Tai Chi has been widely practiced as a Chinese martial art that focuses on slow sequential movements, providing a smooth, continuous and low intensity activity. It has been promoted to improve balance and strength and to reduce falls in the elderly, especially those 'at risk'. The potential benefits in healthy younger age cohorts and for wider aspects of health have received less attention. The...

background : regular physical activity is important for midlife women. models and theories help better understanding this behavior among middle-aged women and better planning for change behavior in target group. this study aimed to investigate predictive factors of regular physical activity among middle-aged women based on precede model as a theoretical framework. methods : this descriptive-ana...

BACKGROUND In sedentary humans endothelium-dependent vasodilation is impaired with advancing age contributing to their increased cardiovascular risk, whereas endurance-trained adults demonstrate lower age-related risk. We determined the influence of regular aerobic exercise on the age-related decline in endothelium-dependent vasodilation. METHODS AND RESULTS In a cross-sectional study, 68 hea...

Advancing age is a major risk factor for coronary artery disease. Endothelial dysfunction accompanied by increased oxidative stress and inflammation with aging may predispose older arteries to greater ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. Because coronary artery ischemia cannot be induced safely, the effects of age and habitual endurance exercise on endothelial I/R injury have not been determined ...

Background. Sedentary behavior is emerging as an important risk factor for poor health. Physical activity has proven to be important in determining overall successful aging (SA) among older adults; however, no data exists on the influence of sedentary behavior on SA. The purpose of this analysis was to determine whether there is an association between sedentary behavior and successful aging, in...

The increasing prevalence of obesity and sedentary lifestyles has led to an increased incidence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) worldwide. In Taiwan, middle-aged women are at a greater risk of MetS, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease than men are because they have more subcutaneous fat and larger waist circumferences compared to men with equal visceral fat levels. This study investigated ...

BACKGROUND A reduction in compliance of the large-sized cardiothoracic (central) arteries is an independent risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease with advancing age. METHODS AND RESULTS We determined the role of habitual exercise on the age-related decrease in central arterial compliance by using both cross-sectional and interventional approaches. First, we studied 151 hea...

BACKGROUND The intensity of physical activity has been found to be inversely related to adherence, thus contributing to the problem of physical inactivity. Although most physical activity is unsupervised and participants, therefore, self-select the intensity, very little is known about the level of intensity that they select. We hypothesized that participants would select, on average, an intens...