Health & Fitness

Freeze away the fat?

Would you try this chill new celebrity weight-loss trend?

by : Carli Whitwell- Jul 2nd, 2015

freeze-away-the-fat-and-other-health-headlines

THE BIG CHILL
We’re all for a celebrity health trend, but cryotherapy seems straight out of a science fiction movie! Then again, the chilling procedure–in which you stand for up three minutes in a cold sauna (which blasts liquid nitrogen to lower skin temperature)–also boasts out-of-this-world results. It reportedly soothes joint and muscle pain, reduces the appearance of cellulite and can burn up to 800 calories a session. Our pick: the cryotherapy cold sauna at Sparkling Hill Resort in Vernon, B.C.

BODY BREAK
It’s common knowledge that sitting all day is bad for your health. (How many times did you hear that as a teenager?) But researchers have discovered walking as little as two minutes every hour may help. According to data from collected from 3,600 people in the U.S., who wore health monitors to study their every movement, those who got out of their seats every 60 minutes had one-third a lower risk of dying prematurely than those glued to their chairs. How the two are related is not certain, but the theory is supported by a group of health and wellness experts in the U.K. After reviewing various studies, they determined we should spend a total of two hours standing up every day. The guidelines are published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

MUST-READ: Nike master trainers respond to your excuses not to work out

WEDDED BLISS? Call them love pounds! Joint research from the University of Basel and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the market research institute GfK have determined that married couples tend to weight more and exercise less than single people. Scientists analyzed data from 10,226 people across Europe, Russia and the U.K. and found they weighed about 4.4 pounds more. The results are published in Social Science & Medicine.

OTHER HEALTH HEADLINES: • New research may forever change how we shop for sunscreen. Scientists at Newcastle University in England have discovered how sun damage affects our DNA, specifically the upper and lower layers of the skin. Keep your eyes peeled for new products that protect both.
• A spoonful of sugar may help the medicine go down, but if you didn’t eat it you might not be sick in the first place: the carb causes 184,000 adult deaths every year, according to research published in the medical journal Circulation.
• Another gold star for cranberries! A study by the United States Department of Agriculture found that drinking low-calorie cranberry cocktail juice may help lower the risk of heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
• But if you’re acne-prone, avoid B12. There’s new research that suggests ingesting high levels of the vitamin can contribute to inflammation, which is linked to acne.