Knock Out Your Muffin Top with Tips from Pro Boxer Laila Ali

ALLEN COOLEY PHOTOGRAPHY

Bathing suit season is officially upon us. And for many, the struggle to get rid of a muffin top is frustratingly real.

That’s because those little pockets of fat can be extremely hard to eliminate, pro boxer Laili Ali tells PEOPLE. Essentially, the battle against the unflattering bulge comes down to eating well and doing the right exercises.

“Diet is the most important thing because a muffin top is basically excess fat, which comes from overeating,” says the daughter of Muhammad Ali. “So you definitely have to get your nutrition in order.”

Ali – who is hosting a DietBet online weight loss challenge starting June 1 – recommends sticking to a clean diet.

“Focus on eating foods that are from the earth — vegetables, fruits, lean meats, seafood and nuts — and stay away from processed, packaged foods,” she says. “Those [contain] chemicals and are often genetically modified. They can cause all sorts of health problems because our bodies can’t process them. The food ends up getting stuck inside of your body.”

The Food Network host emphasizes the importance of portion size as well. A meal should contain four to five ounces of lean protein, two cups of vegetables, and a healthy fat like coconut oil, olive oil, nut butter or avocado.

“You don’t need a lot of complex carbs in your diet if you’re trying to lose weight,” adds Ali, 37. “That way your body will learn to burn its own fat instead of carbs for energy.”

On top of good nutrition, regular exercise — particularly cardio — is vital to getting rid of fat.

“I encourage people to work out as much as they possibly can,” says the wellness expert, who recommends aiming for at least three to four times a week. “Cardio is important because it helps you burn calories, and that’s when you lose weight.”

One of her favorite cardio workouts is rowing because it works the entire body, including the core. To focus on trimming your sides, Ali’s go-to exercises are twist crunches – in which you crunch and pull your elbow to your opposite knee – and bicycle crunches.

“For most people, fat tends to go right to your midsection,” she says. “That’s where those exercises come in.”

To really blast those muffin tops away, Ali says to do three to four sets of 15 to 20 reps of the twist crunches and bicycles every other day.

“You really want to get a burn, but you want to go past that burn,” she says.

Just don’t overdo it. Resting a day between ab workouts is crucial to your training.

“You want to work them hard and the next day have some time off,” says Ali. “Your muscles need that downtime in order to build.”

More from PEOPLE Great Ideas:

Laila Ali: How I Got My Bikini Body Back

Everything You Need to Know About Avocado Oil – Plus, 6 Ways to Use It!

Celebrity Trainer Harley Pasternak: Three Easy Moves That Will Tone You Up for Summer

 

PEOPLE Great Ideas is the ultimate source for the latest entertainment food news, plus exclusive recipes, decorating ideas, travel tips, videos and more from your favorite stars and celebrity chefs. Get more information at PEOPLE Great Ideas.

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Aerobic Exercise Can Help Curb Asthma, Study Shows

THURSDAY, June 11, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Workouts that really get the heart pumping may help ease asthma in people with the respiratory condition, a new Brazilian study finds.

Researchers led by Celso Carvalho of the University of Sao Paolo School of Medicine looked at outcomes for 43 people, aged 20 to 59, with moderate to severe asthma. They were randomly selected to do 30-minute yoga breathing exercises twice a week, or the breathing exercises plus a 35-minute indoor treadmill session twice a week.

After three months, those in the treadmill group showed greater reductions in asthma severity and more improvement in their quality of life, according to the study published June 10 in the journal Thorax.

For example, Carvalho tested the participants’ “bronchial hyperresponsiveness” — the speed at which the airway constricts in asthmatics — and found improvements in people who engaged in aerobic exercise versus those who didn’t.

Levels of proteins tied to the inflammatory response that are key to asthma also fell for those involved in the more rigorous exercise, the Brazilian team found.

Exercise is often recommended for asthma patients because it boosts physical fitness, enhances quality of life and reduces the need for inhalers, the study authors noted. However, it hasn’t been clear whether the benefits of exercise outweigh potential harms.

“These results suggest that adding exercise as an adjunct therapy to [drug] treatment could improve the main features of asthma,” the researchers said.

The findings are important, they added, because many people with asthma fail to exercise because they think it will trigger an asthma flare-up.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about asthma.

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Underage Drinking Down in Past Decade

THURSDAY, June 11, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Underage drinking in the United States is declining. But, alcohol remains the most widely used substance of abuse among American children, federal researchers reported Thursday.

The rate of current drinking (within the last month) among youngsters aged 12 to 20 fell from 29 percent in 2002 to 23 percent in 2013. Plus, the rate of current binge drinking in this age group declined from 19 percent to 14 percent during that time period. Binge drinking is defined as having five or more drinks on the same occasion.

However, more American teens use alcohol (23 percent) than tobacco (17 percent) or illicit drugs (14 percent), according to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) report.

The report is based on data from an annual, national survey of 67,500 Americans aged 12 and older.

“When parents communicate clear expectations and they are supported by community efforts to prevent underage drinking, we can make a difference,” Frances Harding, director of SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, said in an agency news release.

“However, there are still 8.7 million current, underage drinkers and 5.4 million current, underage binge drinkers. This poses a serious risk not only to their health and to their future, but to the safety and well-being of others. We must do everything we can to prevent underage drinking and get treatment for young people who need it,” Harding added.

Over the last decade, there have been increased efforts to reduce underage drinking, including SAMHSA’s “Talk. They Hear You” campaign, which encourages parents and caregivers to talk with children about the dangers of alcohol.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism explains how parents can prevent children from drinking.

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Many U.S. Men With Depression, Anxiety Don’t Get Treated, CDC Finds

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, June 11, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Close to one in 10 American men suffers from depression or anxiety, but fewer than half get treatment, a new survey reveals.

The nationwide poll of more than 21,000 men also found that among younger males, blacks and Hispanics are less likely than whites to report mental health symptoms. And when they do acknowledge psychiatric troubles, they are less likely to seek professional help than whites, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

“We suspect that there are several social and cultural pressures that lead black and Hispanic men to be less likely than white men to seek mental health treatments,” said report lead author Stephen Blumberg, an associate director for science with the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

“These pressures, which include ideas about masculinity and the stigma of mental illness, may be more pronounced for men of color,” he said. “And these same forces may lead men of color to be more likely to deny or hide feelings of anxiety or depression.”

If this is true, Blumberg added, “then the (racial) disparities we observed could be even greater.”

The survey was conducted between 2010 and 2013. The results were published June 11 in the NCHS Data Brief.

Across all ages, survey results indicate almost 9 percent of U.S. men suffer from depression or anxiety on a daily basis, although only 41 percent of these men actually sought treatment.

More than 39 percent of the men under 45 years of age said they had either taken medication or visited a mental health professional for daily anxiety or depression during the prior year. This put these younger men roughly on a par with the estimated 42 percent of “older men” (those 45 and up) who said they had done the same.

But racial differences in terms of mental health care patterns became apparent when the study authors focused on those 18 to 44 years old.

Just 6 percent of younger black and Hispanic men said they experience daily anxiety or depression, compared with over 8 percent of younger white men, the findings showed.

And younger black and Hispanic men who experienced daily depression or anxiety were less likely to have accessed mental health treatment in the prior year than their white peers (about 26 percent versus 45 percent, respectively). This racial divide was not seen among men aged 45 and up.

Health insurance status appeared to be a major factor. While no significant racial differences in the use of mental health treatment services were seen among insured men, uninsured white men between 18 and 44 with daily anxiety or depression were three times more likely to access mental health care than their uninsured black or Hispanic peers.

While the survey doesn’t explain this discrepancy, the authors said that in focus groups they found having health insurance coverage seemed to reduce the stigma associated with needing mental health treatment for blacks and Hispanics. Expansion of health insurance coverage as a result of the Affordable Care Act (sometimes called “Obamacare”) could therefore reduce these racial and ethnic disparities, they said.

Jill Kiecolt, an associate professor of sociology at Virginia Tech University, said she wasn’t surprised by the findings.

“But they need to be unpacked a bit,” she added. Kiecolt said, for example, that while a lot of prior research has also identified relatively lower rates of anxiety and depression among blacks, rates among Hispanic men have generally been pegged as on par with their white peers.

“Consequently, African Americans’ mental health advantage on these indicators is larger than it appears,” Kiecolt said, “whereas Hispanics may not have a mental health advantage.”

As for what might drive the better mental health numbers among black men, Kiecolt said the dynamic remains puzzling. “We don’t know why,” she noted.

Her own research has not found support for the often-floated notion that black Americans generally benefit from stronger social support structures relative to whites.

Nevertheless, she stressed that the lower rates of depression and anxiety seen among black men “most likely are real.”

More information

There’s more on U.S. mental health trends at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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FDA Advisers Recommend Approval of 2nd New Cholesterol Drug

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — U.S. health officials recommended Wednesday the approval of a second new drug that’s part of a novel class of medications that sharply cut “bad” LDL cholesterol.

In an 11-4 vote, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel endorsed the drug evolocumab (Repatha) for use in patients who are at very high risk for high cholesterol. On Tuesday, the same panel of experts recommended approval of a similar drug known as alirocumab (Praluent).

Both medications belong to a new class of drugs called PCSK9 inhibitors.

But the advisory panel reiterated concerns that the real benefits of these drugs need to be determined in long-term studies.

While the FDA isn’t compelled to follow the recommendations of its advisory committees, it usually does so.

How these drugs will be prescribed will depend largely on what prescribing information the FDA writes for these medications, the Associated Press reported. An agency decision on Repatha is due by Aug. 27, while a decision on Praluent is expected by July 24, the news service said.

A recent review of 24 clinical trials — published in the Annals of Internal Medicine — found that PCSK9 inhibitors lowered people’s LDL cholesterol by about 47 percent, on average.

More important, the drugs seemed to cut the risk of heart attack or death from heart disease, according to the researchers.

Experts did urge some caution, however: The trials so far have been short-term, and it’s not clear whether the new cholesterol drugs really do extend people’s lives, according to Dr. Seth Martin, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

“Still, the early data are exciting, and we’re cautiously optimistic,” Martin, who co-wrote an editorial published with the study, told HealthDay.

Until large clinical trials are completed in 2017, experts won’t have definitive proof of whether the new drugs actually reduce the risk of heart attacks and death.

Statins have long been the go-to treatment for lowering LDL cholesterol. Studies have proven they can help prevent heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular complications.

But for some people, statins cause intolerable muscle pain. “Those people would be obvious candidates for PCSK9 inhibitors,” Martin said.

For others, statins just don’t do the job — including people with an inherited condition called familial hypercholesterolemia, which causes very high LDL levels and heart attacks at an early age. That’s another group that could benefit from the new drugs, Martin said.

“Familial hypercholesterolemia is not rare,” he noted. “It affects about one in 300 to 500 people.”

Of the trials covered in the Annals review, half involved people with familial hypercholesterolemia. Some of the others focused on people who’d dropped statins because of side effects.

PCSK9 inhibitors work by blocking a protein in the liver that helps regulate LDL cholesterol, according to the study. The new drugs don’t seem to cause the muscle problems that statins can.

However, that doesn’t mean they’re completely safe. Martin said the main concern that has arisen in trials of the new drugs is the potential for “neurocognitive effects.” For example, some study patients have reported problems such as confusion and trouble paying attention. But, Martin said, it’s not clear yet whether the PCSK9 inhibitors are actually the cause.

For the Annals review, researchers led by Dr. Eliano Navarese, of Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany, pooled the results of 24 clinical trials involving more than 10,000 patients. Some compared a PCSK9 inhibitor to a placebo (inactive treatment), while others used the cholesterol drug ezetimibe (Zetia) for comparison.

Overall, the researchers found, the new drugs cut LDL to a greater degree. They also lowered patients’ risk of heart attack or death by about half.

The caveat, Martin stressed, is that the studies were short, and few people suffered complications. He said longer-term studies are needed to prove that the drugs prevent heart attacks and extend people’s lives — without serious side effects.

Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, a preventive cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, agreed that the results so far are encouraging.

“For all those patients unable to take statins, finally there might be an option that can change (their) outcomes,” said Steinbaum, who was not involved in the recent review.

But, she added, “we need to patiently wait for the next phase of trials to see whether the clinical outcomes are as promising as the initial studies suggest.”

If PCSK9 inhibitors are approved, some real-world obstacles remain.

For one, the drugs have to be self-injected, which might put some people off. On the other hand, Martin said, the injections are done only once a month or every couple of weeks.

“Some people may prefer that to taking a pill every day,” he said.

And then there’s the cost. PCSK9 inhibitors are specialty drugs known as monoclonal antibodies, which are lab-altered versions of human antibodies. And they are not cheap.

The cholesterol drugs could cost up to $12,000 a year per patient, according to a recent estimate by CVS Health, one of nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers.

Since so many Americans take cholesterol drugs — for years or even decades — CVS warned that the cost to the health care system could be sky-high.

More information

The American Heart Association has more on treating high cholesterol.

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Here’s How Khloé Kardashian Works Out

Photo: Getty Images

I have a total girl crush on Khloé Kardashian, and I don’t care who knows it. Not only does she say whatever she wants, whenever she wants, but she also has a banging body. I mean, have you seen her lately? Khloé has clearly has been hitting the gym…hard.

Even her big sis Kourtney is singing her praises; the eldest Kardashian sibling recently posted an Instagram photo with the caption: “Today’s mission: to get my butt looking like @khloekardashian’s!!”

It’s not just her toned, lifted booty that I want, though. So I went to the man responsible for whipping her whole 5’10” frame into awesome shape, Gunnar Peterson, and asked him to spill some of his master training tips to Health. Before he did, he reminded me that hard work begets a hard body. “There are no shortcuts. If there were, I would have found them by now!” says Peterson, who’s also helped sculpt a number of A-list bodies, including Jennifer Lopez, Ciara, Sofia Vergara, and Halle Berry. (He’s also worked on mine. I still remember our first workout together in 2008—it was so tough that it still gives me nightmares!)

RELATED: 6 Ways to Sculpt Like a Celeb

Keep that hard-hitting ethos in mind when you try these seven moves.

Weighted back squat

Stand with feet apart at twice your shoulder width; hold a bar across upper back with overhand grip. Push hips back and squat down. Be sure to keep knees behind toes and chest up. Complete 3 to 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps, 2 to 3 times a week.

Why it’s effective: “It is a multi-joint move that is very metabolic in nature,” Peterson says.

Trainer tip: You want a weight heavy enough that you can’t do more than 12 to 15 reps without your form deteriorating. After those 12-15, you should stop.

Medicine ball sit-up with a press

Grab a 6-to-10-pound medicine ball with both hands and lie face-up with hands behind head. Bend knees to 90 degrees, place feet flat on the floor, and hold the medicine ball against chest. Perform a classic sit-up by raising torso into a sitting position. Press the medicine ball straight up; bring it back to chest, then lower body back to the ground. Do 3 to 4 sets of 15 to 20 reps, 2 to 3 times a week.

Why it’s effective: “The move targets the rectus abdominus, which is the sheet of muscle on your torso, in flexion, and also challenges you in extension as you press the medicine ball up and behind you,” explains Peterson.

Trainer tip: When you raise the medicine ball, lower it slightly behind your head.

RELATED: Tone Your Arms Like a Celebrity

Boxing jab

Start with feet staggered and shoulder-width apart (lead with your non-dominant leg, with the toe of your dominant foot in line with the heel of your non-dominant foot), and knees slightly bent; hold hands at face level. With power, quickly extend your fist, twisting the arm so that you land the punch with your palm facing down. This is called a jab. Quickly bring first back in and repeat motion with opposite hand. Do this for 1 to 3 minutes, 3 to 5 times during your training, 3 to 4 times a week.

Why it’s effective: “This works your core musculature, challenges balance and hand-to-eye coordination, and elevates your heart rate like a sprint,” says Peterson.

Trainer tip: Make sure your head is extended forward over your shoulders and your shoulders over your hips.

Pull-up

Stand on a plyo box or a bench under a bar. Grab bar with an overhand grip. Hands should be slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Step off front of box, coming into a dead hang. Remember to keep neck long, draw shoulder blades together, and tighten abs. Then pull body straight up, driving elbows toward rib cage. Clean the bar with your chin, pause, and then slowly lower back down. Do 3 sets of 5 to 10 rep, 2 to 3 times per week.

Why it’s effective: “This is a basic big boy (girl!) body-weight move,“ explains Peterson. “It is universal testament to true strength.”

Trainer tip: Can’t do a pull-up? Use a resistance band to help aid in the movement.

RELATED: Get the Body You Crave With Celeb-Inspired Workouts

Ab roll out

Start on all fours, knees together and hands on ab roller. Knees should be shoulder-width apart. Slowly roll forward until your chest is almost touching the floor. Pause, then reverse the motion back to start. Do 3 sets of 10 reps to start, 2 times a week.

Why it’s good: “Working the abs in extension is important in sports and real life. Crunches work in flexion, but don’t neglect extension work,” Peterson says.

Trainer tip: Really work on contracting your abs while you roll out.

Pull-over ab

Lie on back on an incline bench with feet flat. Hold a resistance band or towel overhead; squeeze abs and with arms extended, move arms slowly in an arc until they are in front of knees. Do 3 sets of 15 to 20 reps, 3 to 4 times a week.

Why it’s effective: “It activates and strengthens your core,” Peterson says.

Trainer tip: Keep arms extended throughout the entire motion.

Weighted sled pulls

Stand in front of a weighted sled; stagger feet, hinge forward at hips slightly, and place hands on sled. As you push, begin walking forward for 50 feet. Add distance or weight as you progress. If you don’t have 50 feet, go 10 feet (or whatever you have), turn around, and repeat 4 times.

Why it’s good: “It’s working on your strength and cardio simultaneously,” Peterson says.

Trainer tip: Use whatever weight challenges your heart rate.

RELATED: 4 Reasons Women Shouldn’t Fear the Weight Room

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Anti-Rape Program Halved Number of Campus Assaults: Study

By Tara Haelle
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A program aimed at teaching women how to recognize dangerous situations and resist sexual coercion almost halved the risk of rape on three college campuses, a new study shows.

“We expected that providing women with knowledge and tools could increase their ability to defend themselves and reduce the severity of the sexual violence they experience,” said study author Charlene Senn, a professor of psychology at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. “We didn’t expect the reductions to be as dramatic as they were. Only 22 young women need to receive the program for one completed rape to be averted.”

The findings were published in the June 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

An estimated 20 percent to 25 percent of women attending universities will be sexually assaulted, with the highest risk occurring in their freshman and sophomore years, according to background information in the study.

The researchers conducted their trial at one large and two mid-sized Canadian universities with first-year female students aged 17 to 24. The 893 women in the study were randomly assigned to either attend a comprehensive rape resistance program or several sessions that simply provided women with pamphlets about sexual assault that they were encouraged to read during the meetings.

The 12-hour resistance program, conducted in four sessions, taught women how to effectively assess the risk of sexual assault by men they knew, recognize the danger in coercive situations, get past emotional roadblocks to resist unwanted sexual behaviors and practice verbally resisting the behavior or actions. The program also spent two hours teaching self-defense strategies and included several hours bringing all the instruction together in a session on safe sex practices and effective communication about sex.

The program relied on a psychological theory and past evidence, Senn said.

“There are many barriers to recognizing danger in situations where threat is not expected, such as social situations or interactions with known men,” Senn said. “The program is designed to give women the information, skills and practice they need so that they can more quickly identify a situation as dangerous, and get out or use forceful resistance if necessary.”

Based on surveys filled out a year later, just over 5 percent of the women in the resistance group had been raped, compared to nearly 10 percent of those in the comparison group. Similarly, the rate of attempted rape was 3 percent among those who received the resistance training compared to 9 percent in the comparison group.

Rape was defined as vaginal, oral or anal penetration without consent and obtained through threats, force or drugging a female, including intoxication with alcohol.

Yet, the program’s approach could be considered problematic, suggested Kathleen Basile, a lead behavioral scientist in the division of violence prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The main problem with a preventive approach that is focused on potential victims of sexual assault is that it puts the responsibility for preventing the assault on the potential victim, and does not acknowledge the role that potential perpetrators and the larger community play,” Basile said.

The most pervasive myth about sexual assault is that victims bear some of the blame because of how they dressed, what they drank or some other way they put themselves at risk, Basile said. “Sexual violence is never a victim’s fault,” she said.

Other misconceptions are that rapists are usually strangers, that false reports of rape are common and that rape is inevitable, Basile explained. In fact, most victims know their perpetrator, many rapes occur in relationships and most rapes never get reported to the police, she said.

“Prevention approaches that focus on preventing perpetration, by involving everyone in the community — including potential perpetrators, potential victims and bystanders — to change norms, skills and behaviors, are important parts of a comprehensive approach to preventing sexual violence,” Basile said.

Other programs have focused on men’s behavior, Senn said, but only a few high school programs have shown positive results and no research so far has shown that educating students about consent decreases sexual assault. Bystander programs that teach men and women to interrupt situations that could become dangerous offer the most promise, she added, but no quick fixes exist.

“We need to make stopping sexual violence everyone’s business, hold men who commit sexual violence accountable, support their victims and give women the tools they need to fight back,” Senn said.

More information

For more on reducing the risk of sexual violence, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Early CPR Spurred by Smartphone Alerts Saves Lives

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Starting cardiopulmonary resuscitation early and using smartphone alerts to increase rates of bystander CPR can save people with cardiac arrest, two new studies find.

When CPR was started before an ambulance arrived, twice as many cardiac-arrest patients lived to leave the hospital than when CPR was delayed, researchers said. And alerting people trained in CPR that their help was needed nearby greatly increased the rate of early CPR.

“We have proved what has been thought before — that early CPR is associated with improved survival,” said lead researcher Dr. Jacob Hollenberg, from the department of cardiology at South Hospital at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

He said a mobile phone app that alerted laypeople trained in CPR that their help was needed nearby increased the rate of early CPR by 30 percent.

Both studies were published June 11 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Cardiac arrest, which is not the same as heart attack, occurs when the heart suddenly stops working properly. In the United States, emergency medical services respond to more than 420,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year, according to the American Heart Association.

In one of the new studies, researchers analyzed over 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests that occurred in Sweden between 1990 and 2011. When CPR was started before an ambulance arrived, 10.5 percent of the patients survived at least 30 days, compared with 4 percent of patients who did not receive early CPR.

To get more trained people to the victim faster, Hollenberg’s team used a mobile-phone positioning system to locate volunteers within one-third of a mile. The alert was activated when ambulance, fire, and police were dispatched.

To test the system’s value, they alerted only some of the thousands of trained volunteers. They found that the rate of early CPR was 62 percent when volunteers were alerted by phone, compared with 48 percent when they weren’t.

Hollenberg believes this phone-alert system can be used in many countries, including the United States. “This is a way of using technology to increase bystander CPR,” he said.

The next step is to use the phone system to tell volunteers the location of the nearest defibrillator, Hollenberg said. CPR combined with early defibrillation has been shown to save more lives than CPR alone, he explained.

“People will not only be able to give CPR, but fetch the nearest defibrillator,” he said.

Dr. Comilla Sasson, an emergency medicine doctor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, also thinks the phone system would work in American communities.

“Currently, we train millions of people every year in CPR but have no way to integrate them into the emergency response system,” said Sasson, co-author of an accompanying journal editorial.

“If we are going to increase bystander CPR rates, we must utilize the many willing volunteers we have trained in CPR, empower them to act in an emergency situation, and most importantly make it the norm that all cardiac arrest victims have an opportunity to survive no matter where they have their arrest,” Sasson said.

Americans are accustomed to using mobile phones to find coffee, hail cabs and see if their friends are close by, she said. This use of mobile phone technology along with integration of volunteers into the 911 system may help get CPR-trained bystanders to the right place at the right time, Sasson said.

“Although we have a deeply fragmented 911 system, and concerns about liability, we must overcome these barriers and test how a mobile phone intervention, such as the one in Sweden, can help us increase the use of bystander CPR,” she said.

More information

For more on CPR, visit the American Heart Association.

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The Best Hair Removal Method for Every Body Part

Photo: Getty Images

One method of hair removal does not fit all: Waxing, shaving, lasers, and depilatories all have their place (and their problems), depending on which part of your body you’re trying to bare. We asked New York City-based clinical assistant professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical Center Whitney Bowe, MD, for the scoop on what to use where for the best hair-free results.

Bikini

Stubble along the bikini line can be a constant struggle during the summer months. If you’re tempted to zap it for good, consider laser hair removal treatments from a board-certified dermatologist. You’ll need about 5 to 8 of them, and then you’ll be practically hair-free down there, barring any stray hairs that pop up down the road (those can be removed in quick yearly touch-up visits). The next best thing (and for a lot less dough): Shaving. Contrary to popular belief that a bikini wax is a must, Dr. Bowe says that shaving is actually better suited to the delicate skin in that area, and will cause less ingrown hairs than waxing. The Schick Hydro Silk TrimStyle Razor ($14, ulta.com) includes a razor and trimmer in one for all your ladyscaping needs.

RELATED: 8 Ways to Look Beautiful Bare

Underarms

As with your bikini line, the skin under your arms is thin and sensitive, making shaving your best option. Be sure to use a hydrating shave gel like eos Ultra Moisturizing Lavender Shave Cream ($4, target.com) and shave in multiple directions. That’s because hair under your arms grows in a whirled pattern, meaning the hair is pointing in all directions, Dr. Bowe says. So in order to get a close shave, swipe your razor up and down and corner to corner to make sure you snag every last hair.

Legs

There’s no secret here: Old-fashioned shaving is still your best bet. If your leg hair is very coarse and thick, though, a few rounds of laser hair removal can thin it out for more manageable upkeep (you’ll probably still need to shave, but not as much or as often). Dr. Bowe’s trick for better-looking leg-hair regrowth: Make two passes with the razor in each spot as you move across your leg. The first pass should be in the same direction as the hair growth; then swipe in the opposite direction, against the grain. This gives the hair a pointed tip (as opposed to a blunt, square tip) which will make it appear thinner as it grows back in. Look for a razor like Gillette Venus Swirl ($10, target.com) that swivels over bodily curves so you get a closer shave all over.

RELATED: Get Your Legs Ready for Summer

Upper lip

Kiss fuzz goodbye forever with laser treatments, especially if your hair is dark and coarse and difficult to remove—just a few sessions are all you need to score a hairless lip. For a more immediate solution (or, Dr. Bowe says, if you have fine, blonde hair, which is harder to pluck out), try a depilatory cream like Bliss “Fuzz” Off Facial Hair Removal Cream ($24, blissworld.com).

Eyebrows

Because each brow encompasses such a small area of fine hairs, Dr. Bowe recommends plucking or threading. These two methods give you more control than waxing or shaving, and the results last about three to four weeks. The right tool can make plucking a lot easier: The Tweezerman Mini Tweezer ($16, tweezerman.com) has a slanted tip to grab every little hair more easily, and it’s just the right size to keep in your purse for touch-ups on the go.

RELATED: Which Beauty Gizmos Really Work?

 

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Exercise, Games, Puzzles Don’t Prevent Signs of Alzheimer’s in the Brain: Study

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Physical and mental activity don’t appear to prevent the brain from developing the telltale beta-amyloid deposits that are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, a new study suggests.

“While it was hoped that early, or current, engagement in these sorts of activity would be protective against developing Alzheimer’s, our findings suggest that, while beneficial for overall mental health, the activity does not seem to prevent amyloid buildup,” said lead researcher Dr. Keith Johnson. He is co-director of the Neuroimaging Core at the Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

The report was published June 10 online in the journal Neurology.

Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that causes progressive problems in thinking and memory. The exact cause of the disease remains elusive, but scientists do know that people with Alzheimer’s have what’s known as plaques and tangles in their brains. The plaques form when beta-amyloid protein deposits clump together.

Physical activities — such as bike riding, dancing, walking and gardening — and mentally stimulating activities — such as crossword puzzles and reading — have been shown in other research to reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to the study authors.

For this study, Johnson and his colleagues collected data on the current and lifetime physical and mental activity of almost 200 people who didn’t have any memory or thinking problems. Their average age was 74.

People in the study had PET and MRI scans so researchers could gauge the amount of beta-amyloid deposits in their brains.

The scans also measured the brain’s metabolism and whether the part of the brain called the hippocampus was shrinking, another sign of Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, participants took tests to evaluate their thinking and mental skills.

“We found that histories of mental activity were related to overall intelligence and generally to performance on tests of mental performance,” Johnson said.

But, these activities weren’t related to the presence of Alzheimer’s disease markers, such as beta-amyloid deposits in the brain, he said.

In fact, although people who kept their brains busy with stimulating mental activities had higher IQs and better mental performance compared with those who did not often take part in such activities, researchers found no relationship between mental or physical activity and signs of Alzheimer’s disease in the brain.

Johnson acknowledged that the study was limited because it didn’t follow people over a long time to see what changes might occur in the brain. The study also asked people to recall activities they’d done in the past. He said studies that follow people’s activities over a long period are needed to confirm these findings.

Despite the current results, Johnson said that a lifetime of physical and mental activity may help keep the brain sharper with age. He also stressed that these findings should not be taken as a reason to not keep mentally and physically active, since other studies have shown these can benefit the brain.

Dr. Sam Gandy, director of the Center for Cognitive Health at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, said that mental function is far more important than amyloid plaque in the brain.

“No one comes in to see a doctor complaining that their head is full of amyloid,” he said.

“The mechanisms underlying the mental benefit of physical and mental activity may well have more to do with how the brain copes with pathology [disease] and less about controlling how much pathology is present,” he said.

It would be nice if physical and mental exercise helped reduce amyloid plaque as well, and some studies find exercise is especially effective in reducing plaque in people with an APOE4 gene mutation (a gene linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease), Gandy said.

“But mental function is the most important benefit by far,” he said. “People should still exercise and use their brains.”

More information

For more information on Alzheimer’s disease, visit the Alzheimer’s Association.

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