Recess Is In: Daily Play Cuts Childhood Obesity

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From Your Health Journal…..”It is so important that children get at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day. Going for a walk, bike ride, playing basketball, swimming, or chores around the house. They do not necessarily need to go to the gym and pump iron or work the treadmill at high intensities, just 60 minutes of play. This can help prepare them for a lifetime of good health, where they are starting proper habits at a young age. It cuts back on heart disease as well as other problems associated with unhealthy lifestyle such as diabetes.”

From the article…..

Vigorous aerobic exercise performed for 20 or 40 minutes, 5 days per week, improved fitness and was associated with dose-dependent benefits on insulin resistance and general and visceral adiposity in a randomized controlled trial involving 222 children who were overweight or obese and sedentary.

The intensity of the exercise appeared to be the most important factor for improving aerobic fitness, but volume of exercise was important for reducing adiposity and diabetes risk, Catherine L. Davis, Ph.D., reported at the annual meeting of the Obesity Society.

Fitness, as measured using the adjusted mean difference in peak VO2, was similar for 73 children randomized to 40 minutes of daily exercise (the high-dose exercise group) and 71 children randomized to 20 minutes of daily exercise (the low-dose group). Fitness was significantly greater for exercise groups compared with 78 controls. The adjusted mean difference in peak VO2 was 2.4 mL/kg per minute from baseline to 13-weeks’ follow-up for both groups vs. the control group, said Dr. Davis of the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta.

Changes in body fat were measured using dual x-ray absorptiometry, and changes in visceral fat were measured using magnetic resonance imaging. The adjusted mean differences were -1.4% for the high-dose exercise group and -0.8% for the low-dose exercise group compared with controls. For visceral fat, the differences were -3.9% and -2.8%, respectively.

Reductions in the insulin area under the curve were measured using an oral glucose tolerance test. The adjusted mean difference was -3.56 x 103 microU/mL for the high-dose exercise group and -2.96 x 103 microU/mL for the low-dose exercise group compared with controls. There were no differences in outcomes based on sex or race.

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