if they have other risk factors associated with disease, Gaesser says.
Increasing fitness just a little bit, he says, "reduces the chances of dropping dead of a heart attack."

Church's study also found that the more exercise women did, the better off they were in terms of fitness. Women who biked or walked on treadmills for 3 hours per week ended up about twice as fit as those who exercised for just 71 minutes a week.

This study shows people don't have to exercise a lot to start seeing some benefits, says I-Min Lee, a professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston."

Now this does not mean that losing weight is of the menu. In fact if you want to go fast the best way to increase your speed is to lose weight.