Briefs

By Compiled from Times wire

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 9, 2000

Tree climbing is not just a guy thing

Forget Tarzan. It's the Janes who are really in the swing when it comes to climbing trees. Of the 1,500 people a year Tree Climbers International introduces to treetop classes and outings, 50 percent to 60 percent are women, Fitness magazine reports.

We're talking serious climbing here, involving ropes and harnesses and ascents of 75 to 125 feet. Courses range from guided climbs to overnight campouts in treetop hammocks.

Golf course building boom is still in full swing

A record 509 golf courses opened last year, according to National Golf Foundation statistics reported in American Demographics magazine.

And 84 percent of those new courses are open to the public. It's the fifth straight year in which more than 400 new courses have opened.

If not from the sea, then maybe from the sky

We may not have come from the sea after all. A team of international researchers argues that contrary to previous belief, life may have begun in tiny droplets of water thrown up by ocean waves to drift high in the sky.

In an article in New Scientist magazine, the researchers contend that such water droplets could have provided just the conditions needed for complex chemicals to form, such as DNA and proteins.

Climbing those stairs may give you extra years

"Take the stairs" is a common exercise tip in lifestyle behavior modification programs, once strictly a mainstay of alternative health clinics and now part of everyday medicine at the country's biggest hospitals and clinics.

The accessible act of bypassing the escalator or elevator can help keep off pounds and even extend your life, according to research. One study at Cleveland Clinic showed covering two flights of stairs daily can result in a loss of up to 10 pounds in a year.

Other findings indicate using the stairs 10 minutes per day can add one to two years to your life.

Most recently, a study published in the April issue of Preventive Medicine, a professional journal, reported that formerly sedentary college-age women significantly increased their level of high-density lipoprotein or "good" HDL cholesterol (it cleans the arteries) by following a daily stair-climbing routine for 13.5 minutes. The women progressed from one circuit up 199 steps during the first week -- covered in a "brisk but comfortable" pace of 2.25 minutes -- to six circuits (1,194 total steps). Tests for heart rate and oxygen uptake showed the women additionally improved overall fitness levels.

The evidence alone is not likely to persuade many people to start a stair-climbing habit. A Johns Hopkins University Medical Center survey indicated when respondents were given a choice between riding an escalator or taking an adjacent flight of stairs, 95 percent of people take the escalator.

It seems some added motivation can help. Kelly Brownell, a Yale University researcher perhaps best known for suggesting the government should place a tax on junk foods, conducted one experiment to test the suggestive power of a simple sign reading, "Your heart needs the exercise, here's your chance!" This one change persuaded three times as many people to take the stairs than previously at the same escalator/stairs site.

Taking your chances as you grow older

The average American man has a 1 in 3 chance of developing heart disease before age 60, a 1 in 4 chance of having high blood pressure, a 1 in 6 chance of developing prostate cancer, a 1 in 12 chance of having a heart attack, and a 1 in 22 chance of suffering from depression, according to a statistical portrait in Men's Health magazine. The average man also gains 1.1 pounds each year, loses about 6 percent of his hearing every 10 years, and will get about three centimeters shorter between 30 and 70.

Activity, routine and otherwise, helps heart

The American Heart Association includes salsa dancing and ballet on a list of routine activities that, if done for 30 minutes a day, promote heart health. Also on the list: Mending furniture, mowing the lawn, digging worms, vacuuming, putting away groceries, feeding the pets and blow-drying your hair, USA Weekend magazine reports.

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