Costs top Americans' health care concerns, new poll finds | CNN

CNN —

Americans’ biggest health care priorities revolve largely around affordability, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll, with most wanting to see Congress tackle drug prices. More broadly, inflation and rising costs dominate the public’s concerns.

The findings, released Thursday, show that 55% of Americans call inflation and rising prices the biggest problem facing the US, far ahead of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (18%), climate change (6%), the Covid-19 pandemic (6%) or crime (6%).

That’s true across party lines, although the sentiment is most pronounced within the GOP: About 70% of Republicans call inflation the country’s biggest issue, compared with 53% of independents and 46% of Democrats.

Similarly, other recent polls have found the rising cost of living dominating Americans’ minds. In a new Quinnipiac poll, 30% of Americans picked inflation as the most urgent issue facing the US, with the Russia/Ukraine crisis following at just 14%. NBC polling also found Americans more focused on economic concerns than foreign policy or other issues. And a new Gallup survey said 17% of Americans cited inflation as the nation’s top problem, the highest level in its polling since 1985.

The focus on costs remains even when Americans are asked specifically about their priorities for possible health care legislation, the KFF poll finds. Most US adults (61%) say it should be a priority for Congress to limit how much drug companies can raise prescription drug prices each year to no more than the rate of inflation. About half (53%) say Congress should make it a priority to cap out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $35 monthly and to place a limit on out-of-pocket health care costs for seniors (52%).

Fewer, 42%, call it a priority to expand government-provided health insurance in states that have not expanded Medicaid access or to increase funding for access to mental health services and training for mental health providers. Only 25% say that providing more Covid-19 pandemic response funding should be a priority.

“The public’s priorities in health reflect deep concern about prices of everything right now, including drug prices,” KFF President and CEO Drew Altman said in a news release. “That doesn’t mean other things that have long been popular do not have public support too; they do. It just means prices are the preeminent concern.”

In their personal finances, most Americans express at least some worry about being able to afford gasoline or other transportation costs (71%) and unexpected medical bills (58%), with many concerned about paying for monthly utility bills (50%) and food (47%). In February 2020, just 40% worried about paying for gas, 38% about monthly utilities and 34% about food, KFF found.

Concerns are magnified for lower-income Americans. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans in households making less than $40,000 a year say they worry about affording as or transportation costs, with more than 6 in 10 also concerned about affording unexpected medical bills (66%), monthly utilities (65%), rent or mortgage payments (63%) and food (62%).

About half of Americans, 51%, say they’ve put off or gone without some form of medical service in the past year because of its costs.

Twelve years after its passage, the Affordable Care Act remains popular, the KFF poll finds, with 55% of the public viewing it favorably. About one-quarter, 24%, say the law has directly helped them and their family, with 20% saying it hurt them and the rest that it’s had no direct effect.

Of those who say they’ve seen a positive personal impact, about half say the ACA mainly helped by letting someone in their family get or keep health coverage, with 30% saying the ACA mainly made it easier to get needed health care and 20% that it mainly lowered health care or health insurance costs.

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Views of both the ACA and its effects are also sharply divided along partisan lines, with 43% of Democrats and just 7% of Republicans saying the ACA has helped them.

Among Americans under 65 who have private health insurance, 56% say they know nothing about the No Surprises Act, a law taking effect this year that protects people with private health insurance from getting large medical bills when they accidentally receive out-of-network health care. Only about 21% say they know even something about the legislation.

Kroger-Albertsons merger: Two of the largest supermarkets in ...

New York CNN Business —

Kroger announced Friday that it plans to buy Albertsons in a nearly $25 billion deal that could change the US retail industry and impact how millions of customers buy their groceries.

The deal, which is expected to close in 2024, would combine two of the largest supermarket chains in the country and create one of its largest private employers. The two companies have a combined 710,000 workers – most of them unionized in an industry with low union rates – nearly 5,000 stores and more than $200 billion in sales. The companies say they reach 85 million households.

The retail industry has consolidated in recent years, and merging would give the companies greater scale to fend off competition from Amazon (AMZN), Walmart (WMT) and other retail giants. Traditional supermarkets have been pressured by these companies and others – discount chains such as Dollar General (DG) and Aldi, warehouse clubs like Costco (COST), and online grocers.

The merger “accelerates our position as a more compelling alternative to larger and non-union competitors,” Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen said in a statement Friday.

If the deal is completed, it would be one of the largest mergers in US retail history – dwarfing Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7 billion. The company would become the third largest retail chain in America by sales. Its combined market share in the $1.4 trillion grocery industry would be 13.5%, according to Morgan Stanley, making it the second largest grocer behind Walmart’s 15.5% share.

The move also comes as companies battle higher costs and food inflation reaches its highest level in decades. Prices at grocery stores continued to soar last month. The food at home index, a proxy for grocery store prices, increased 0.7% in September from the month prior and 13% over the last year.

Kroger said the deal would benefit consumers and it will use half a billion dollars in cost savings from the merger to invest in lower prices. Albertsons is known for having higher prices than Kroger and analysts say Kroger may try to lower the chain’s prices.

Kroger (KR) will buy Albertsons for $34.10 a share — a roughly 30% premium above the grocery chain’s average share price over the course of the past month. Shares of Kroger (KR) slid 5% in early trading Friday, while Albertsons dropped 7%.

The two companies operate dozens of grocery chains. Kroger operates Ralphs, Harris Teeter, Dillons, Fred Meyer and others, while Albertsons owns Safeway and Vons. The companies said they will spin off nearly 400 stores to form a new rival in an effort to gain antitrust clearance.

Analysts expect some store closures if the deal goes through and also say it will be a significant hurdle to pass antitrust scrutiny.

“A deal of this size that has a direct impact on consumers would face significant scrutiny from regulators and take a long time period to be approved,” Joseph Feldman, an analyst at Telsey Advisory Group, said.

Consumer watchdogs, unions, and Democrats have already come out strongly against the deal. They say it would harm consumers by raising prices and driving out competition. It could also spur a new wave of consolidation in the industry among smaller companies attempting to compete.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), which represents 1.3 million workers in grocery stores, meatpacking plants and other essential industries along the food supply chain also voiced some concern about the proposed merger.

“The proposed merger has serious implications for hundreds of thousands of our UFCW members and America’s families who are more concerned than ever about inflation’s impact on the price of their food and groceries, prescription drugs, and gas. As America’s largest union of essential workers, protecting the livelihoods of this nation’s grocery workers, union and non-union, is our highest priority,” UFCW International president Marc Perrone, said in a statement Friday.

“To be clear, the UFCW will oppose any merger that threatens the jobs of America’s essential workers, union and non-union, and undermines our communities,” he said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders called it a “absolute disaster” and called on the Biden administration to reject the deal. The American Economic Liberties Project, an anti-monopoly organization, said the “merger would be disastrous for market competition, small businesses, and especially – consumers’ pockets.”

FTC chair Lina Khan is critic of corporate consolidation, and the regulator has blocked large retail mergers in the past, including Staples’ attempts to combine with Office Depot.

The FTC is currently looking into anti-competitive practices in the grocery industry and requested information last year from Kroger and others on the causes of empty shelves and surging prices in the United States.

Nathaniel Meyersohn Jordan Valinsky
Nathaniel Meyersohn
Jordan Valinsky

Jeff Bezos for the first time says he will give most of his money to ...

Washington CNN Business —

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to give away the majority of his $124 billion net worth during his lifetime, telling CNN in an exclusive interview he will devote the bulk of his wealth to fighting climate change and supporting people who can unify humanity in the face of deep social and political divisions.

Though Bezos’ vow was light on specifics, this marks the first time he has announced that he plans to give away most of his money. Critics have chided Bezos for not signing the Giving Pledge, a promise by hundreds of the world’s richest people to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes.

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In a sit-down interview with CNN’s Chloe Melas on Saturday at his Washington, DC, home, Bezos, speaking alongside his partner, the journalist-turned-philanthropist Lauren Sánchez, said the couple is “building the capacity to be able to give away this money.”

Asked directly by CNN whether he intends to donate the majority of his wealth within his lifetime, Bezos said: “Yeah, I do.”

Bezos said he and Sánchez agreed to their first interview together since they began dating in 2019 to help shine a spotlight on the Bezos Courage and Civility Award, granted this year to musician Dolly Parton.

The 20-minute exchange with Bezos and Sánchez covered a broad range of topics, from Bezos’s views on political dialogue and a possible economic recession to Sánchez’s plan to visit outer space with an all-female crew and her reflections on a flourishing business partnership with Bezos.

Dolly Parton

That working relationship was on display Saturday as Bezos and Sánchez announced a $100 million grant to Parton as part of her Courage and Civility Award. It is the third such award, following similar grants to chef Jose Andrés, who has spent some of the money making meals for Ukrainians — and the climate advocate and CNN contributor Van Jones.

“When you think of Dolly,” said Sánchez in the interview, “Look, everyone smiles, right? She is just beaming with light. And all she wants to do is bring light into other people’s worlds. And so we couldn’t have thought of someone better than to give this award to Dolly, and we know she’s going to do amazing things with it.”

The throughline connecting the Courage and Civility Award grantees, Bezos said, was their capacity to bring many people together to solve large challenges.

“I just feel honored to be able to be a part of what they’re doing for this world,” Bezos told CNN.

Unity, Bezos said, is a trait that will be necessary to confront climate change and one that he repeatedly invoked as he blasted politicians and social media for amplifying division.

How to give it away

But the couple’s biggest challenge may be figuring out how to distribute Bezos’ vast fortune. Bezos declined to identify a specific percentage or to provide concrete details on where it would likely be spent.

Despite being the fourth-wealthiest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bezos has refrained from setting a target amount to give away in his lifetime.

Bezos has committed $10 billion over 10 years, or about 8% of his current net worth, to the Bezos Earth Fund, which Sánchez co-chairs. Among its priorities are reducing the carbon footprint of construction-grade cement and steel; pushing financial regulators to consider climate-related risks; advancing data and mapping technologies to monitor carbon emissions; and building natural, plant-based carbon sinks on a large scale.

Though Bezos is now Amazon’s (AMZN) executive chair and not its CEO — he stepped down from that role in 2021 — he is still involved in the greening of the company. Amazon is one of more than 300 companies that have pledged to reduce their carbon footprint by 2040 according to the principles of the Paris Climate Agreement, Bezos said, though Amazon’s (AMZN) footprint grew by 18% in 2021, reflecting a pandemic-driven e-commerce boom. Amazon’s (AMZN) reckoning with its own effect on the climate mirrors its outsized impact on everything from debates about unionization to antitrust policy, where the company has attracted an enormous level of scrutiny from regulators, lawmakers, and civil society groups.

Bezos compared his philanthropic strategy to his years-long effort constructing a titanic engine of e-commerce and cloud computing that has made him one of the most powerful people in the world.

“The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way,” he said, implying that even as he gives away his billions, he is still looking to maximize his return. “It’s not easy. Building Amazon was not easy. It took a lot of hard work, a bunch of very smart teammates, hard-working teammates, and I’m finding — and I think Lauren is finding the same thing — that charity, philanthropy, is very similar.”

“There are a bunch of ways that I think you could do ineffective things, too,” he added. “So you have to think about it carefully and you have to have brilliant people on the team.”

Bezos’ methodical approach to giving stands in sharp contrast to that of his ex-wife, the philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, who recently gave away nearly $4 billion to 465 organizations in the span of less than a year.

The economic downturn

While Bezos and Sánchez plot out their plans for Bezos’ immense wealth, many people of more modest means are bracing for what economists fear may be an extended economic downturn.

Last month, Bezos tweeted a warning to his followers on Twitter, recommending that they “batten down the hatches.”

The advice was meant for business owners and consumers alike, Bezos said in the interview, suggesting that individuals should consider putting off buying big ticket items they’ve been eyeing — or that companies should slow their acquisitions and capital expenditures.

“Take some risk off the table,” Bezos said. “Keep some dry powder on hand…. Just a little bit of risk reduction could make the difference for that small business, if we do get into even more serious economic problems. You’ve got to play the probabilities a little bit.”

Many may be feeling the pinch now, he added, but argued that as an optimist he believes the American Dream “is and will be even more attainable in the future” — projecting that within Bezos’ lifetime, space travel could become broadly accessible to the public.

Bezos and Sánchez’s partnership

Sánchez said the couple make “really great teammates,” though she laughed, “We can be kind of boring,” Sánchez said. Bezos smiled and replied, “Never boring.”

Sánchez, the founder of Black Ops Aviation, the first female-owned and operated aerial film and production company is a trained helicopter pilot. She said in the interview that they’ve both taken turns in the driver’s seat.

Bezos has credited his own journey to space for helping to inspire his push to fight climate change. Now, it is Sánchez’s turn.

Sánchez told CNN she anticipates venturing into orbit herself sometime in 2023. And while she did not directly address who will be joining her — quickly ruling out Bezos as a crewmate — she said simply: “It’ll be a great group of females.”

Washington’s NFL team

Bezos may be adding NFL owner to his resume. CNN recently reported that Bezos and Jay-Z are in talks on a potential joint bid on the Washington Commanders.

It is not clear if the two have yet spoken with Dan Snyder and his wife, Tanya, the current owners of the NFL team, about the possibility.

But during the interview on Saturday, Melas asked Bezos if the speculation was true.

“Yes, I’ve heard that buzz,” Bezos said with a smile.

Sánchez chimed in with a laugh, “I do like football. I’m just going to throw that out there for everyone.”

Bezos added, “I grew up in Houston, Texas, and I played football growing up as a kid … and it is my favorite sport … so we’ll just have to wait and see.”

– CNN’s Chloe Melas contributed to this report

The frustrating truth about who is excluded from student loan debt ...

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CNN —

President Joe Biden officially announced his student loan forgiveness plan, but there are so many questions that remain, including:

How much, exactly, will it cost?

Will it add to inflation?

Does Biden actually have the authority to wave a pen and make this happen?

But the overriding question for a lot of people who didn’t go to college, those who already paid off their loans or folks who make more than $125,000 (or more than $250,000 if they’re married couples or heads of households) is this: What about me?

People who are interested in buying an electric vehicle with help from a federal tax credit but who make more than $150,000 ($300,000 if married) are asking the same thing.

Universal proposals are a thing of the past

It’s a 180 in the national conversation from the 2020 presidential campaign when serious candidates like Andrew Yang were pushing the idea of a universal basic income for all Americans – the idea that every adult American should get a $1,000 per month paycheck, regardless of their income – and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey was pushing “baby bonds” to be given to nearly every American child to address racial inequality.

Income limits, or means testing, is the government’s way of targeting help to the people that really need it.

It also creates new layers of government bureaucracy to verify income and can lead to complaints about unfairness and stigmas. More on that below.

Inflation fears are real

There are also valid concerns that funneling all this cash out in the economy – it will be hundreds of billions of dollars, but we don’t know exactly how much – will only add to the rampant inflation that has made American life so much more expensive.

“We need to make college affordable, not send a $10,000 gift to people that already have, in many cases, advanced degrees,” said Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, during an interview with CNN’s Poppy Harlow before the loan forgiveness was formally announced.

The larger problem is the cost of college

Goldwein argued that targeting people with college loans at all is unfair to people who don’t go to college or don’t pursue advanced degrees.

“Disproportionately, student debt is held by people that have advanced degrees and pretty good income, and they can bear it a lot more than everyday Americans that are seeing the cost of their gasoline and clothing go up,” Goldwein said.

Not everyone with college debt finishes college

Indivar Dutta-Gupta of the Center for Law and Social Policy agrees that college affordability is a larger program that must be addressed. But he pushed back during our phone conversation when I said Biden’s program is focused on people who have degrees and earning potential.

“A lot of them don’t have degrees,” he said. “About 40% of people with student debt have no college degree. That’s one thing people don’t realize.”

There is overlap, he said, between people in poverty and people who have attended some college. His concern is that the income limit creates barriers to getting the help to people who may struggle to prove their income.

$125,000 does not go as far in some places

It’s also true that individuals with loan debt making $125,000 or less today may earn more in the future.

There is an added geographic disparity to consider. There are likely more people in New York or California, for example, who make more than $125,000 and yet still feel crushed by their student loan debt than people in more affordable states.

It’s a step toward racial equality

One major selling point of the college debt forgiveness announced by Biden is that it can particularly help people of color and also people who take jobs that help society function.

NAACP President Derrick Johnson told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Thursday that while he opposes means testing for loan forgiveness, he can appreciate that it is targeted.

“Now we’re talking about teachers, we’re talking about federal employees, we’re talking about state and municipal employees, individuals who make sure that our economy grows, that maintain the necessary services for our citizens, and who really make democracy work,” Johnson said.

He also argued – and it’s a valid point – that the government did not ask for means tests when it helped businesses during the pandemic or cut corporate taxes in the hope of fueling job growth.

There’s been some attention on Twitter to the fact that people like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia who oppose the student loan forgiveness had loans for small businesses forgiven during the pandemic through a government program.

Expanded child tax credit was a much broader benefit

Another pandemic program that was more broadly applied and had more potential to transform the country was the temporary expansion of the child tax credit, which cut down on poverty by putting money in the pockets of the vast majority of American parents and lifting millions of kids out of poverty while it was in effect, according to studies.

Its income threshold was very high and determined by the IRS, which cut down on the difficulty of applying it. A major issue for the tax credit was that families who made too little to file income taxes were not always identified and paid by the IRS.

The expansion of the tax credit ended when Democrats could not convince Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia to keep it without substantial tweaks. Read more from CNN’s Tami Luhby.

The end of the child tax credit expansion was a throwback to 1996, when a Republican Congress and then-President Bill Clinton agreed to drastically scale back the federal government’s role in applying welfare programs and instituted new work requirements that cut down on who qualified.

Some programs are nearly universal

Not all US programs have means testing. Every child in the US is guaranteed a spot in a public school. Every American senior has health insurance through Medicare. Every American who works for about 10 years gets Social Security benefits. Most Americans who lose a full-time job are eligible for unemployment insurance.

There are catches. Public education varies greatly from state to state and district to district. Social Security benefits are based on income. And some of Medicare’s premiums are on a sliding scale. Unemployment insurance often misses people with gig or part-time work and businesspeople.

The cost of unlimited benefits makes them politically untenable in the US. Which means the best the government can do to forgive debt or encourage EV purchasing is targeting people who make a certain amount of money.

Americans have largely avoided health care inflation so far -- but ...

New York CNN Business —

Although Americans have been paying a lot more at the pump and the supermarket this year, they have largely been spared from price hikes for their job-based health insurance and doctor visits.

But that’s about to change.

Most workers can expect to see premiums and out-of-pocket costs increase in 2023 at a faster rate than in recent years due to inflation, experts say. They’ll learn just how much during their employers’ open enrollment period, which typically takes place this month and next.

“It’s going to be harder than ever for employees to be able to afford some of the basics of health care — and those are people who have insurance,” said David Guilmette, chief executive officer for health solutions at Aon, a professional services firm.

About 155 million Americans have work-based health insurance, the largest source of coverage by far, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Companies are trying to minimize the cost increases as they strive to hire and retain workers in the tight job market, experts say. This could force some businesses to subsidize even more of their health plans — employers cover about 81% of workers’ premiums, on average — or find other ways to reduce their overall spending on medical care.

Delayed impact of inflation on health care

While the cost of gas, food and other essentials can change quickly based on inflation and market conditions, health care operates differently. The premiums and out-of-pocket charges that consumers pay are typically set in advance and last a year. What’s more, contracts between insurers and medical providers are usually locked in for several years.

In fact, health care costs are bucking their own typical trend. They nearly always rise faster than general inflation, but that hasn’t been the case this year.

Still, hospitals, doctors and other providers are feeling the pricing pressure. Their costs for labor, particularly nurses and service staff, and supplies have increased sharply due to inflation and demand. And they are seeing more patients this year, after many people avoided going to the doctor and getting medical tests in 2020 and 2021 because of Covid-19.

Because of that delay in care, patients are often sicker when they come in, said Dr. Jeff Levin-Scherz, population health leader at Willis Towers Watson, an advisory firm. Treating people with more advanced cancers, cardiovascular problems and other conditions is more intensive and expensive.

To address these and other factors, providers are pushing insurers to hike their reimbursement rates when contracts are up for renewal.

Companies to spend more

Employers are expected to see their average health care costs soar by 6.5% to more than $13,800 per employee next year, according to Aon’s recent survey of nearly 700 large employers.

That’s more than double the 3% increase to health care budgets that companies experienced for 2022, but still well below the 8.2% spike in annual inflation, as measured by the September Consumer Price Index.

Workers are projected to shell out an average of 2.6% more for health care this year, compared to 2021, Aon calculated. That stems from a 0.6% increase in monthly premiums and a 5.2% jump in out-of-pocket costs, on average.

Aon has not yet determined how much more employees will pay next year, but it is expected to be a larger increase than it was for 2022.

Employees, however, may be spared the full impact of inflation. After years of hiking deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance levels, many employers are now reluctant to make it even more expensive for their workers to actually seek care, experts said. So companies are making changes to their health insurance plans to minimize the increases.

“There’s been a real crisis in affordability,” said Levin-Scherz. Employers “don’t want to offer meaningless health insurance plans for people.”

Steps employers are taking

Some 20% of companies added more funds into their health care plans without taking money away from employee pay or other benefits this year, and another 30% are planning or considering doing so in the next two years, according to a Willis Towers Watson survey of 455 mid-sized and large companies released last month.

But workers are still feeling the impact. Some 14% of employers shifted costs to workers through out-of-pocket expenses this year, while 24% did so through premium contributions, the survey found.

A growing number of employers are also looking to shield workers who earn less. More than a quarter of companies surveyed said that employees who are low wage or hold certain types of jobs are being charged lower premiums than other staffers in 2022, and another 13% are planning to or considering implementing similar measures in the coming two years, the survey found.

Several larger employers are looking to reduce the underlying costs in the health care system, said Elizabeth Mitchell, CEO of Purchaser Business Group on Health, which represents nearly 40 private companies and public entities that buy health coverage for more than 21 million Americans.

They are expanding workers’ access to telehealth and to primary care to try to restrain price increases. Some are challenging hospital charges, which are more transparent than in the past, and identifying higher-quality providers for their employees.

“What our members are trying to do is actually intervene in the delivery system, more than they might have in the past,” Mitchell said.

Increases expected to continue

Next year will only be the start of an extended period of increased health care costs, experts said.

Because contracts between providers and insurers will expire at different times, the pricing pressure will continue. That will likely result in even steeper hikes: Some 71% of employers surveyed by Willis Towers Watson said they were expecting “moderate to significant increases” in their costs over the next three years.

“Now that we’re in a period of higher inflation, that’s going to be making its way into these contracts,” said Debbie Ashford, North American chief actuary for health solutions at Aon. “For 2023, the 6.5% [increase] is somewhat muted.”

An iconic soap with two weird claims to fame -- "It floats" and it's "99+ ...

New York CNNBusiness —

Walk into a Walmart, Target, any drugstore chain in your neighborhood or a corner bodega for New York City dwellers, and chances are you’ll find an Ivory Soap bar, or a pack of 10 bars for under $5, sitting on the shelf.

This iconic cake of soap, invented almost 150 years ago, has become a part of Americana largely by advertising its two strange merits: “It Floats” and it’s “99+44⁄100% Pure.”

The original product is a no-frills, plain white, mild-scented bar soap with the name “IVORY” etched into it in script. Impressively, it has stayed exactly that way for 143 years – barring the addition of an Aloe scented variety, and is also still around.

Ivory soap’s longevity flies in the face of a notoriously fickle market for personal beauty products where new trends can appear and disappear in a flash.

Procter & Gamble first sold Ivory Soap in 1879 with the taglines "It Floats" and it's "99 and 44/100 Percent Pure." 369828992/Rusty - stock.adobe.com

So why has Ivory Soap stood the test of time? One theory is because of its clever advertising and branding. Ivory Soap packaging famously, and relentlessly, touts the attributes of purity and buoyancy.

“That’s brilliant execution,” said David Placek, founder of Lexicon Branding, a branding expert who has helped name such popular consumer products as “Swiffer,” “Blackberry” and “Dasani.”

“Just think about it. How many other soaps can you think of that tout an attribute that’s analogous to “It Floats?” said Placek. “I can’t think of another. It makes you remember it because it also makes you think about other soaps that don’t float.”

Because Ivory Soap’s taglines have remained consistent and endured for over a century and through generations of consumers, they’ve seeped into the subconscious, said Placek.

“Even if you’ve not used Ivory Soap you know about it and you remember it,” he said.

The need for floating soap

Ivory Soap is the brainchild of Procter & Gamble. Not the huge multinational consumer brands conglomerate that it is today, but of two individuals – Harley Procter (son of P&G cofounder William Procter) and James N. Gamble (son of P&G’s other cofounder, James Gamble).

It was in the late 19th century, a period when river bathing was prevalent among large swaths of the population. Now imagine losing your grip on a bar of soap when you’re immersed waist-deep in murky water.

But what if there was a soap bar that could float?

An Advertisement for Ivory Soap from Procter and Gamble circa 1879. (Photo by Fotosearch/Getty Images) Fotosearch/Archive Photos/Getty Images

An AdAge article about Ivory Soap’s invention explained how Gamble at the time was trying to create a new type of gently formulated soap. The R&D process inadvertently created a batch of soap that was found to float because air bubbles got trapped inside.

Gamble, according to P&G’s website, recognized the “floating soap” could revolutionize the washing experience in more ways than one.

He initially thought the floating soap could be used both for laundry and for washing up. Over time, the soap bar primarily became a bath soap.

Naming the soap was another story.

According to P&G legend, Harley Procter came upon the word “ivory” while attending church and thought it perfectly fit the new soap’s look and feel and both men adopted “Ivory Soap” as the name.

Advertisement for Ivory Soap by the Procter and Gamble Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, 1897. (Photo by Jay Paull/Getty Images) Jay Paull/Archive Photos/Getty Images

P&G launched the soap in 1879 hyping it not only as a soap bar that floated but for its purity.

That claim, according to the company, hinged on a study of the soap by chemistry professors at the request of the inventors. One study showed the soap had only a small amount of impurities – 56/100 of a percent – of non-soap material in it.

So they decided to play that up in Ivory Soap’s advertising, rounding it up to create its second iconic tagline – “99 and 44-100% pure.”

P&G maintains that while it continues to innovate its Ivory Soap, the product is still made with a simple formula free of dyes and parabens meant to gently cleanse the skin.

It has, however, extended the brand to other products.

Ivory Soap Advertising Poster (Photo by Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images) Library of Congress/Corbis Historical/Getty Images

In the 1950s, according to the AdAge article, P&G launched a light-duty dishwashing detergent under the Ivory brand, followed by liquid hand soaps in the 1980s and moisturizing body washes in 1996 with the introduction of Ivory Moisture Care. Today, the Ivory personal care portfolio also includes baby care products, hair and body washes and deodorant.

Ivory soap has become so iconic that in 2001 P&G donated a collection of its Ivory Soap artifacts to the Smithsonian Institution, including its earliest advertising and a bar of unused soap from the 1940s.

Lexicon Branding’s Placek said Ivory Soap is a product way ahead of its time. “It was ‘pure’ before pure, clean and simple products became as popular as they are with consumers today,” he said.


Exercise more than recommended amounts for longest life, study ...

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CNN —

A longer life may mean scheduling in even more than the recommended amount of weekly exercise, according to a new study.

Adults should get 150 to 300 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous physical activity a week, according to the World Health Organization. But people who surpass those levels live longer than those who don’t.

Researchers analyzed more than 116,000 adults in a study published Monday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation. Participants self-reported their leisure time activity in questionnaires several times over the course of 30 years, and researchers estimated the association between the time and intensity of exercise with rates of death.

The highest reduction in early death was in people who reported 150 to 300 minutes a week of vigorous physical activity or 300 to 600 minutes of moderate physical activity – or an equivalent mix of the two, said study author Dong Hoon Lee, a research associate in the department of nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“It is also important to note that we found no harmful association among individuals who reported (more than four times) the recommended minimum levels of long-term leisure-time moderate and vigorous physical activity,” he added in an email.

The recommended minimum may not be enough if you are hoping to live longer, authors of a new study said. Adobe Stock

Examples of moderate activity include a very brisk walk, mowing the lawn or playing tennis doubles, while vigorous activity includes things like hiking, jogging or playing soccer, according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The study results support WHO’s current physical activity guidelines, but also pushes for higher levels to see even more benefit in living a longer life, Lee said.

How to add more movement

You may be thinking, “10 hours a week of moderate activity sounds like a lot. There is no way I can work that in with all my other responsibilities.”

And yes, it may take some intentionality and effort. But studies have also shown the best ways to work in exercise into routines so that they stick.

A megastudy published in December 2021 showed that the best exercise programs include planning when you work out, getting reminders, offering incentives and discouraging missing more than one planned workout in a row.

“If people are hoping to boost their physical activity or change their health behaviors, there are very low-cost behavioral insights that can be built into programs to help them achieve greater success,” said the December study’s lead author Katy Milkman, the James G. Dinan Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of “How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.”

And you don’t have to add it all in at once. Just 11 minutes of exercise a day made a difference on life span, according to a 2021 study.

You can make it a brisk walk outside or on the treadmill, do four sets of a three-minute body-weight exercise sequence, practice a yoga flow or pick three upbeat songs to dance to, said CNN fitness contributor Dana Santas, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and mind-body coach in professional sports.

Combining weight training with another activity could lower your risk ...

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Aerobic activities and weight training have health benefits on their own, but combining them could have even greater effect when it comes to disease prevention and early death risk.

People who lifted weights once or twice per week, as well as the recommended amount of aerobic activities, had a 41% lower risk of dying early, according to a study published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The research team based its findings on the self-reports and health information of nearly 100,000 men and women who participated in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, which began in 1998 and followed participants until 2016. Participants answered questionnaires in 2006 about their exercise habits over the past year, and the authors of this latest study checked whether these participants had developed cancer or died by 2016.

Older adults who did weight training without any aerobic activity reduced their risk of early death from any cause by up to 22%, a percentage that depended on the number of times they lifted weights within a week – using weights once or twice weekly was associated with a 14% lower risk, and the benefit increased the more times someone lifted weights.

Those who did aerobic exercise lowered their risk by up to 34%, compared with participants who didn’t do any weight training or aerobic exercise. But the lowest risk – 41% to 47% – was among those who met recommended weekly amounts of aerobic activity (see below for guidance) and lifted weights once or twice per week, compared with those who weren’t active. The authors didn’t find a lower risk for death from cancer.

Participants’ education, smoking status, body mass index, race and ethnicity didn’t impact the findings, but sex did – the associations were more significant among women, the researchers found.

“The findings in this study are predictable, but it is significant that the authors provide the expected results as data in older people,” said Haruki Momma, a lecturer in the department of medicine and science in sports and exercise at Tohoku University in Japan, via email. Momma wasn’t involved in the study.

“This is one of the most important points of this study,” Momma added. “Previous studies in older adults are limited.”

The findings support the joint benefits of muscle-strengthening activities via weight training along with aerobic activity, in amounts that roughly align with current physical activity guidelines, the authors said.

The World Health Organization recommends that older adults (ages 65 and up) do at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate intensity exercise or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise per week. Aerobic activities include walking, dancing, running or jogging, cycling, and swimming.

Muscle-strengthening exercises should be done at least twice weekly if possible, according to the guidelines. Those can help prevent falls and related injuries, as well as declines in bone health and ability.

Weight-training exercises you can do for 30 to 60 minutes include dead lifts, overhead dumbbell presses and dumbbell lateral raises, which involves using your back and shoulder muscles to lift light dumbbells so that your arms and body form a T shape.

Important note: If you experience pain while exercising, stop immediately. Check with your doctor before beginning any new exercise program.

Understanding strength and death risk

The authors didn’t have information about the specific weight training or aerobic exercises participants did.

“As the authors stated, there was no information about training intensity, training load, volume (sets and repetitions),” Momma said via email. “Therefore, the optimal prescription for regular muscle-strengthening exercises to prevent mortality remains unclear. However, this limitation is not limited to this study. Studies of muscle-strengthening exercise epidemiology are prone to this limitation.”

But the researchers did have some ideas about how either exercise might help with prevention of disease or early death.

Weight training can improve body composition or lean muscle mass, which has been previously associated with greater protection against dying early from any cause and cardiovascular disease.

Having more lean muscle and less body fat can help with balance, posture and regulating cholesterol levels, Dr. Nieca Goldberg told CNN in March. Goldberg, the medical director of Atria New York City and clinical associate professor of medicine at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, wasn’t involved in the study.

“We know that individuals with obesity are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease, glucose intolerance and some cancers, so improving that (health) profile is beneficial,” Goldberg said. “People who participate in regular activity … may also have a healthier outlook and have other healthy lifestyles.”

The increased benefit from combining both exercises could be because the two work together to improve health, Dr. William Roberts, a professor in the department of family medicine and community health at the University of Minnesota, told CNN in March. A balanced regimen more closely mimics the lifestyles of our ancestors, he added.

Additionally, muscle helps functions of the endocrine and paracrine systems, the authors said – the ones responsible for hormones and cell communication, respectively. Weight training might also be done in social settings, the researchers added, and having social connections has been linked with living longer.

The authors noted that there could be measurement errors associated with participants recalling their exercise habits, and that the study might not be applicable to people of color and younger individuals, as most of the participants were non-Hispanic White and age 71 on average.

Future studies that are more diverse, longer and attentive over time would be beneficial for understanding the relationships between these exercises and early death risk, the authors said.

But for now, older adults who do either exercise should incorporate the other into their daily lives, Momma said.

“Some physical activity is better than none at all,” Momma said. “Because the fitness levels and chronic conditions among the elderly vary with (the) individual, please be as physically active as your abilities and conditions allow.”

Study reveals impact 10 minutes of exercise can have on adults over ...

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Could you find 10 minutes in your day to increase your physical activity? It might be lifesaving, according to a new study.

More than 110,000 US deaths could be prevented each year if adults over 40 added 10 minutes of daily moderate to vigorous physical activity to their normal routines, according to the study published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

An increase of 20 or 30 minutes could lead to even more lives saved, the study noted.

“We know exercise is good for us. This study provides additional evidence of the benefits at the population level: if all adults in the United States (over age 40) were to exercise just a bit more each day, a large number of deaths could be prevented each year,” said Pedro Saint-Maurice, the study’s first author and an epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, via email.

The study used accelerator data the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey recorded from participants ages 6 and older between 2003 and 2006. Researchers then looked at the activity levels of nearly 5,000 participants ages 40 to 85 and tracked death rates through the end of 2015.

The method used to conduct the study was rigorous, said Peter Katzmarzyk, professor of pediatric obesity and associate executive director for population and public health sciences at Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center.

Although the number of prevented deaths is an estimate, it “is a valid approach since it would be almost impossible to conduct an actual human trial to manipulate people’s activity levels and look at long term outcomes like deaths,” said Katzmarzyk, who was not involved in the study, in an email.

“We have reported previously that even a little bit of exercise can result in health benefits,” said Saint-Maurice. “This study doesn’t focus on the benefits for individuals, but rather at the level of the population. We can make our nation healthier by encouraging everyone to add an additional 10 minutes of activity or more each day.”

Important note: If you experience pain while exercising, stop immediately. Check with your doctor before beginning any new exercise program.

There are many ways to add 10 more minutes of activity into your day -- like walking, yoga or dancing in your kitchen, said Santas. Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post/Getty Images

How to get your 10 more minutes

Daily exercise is not just for gym rats, said Dana Santas, a CNN fitness contributor and mind-body coach for professional athletes.

“Fitting in ten minutes of exercise every day is so much easier than people think. Consider how fast ten minutes goes by when you’re mindlessly scrolling social media or watching your favorite TV show,” Santas said in an email. “It’s not a big time investment, but it can deliver big health benefits.”

Walking outside or on a treadmill is one of the best and simplest ways to bring consistent physical activity into your life, Santas said.

Yoga, for those who are practiced at it and those less so, is another great option, with the added benefits of stress relief and the ease of online access to all levels of instruction, Santas said.

Another at-home activity with a low cost of entry: body weight exercises.

With no equipment, it is easy to get in four rounds of three-minute body weight exercises – and you get an extra two minutes of benefit.

The key is finding a sequence of movements that will moderately work your full body, balancing upper body strength, lower body strength and cardiovascular exercise, like 10 to 25 pushups, 25 to 40 squats and a minute of jogging in place, Santas said.

And when in doubt, you can always dance it out.

Turning on some of your favorite songs and moving alone in your kitchen or grabbing family and friends in the living room is exercise that feels more like a celebration. It takes only three or four songs to get you to your 10-minute goal, Santas said, but no one will blame you if you can’t stop there.

Exercise doesn’t have to be grueling to be effective, and bumping up your routine by just a little bit can have huge impacts, the experts said.

How many steps a day should you take to lose weight | CNN

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Put on your walking shoes and don’t forget your step counter: You can reduce your risk for cancer, heart disease and early death by getting up to 10,000 steps a day, but any amount of walking helps, according to a new study.

Studies show the average person gains between 1 and 2 pounds (0.5 to 1 kilograms) each year from young adulthood through middle age, slowly leading to an unhealthy weight and even obesity over time.

“People really can reduce their risk of obesity by walking more,” said study author Dr. Evan Brittain, associate professor in the division of cardiovascular medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

The study also found key benefits for chronic diseases and conditions: “Diabetes, sleep apnea, hypertension, diabetes, depression, and GERD showed benefit with higher steps,” said Brittain via email.

“The relationship with hypertension and diabetes plateaued after about 8,000 to 9,000 steps but the others were linear, meaning higher steps continued to reduce risk,” he said. “I would say that the take home messages are that more steps are better.”

It’s yet another study illustrating the powerful impact that walking and other forms of exercise have on our health. In fact, if you get up and move for 21.43 minutes each day of the week, you cut your risk of dying from all causes by one-third, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

An increase in steps can help with chronic conditions such as diabetes and depression, the study says. SeventyFour/iStockphoto/Getty Images

Current physical activity recommendations for adults are 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, such as brisk walking, dancing, bicycling, doubles tennis and water aerobics, and two days of muscle-strengthening activity each week.

“Physical activity is just absolutely magnificent,” Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver, told CNN in an earlier interview.

“And when if you blend that with eating a more plant-based diet, de-stressing, sleeping enough and connecting with others — that’s your magic recipe,” Freeman said. “It’s the fountain of youth, if you will.”

Lower obesity risk with more steps

Activity trackers allow researchers to get more accurate data that can be compared with health records. ricka_kinamoto/Adobe Stock

The study analyzed an average of four years of activity and health data from more than 6,000 participants in the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program, dedicated to research on ways to develop individualized health care.

Participants in the study, published on October 10, 2022, in the journal Nature Medicine, wore activity trackers at least 10 hours a day and allowed researchers access to their electronic health records over multiple years.

“Our study had an average of 4 years of continuous activity monitoring. So, we were able to account for the totality of activity between when monitoring started and when a disease was diagnosed, which is a major advantage because we didn’t have to make assumptions about activity over time, unlike all prior studies,” Brittain said.

People in the study ranged in age from 41 to 67 and had body mass index levels from 24.3, which is considered in the healthy weight range, to 32.9, which is considered obese.

Researchers found that people who walked 4 miles a day — about 8,200 steps — were less likely to become obese or suffer from sleep apnea, acid reflux and major depressive disorder. Sleep apnea and acid reflux respond well to weight loss, which can reduce pressure on the throat and stomach, while exercise is a cornerstone treatment for depression.

The study also found that overweight participants (those with BMIs ranging from 25 to 29) cut their risk of becoming obese by half if they increased their steps to 11,000 steps a day. In fact, “this increase in step counts resulted in a 50% reduction in cumulative incidence of obesity at 5 years,” the study found.

Applying the data to a specific example, the authors said individuals with BMIs of 28 could lower their risk of obesity 64% by increasing steps from about 6,000 to 11,000 steps per day.

What about the benefits of 10,000 steps?

Health benefits rose with every step, the study found, but peaked at 10,000 steps – after that the effects faded. Counting steps may be especially important for people who do unstructured, unplanned physical activity such as house work, gardening and dog walks.

“Notably, we detected an association between incidental steps (steps taken to go about daily life) and a lower risk of both cancer and heart disease,” noted study coauthor Borja del Pozo Cruz, an adjunct associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark, and senior researcher in health sciences for the University of Cadiz in Spain.

Del Pozo Cruz and his team recently published a similar study that found walking 10,000 steps a day lowered risk for dementia by 50%. Risk decreased by 25% with as few as 3,800 steps a day, according to the previous study.

However, if walking occurred at a brisk pace of 112 steps a minute for 30 minutes, it maximized risk reduction, leading to a 62% reduction in dementia risk. The 30 minutes of fast-paced walking didn’t have to occur all at once, either – it could be spread out over the day.

Researchers found the association between peak 30-minute steps and risk reduction to be dependent on the disease studied.

The study also found an association between step intensity and health benefits as well, “although the relationships were less consistent than with step counts,” researchers said.

“But the truth is, the same goal has always applied: Challenge yourself at whatever fitness level you’re at. Obviously check with your doctor first, but your goal is to become breathless for 30 minutes each day.”

The workout that beats HIIT for better heart health, according to a ...

Editor’s Note: Before beginning any new exercise program, consult your doctor. Stop immediately if you experience pain.

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If you’re looking for a cardiovascular activity that will get your heart pumping and improve daily life, running or interval training may immediately come to mind. To maximize your workout, however, you may want to give Nordic walking a try, new research suggests.

This low-impact, whole-body workout that originated in Finland can be performed at different intensity levels. It incorporates the use of specially designed poles that you work in opposition to your legs – that is, your left arm and right foot work in tandem, and your right arm and left foot. The poles’ planting and push-off help boost you along, and the system is especially helpful when walking up or down hills.

Patients with coronary heart disease who participated in Nordic walking had a greater increase in their functional capacity, or the ability to carry out daily activities, compared with those who performed high-intensity interval training or continuous training at a moderate-to-vigorous level, according to a recent study in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

Few studies have examined the effects of Nordic walking on cardiac rehab patients, yet other forms of exercise, namely HIIT workouts, have been extensively studied, said senior author Dr. Jennifer Reed, director of exercise physiology and cardiovascular health at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute in Canada. No other study has directly compared the above three exercise regimens.

“Our research showing the superior benefits of Nordic walking on functional capacity highlights an alternative exercise option that requires minimal cost and equipment to improve physical and mental health,” she said.

Total-body movement

Nordic walking exercises 80% to 90% of your muscles when done properly, according to the American Nordic Walking Association, while walking and running only recruit 40%. The additional shoulder, chest and arm muscles used are the deltoids, pectorals, upper abdominals, forearm flexors, subscapularis, triceps and external obliques. Moreover, using these additional muscles leads to a 20% increase in calorie burn compared with regular walking, according to a study published in the journal Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport.

During Reed’s study, researchers had 130 patients in a 12-week training program performing either 60 minutes of Nordic walking on an indoor track; 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous continuous training (e.g., cycling or rowing); or a 45-minute HIIT workout. At the end of the training program, and again after a 14-week post-regimen observation period, the participants took two six-minute walk tests to measure functional capacity.

All of the exercise regimens helped alleviate the patients’ depression and improved their quality of life, but functional capacity was greatest after Nordic walking, the researchers found. The walkers had a 19% boost in functional capacity versus 13% for those doing the HIIT workouts and 12% for those doing the moderate-to-vigorous continuous training.

Patients with coronary heart disease who did Nordic walking for 12 weeks had a greater increase in the ability to perform everyday activities than those who did interval training, a study said. Yashoda/Image Source/Getty Images

“The six-minute walk test to measure functional capacity is an evidence-based and typically reproducible test,” said physician Dr. Jonathan H. Whiteson, associate professor of rehabilitation and medicine at NYU Langone Health in New York City. He was not involved in the study.

“However, as a walking test to measure improvements of different exercise regimens, it is important to recognize that training is task-specific, and so it is not such a surprise that the walking intervention, rather than the other two exercise interventions that did not focus only on walking, produced the greater increase.”

A more objective measure of aerobic training is a cardio-pulmonary exercise test, or metabolic stress test, which can measure fitness levels through metabolic analysis, said Whiteson, who also serves as medical director of cardiac rehabilitation at NYU Langone Health. “Use of CPET testing would have enhanced the results of this study. That being said, all modalities improved functional capacity, and that is the goal of a cardiac rehab program, as it correlates well with reduced risk for future cardiac events.”

The fact that Nordic walking is primarily a walking exercise and the other training programs included a variety of aerobic exercises may definitely be the reason why it came out No. 1 in the walk test, Reed acknowledged. The use of poles while walking may have improved speed and postural control, and increased walking-stride length.

Either way, Whiteson had one note of caution: To achieve an increase in functional capacity, Nordic walking must be done vigorously, and it takes coordination and balance, he said. Thus, it might not be a good choice for everyone.

Building off of the study, her team is poised to begin a clinical trial that will explore the effects of combining different exercise types on patients with cardiovascular disease, such as pairing HIIT workouts with Nordic walking.

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Feel the burn

The positive study results have also piqued the team’s interest in further exploring the potential benefits of Nordic walking on other health measures, such as upper- and lower-body strength, and cardiovascular health indicators such as blood glucose and lipids. Positive results may point to its use for those with other conditions, such as obesity and diabetes.

In the United States, only 20% to 30% of the patients who qualify for, and can benefit from, cardiac rehabilitation are referred and participate, Whiteson said. This lack of active rehab participants makes research like Reed’s important, as it points to another exercise modality they can use – and a very practical one, as it can be done outside of a gym. “It also helps remind health care providers and patients that cardiac rehab is an essential part of their recovery regimen, future health and well-being.”

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the study, both Reed and Whiteson said, is that everyone can benefit from exercise. “There is no magic pill for health, but exercise is medicine that simultaneously targets multiple health conditions,” Reed said. “When it comes to physical activity, I like to say, ‘Some is better than none, and more is better than some.’”

Doing 30 to 60 minutes of one exercise weekly could help you live ...

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You might have heard that strengthening exercises most benefit your muscular and skeletal health, but they could have two other big perks: helping you prevent disease and live longer.

Now we may know how much time to spend on those exercises, according to new research published Monday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Compared with people who didn’t do muscle-strengthening activities, those who did 30 to 60 minutes of resistance, strength or weight training weekly had a 10% to 20% lower risk of early death from all causes, and of getting heart disease, diabetes or cancer at all, the research authors found. These types of exercises are designed to improve muscular fitness by exercising muscles against external resistance, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.

A person uses kettlebells for a strengthening exercise. dusan petkovic/Adobe Stock

Combining 30 to 60 minutes of strengthening exercises with any amount of aerobic activity enhanced the benefit, resulting in a 40% lower risk of premature death, a 46% lower incidence of heart disease and a 28% lower chance of dying from cancer. The research is also the first to examine long-term links between muscle-strengthening activities and diabetes risk, the authors said.

“Many previous studies showed a favorable influence of muscle-strengthening exercises on noncommunicable diseases and early death risk,” said the study’s first author Haruki Momma, a lecturer in the department of medicine and science in sports and exercise at Tohoku University in Japan, via email. “We could expect our findings to some extent because this study was planned to integrate previous findings.”

The new research is an analysis of 16 prior studies, which amounted to a pool of data from nearly 480,000 study participants. They were between 18 and 98 years old, and most were based in the United States. Participants either self-reported their engagement in muscle-strengthening activities or answered questions during interviews.

“The study methods are sound and the findings are important, but not surprising to me,” said Dr. William Roberts, a professor in the department of family medicine and community health at the University of Minnesota, via email. He wasn’t involved in the study. Thirty to “60 minutes per week sticks out as a doable amount for most people and makes me feel good about the 5 to 15 minutes of strength exercises I do every morning.”

The findings are “great news for people who are active and greater news for those who are inactive as they can improve their health with a small time investment,” added Roberts, who is a past president and current fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. “That said, people should start slow and build slowly to avoid the pain of too much activity too soon.”

Important note: If you experience pain while exercising, stop immediately. Check with your doctor before beginning any new exercise program.

How strength manages health risks

The new research didn’t explore why strength training is so effective in lowering risk of early death and certain diseases. But this type of exercise is important for reducing body fat and building lean muscle, which can help with balance, posture and regulating cholesterol levels, said Dr. Nieca Goldberg, the medical director of Atria New York City and clinical associate professor of medicine at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine. Goldberg wasn’t involved in the study.

“We know that individuals with obesity are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease, glucose intolerance and some cancers, so improving that (health) profile is beneficial,” Goldberg said. Additionally, “people who participate in regular activity … may also have a healthier outlook and have other healthy lifestyles.”

The stronger benefit from mixing aerobics with strengthening exercises could be because the two “appear to work together and help each other move toward better outcomes,” Roberts said. “A balanced program of strength and aerobic activity is probably best and probably more closely mimics the activities of our ancestors, which helped determine our current gene sets.”

Aerobic exercises include walking, dancing, running or jogging, cycling, and swimming, Goldberg said. Weight-training exercises you can do for 30 to 60 minutes include deadlifts, overheard dumbbell presses and dumbbell lateral raises, which involves using your back and shoulder muscles to lift light dumbbells so that your arms and body form a T shape.

Most participants didn’t benefit from doing the strengthening exercises for longer than one hour, but the research didn’t examine why that was the case.

However, results of previous studies have varied, Roberts said: Some have shown improved health at higher activity levels.

“This is pool data, meaning it’s several studies put together. So when you do one study with a lot of people, you could measure for other variables that could potentially cause (the worse outcome beyond 60 minutes),” Goldberg said. “We can’t explain it based on this study. More studies will need to be done.”

The finding concerning lower diabetes risk could be explained by muscle-strengthening activities increasing or preserving skeletal muscle mass, which has a major role in regulating blood sugar levels, the authors said.

Overall, the main takeaway is to get active and stay active with an exercise program you like and can stick with, Roberts and Goldberg said.

“You do not need to train for the marathon to be healthy and improve your health,” Roberts added via email. “A combination of 5-10 minutes of strength exercise and 30 minutes of walking most days of the week will produce great health benefits across the population.”

Walk this number of steps each day to cut your risk of dementia | CNN

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Want to reduce your risk for dementia? Slap on a step counter and start tallying your steps – you’ll need between 3,800 and 9,800 each day to reduce your risk of mental decline, according to a new study.

People between the ages of 40 and 79 who took 9,826 steps per day were 50% less likely to develop dementia within seven years, the study found. Furthermore, people who walked with “purpose” – at a pace over 40 steps a minute – were able to cut their risk of dementia by 57% with just 6,315 steps a day.

“It is a brisk walking activity, like a power walk,” said study coauthor Borja del Pozo Cruz, an adjunct associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark, and senior researcher in health sciences for the University of Cadiz in Spain.

Even people who walked approximately 3,800 steps a day at any speed cut their risk of dementia by 25%, the study found.

“That would be enough, at first, for sedentary individuals,” said del Pozo Cruz in an email.

“In fact, it is a message that doctors could use to motivate very sedentary older adults – 4k steps is very doable by many, even those that are less fit or do not feel very motivated,” he added. “Perhaps, more active and fitter individuals should aim for 10k, where we see maximum effects.”

But there was a even more interesting result buried in the study, according to an editorial entitled “Is 112 the New 10,000?” published Tuesday in JAMA Neurology.

The largest reduction in dementia risk – 62% – was achieved by people who walked at a very brisk pace of 112 steps per minute for 30 minutes a day, the study found. Prior research has labeled 100 steps a minute (2.7 miles per hour) as a “brisk” or moderate level of intensity.

The editorial argued that individuals looking to reduce their risk of dementia focus on their walking pace over their walked distance.

“While 112 steps/min is a rather brisk cadence, ’112’ is conceivably a much more tractable and less intimidating number for most individuals than ‘10,000,’ especially if they have been physically inactive or underactive,” wrote Alzheimer’s researchers Ozioma Okonkwo and Elizabeth Planalp in the editorial. Okonkwo is an associate professor in the department of medicine at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison; Planalp is a research scientist in Okonkwo’s lab.

“We do agree this is a very interesting finding,” said del Pozo Cruz via email. “Our take is that intensity of stepping matters! Over and above volume. Technology could be use to track not only number of steps but also pace and so these types of metrics can also be incorporated in commercial watches. More research is needed on this.”

People who walked with "purpose" -- at a pace over 40 steps a minute -- were able to cut their risk of dementia by 57% with just 6,315 steps a day, a new study said. West Photo/Adobe Stock

Don’t have a step counter? You can count the number of steps you take in 10 seconds and then multiply it by six – or the number of steps you take in six seconds and multiply it by 10. Either way works. But remember, not everyone’s steps are the same length, nor are their fitness levels. What might be a brisk pace for a 40-year-old may not be sustainable for a 70-year-old.

Editor’s Note: Before beginning any new exercise program, consult your doctor. Stop immediately if you experience pain.

Inside the study

The study, also published Tuesday in JAMA Neurology, analyzed data from over 78,000 people between the ages of 40 and 79 who wore wrist accelerometers. Researchers counted each person’s total number of steps per day, and then placed them into two categories: Fewer than 40 steps per minute – which is more of an amble, like when you’re walking from room to room – and more than 40 steps per minute, or so-called “purposeful” walking. The researchers also analyzed peak performers – those who took the most steps within 30 minutes over the course of a day (although those 30 minutes did not have to occur on the same walk).

Researchers then compared that person’s steps against their diagnosis of dementia of any type seven years later. After controlling for age, ethnicity, education, sex, socio-emotional status and how many days they wore an accelerometer, researchers also factored out such lifestyle variables as poor diet, smoking, alcohol use, medication use, sleep issues and a history of cardiovascular disease.

The study did have some limitations, its authors point out – it was only observational, so it cannot establish a direct cause and effect between walking and a lower risk of dementia. In addition, “the age range of participants may have resulted in limited dementia cases, meaning our results may not be generalizable to older populations,” the study said.

“Because there are often considerable delays in dementia diagnosis, and this study did not include formal clinical and cognitive assessments of dementia, it is possible that the prevalence of dementia in the community was much higher,” the authors added.

While agreeing that the findings cannot be interpreted as a direct cause and effect, “the mounting evidence in support of the benefits of physical activity for maintaining optimal brain health can no longer be disregarded,” wrote Okonkwo and Planalp.

“It is time for the management of physical inactivity to be considered an intrinsic part of routine primary care visits for older adults,” they added.

Research adds up

Indeed, recent research published in July has found many leisure activities, such as household chores, exercise, adult education classes and visiting with family and friends, affected dementia risk in middle-aged people.

Adults who were highly engaged in physical activity such as frequent exercise had a 35% lower risk of developing dementia compared with people who were the least engaged in these activities, researchers found.

Regularly doing household chores lowered risk by 21% while daily visits with family and friends lowered the risk of dementia by 15%, when compared with people who were less engaged.

Everyone in the study benefited from the protective effect of physical and mental activities, whether or not they had a family history of dementia, researchers found.

Another study published in January found that exercise may slow dementia in active older people whose brains already showed signs of plaques, tangles and other hallmarks of Alzheimer’s and other cognitive diseases.

That study found exercise boosts levels of a protein known to strengthen communication between brain cells via synapses, which may be a key factor in keeping dementia at bay.

“Dementia is preventable to a great extent,” said del Pozo Cruz. “Physical activity as well as other lifestyle behaviors such lack of alcohol and smoking, maintaining a healthy diet and weight and sleep can put you on the right track to avoid dementia.”

Walking can lower risk of early death, but there's more to it than ...

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Put on your walking shoes and don’t forget your step counter: You can reduce your risk for cancer, heart disease and early death by getting up to 10,000 steps a day, but any amount of walking helps, according to a new study.

Health benefits rose with every step, the study found, but peaked at 10,000 steps – after that the effects faded. Counting steps may be especially important for people who do unstructured, unplanned physical activity such as house work, gardening and dog walks.

“Notably, we detected an association between incidental steps (steps taken to go about daily life) and a lower risk of both cancer and heart disease,” noted study coauthor Borja del Pozo Cruz, an adjunct associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark, and senior researcher in health sciences for the University of Cadiz in Spain.

“By and large, I think the study is well done and it certainly continues to add to the foundation of knowledge that tells us exercise is good stuff,” said Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado. He was not involved in the research.

“Physical activity is just absolutely magnificent,” Freeman said. “And when if you blend that with eating a more plant-based diet, de-stressing, sleeping enough and connecting with others – that’s your magic recipe. It’s the fountain of youth, if you will.”

Walking helps dementia too

Del Pozo Cruz and his team recently published a similar study that found walking 10,000 steps a day lowered risk for dementia by 50%. Risk decreased by 25% with as few as 3,800 steps a day, according to the previous study.

However, if walking occurred at a brisk pace of 112 steps a minute for 30 minutes, it maximized risk reduction, leading to a 62% reduction in dementia risk. The 30 minutes of fast-paced walking didn’t have to occur all at once, either – it could be spread out over the day.

“Our take is that intensity of stepping matters – over and above volume,” said del Pozo Cruz via email.

The new study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, followed 78,500 people between the ages of 40 and 79 from England, Scotland and Wales who wore wrist step counters for 24 hours a day over a seven day stretch.

After counting each person’s total number of steps each day, researchers placed them into two categories: Fewer than 40 steps per minute – which is more of an amble, like when you’re walking from room to room – and more than 40 steps per minute, or so-called “purposeful” walking.

A third category was created for peak performers – those who took the most steps per minute within 30 minutes over the course of a day (although, again, those 30 minutes did not have to occur in sequence).

About seven years later, researchers compared that data to medical records and found people who took the most steps per minute – in this case, approximately 80 steps per minute – showed the biggest reduction in risk for cancer, heart disease and early death from any cause.

Researchers found the association between peak 30-minute steps and risk reduction to be dependent on the disease studied.

“We observed a 62% reduction for dementia: This figure was almost 80% for CVD mortality and incidence and much less (approx. 20%) for cancer,” del Pozo Cruz said via email.

“This may be related with specific pathways by which physical activity is beneficial,” he said. “It pushes the body in general: can generate more muscle, a bigger heart and a better fitness, all of which are known protective factors for cardiovascular disease and cancer, and other health issues too.”

Get breathless

What’s the takeaway? You don’t have to fixate on the numbers of steps (unless you really want to), Freeman said.

“Does every step count? Absolutely. And we know that brisk walking each day brings on extra benefits in terms of blood pressure reduction and cardiovascular training and so forth,” said Freeman, who was the founding chair of the American College of Cardiology’s Nutrition & Lifestyle workgroup.

“But the truth is, the same goal has always applied: Challenge yourself at whatever fitness level you’re at. Obviously check with your doctor first, but your goal is to become breathless for 30 minutes each day.”

What is breathlessness as it applies to exercise? It’s not gasping and panting so hard you can barely breathe. Instead, breathlessness is when you are walking with someone, they talk to you, and you have a bit of trouble talking back, Freeman said.

“Spend 30 minutes being breathless at whatever pace you’re at, and then keep challenging yourself to be slightly unsatisfied at your current level so you can get better and better,” Freeman said.

Being more physically active often jumpstarts other healthy habits, such as an improved diet, and discourages unhealthy ones, such as smoking, he added.

Just 2 minutes of walking after eating can help blood sugar, study says

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For centuries, people in the sunny Mediterranean would get up after long, leisurely meals and take a walk, often to the town square to see neighbors and socialize. Walking is so much a part of that lifestyle it is listed as a foundation of the über-healthy Mediterranean diet.

That may be one of the reasons studies have found the Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk for diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, stroke and some cancers – all the while strengthening bones, improving brain health, warding off dementia and depression and helping with healthy weight loss.

Now you can add another reason to take a post-meal stroll – it may lower your blood sugar.

That excursion doesn’t need to take up a huge amount of your time either: Walking as little as two to five minutes after a meal can do the trick, according to a 2022 study in the journal Sports Medicine.

Standing after a meal can help, too, but not as much as putting one foot in front of the other, said study coauthor Aidan Buffey, a doctoral student in the physical education and sport sciences department at the University of Limerick in Ireland.

Going for a short walk after eating may help control your blood sugar. Siam Pukkato/Adobe Stock

“Intermittent standing breaks throughout the day and after meals reduced glucose on average by 9.51% compared to prolonged sitting. However, intermittent light-intensity walking throughout the day saw a greater reduction of glucose by an average of 17.01% compared to prolonged sitting,” Buffey told CNN via email.

“This suggests that breaking prolonged sitting with standing and light-walking breaks throughout the day is beneficial for glucose levels,” he added.

Standing is good, but walking is better

The meta-analysis, published in February, analyzed seven studies comparing the impact of sitting, standing and walking on the body’s insulin and blood sugar levels. People in the studies were asked either to stand or walk for two to five minutes every 20 to 30 minutes over the course of a full day.

“Between the seven reviewed studies, the total activity time throughout the observation was roughly 28 minutes with the standing and light walking breaks lasting between 2 to 5 minutes,” Buffey said.

Standing was better than heading straight for the desk or the couch to sit when it came to blood sugar levels, but it didn’t help lower insulin in the bloodstream, the analysis found.

However, if people went for a short walk after eating, their blood sugar levels rose and fell more gradually, and their insulin levels were more stable than either standing or sitting, the study noted.

Keeping blood sugars from spiking is good for the body as large spikes and fast falls can raise the risk for diabetes and heart disease, experts say. Studies have shown blood sugar levels will spike within 60 to 90 minutes after eating, so it’s best to get moving soon after finishing a meal.

How does movement help? Muscles need glucose to function, so movement helps clear sugars from the bloodstream – that’s the reason why many runners rely on carbo-loading before a marathon or race, for example.

Want to get more out of your efforts than lower blood sugars? Step up your game to meet the minimum physical activity standards for Americans: 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity and two days of muscle strengthening activity a week.

“People who are physically active for about 150 minutes a week have a 33% lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who are physically inactive,” the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes.

Translated, that means if you get up and move for just 21.43 minutes each day of the week, you cut your risk of dying from anything by one-third.

That’s worth the effort, right?

It doesn't take a lot of exercise to fight depression, study says | CNN

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Get up and move – even small doses of physical activity, such as brisk walking, may substantially lower the risk of depression, according to a new data analysis.

“Most benefits are realized when moving from no activity to at least some,” the study authors wrote.

Recommended levels of exercise in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, include aerobic activity at moderate levels (such as a brisk walk) for 2.5 hours a week, along with a workout of all major muscle groups twice a week.

Alternatively, a person can choose a vigorous aerobic exercise, such as running, for 1.25 hours each week, along with the same amount of strength training.

Moderate to vigorous exercise is good for us, according to the CDC. It improves sleep; lowers blood pressure; protects against heart disease, diabetes and cancer; reduces stress; boosts mood; and fights anxiety and depression.

But in today’s busy world, many people find it difficult to fit in a jog or a visit to the gym. Add depression to the mix, and the motivation for exercise drops even further, experts say.

About 1.25 hours of brisk walking per week could yield an 18% lower risk of depression compared with not exercising, according to a new meta-analysis. Adobe Stock

Every little bit helps

The meta-analysis, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, looked at 15 studies involving over 190,000 people to determine how much exercise was needed to reduce depression.

Adults who did activities equivalent to 1.25 hours of brisk walking per week had an 18% lower risk of depression compared with those who did not exercise, the study said.

Moving up to an “activity volume equivalent to 2.5 hours of brisk walking per week was associated with 25% lower risk of depression,” the study authors said.

The benefits were strongest when a person transitioned from being a couch potato to adding movement to the day, the study said. However, exercising over the recommended levels did not provide any additional benefits.

“Our findings therefore have important new implications for health practitioners making lifestyle recommendations, especially to inactive individuals who may perceive the current recommended target (of exercise) as unrealistic,” the authors wrote.

Prior research

A study published in 2018 found similar results: People who exercised had about 43% fewer days of poor mental health.

“Even just walking just three times a week seems to give people better mental health than not exercising at all,” study author Adam Chekroud, an assistant adjunct professor of psychiatry at Yale University, told CNN at the time.

Exercising in 45-minute sessions three to five times a week was the most beneficial for improving mental health, the 2018 study found. However, even doing household chores reduced poor mental health days by about 10%, the study said.

A study published in 2020 found that even light exercise helped protect children against developing depression. The 2020 study revealed that 60 minutes of simple movement each day at age 12 was linked to an average 10% reduction in depression at age 18.

The types of movement included running, biking and walking, as well as activities like doing chores, painting or playing an instrument.