In this exploratory study, a sample of 20 four-year-olds took part in structured interviews in order to assess their biological knowledge of how the human body processes a food that they perceived to be fattening. There were two main outcomes to the study. First, the sample demonstrated knowledge of the digestive processes of ingestion,…

As health and fitness continue to decline and metabolic risk factors reciprocate with increasing incidence in younger and larger cohorts, the importance of conceptually based university health classes cannot be underestimated. Health classes are plentiful in university course offerings but fewer and fewer institutions require a health-related…

Early care and education (ECE) teachers are constantly moving throughout their day with varying physical demands akin to those of athletes. Teachers are continuously bending, stooping, and squatting to lift and carry children as well as sitting on the floor or in child-sized furniture--all activities that require substantial fitness. This said,…

Sleep is essential to a healthy human being. It is among the basic necessities of life, located at the bottom of Maslow's Hierarchy of Need. It is a dynamic activity, necessary to maintain mood, memory and cognitive performance. Sleep disorders are strongly associated with the development of acute and chronic medical conditions. This article…

Background: Youth with intellectual disabilities are more likely to be an unhealthy weight and less physically active than youth without intellectual disability. Objective: The effects of Fit2Play, a park-based afterschool programme on cardiovascular/fitness health outcomes among youth with intellectual disability, were prospectively assessed.…

Results from recent research have demonstrated positive effects of somatic approaches, such as the Feldenkrais Method, somaesthetics, and body mapping in the field of music. However, the direct impact of such approaches on instrumental sound has not been studied so far. The present pilot study was thus designed to investigate the influence of…

Fears of an 'obesity epidemic' in New Zealand and elsewhere have led to a growing focus on children's weight, diet and activities. The aim of this research project was to highlight children's voices, stepping back from obesity interventions to explore how health and obesity discourses are taken up by young primary school children. Nine 6 and…

The purpose of this article is to bring attention to the 10 most pressing questions relevant to musculoskeletal physical fitness testing in children and adolescents. The goal is to stimulate research to answer these questions. The most pressing needs include establishing definitive links between valid, reliable, and feasible field test measures of…

The effect of strength training on body image is understudied. The Strong Women Program, a 10-week, twice weekly strength-training program, was provided by Extension agents to 341 older rural women (62 ± 12 years); changes in body image and other psychosocial variables were evaluated. Paired-sample t-test analyses were conducted to assess mean…

Objective: Self-rated health (SRH) has become a key organizing construct for assessing multiple dimensions of populations' physical and psychosocial health functioning. However, it is unclear how adolescents' subjective self assessment of health reflects health risk exposures, co-occurring health risks (problem behaviours) and other pre-existing…

Introduction: Understanding and assessing behavioral risk factors, particularly among college populations, is challenging for health educators. Similarly, issues affecting mental health remain unclear in terms of how body image evolves year to year in college students. A better understanding of how students perceive their bodies and to what extent…

To curb the epidemic of obesity in the United States, revised Medicare policy allows support for efficacious obesity treatments. This review summarizes the evidence from rigorous randomized trials (9 lifestyle trials, 5 drug trials, and 2 surgical trials) on the efficacy and risk-benefit profile of lifestyle, drug, and surgical interventions aimed…

It has been suggested that the weight reduction practices of wrestlers results in kidney and liver problems. To observe the effect of wrestlers' weight reduction, diagnostic tests for kidney and liver problems were done on the blood and urine samples of 22 college wrestlers over the course of a wrestling season. Results obtained after reduction to…

This document analyzes the problems encountered by the obese individual and the effects of regular exercise on weight loss and fat reduction. Part one compares the psychological traits of obese children with age groups of normal weight and discusses the organic disorders and social attitudes which plague the overweight individual. Part two states…

Identification and treatment of obesity in children is believed to be an important factor in its control during the adult years. Laboratory and field methods for body composition measurement are described along with estimates of body fat content from anthropometric dimensions. (CJ)