Were you on the tennis team in high school? Did you swim, or run track? Perhaps you spent hours each afternoon in dance class, or maybe the weight room.

If so, here’s some good news: All that exercise during adolescence may have protected you against dementia in old age.

Researchers already knew that older people who were physically active were less likely to become cognitively impaired than their couch-potato counterparts. Some studies have shown that workouts during middle age also have a protective effect.

Researchers from Ontario and San Francisco wondered just how far back the effect stretched. They asked 9,395 women 65 or older about their exercise habits during their teens, at age 30, at age 50 and the present day. (Activities like gardening also counted.)

Sure enough, women who were physically active at each point in life got higher scores on a cognition test than women who were inactive. When all ages were combined together into a single model that also included factors like education, smoking habits and body-mass index, the only time when exercise really seemed to matter was during the teenage years.

Unfortunately, those who were focused on sedentary pursuits (video games, debate team) in high school can’t go back in time and join JV soccer. But the researchers found that becoming active at older ages was still better than nothing. The women who began exercising by age 30 and kept it up for at least 20 years were still able to cut their risk of cognitive decline in half compared with the women who never caught the exercise bug. The study's results were published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

What accounts for the special power of teen exercise? The researchers aren’t sure, but they offered some theories. Adolescents who are physically active have better cognitive performance, and good cognitive performance during youth has been linked to better brain function in old age. Perhaps the exercise helps teens build a “cognitive reserve” for later life, the researchers wrote.

Another possibility is that exercise during the teen years helps stave off chronic medical conditions like obesity, Type 2 diabetes and hypertension that also carry a greater risk of cognitive decline.

“Physical activity should be encouraged from early life and across the life course to minimize the risk of cognitive impairment in old age,” the study concluded.

-- Karen Kaplan

Photo: These students from Chino Hills High are setting themselves up to be mentally sharp in their old age. Credit: Gina Ferazzi, Los Angeles Times

Some people use yoga to strengthen, stretch and relax muscles; others delve into its lifestyle and spiritual aspects. Here are three new books with varying approaches to the 5,000-year-old practice.

“The No Om Zone” bills itself as a “no-chanting, no-granola, no-Sanskrit practical guide to yoga.” This book by Kimberly Fowler, founder of the L.A.-based YAS Fitness Centers, is geared to athletes and others who want to improve muscle tone and flexibility, take away aches, alleviate pain and calm the mind. Fowler promises you won’t have to go sit on a mountaintop and chant to achieve these results.

The former triathlete started doing yoga in 1983 to rehabilitate after an injury and became a fan after seeing the benefits to her body and athletic performance. She was turned off, however, by "elitist" classes targeted to the few who could do pretzel poses and handstands. Today, the motto in her yoga classes is “safe, fun and effective.”

Her book offers short workouts for 13 parts of the body, including the neck, arms, core/abs, lower back, hips and knees. Each body part gets its own chapter describing and showing the anatomy of the area, common injuries, recommended yoga poses for it and a workout routine typically lasting about 10 minutes. Poses are accompanied by photos, step-by-step guides, difficulty ratings, descriptions of benefits, tips and modifications to make them easier.

Fowler does manage to slip some mind-body material into the book. The first body part addressed is the head, for example, and here she talks about the benefits and practice of meditation and describes how to do yoga breathing.

This is a good book for those who want yoga workouts targeted to individual body areas as opposed to a one-size-fits-all workout. Fowler also offers a "No Om Zone" DVD containing three 15-minute workouts.

“The Yoga Body Diet,” by Kristen Schultz Dollard and John Douillard, is everything “The No Om Zone” is not. Not only is it not a no-granola book, it even includes recipes for granola.

Dollard, digital director at Self magazine, is a yoga teacher and former editor of iyogalife.com. Douillard directs LifeSpa, an ayurvedic retreat center in Boulder, Colo., and has written and produced numerous health and fitness books, CDs and DVDs.

Their pretty book – generously illustrated with colorful pen-and-ink drawings – says it can help you get a “yoga body” in four weeks through eating, exercising and de-stressing according to the principles of yoga and ayurveda.

The book describes ayurveda as yoga’s sister science, one of the world’s oldest medical systems practiced by 80% of India’s population today. Dollard and Douillard say their mission is to present “ayurveda’s greatest hits” and teach you how to use it for weight loss.

“Yoga Body” kicks off with a quiz to determine what ayurvedic “type” you are: vata (airy), pitta (fiery) or kapha (earthy). Each type is told what kinds of foods to eat and avoid, yoga moves to do and lifestyle changes to make. Recipes for chai tea, pad Thai, roti pizza and other dishes include variations for each ayurvedic type.

The book’s illustrated yoga pose guide is easy to follow, with about 75 positions that range from the simple corpse pose to the more challenging revolved half-moon.

The book at times has the feel of an overly simplified greatest hits compilation as it offers its take on ayurvedic practices. Some of the recommendations – such as to stop snacking and eat only three meals a day – may not work for some or even have proven benefits. But those interested in the ayurvedic philosophy may find the book an approachable starting point to determine whether they want to go further into the practice.

“Healing Yoga for Neck & Shoulder Pain” zeroes in on the area of the body where many people feel the effects of stress. Author Carol Krucoff, a yoga therapist at Duke Integrative Medicine in Durham, N.C., writes that neck and shoulder tension, tightness and discomfort are the top complaints of her students. Krucoff says she’s been successful in helping people find lasting relief with yoga, though it doesn’t happen overnight.

Krucoff, a former Washington Post journalist, looks at the practice of yoga through this lens, exploring the science of neck pain and yoga; the anatomy of the spine, shoulders, neck, face and jaw; the role of stress and emotions in neck and shoulder pain; and the best postures for sitting and standing.

She explains how, where and when to do yoga; how to breathe properly; and how to do 38 poses to help the neck and shoulders. Simple line drawings illustrate the mostly gentle exercises. Some of the stretches can be done in an office chair. 

“Healing Yoga” is a good introduction for those who want to focus on this part of the body, or ease into yoga for physical reasons or lack of familiarity with the practice. The book’s production values are basic, but the writing is clear, informative and inspiring.

Krucoff writes that the best healing comes when people bring the lessons of yoga into their daily lives.

“Rather than muscle your way into a yoga pose, you learn to relax into it -- using the tools of gravity, patience, and the breath -- to allow the pose to deepen and unfold,” she says. “Over time, with regular practice, the lessons learned on the yoga mat begin to influence how you live in the world.”

-- Anne Colby

Photos, from top: "The No Om Zone: A No-Chanting, No-Granola, No-Sanskrit Practical Guide to Yoga," Kimberly Fowler, Rodale Books, $19.99; "The Yoga Body Diet: Slim and Sexy in 4 Weeks (Without the Stress), Kristen Schultz Dollard and John Douillard, Rodale Books, $21.99; "Healing Yoga for Neck & Shoulder Pain: Easy, Effective Practices for Releasing Tension & Relieving Pain," Carol Krucoff, New Harbinger Publications, $17.95

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Dara Torres was 41 when she won three silver medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, beating women years her junior and becoming the oldest swimming medalist in the history of the Games. Her wins were a victory for older athletes everywhere. 

In "Gold Medal Fitness," written with Billie Fitzpatrick, Torres answers the question many have asked her since: How did she do it?

Her new book -- a follow-up to her memoir, "Age Is Just a Number"  -- outlines the fitness program that she says remade her body and helped her win races long past the age at which most competitive swimmers hang up their goggles.

"Gold Medal Fitness" shows readers how to replicate her type of workouts and perhaps experience greater success in their own athletic endeavors. It describes the swimmer's approaches to goal-setting, diet and exercise; offers 35 days of simple menu plans; features pictures and descriptions of the kinds of exercises and stretches that are a mainstay of her workout; and gives tips on cardio and recovery.

Torres says she has become stronger, leaner and more efficient through a type of strength training she learned from Andy O'Brien that works on three planes of movement to strengthen core muscles. She says most exercise equipment is designed to strengthen one or two muscle groups at a time on a singular plane, whereas most life activities and sports work on multiple planes: up and down, forward and back, side to side and rotating top and bottom.

Though she says the "deceptively simple" exercises shown in her book can be done by people at any level of fitness, they do require equipment and a commitment to learning the proper form. Access to a gym -- as well as a workout partner or trainer -- is probably a given, since exercises call for a BOSU trainer, a Swiss ball, a medicine ball, dumbbells, a cable machine and an incline bench. 

Torres has attained her flexibility, she says, from a resistance stretching program called Ki-Hara that she learned from Steve Sierra and Anne Tierney. Ki-Hara incorporates eccentric training, which contracts and lengthens muscles at the same time. Torres says this type of training builds more muscle power, helps create fast-twitch muscles and speeds recovery. She says Ki-Hara has "literally changed" her body so that she's become faster in the pool and more in balance. These exercises don't require equipment, though a yoga mat, towel and Swiss ball can be used.

Attention, college students: Get off that shuttle bus and start walking to class.

You’re already eating a diet of mainly beer and pizza, staying up all hours of the night, and living in cramped, potentially germ-infested dorms. The last thing on your mind is whether you’re setting yourself up for future cardiovascular disease or Type 2 diabetes.

Now might be a good time to start thinking about it…

A new study by Tufts University scientists found that body fat percentages are not the only precursors to health problems later in life. A person's physical fitness may matter a lot more -- at least when it comes to developing cardiovascular disease or diabetes.

Motivated in part by the astounding growth rate of obesity amongst college students -- approximately 31% of U.S. college students are overweight or obese -- researchers at Tufts' Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy tracked the health and health-related behaviors of 564 male and female college students over a nine-year period. They tracked body fat, fitness level and risk factors such as cholesterol and blood glucose levels.

Their findings: Students who were physically fit -- regardless of their body fat content -- had lower blood triglycerides, higher HDL (the "good" cholesterol). That effect was especially marked in women.

The fitter students also had lower blood glucose levels, an effect that was especially marked in men.

The findings are important, says Jennifer M. Sacheck, one of the study authors, because they suggest that the roots of later disease may be laid down early. "Because most of these health problems show up more often later in life, most studies have focused on adults, and very few have been done on college populations or anyone younger," she said in a phone interview.

However, she added, because students won't be tracked through their lives, there's no way to guarantee that heart disease and diabetes actually will develop in those students who look like they're heading that way.

The study does suggest that maybe we should change the way we think about health -- basing it not so much on weight and body fat composition, but more on physical fitness and the frequency of exercise.

And, Sacheck says, the message has particular importance for college students who are known to be more careless and reckless with their health than other age groups:

"In college, you think you're invincible, at the peak of your health, and that your body can handle anything. But my message [in this study] is that even at this age your body is susceptible."

For those who have long cursed the Body Mass Index, which stratifies a person's health level based on weight and height equations, this study is heartening. Perhaps it's time to stop worrying about the number on the scale and whether you can still fit in  the jeans you wore in high school, and instead pat yourself on the back for running each morning. It might seem paradoxical, but being physically active and a bit pudgy might be better than skinny and unfit.   

Here's the study abstract (the full report is available for a fee) plus a news release from Tufts laying out the nuts and bolts of the research and its findings.

And here's a link to the website of physiologist Linda Bacon, one of the proponents of health at every size.

-- Jessie Schiewe

Photo credit: Los Angeles Times

The Information Age has not been kind to the dieter. The sheer volume of nutritional data available today can be overwhelming. And dietary advice seems to change with the season -- eat more carbs, don't eat carbs, count calories, don't count calories, cut back on fats, eat all the fats you want. Who can keep up?

NBC News chief medical editor, physician and author Dr. Nancy L. Snyderman attempts to bring some sanity to the table with her book "Diet Myths That Keep Us Fat," now out in paperback.

In it, she examines the many diet and nutrition beliefs floating around today -- some that she says are true and others that are anything but. She looks at popular weight-loss strategies and describes their origins, how they work, whether they're effective and how they stack up medically and nutritionally. 

Snyderman's perspective is both personal and professional. She writes about gaining the typical "freshman 15" when she started college -- and how she kept gaining until she eventually tipped the scales at 200 pounds. She experimented with fad diets to lose weight and spent years going up and down in weight. She writes, "I've starved myself, and I've pigged out; I've binged, dieted, skipped meals, and lived to tell about it."

She eventually saw a therapist and gained insight into her overeating. "Although I still consider myself a work in progress, I learned to lay the foundation for a healthier life, in much the same way I was laying a foundation for my medical career," she writes. Today she looks at food as fuel, eating foods she likes in moderation and letting herself indulge in treats now and then. She exercises regularly with activities that are convenient for her and that she enjoys. For her, this is an effective and healthy way to keep off the extra pounds.

It's this relaxed approach to eating and exercise that she brings to "Diet Myths." Written in a conversational style, the book is engaging even as it's discussing the glycemic index, the pros and cons of diet drugs and surgeries and how hormones can influence your hunger and weight.

One of Snyderman's major points is that calories do count. (High-protein, low-carb diets, she says, work primarily by restricting calories.) She offers easy ways to think about calories and keep track of them without feeling as if you're doing so. She does the same thing with carbs -- and emphasizes that because our bodies need them to function properly they shouldn't be eliminated from our diets.

Before we knew about the vast benefits of exercise for people with cancer, physical activity wasn't always recommended during or after treatment. But with a number of good studies showing the benefits of exercise, more health professionals are recommending activity for cancer patients. New national exercise guidelines for people with cancer are being released this week, emphasizing the advantages of movement for people with various types of cancer.

"We have to get doctors past the ideas that exercise is harmful to their cancer patients. There is a still a prevailing attitude out there that patients shouldn't push themselves during treatment, but our message -- avoid inactivity -- is essential," Kathryn Schmitz, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics and a member of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said in a news release.

Schmitz headed up a 13-person American College of Sports Medicine panel that devised the exercise recommendations based on a number of published studies looking at the safety and effectiveness of physical activity during and after cancer therapy. The panel focused on studies about exercise for people with breast, prostate, hematologic, colon and gynecologic cancers.

Research has shown that regular exercise can improve quality of life for many cancer patients, giving them more energy and making it less arduous to go through treatments such as chemotherapy.

Although the same 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity activity suggested for the general population is also recommended for people with cancer, the prescription is not one-size-fits-all. The panel noted that although most forms of moderate exercise, such as strength training, yoga and swimming, are good for cancer patients, exercise regimens should be tailored to accommodate fitness levels, diagnoses and safety requirements. Someone with a compromised immune system, for example, may be better off not exercising in a public gym.

Said Schmitz, "We now have a compelling body of high-quality evidence that exercise during and after treatment is safe and beneficial for these patients, even those undergoing complex procedures such as stem cell transplants. If physicians want to avoid doing harm, they need to incorporate these guidelines into their clinical practice in a systematic way."

Schmitz will present the guidelines Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.

-- Jeannine Stein

Photo credit: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

Many men turn to a little pill if they are unhappy with their sexual functioning. But it might be worth giving exercise a try.

Men who exercised had significantly higher scores on a sexual-function questionnaire compared with men who were sedentary, according to a study released Monday at the annual meeting of the American Urological Assn.

The study evaluated 178 men, both whites and blacks, whose average age was 62. When researchers adjusted for factors that could affect sexual functioning -- such as age, body mass index, heart disease, diabetes, medications and depression -- the men who reported more exercise still had significantly higher sexual function scores.

Among all the men, however, the average sexual function score was only 53 points out of a possible 100. The study was conducted at the Durham VA Medical Center.

-- Shari Roan

Photo credit: Bryan McLellan  /  For The Times

As anyone who has exercised vigorously can tell you, the soreness that comes from lactic acid buildup in the muscles doesn't feel good. But massaging it away may not be the best way to flush the substance from muscle tissue, a new study suggests.

Massage is thought by some to be a good way to rid the muscles of lactic acid. During intense exercise bouts, the body can go into an anaerobic state when it needs more oxygen than is available. The muscles take up energy from glycogen stores, and a product of glycogen breakdown is lactic acid. This is what causes the soreness many people experience.

In the study, 12 healthy male participants performed isometric handgrip exercises. Three different scenarios followed the exercise: passive recovery (lying quietly at rest), active recovery (doing more muscle contractions) and muscle massage. Levels of lactic acid were tested in all subjects.

Researchers from Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, concluded that massage prevented the lactic acid from leaving the muscle, since massaging the muscles apparently hampered the blood flow during the recovery period after exercise. In the study, the authors wrote: "Although active recovery also does not improve muscle blood flow post-exercise, it appears to increase lactate uptake by muscle and in that way improves lactate removal from muscle tissue."

The study appears in the June issue of the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

-Jeannine Stein

Photo: Sprinting is an anaerobic activity. Photo credit: Matt Slocum / Associated Press

Exercise-induced asthma is a well-known condition in both adults and children. But a new study finds that kids with no history of asthma may exhibit asthma-like symptoms after bouts of intense exercise.

The study, presented at the American Thoracic Society's international conference in New Orleans this week, included 56 healthy children, average age 15. Researchers from UC Irvine and Miller Children's Hospital in Long Beach gave each child two exercise tests -- one at a constant work rate, the other a progressive test usually done to measure aerobic capacity.

After testing for pulmonary function, 45% of the study participants had at least one abnormal result. That was seen in 14% of participants after the constant work rate test, in 20% after the progressive test, and 11% had at least one abnormal result after both tests. No substantial differences were found in the number of abnormal outcomes in the two tests.

Decreases in pulmonary function can occur when heavy exercise triggers an inflammatory response, constricting bronchial tubes.

"We did not expect to see pulmonary function abnormalities after short periods of heavy exercise in such a large number of healthy children in our subject population," said Dr. Alladdin Abosaida, lead author of the study, in a news release. "We speculate that either the inflammatory response to exercise or cellular changes that may occur as the result of dehydration of the airway surface, or both, led to mild airway obstruction."

Abosaida added that more research is needed to discover why this type of lung dysfunction might be occurring in children.

-- Jeannine Stein

Photo: Healthy children may experience asthma-like symptoms during exercise, according to a new study. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

“Eat more, work out less, and actually lose weight while you rest.” What chubby, chunky or downright hefty gal or guy trying to knock off the pounds wouldn’t want some of that?

The subtitle on the cover of “The New Me Diet” may be technically correct but could also be a little misleading. If you read it to mean “Order up a large pizza, grab the TV remote and lose weight while you channel surf” -- well, no.

What it really means is this: Eat a diet composed of an unlimited quantity of most vegetables, certain fruits and lean proteins; some fat; and a small amount of whole grains, legumes and beans. Do a 30-minute interval and weight training workout that incorporates periods of rest three times a week, and walk every day for 30 to 60 minutes. And you will lose weight.

Now that sounds doable.

"Me Diet" authors Jade Teta and Keoni Teta are brothers who each have a couple of decades of experience as personal trainers and degrees in biochemistry and naturopathic medicine, among other health and fitness credentials. But though their backgrounds are similar, their body types and metabolisms are different, they say.

Their curiosity about why food and exercise affect people differently led them to develop what they dub their Metabolic Effect, or ME, program, which they say is based on the new science of hormonal fat burning. Translated, that means that certain hormones control how fat is stored and burned in the body. The Tetas say you can manipulate those hormones by what you eat and how you exercise.

Their book spends a few pages discussing the science behind their program but quickly launches into the practical matter of how to make it work for you. They divide people into three different types -- sugar burners, muscle burners and mixed burners -- and offer a quiz for readers to determine which type they are.