Active Transportation Leads to a Leaner Nation

Sometimes the obviousness of the research is …uh…OBVIOUS! Researchers have found a link between the nations that have the highest levels of “active transportation” (biking, walking, or public transit) and the lowest rates of obesity. This was reported on MSNBC in the article, Leaner nations, bike, walk, and use mass transit.

So I know what your thinking, “How could this be? The more we move, the more chance we won’t be fat?!?! What kind of bad science is this?” Well, according to the research, those that used active transportation in Latvia, Sweden, and the Netherlands were 67 %, 62 %, and 52 % respectively. Their rates for obesity were 14 % in Latvia, 11 % in Sweden, and 9 % in the Netherlands. What the heck are they doing over there to only have 9 %?

By comparison, in the U.S., only 12 % use active transit and we have anywhere from one-quarter to one-third of the population falling into the obese range. For those of us who live around the Washington Metropolitan area, as the suburban sprawl make commutes longer and longer, I would agree that we need to move more, but I’m not quite sure we have developed a country infrastructure that supports this.

The county that I live in are now just really getting to the point that bike lanes are readily available and the local area is more setup for active transit. Those that live here, but commute to Washington to work, would have to leave about 3 a.m. to get there on time. Who needs sleep when you can be biking to work for three hours in the morning?

Hopefully, as oil issues become ever more difficult and as the obesity epidemic increases, the new administration will look at developing more of the country’s infrastructure to support active transit and “kill two birds with one stone”.

Happiness is Contagious (Scientifically Proven!)

The Boston Globe reported on December 5th in the article A new reason to be happy: it may go a long way that a study found that our happiness may have extended effects not only to our friends and family, but to people we don’t even know.

Researchers from Harvard University collected data from 4,739 over the course of 2 decades to look at the extent of happiness and their conclusion is that happiness is passed on to more than just your immediate social network. The effect ripples through your extended social network to people who may even be strangers. Just to put some numbers behind this, they say that a happy friend who lives within a mile of you boosts your chance of being happy by 25%, and a sibling by 14%.

Now for many this research is somewhat controversial while for others who look at the way the world works, this falls more under the category of “duh”! If you look at religious or spiritual movements, you’ll see this understanding in place. I had a boss a few years back that talked about our work with developing students and how we were creating a “ripple effect”.

If you want to know more about the ripple effect, you can read about it on Wikipedia. The basic concept is that your intentions and actions you put out into the world spread. They spread outwardly like the ripples in a pond when you thrown in a pebble. At some point, you don’t see the ripples anymore, but they are still there, moving and traveling, to places you may never go and see. Thanks Dave for getting me to understand it!

Even Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a coauthor of the study and a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School, understands the concept:

Your happiness is not just about your own choices and actions and behaviors and thoughts. It’s like there are emotional stampedes that ripple across this infinite fabric of humanity.

While, as most of you who know me really will know, I am not trying to get all “touchy-feely”, but during this holiday season maybe the gift we can give to ours kids …our friends …and the world is a better place in which to live. The first way to start is by clarifying what we are giving to it. To see a little movie on this, you can go to this YouTube video, The Ripple Effect:The Heartbeat to Eternity and give it a watch.

The second step … CLICK HERE!!! You had to know that was coming!

My wish for all of you this holiday season is a life full of joy and happiness!