Physical Activity for a Healthy Weight

Regular physical activity is important for good health, and it's especially important if you're trying to lose weight or to maintain a healthy weight.

When losing weight, more physical activity increases the number of calories your body uses for energy or "burns off." The burning of calories through physical activity, combined with reducing the number of calories you eat, creates a "calorie deficit" that results in weight loss.

Most weight loss occurs because of decreased caloric intake. However, evidence shows the only way to maintain weight loss is to be engaged in regular physical activity.

Most importantly, physical activity reduces risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes beyond that produced by weight reduction alone.
Physical activity also helps to:

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  Maintain weight.
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  Reduce high blood pressure.
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  Reduce risk for type 2 diabetes, heart attack, stroke, and several forms of cancer.
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  Reduce arthritis pain and associated disability.
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  Reduce risk for osteoporosis and falls.
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  Reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.

How much physical activity do I need?
When it comes to weight management, people vary greatly in how much physical activity they need. Here are some guidelines to follow:

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  To maintain your weight: Work your way up to 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, or an equivalent mix of the two each week. Strong scientific evidence shows that physical activity can help you maintain your weight over time. However, the exact amount of physical activity needed to do this is not clear since it varies greatly from person to person. It's possible that you may need to do more than the equivalent of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week to maintain your weight.
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  To lose weight and keep it off: You will need a high amount of physical activity unless you also adjust your diet and reduce the amount of calories you're eating and drinking. Getting to and staying at a healthy weight requires both regular physical activity and a healthy eating plan.

What do moderate- and vigorous-intensity mean?
Moderate: While performing the physical activity, if your breathing and heart rate is noticeably faster but you can still carry on a conversation — it's probably moderately intense. Examples include:

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  Walking briskly (a 15-minute mile).
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  Light yard work (raking/bagging leaves or using a lawn mower).
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  Light snow shoveling.
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  Actively playing with children.
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  Biking at a casual pace.

Vigorous: Your heart rate is increased substantially and you are breathing too hard and fast to have a conversation, it's probably vigorously intense. Examples include:

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  Jogging/running.
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  Swimming laps.
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  Rollerblading/inline skating at a brisk pace.
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  Cross-country skiing.
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  Most competitive sports (football, basketball, or soccer).
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  Jumping rope.

Calories burned per hour will be higher for persons who weigh more than 154 lbs (70 kg) and lower for persons who weigh less.

Adapted from Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005

Important Health Benefits

For Important Health Benefits Adults need at least:

2 hours and 30 minutes (150 minutes) of moderate-intensity aerobic activity (i.e., brisk walking) every week and muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms).

1 hour and 15 minutes (75 minutes) of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity (i.e., jogging or running) every week and muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms).

An equivalent mix of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity and muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms).

We know 150 minutes each week sounds like a lot of time, but you don't have to do it all at once. Not only is it best to spread your activity out during the week, but you can break it up into smaller chunks of time during the day. As long as you're doing your activity at a moderate or vigorous effort for at least 10 minutes at a time.

Give it a try

Try going for a 10-minute brisk walk, 3 times a day, 5 days a week. This will give you a total of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity.

For Even Greater Health Benefits Adults should increase their activity to:

5 hours (300 minutes) each week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity and muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms).

2 hours and 30 minutes (150 minutes) each week of vigrous-intensity aerobic activity and muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms).

An equivalent mix of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity and muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms).

CDC

National Home and Hospice Care Data

The National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS) is a continuing series of surveys of home and hospice care agencies in the United States. Information was collected about agencies that provide home and hospice care and about their current patients and discharges. The NHHCS is based on a probability sample of home health agencies and hospices. The survey includes all agencies that are licensed or certified (Medicare of Medicaid).

Home health agencies and hospices are usually defined in terms of the type of care they provide. Home health care is provided to individuals and families in their place of residence for the purpose of promoting, maintaining, or restoring health or for maximizing the level of independence while minimizing the effects of disability and illness, including terminal illness. Hospice care is defined as a program of palliative and supportive care services providing physical, psychological, social, and spiritual care for dying persons, their families, and other loved ones. Hospice services are available in both home and inpatient settings.

Data are collected through personal interviews with administrators and staff.

Data are collected on referral and length of service, diagnoses, number of visits, patient charges, health status, reason for discharge, and types of services provided.

CDC

National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)

The National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) is a secure, internet-based surveillance system that integrates patient and healthcare personnel safety surveillance systems managed by the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) at CDC.

The purposes of NHSN are to:

• Collect data from a sample of healthcare facilities in the United States to permit valid estimation of the magnitude of adverse events among patients and healthcare personnel.
• Collect data from a sample of healthcare facilities in the United States to permit valid estimation of the adherence to practices known to be associated with prevention of healthcare-associated infections (HAI).
• Analyze and report collected data to permit recognition of trends.
• Provide facilities with risk-adjusted data that can be used for interfacility comparisons and local quality improvement activities.
• Assist facilities in developing surveillance and analysis methods that permit timely recognition of patient and healthcare personnel safety problems and prompt intervention with appropriate measures.
• Conduct collaborative research studies with NHSN member facilities (e.g., describe the epidemiology of emerging HAI and pathogens, assess the importance of potential risk factors, further characterize HAI pathogens and their mechanisms of resistance, and evaluate alternative surveillance and prevention strategies).

One of the enhanced features of this surveillance system is that while maintaining data security, integrity, and confidentiality, NHSN has the capacity for healthcare facilities to share data in a timely manner:

• Between a facility and public health agencies
• Between facilities (e.g., multihospital system)

CDC initially opened NHSN enrollment to a limited number of facilities in 2005, followed by a national open enrollment for hospitals and outpatient hemodialysis centers in 2007. NHSN enables healthcare facilities to participate in a voluntary national surveillance system and to make use of recent advances in information technology. NHSN’s information technology architecture enables data exchanges in accordance with the standards adopted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the National Health Information Technology Initiative. The Patient Safety Component of NHSN allows entry of event and denominator data for both device-associated and procedure-associated events as well as data entry for microbiology susceptibility and antimicrobial use. The data analysis features of NHSN range from rate tables and graphs to statistical analysis that compares the healthcare facility’s rates with national performance measures.

NHSN will soon allow for the collection of healthcare worker influenza vaccination data through the Healthcare Personnel Safety Component. Additionally, modules will be available in the future through the Patient Safety Component that will focus on multidrug resistant organisms, central line insertion practices, and high-risk patient influenza vaccination.

CDC

Nanotechnology

NIOSH is the leading federal agency conducting research and providing guidance on the occupational safety and health implications and applications of nanotechnology. This research focuses NIOSH’s scientific expertise, and its efforts, on answering the questions that are essential to understanding these implications and applications:

• How might workers be exposed to nano-sized particles in the manufacturing or industrial use of nanomaterials?
• How do nanoparticles interact with the body’s systems?
• What effects might nanoparticles have on the body’s systems?

As part of this effort, NIOSH is conducting strategic planning and research, partnering with public and private-sector colleagues from the United States and abroad, and making the information and interim recommendations widely available. As observers generally agree, research to answer these questions is critical for maintaining U.S. competitiveness in the growing and dynamic nanotechnology market.

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

Naegleria Infection

Naegleria (nigh-GLEER-e-uh) is an ameba commonly found in the environment in water and soil. Infection of humans is rare but serious. To prevent infection with Naegleria, precautions should be taken to ensure that water does not enter the nose when participating in recreational water sports.

CDC

Mycobacterium abscessus

What is Mycobacterium abscessus?

Mycobacterium abscessus is a bacterium distantly related to the ones that cause tuberculosis and leprosy. It is part of a group known as rapidly growing mycobacteria and is found in water, soil and dust. It has been known to contaminate medications and products, including medical devices.

What type of infection does it cause?

M. abscessus can cause a variety of serious infections that require medical attention. Infections due to this bacterium are usually of the skin and the soft tissues under the skin. It has been rarely known to cause lung infection in persons with various chronic lung diseases.

How can this infection be transmitted?

Infection with M. abscessus is usually caused by injections of substances contaminated with the bacterium or through invasive medical procedures employing contaminated equipment or material. Infection can also occur after accidental injury where the wound is contaminated by soil. It cannot be transmitted from person to person.

How do I know if I have an infection with M. abscessus?

A medical doctor should evaluate the infection to determine if it may be due to M. abscessus. Skin infected with M. abscessus, is usually red, warm, tender to the touch, swollen, and/or painful. Infected areas can also develop boils or pus-filled vesicles. Other signs of M. abscessus infection are fever, chills, muscle aches, and a general feeling of illness. However, for a definite diagnosis, the organism has to be cultured from the infection site.

How is this infection diagnosed?

Diagnosis is made by growing this bacterium in the laboratory from a sample of the pus or biopsy of the infected area. When the infection is severe the bacterium can be found in the blood and isolated from a blood sample. To make the diagnosis, your doctor will have to take a sample from the infected area and/or blood and send it to a laboratory for identification. It is important that persons who have any evidence of infection at a site where they received procedures, such as surgery or injections, let their doctors know, so the appropriate tests can be done.

How can M. abscessus infection be treated?

Treatment of infections due to M. abscessus consists of draining collections of pus and administering the appropriate combination of antibiotics for a prolonged period of time. Infection with this bacterium usually does not improve with the usual antibiotics used to treat skin infections. Testing the bacteria against different antibiotics is helpful in guiding doctors to the most appropriate treatment for each patient.

If I have this infection, can I transmit it to my family and friends?

No, there is very little risk of transmitting this infection to other people. You should wash your hands carefully with soap and water after touching or caring for the infected site.

How can I prevent an infection with this bacterium?

Avoid receiving procedures or injections by unlicensed persons and avoid receiving injections with products not licensed for use in this country by the Food and Drug Administration.

National Center for Preparedness

Vaccine Safety

How many vaccines does CDC recommend for children?

Currently, CDC recommends vaccination against 14 vaccine-preventable diseases. Because some of these vaccines have to be administered more than once, a child may receive up to 23 shots by the time he or she is 2 years of age. Depending on the timing, a child might receive up to six shots during one visit to the doctor.

Why does CDC recommend that children receive so many shots?

Vaccines are our best defense against many diseases, which often result in serious complications such as pneumonia, meningitis (swelling of the lining of the brain), liver cancer, bloodstream infections, and even death. CDC recommends vaccination to protect children against 14 infectious diseases including measles, mumps, rubella (German measles), varicella (chickenpox), hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib), polio, influenza (flu), and pneumococcal disease.

Why are these vaccines given at such a young age? Wouldn’t it be safer to wait?

Children are given vaccines at a young age because this is when they are most vulnerable to certain diseases. Newborn babies are immune to some diseases because they have antibodies given to them from their mothers. However, this immunity only lasts about a year. Further, most young children do not have maternal immunity to diphtheria, whooping cough, polio, tetanus, hepatitis B, or Hib. If a child is not vaccinated and is exposed to a disease germ, the child’s body may not be strong enough to fight the disease.

An infant’s immune system is more than ready to respond to the very small number of weakened and killed antigens in vaccines. Babies have the capacity to respond to foreign antigens even before they are born. The human immune system has evolved since organisms began living on Earth and represents a culmination of the “best” of this experience. Just as babies are born with a full-length digestive system that simply stretches as the baby grows, they also are born with a well developed immune system that can produce a variety of needed antibodies. However, infants lack the memory cells trained to defend against specific diseases. Because of this, they are particularly susceptible to diseases such as diphtheria, whooping cough, polio, tetanus, hepatitis B, and Hib. This is an important reason why the recommended childhood vaccination schedule begins so early—to prevent the diseases that children are susceptible to at such a young age.

I’ve heard people talk about “simultaneous” and “combination” vaccines. What does this mean? Why are vaccines administered this way?

“Simultaneous vaccination” is when multiple vaccines are administered during the same doctor’s visit, usually in separate limbs (e.g., one in each arm). A “combination vaccine” consists of two or more separate vaccines that have been combined into a single shot. Combination vaccines have been in use in the United States since the mid-1940s. Examples of combination vaccines in current use are: DTaP (diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis), trivalent IPV (three strains of inactivated polio vaccine), MMR (measles-mumps-rubella), DTaP-Hib, and Hib-HepB (hepatitis B).

Giving a child several vaccinations during the same visit offers two practical advantages. First, we want to immunize children as quickly as possible to give them protection during the vulnerable early months of their lives. Second, giving several vaccinations at the same time means fewer office visits, which saves parents both time and money and may be less traumatic for the child.

Is simultaneous vaccination with multiple vaccines safe? Wouldn’t it be safer to separate combination vaccines and spread them out, vaccinating against just one disease at a time?

The available scientific data show that simultaneous vaccination with multiple vaccines has no adverse effect on the normal childhood immune system. A number of studies have been conducted to examine the effects of giving various combinations of vaccines simultaneously. These studies have shown that the recommended vaccines are as effective in combination as they are individually, and that such combinations carry no greater risk for adverse side effects. Consequently, both the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend simultaneous administration of all routine childhood vaccines when appropriate. Research is underway to find methods to combine more antigens in a single vaccine injection (for example, MMR and chickenpox). This will provide all the advantages of the individual vaccines, but will require fewer shots.

Another advantage is that combination vaccines result in fewer shots and less discomfort for children. In addition, spreading out the administration of separate vaccines may leave children unnecessarily vulnerable to disease.

Can so many vaccines, given so early in life, overwhelm a child’s immune system, suppressing it so it does not function correctly?

No evidence suggests that the recommended childhood vaccines can “overload” the immune system. In contrast, from the moment babies are born, they are exposed to numerous bacteria and viruses on a daily basis. Eating food introduces new bacteria into the body; numerous bacteria live in the mouth and nose; and an infant places his or her hands or other objects in his or her mouth hundreds of times every hour, exposing the immune system to still more antigens. An upper respiratory viral infection exposes a child to 4 to 10 antigens, and a case of “strep throat” to 25 to 50.

Adverse Events Associated with Childhood Vaccines, a 1994 report from the Institute of Medicine, states: “In the face of these normal events, it seems unlikely that the number of separate antigens contained in childhood vaccines … would represent an appreciable added burden on the immune system that would be immunosuppressive.”

CDC

Vaccines & Immunizations

Chemicals commonly used in the production of vaccines include a suspending fluid (sterile water, saline, or fluids containing protein); preservatives and stabilizers (for example, albumin, phenols, and glycine); and adjuvants or enhancers that help improve the vaccine’s effectiveness. Vaccines also may contain very small amounts of the culture material used to grow the virus or bacteria used in the vaccine, such as chicken egg protein.

Millions of doses of vaccines are administered to children in this country each year. Ensuring that those vaccines are potent, sterile, and safe requires the addition of minute amounts of chemical additives.

Chemicals are added to vaccines to inactivate a virus or bacteria and stabilize the vaccine, helping to preserve the vaccine and prevent it from losing its potency over time.

The amount of chemical additives found in vaccines is very small.

All routinely recommended pediatric vaccines manufactured for the U.S. market contain no thimerosal or only trace amounts.

CDC

Epstein-Barr Virus and Infectious Mononucleosis

Epstein-Barr virus, frequently referred to as EBV, is a member of the herpesvirus family and one of the most common human viruses. The virus occurs worldwide, and most people become infected with EBV sometime during their lives. In the United States, as many as 95% of adults between 35 and 40 years of age have been infected. Infants become susceptible to EBV as soon as maternal antibody protection (present at birth) disappears. Many children become infected with EBV, and these infections usually cause no symptoms or are indistinguishable from the other mild, brief illnesses of childhood. In the United States and in other developed countries, many persons are not infected with EBV in their childhood years. When infection with EBV occurs during adolescence or young adulthood, it causes infectious mononucleosis 35% to 50% of the time.

Symptoms of infectious mononucleosis are fever, sore throat, and swollen lymph glands. Sometimes, a swollen spleen or liver involvement may develop. Heart problems or involvement of the central nervous system occurs only rarely, and infectious mononucleosis is almost never fatal. There are no known associations between active EBV infection and problems during pregnancy, such as miscarriages or birth defects. Although the symptoms of infectious mononucleosis usually resolve in 1 or 2 months, EBV remains dormant or latent in a few cells in the throat and blood for the rest of the person’s life. Periodically, the virus can reactivate and is commonly found in the saliva of infected persons. This reactivation usually occurs without symptoms of illness.

EBV also establishes a lifelong dormant infection in some cells of the body’s immune system. A late event in a very few carriers of this virus is the emergence of Burkitt’s lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma, two rare cancers that are not normally found in the United States. EBV appears to play an important role in these malignancies, but is probably not the sole cause of disease.

Most individuals exposed to people with infectious mononucleosis have previously been infected with EBV and are not at risk for infectious mononucleosis. In addition, transmission of EBV requires intimate contact with the saliva (found in the mouth) of an infected person. Transmission of this virus through the air or blood does not normally occur. The incubation period, or the time from infection to appearance of symptoms, ranges from 4 to 6 weeks. Persons with infectious mononucleosis may be able to spread the infection to others for a period of weeks. However, no special precautions or isolation procedures are recommended, since the virus is also found frequently in the saliva of healthy people. In fact, many healthy people can carry and spread the virus intermittently for life. These people are usually the primary reservoir for person-to-person transmission. For this reason, transmission of the virus is almost impossible to prevent.

The clinical diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis is suggested on the basis of the symptoms of fever, sore throat, swollen lymph glands, and the age of the patient. Usually, laboratory tests are needed for confirmation. Serologic results for persons with infectious mononucleosis include an elevated white blood cell count, an increased percentage of certain atypical white blood cells, and a positive reaction to a “mono spot” test.

There is no specific treatment for infectious mononucleosis, other than treating the symptoms. No antiviral drugs or vaccines are available. Some physicians have prescribed a 5-day course of steroids to control the swelling of the throat and tonsils. The use of steroids has also been reported to decrease the overall length and severity of illness, but these reports have not been published.

It is important to note that symptoms related to infectious mononucleosis caused by EBV infection seldom last for more than 4 months. When such an illness lasts more than 6 months, it is frequently called chronic EBV infection. However, valid laboratory evidence for continued active EBV infection is seldom found in these patients. The illness should be investigated further to determine if it meets the criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS. This process includes ruling out other causes of chronic illness or fatigue.

CDC

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