Aerobic training is more effective than resistance training for burning fat, according to Duke researchers.

Aerobic exercise – including walking, running, and swimming – has been proven to be an effective way to lose weight. However, recent guidelines have suggested that resistance training, which includes weight lifting to build and maintain muscle mass, may also help with weight loss by increasing a person’s resting metabolic rate.

Research has demonstrated health benefits for resistance training, such as improving glucose control, but studies on the effects of resistance training on fat mass have been inconclusive.

“Given that approximately two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight due to excess body fat, we want to offer clear, evidence-based exercise recommendations that will truly help people lose weight and body fat,” said Leslie H. Willis, MS, an exercise physiologist at Duke Medicine and the study’s lead author.

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Our relationship with food, which would seem to be a fairly straightforward instinct, may not be that simple as our appetite is influenced by an array of factors including eating environment and the perception of the food in front of us, researchers say.

Previous studies have shown that eating in front of the TV can increase both hunger and the amount of food consumed, and people’s food intake appears to be susceptible to their surroundings like the eating behaviour-and body size-of their dining companions.

Even simple visual cues, like plate size and lighting, have been shown to affect portion size and consumption.

The new study adds a new wrinkle by suggesting that our short-term memory also may play a role in appetite.

Several hours after a meal, the study found, people’s hunger levels were predicted not by how much they had, but rather by how much food they’d seen in front of them-in other words, how much they remembered eating.

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The commonly used antidepressant drug paroxetine could also help treat the vascular complications of diabetes, US researchers say.

The scientists made their discovery after screening 6,766 clinically used drugs and pharmacologically active substances.

“We developed this assay and used it to test literally every single existing drug and a good selection of other biologically active compounds,” said University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston professor Csaba Szabo, senior author of a paper.

“We were quite surprised when paroxetine came out as an active compound —a result, we later determined, of what seems to be a completely new effect unrelated to its antidepressant actions and not shared by any other known antidepressant drug.”

The initial screening process tested the ability of different compounds to protect the cells that make up the inner linings of blood vessels from the destructive effects of the high sugar levels produced by diabetes, known as hyperglycemia.

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Dr. Sreedhar Archik has an M.Sc. in Orthopaedics from Oxford University. He practises at Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai and specialises in joint replacement surgeries using computer navigation system. Get your doubts cleared and see them featured on our FAQ page every fortnight.

This week’s answer:

Dear Doctor, My wife aged 40 is suffering from actue back pain and we consulted a ortho and he told that the back bone is depreceating
He gave medicine for 2 weeks and while taking medicine, there is no pain.. However after stoping the medicine, the pain again started.
Kindly give us some suggestion . Will physiotherapy improve the condition? Any permanent medicine available?
Kindly suggest your answers.
You have given inadequate information for me to comment. Please provide exact diagnosis and x-ray pictures for me to help you.

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