A heavy weight has been lifted from University of Georgia researchers.
Jennifer Gay, assistant professor of health promotion and behavior at the UGA College of Public Health, and her team of researchers have conducted a study suggesting that exercise reduces the risk of disease among a specific demographic — a population of Mexican-American adults located in the southern Texas city Brownsville.
Gay and her team focused on how exercise affects the amount of allostatic load on a person. Allostatic load refers to a measure of wear on the body that results from stress.
Several factors, including high blood pressure risk and metabolic risk, contribute to the allostatic load and can show indication of increased risk for a number of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
“For diabetes most people think about blood sugar as a risk, for cardiovascular disease most people think about cholesterol or blood pressure,” said Gay, a former assistant professor at the Brownsville Regional Campus at the University of Texas School of Public Health. “Allostatic load looks at all of these risks to give you an overall risk score.”
The researchers randomly selected 330 people to participate in the study from the Cameron County Hispanic cohort, a randomly selected, community-recruited cohort of more than 2,000 Mexican-Americans aged 18 and older living in Brownsville.
The study found that participants who were physically active for 150 minutes or more each week, an amount suggested by the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, had lower allostatic load than the participants who were not active.
The team also found that inflammation was the marker that could be most affected by physical activity.
“The findings in general were not surprising, but it was very interesting to see that inflammation was more important than blood pressure risk or blood sugar for this particular sample,” Gay said.
She said increasing physical activity among that population could reduce levels of inflammation and thus reduce rates of chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
According to a statement from the University of Texas at Brownsville, the population of Brownsville is approximately 80 percent overweight, and 50 percent are obese.
Gay said this obesity rate could be due to a number of factors such as limited access to fruits, vegetables and other produce. Fast food chains outnumber the grocery stores in the area, making it more inconvenient for Brownsville residents to make healthy nutritional choices.
Weather could also play a factor in limiting the amount of physical activity among the population, Gay said. The hot and humid temperatures make it uncomfortable to be outside for many physical activities.
Though the biggest reason for the enormous obesity rate is due to the fact that a large portion of Brownsville’s population is below the poverty line.
“There are low levels of income and low levels of education in that region of the country,” Gay said. “They really don’t have the freedom to purchase the foods they might want to purchase.”
The Hispanic paradox is another reason Gay and her team were interested in studying a community like Brownsville. Even though the population has lower income rates and higher rates of obesity, they don’t get heart disease as much as non-Hispanic whites with similar risk factors.
Lack of exercise is a problem outside of Brownsville — according to the Center for Disease Control, fewer than two in 10 Americans get the recommended 150 minutes of exercise each week.
More than a quarter of American adults do not exercise at all, according to the same report.
People ages 65 and older were least likely to engage in exercise, while people ages 18 to 24 were most likely to exercise. The younger generation accounts for 31 percent of the exercisers in the study.
Some students make a point to consistently exercise.
Brittany Lewis, a freshman student from Kennesaw, tries to keep exercise a regular part of her schedule at UGA by exercising around three or four times a week.
“I try to go everyday,” said the health promotion and behavior major. “But most times I don’t because I’m too busy or something.”
Another freshman at UGA, Kiara Rouda, exercises four times a week without even leaving her room.
“I don’t go to Ramsey or anything like that,” said the biology major from Covington. “It’s easier to just do it in my room.”
Jennifer Gay, assistant professor of health promotion and behavior at the UGA College of Public Health, and her team of researchers have conducted a study suggesting that exercise reduces the risk of disease among a specific demographic — a population of Mexican-American adults located in the southern Texas city Brownsville.
Gay and her team focused on how exercise affects the amount of allostatic load on a person. Allostatic load refers to a measure of wear on the body that results from stress.
Several factors, including high blood pressure risk and metabolic risk, contribute to the allostatic load and can show indication of increased risk for a number of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
“For diabetes most people think about blood sugar as a risk, for cardiovascular disease most people think about cholesterol or blood pressure,” said Gay, a former assistant professor at the Brownsville Regional Campus at the University of Texas School of Public Health. “Allostatic load looks at all of these risks to give you an overall risk score.”
The researchers randomly selected 330 people to participate in the study from the Cameron County Hispanic cohort, a randomly selected, community-recruited cohort of more than 2,000 Mexican-Americans aged 18 and older living in Brownsville.
The study found that participants who were physically active for 150 minutes or more each week, an amount suggested by the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, had lower allostatic load than the participants who were not active.
The team also found that inflammation was the marker that could be most affected by physical activity.
“The findings in general were not surprising, but it was very interesting to see that inflammation was more important than blood pressure risk or blood sugar for this particular sample,” Gay said.
She said increasing physical activity among that population could reduce levels of inflammation and thus reduce rates of chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
According to a statement from the University of Texas at Brownsville, the population of Brownsville is approximately 80 percent overweight, and 50 percent are obese.
Gay said this obesity rate could be due to a number of factors such as limited access to fruits, vegetables and other produce. Fast food chains outnumber the grocery stores in the area, making it more inconvenient for Brownsville residents to make healthy nutritional choices.
Weather could also play a factor in limiting the amount of physical activity among the population, Gay said. The hot and humid temperatures make it uncomfortable to be outside for many physical activities.
Though the biggest reason for the enormous obesity rate is due to the fact that a large portion of Brownsville’s population is below the poverty line.
“There are low levels of income and low levels of education in that region of the country,” Gay said. “They really don’t have the freedom to purchase the foods they might want to purchase.”
The Hispanic paradox is another reason Gay and her team were interested in studying a community like Brownsville. Even though the population has lower income rates and higher rates of obesity, they don’t get heart disease as much as non-Hispanic whites with similar risk factors.
Lack of exercise is a problem outside of Brownsville — according to the Center for Disease Control, fewer than two in 10 Americans get the recommended 150 minutes of exercise each week.
More than a quarter of American adults do not exercise at all, according to the same report.
People ages 65 and older were least likely to engage in exercise, while people ages 18 to 24 were most likely to exercise. The younger generation accounts for 31 percent of the exercisers in the study.
Some students make a point to consistently exercise.
Brittany Lewis, a freshman student from Kennesaw, tries to keep exercise a regular part of her schedule at UGA by exercising around three or four times a week.
“I try to go everyday,” said the health promotion and behavior major. “But most times I don’t because I’m too busy or something.”
Another freshman at UGA, Kiara Rouda, exercises four times a week without even leaving her room.
“I don’t go to Ramsey or anything like that,” said the biology major from Covington. “It’s easier to just do it in my room.”
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