Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan, Yankton, Oct. 23
Move it! Stepping into a healthier life
Health care is always a big issue - in our lives, in our politics, in our economy, in our worries. Whether it’s the debate over coverage of pre-existing conditions or fretting over prescription drug prices (just to name a few items on a checklist), the matter of health seems to be everyone’s concern.
A new study suggests that one of the greatest threats to your health - one that surpasses such problems as smoking, diabetes or heart disease - is, literally, doing nothing at all.
According to a cardiology study published in Jama Network Open, a sedentary lifestyle is far more detrimental to people than has long been realized.
“Being unfit on a treadmill or in an exercise stress test has a worse prognosis, as far as death, than being hypertensive, being diabetic or being a current smoker,” Dr. Wael Jaber, who authored the study, told CNN. “We’ve never seen something as pronounced as this and as objective as this.”
The study is based on research at the Cleveland Clinic conducted with 122,007 patients between 1991 to 2014. The patients were given treadmill tests, and mortality rates were recorded thereafter. The highest mortality group was comprised of patients with markedly sedentary lifestyles, Time magazine reported.
“Cardiorespiratory fitness is inversely associated with long-term mortality with no observed upper limit of benefit,” the study concluded.
Jaber added that “being unfit should be considered as strong of a risk factor as hypertension, diabetes and smoking - if not stronger than all of them.”
This may come as a surprise - and shockingly simple - to a lot of people, especially in an age filled with health issues ranging from rising obesity to overmedication of our problems.
However, it turns out that one of the greatest proactive tools we have to maintain our health is right at our fingertips - or feet.
This is an important point when you consider just HOW sedentary our culture is becoming. With a vast universe of television-viewing opportunities, video-game temptations and smartphone distractions, it’s far too easy to kick back and forego exercise today . and the next day . and the next …
That can be a killer.
That’s why it’s important, for instance, for schools to promote physical activity with students to go along with healthy eating choices. A lot of schools do this already, but sometimes, physical education programs get cut when budgeting gets tight. That’s understandable: Schools should be about book learning more so than running and jumping. But getting kids in the habit of moving - besides getting their blood circulating, which makes for a more productive mind - also pays physical dividends.
The study noted that exercise pays off, no matter what age you are. “Whether you’re in your 40s or your 80s, you will benefit in the same way,” Jaber said.
In Yankton, for instance, there are numerous opportunities for exercise. Besides the availability of wellness centers, there are miles of biking/hiking trails, plenty of parks and a lot of sidewalks available to allow you to move. Just walking regularly can do wonders.
In most every community, in fact, there are many opportunities to get up and get moving.
The trick is getting people to buy into this very simple plan. And yes, it can be hard. Some people deal with physical maladies that make exercise, even the most basic and low-impact routines, difficult. Some people may be too busy to easily schedule regular exercise. And some people are simply too set in their sedentary ways to change gears.
But the benefits can be significant, according to the study.
A sedentary lifestyle “should be treated almost as a disease that has a prescription, which is called exercise,” Jaber said.
Needless to say, it’s your move.
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American News, Aberdeen, Oct. 20
E15 fuel decision is good news for consumers and farm country
It was a dry growing season for many area farmers.
Since, it has been a wet harvest season. Playing that waiting game at such a critical time has increased producers’ stress, and all that moisture has lowered the quality of some crops.
Those factors, combined with others, have pushed agriculture commodity prices down, making things tough for our farmers and ranchers.
Farm Country has been in search of some good news for months.
The Trump administration delivered. President Donald Trump announced earlier this month that he has directed the Environmental Protection Agency to begin the process of allowing the sale of 15 percent ethanol blend fuel year-round.
We fully endorse moving to the E15 blend year-round. The more homegrown foods, goods and products we consume, the better.
The majority of ethanol gasoline sold in the U.S. is a 10 percent blend. Gas mixed with ethanol is cheaper. Some believe that it is better for the environment, too.
Ethanol is a grain alcohol that is fermented, typically from corn in the U.S. Other crops could be used to make ethanol, including wheat, barley and potatoes.
South Dakota is one of the national leaders in producing corn and ethanol, one of six states that together produce 70 percent of U.S. fuel ethanol, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
E15 could increase its use by 50 percent. And that should result in more demand for corn.
We hope that would mean better corn prices for farmers. And that, in turn, would help our state’s economy.
In South Dakota, happy farmer equals happy life.
The use of E15 in cars and light-duty vehicles manufactured in 2001 and after has been approved by the EPA. The agency has estimated that 90 percent of the vehicles on the road could safely use E15.
Why now?
Until now, the EPA has banned E15 from being sold during the summer due to concerns that it contributes to smog. Ethanol advocates say that 30-year-old regulation is not only unfounded, but outdated.
Oil companies and others against year-round use of E15 argue that people with vehicles made before 2001 will damage their engines by accidentally filling their tanks with E15. Confusion and chaos will reign, and millions of dollars in damage will be done, they predict.
Yes, pulling up to the pump can be confusing, and another choice might add to that frustration. But if we are responsible enough to be driving, we should be responsible and educated enough to know what makes our cars and trucks go.
Ironically, the oil industry also argues that E15’s emissions are bad the environment. And fossil fuels are not?
There are no truly clean options, it seems, when it comes to producing the gasoline we consume. Yes, producing E15 takes land, water, fuel and fertilizer.
The argument comes down to who you believe - and whose emissions you believe are worse. Or which production process you believe is cleaner.
The proposed rule change intends to allow E15 sales next summer.
The sooner this change takes effect, the better: Many leaders from oil-producing states objected to Trump endorsing E15. Of course, leaders from ethanol-producing states have been known for their share of thumping the oil industry.
But the goal of “buying American” - or, in this case, “buying South Dakotan and other Midwest states” - and reducing the nation’s dependency on foreign oil make E15 a no-brainer.
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Rapid City Journal, Rapid City, Oct. 23
GOOD, BAD & UGLY: Ellsworth scores win on economic security
GOOD: Bombers, tankers and command center airplanes finished the Air Force’s first large-scale training exercise in the newly expanded Powder River Training Complex on Thursday. The 35,000-square mile swath of air space, which straddles the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming, had earlier received a Federal Aviation Administration waiver to temporarily raise its training ceiling to 52,000 feet. The higher altitude allows stealth aircraft to train at normal combat altitudes. Sen. John Thune says the expansion further secures the role of Ellsworth Air Force Base, which is critical to the West River and Rapid City economy. Thune called obtaining the FAA waiver a decade-long “battle, adding the next step will be to secure a long-term agreement for periodic altitude expansions that allow for regular exercises.
BAD: The security costs for protests arising over construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline could become expensive for South Dakota counties if disputes mirror the months-long demonstration near Cannon Ball, N.D. That sometimes-violent protest cost an estimated $38 million for security. Under a state law that requires counties to pay the first portion of disaster costs, Pennington County could be on the hook for as much as $17 million before receiving state assistance.
“It will bankrupt some counties if it happens,” according to Kathy Glines, emergency management officer in Harding County, where the Canadian-owned pipeline will enter South Dakota. “There’s a lot of counties that don’t have this kind of money sitting around, especially if it (a protest) is a long-term issue.”
State law follows a long-held emergency management mantra that all disaster response starts local and ends local, but the law gives the governor discretion to increase financial support. The $8 billion pipeline is being built by TransCanada to move crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to Steele City, Neb., where it will merge with existing pipelines to take oil to Texas refineries. About 250 miles of the pipeline’s nearly 1,200-mile route will run on a northwest to southeast path through the heart of West River, entering in Harding County and passing roughly at a 45-degree angle through Butte, Perkins, Meade, Pennington, Haakon, Jones, Lyman and Tripp counties before moving into Nebraska.
UGLY: Last week, a passenger in a car pulled over by the Highway Patrol in 2015 pleaded guilty to a charge of federal fraud. The passenger was found with a notebook with 60 Social Security numbers, names and birthdays, according to court records. Lauren Montgomery, 31, admitted to using the stolen identities to file 79 false tax returns and receive $105,605 between 2010 and 2014. Let’s hope that at sentencing she will be afforded plenty of time to think about what it means to steal from working folk.
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