The Benefits of Physical Activity

Risha Hertz, APNC, discusses the numerous health benefits of keeping an active lifestyle. Risha practices at Penn Family Medicine Gibbsboro.

Risha Hertz, APNC

Just because there’s been a dip in the temperature, doesn’t mean it’s time to hibernate until next spring. It’s important for you and your family to stay active throughout the year.

For many of us, as kids, our parents probably sounded like a broken record: Go outside and play! Sitting inside and watching television is not good for your health.

As it turns out, they were right. Being sedentary or not really engaging in any physical exertion, can take a toll:

“Regular physical activity greatly helps many of the body’s systems function better,” said Risha Hertz, APNC. “For those that aren’t very active, they face increased chances of becoming overweight and developing a number of chronic diseases.”

“For my patients that are just becoming more active, it is a joy to see the positive effects just days into their individualized activity program.”

Below are just a few of the benefits of regular exercise and living a healthy lifestyle.

Controls weight and improves appearance. Perhaps most important, exercise can help prevent excess weight gain or help you to maintain weight loss. Adding muscle also helps your body look lean and toned. Exercise also makes you sweat, which purges the body of toxins that can clog pores and plague your skin with pimples and blemishes.

Strengthens mental acuity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, research has shown that doing aerobics or a mix of aerobics and muscle-strengthening activities three to five times a week gives you numerous mental health benefits. Regular physical activity can help improve your thinking, learning, concentration and reaction time as you age. It can also reduce the risk of depression and may help you sleep better.

Gives you an energy boost. Exercise and physical activity transport oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and help your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. When your lungs and heart are working more efficiently, you have more energy.

Reduces risk of injury. Exercise is critical for strong muscles and bones. As you age, muscle strength declines, but studies show that people who exercise on a regular basis are stronger and leaner than others in their age group. Because muscles act as both cushions and shock absorbers for your joints, strong muscles help to protect joints, improve balance and can help reduce the pain of arthritis.

Reduce risk of disease. Two of the leading causes of death in the United States are heart disease and stroke. Living an active lifestyle increases your high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good," cholesterol and decreases unhealthy triglycerides. This combination, which helps blood flow, decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease. Regular activity can also help prevent a number of other health concerns, including stroke, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, depression, some types of cancer and arthritis.

Now that you know the positive effects of living an active lifestyle, how do you get started?

“At Penn Medicine, we partner with our patients to develop individualized activity programs that will work for them,” said Hertz. “Many think that they have to go to the gym for half an hour to an hour and perform weight lifting and cardio. Formal activity is great, but is not for everyone. My patients and I explore ways in which they can become more active throughout the day as much as possible.”

If you haven’t exercised consistently in some time, you might want to talk to your primary care doctor first.

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Already a Penn patient? Use Penn’s Goals for Healthy Living worksheet at your next primary care appointment to help determine and track your activity goals.

We would like your input

Dear readers,

We could use your help.

This blog has covered many topics and questions, sometimes all at the same time. And, every once in a while (hopefully more times than not) we strike a real chord—which is what we would like to do more often and with greater depth.

So this is where you come in: we'd like to hear what sort of topics you would like us to cover or questions you would have us answer. The way we see it, a conversation with you is better than a speech to you. And when it comes to health, we're in this together...searching, striving, looking for answers to questions, big and small.

Please take a few minutes to complete this survey. While we can't offer any reward, we can promise to fully appreciate and thoughtfully consider your input, in where the conversation goes from here.

Thank you for your time and for trusting us with the most important decision you make—your wellbeing.

How to Have Your “Cake” and Eat It, Too

Lori M. Noble, MD, a primary care physician at Spruce Internal Medicine, located at the new Penn Medicine Washington Square building, offers tips on how to satisfy your sweet tooth and do so in a healthy way.

Lori M. Noble, MD

For those that don’t know me, I have a bit of a sweet tooth. Ok, I'm a dessert-a-holic. But, throughout my medical training, I became more aware of the potential detriment this habit of mine could have on my health. It is estimated that diabetes affects 382 million people worldwide and the prevalence continues to increase in every country.

Among adults in the United States, the estimated overall prevalence of diabetes ranges from 5.8 to 12.9 percent. One very large, well-respected study - the community-based Framingham Heart Study- has found that the incidence of type 2 diabetes doubled from the 1970's to the 1990's. Diabetes is one of our country's leading health problems, and as I learned more, I decided I didn't want to become a statistic.

So, over the years, I've found creative ways to satisfy my craving for sweets without breaking the sugar bank. Here are some of the tasty tricks I've developed to make dessert both delicious and healthy:

• Fruit crisp/cobbler: Slice up a banana or an apple and brown it in a sauté pan that has been sprayed with some non-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle with cinnamon and put the warm fruit over ½ cup of granola. Add two tablespoons of low-fat whipped topping – delicious!
• "Ice cream": Freeze the older, brown bananas that you would normally wind up throwing out. Once frozen, grind them up in a food processor until they are smooth and creamy. You now have what tastes and looks like ice cream without the added sugar and fat! Mix in whatever you'd like – berries, some crushed graham crackers, a tablespoon of chocolate chips…the possibilities are endless!
• Oatmeal truffles: Mix one cup of instant oats with ½ cup of dried figs, dates or raisins, two tablespoons of skim milk, one tablespoon of honey and cinnamon in a food processor. Once well mixed, form into balls, roll into coconut flakes (optional) and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Bread pudding: Take two pieces of whole wheat bread (stale or fresh) and break them into small pieces, set aside. Mix ¼ cup of egg whites, two tablespoons of raisins, ½ teaspoon of salt, cinnamon to taste and one tablespoon of melted butter. Pour the mixture over the bread, transfer to an oven-safe dish and bake at 350 degrees until warm, about 15-20 minutes.

For those looking for store bought options that don't require preparation, here are two of my favorites:

• Skinny Cow: Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches or ice cream popsicles. They typically run between 100-150 calories and are very satisfying.
• Weight Watchers muffins: Add a side of fresh fruit and you've got a high fiber, cake-like dessert.

So next time you are looking for something sweet, try one of these healthy, satisfying options that have earned high praise in my house and should do the trick in yours.

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Spring Skin Health Seminar

Penn Dermatology will be a hosting a free reception on Monday, May 19 to provide tips on how to keep your skin healthy and safe this summer.

During the Spring Skin Health Seminar, Penn Dermatology staff will give information on sunscreen, self-skin checks and topical cosmetic products. Joseph F. Sobanko, MD, Director of Dermatologic Surgery Education, will discuss the latest technology and products to help you look and feel your best. His lecture will cover cutting-edge cosmetic techniques, such as lasers for scar reduction and skin resurfacing, injectable products that require minimal downtime and innovative products that are coming out soon.

Event Details

Date: Monday, May 19
Time: 6 pm to 8 pm
Location:  Smilow Center
                for Translational Research

                3400 Civic Center Blvd
                Philadelphia, PA 19104

Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served. Attendees will receive a complimentary gift bag.

To RSVP or find more information, call 215.662.6534 or email Maynage.Mitchell@uphs.upenn.edu.

A Pioneer in the Use of Deep Brain Stimulation

“Our mission is to innovate, to constantly find new answers. And no one is doing that better today than the people at Penn Medicine.” - Gordon Baltuch, MD

Many people describe Gordon Baltuch, MD, Director of the Center for Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery, as a man of vision. This is not surprising, considering the fact that he’s been developing this skill since he was a boy.

“When I was a child, I was very close to my grandfather, who was a physician in a very different time and place,” Dr. Baltuch says, his eyes twinkling at the thought. “Sometimes he would go to patients’ houses. Sometimes patients would come to our house. On busy days, the living room became the waiting room. It was, at the end of the day, a very social experience.

“It was there that I first realized I could see myself going into medicine.”

Gordon Baltuch, MD

With this goal in mind, he pursued an undergraduate degree at Harvard, knowing all along what the next step in his path would be. In medical school, he gravitated at first towards neuroscience, then towards the more unknown world of neurosurgery, which just happened to be “a good fit.” The wisdom of his choice of medical specialization was confirmed by his early experience working at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital in the late 1980s, where he was fortunate to be able to witness firsthand and later take part in some of the leading-edge work of the day at the intersection of neuroscience and medicine.

Then, once again, he had a vision of new and greater possibilities in his chosen field. So, in 1994, he packed his bags and headed for Europe, where Professor Alim Louis Benabid was pioneering deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy for Parkinson's disease.

The cause of Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system, was at that time and is to this day unknown. The death of dopamine-generating cells in the substantia nigra part of the brain leads to the motor symptoms that traditionally characterize Parkinson’s, beginning with shaking, rigidity and other movement-related manifestations. Cognitive and behavioral problems, even dementia, are associated with advanced stages of the disease. The accumulation of rogue proteins called alpha-synucleins, combined with the lack of healthy dopamine generation and activity, causes the circuitry of the midbrain to function in abnormal electrical patterns and sometimes, in severe cases, to cease functioning at all.

Interested in reading more? 

Check out the full version of A Pioneer in the Use of Deep Brain Stimulation.

Relieve Your Stress With Mindfulness Meditation

Get a fresh start this spring by finding new balance in your work and home life with the Penn Program for Mindfulness.

The Penn Program for Mindfulness teaches how to use meditation as the primary tool for long-term stress management. Mindfulness meditation will help you manage the physical, psychological and behavioral symptoms of stress.

This highly acclaimed eight-week course will teach you a variety of meditation techniques to help cultivate relaxation, clarity and focus in your day-to-day life. You will learn to recognize your unique reactions to stress, find more effective ways to respond to stressful situations and discover how to use your own inner resources to attain greater health and well-being.

Program Details

The Penn Program for Mindfulness courses are offered in eight locations in PA and NJ. Courses will include a two-and-a-half-hour class each week, along with one full-day mindfulness retreat on Saturday, June 7. The registration deadline is April 24. Classes begin the week of April 28.

Learn more and register for the Penn Program for Mindfulness.

Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery Symposium

The Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery, a program for patients who prefer treatment or surgery without the use of blood or blood products such as red cells, white cells, platelets and plasma, will be holding a free symposium on Saturday, May 17.

This event will feature a presentation on the history of bloodless medicine from

Patricia Ford, MD

Patricia Ford, MD, Founder and Director of the Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital. It also will include panel discussions on what happens in the operating room, how the hospital identifies bloodless patients and when to enroll with the Center.

Event Details

Date: Saturday, May 17
Time: 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Location: Zubrow Auditorium
                Pennsylvania Hospital

                800 Spruce Street
                Philadelphia, PA 19107

To register, call 800-789-PENN (7366) or email BloodlessMedicine@uphs.upenn.edu.

About the Center for Bloodless Medicine

The Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital incorporates advanced technology and world-class medical specialists trained in patient blood management. Founded in 1996, this national and internationally-recognized program treats more than 600 patients per year and has options in nearly every medical specialty.

Bloodless Medicine Facts

• Bloodless medicine and surgery is a safe, proven and effective method of treating patients without the use of blood or blood products such as red cells, white cells, platelets and plasma.
• Patients who choose treatments without the use of blood often experience faster healing and recovery times and lower chance of infections.
• Bloodless medicine reduces reliance and associated costs on regional and national blood supplies.

Learn more about bloodless medicine and
the Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery