Serious Science: Helmets Prevent Injuries, Exercise Can Help Sustain Weight Loss

In case you weren’t aware, bicycle helmets can prevent fatal injuries and diet and exercise can sustain weight loss. This is what two separate studies have concluded. Let me repeat: Two distinct scientific studies determined that bicycle helmets can prevent fatal injuries and diet and exercise can sustain weight loss. This is something someone decided needed careful examination, because it’s not like there are fatal diseases out there.

Here’s the relevant bit from MedicalXpress about bicycle helmets:

“We saw an association between dying as a result of sustaining head injury and not wearing a helmet,” states Dr. Navindra Persaud, Keenan Research Centre and the Department of Family and Community Medicine, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, with coauthors. “These results are consistent with a protective effect of helmets on cycling deaths.”

Who knew diet and exercise could sustain weight loss? Thank goodness National Institutes of Health performed this necessary research with help from The Biggest Loser:

At the competition’s end, diet alone was calculated to be responsible for more weight loss than exercise, with 65 percent of the weight loss consisting of body fat and 35 percent consisting of lean mass like muscle. In contrast, the model calculated that exercise alone resulted in participants losing only fat, and no muscle. The simulation of exercise alone also estimated a small increase in lean mass despite overall weight loss.

The simulations also suggest that the participants could sustain their weight loss and avoid weight regain by adopting more moderate lifestyle changes — like 20 minutes of daily vigorous exercise and a 20 percent calorie restriction — than those demonstrated on the television program.

Well, now we know. Time to move on to hard-hitting research like if shoes actually protect our feet or if glasses actually improve our eyesight.

(via MedicalXpress, National Institutes of Health)

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