The signal to noise...

Excellent coverage of the leading mhealth products on the market for the quantified self fanatics out there.  This is a thorough review primarily of the Jawbone UP, but comparisons to the Nike Fuelband and FitBit are also included. The review is comprehensive, covering both the device itself (physical form factor, features) and the UI/UX (with the device and app).

-cch

Needless to say, it’s sporty, well-designed… and looks pretty cool.  Game on for quantified self!  I anticipate an innovative and creative marketing campaign as well, as evidenced by this clip here. 

-cch 

Nice summary and reaction to the recent NYTimes article “Fat Trap” that I read and tweeted the other day below from Puneet (a fellow HBS alum in healthcare and Blueprint Health mentor).  So many people struggle with their body images, no doubt fueled by advertising and increasingly in many ways because of social media as some surveys suggest that 80% of women have insecurity with their looks or body images due to media. In particular, given that it is the holiday season and New Year’s resolution time, this is a good article to digest to understand some of the physiology, psychology, genetic and environmental factors associated with health, fitness, and weight-loss.  Hopefully we all can strive in little and regular ways to make better decisions around health which will lead to increased happiness, and hopefully if not longer lives at least better quality lives.  You don’t need to strive for absolute perfection, but consistency of habits is important.  Breaking things down into little habits and behavior change steps per BJ Fogg is helpful for successful, lasting habit change.  The little decisions we make day in and day out, week in and week out, impact our health and quality of life years down the road.  I’m particularly mindful of this, given that my paternal grandmom (and last grandparent) passed away earlier this week in Taiwan at the age of 85.  

To your (and your families and loved ones) health for 2012,

-cch

ghst-innovation:

Journalist Tara Parker-Pope makes an important contribution to the obesity and diabetes conversation in her recent article: Why Lost Pounds Come Back (NY Times). It’s great journalism, and worth the time to read the piece in its entirety.

There are a few points from her piece that I…

Excellent article covering the self-tracking data space.  Lots of gadgets out there.  The number of data sources and streams going forward will increase.  There will be an opportunity for a platform to aggregate, synthesize, and share in an intelligent and easy UI/UX way.  

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For those who don’t know, this is Jason Jacobs (co-founder/CEO of RunKeeper).  He definitely is a man with a passion and vision… enough to run an entire marathon in this outfit.  And pay attention you healthtech and mobile app folks out there - it’s not all about the app.  It’s about the health and fitness data aggregation and synthesis thereof.  That and the team are the key reasons why an additional $10M was put into the FitnessKeeper company as Bijan articulates nicely below.  Congrats to Jason, Michael, Jake, Sarah, and the entire team in Boston (another great example of an awesome start-up in the Boston ecosystem).  It will be very interesting to see what cool stuff comes from this group going forward. 

-cch

bijan:

At Spark Capital, we have always believed that one social graph was insufficient.

And we have put our money where our mouth is investing in Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Boxee, Svpply, Exfm and others. A passionate focus from the founders + targeted engaged community is something we care a great…

Came across this study recently (which was published a few years back).  It validates what most of us who work out regularly experience when we forget our iPods at home… our work-outs suffer slightly and don’t feel quite up to par. This 20 year study shows that carefully curated and selected music helps improve exercise endurance up to 15%.  And there are now start-ups that help pick the right music for you to work-out to, such as this one.  If improving your physical shape and looks aren’t enough incentive for you to exercise, research suggests that exercising with music can also improve mental performance… so do it for your brain!

Rock on!

-cch 

We all know the benefits of exercise for your heart, but now there is research that shows that exercise is beneficial for your brain and mind!  Very interesting findings of a four year study sponsored by the NIH conducted at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Daily exercise helped improve the clinical depression of 50% of patients, which is as effective as a second depression medication.  Depression medications alone are effective (i.e. helping improve or eliminate symptoms) in approximately 1/3 of patients over the long term, though in conjunction with other treatments such as counseling, cognitive behavior therapy, etc. can be much more effective.  This is important and relevant news, because about 17% of adults in the US suffer from depression in their life and anti-depressant drugs are the most commonly used medications for those between 20-59 years of age. 

Powerful research and another example of the importance of sound mind, sound body and holistic health.  Bottom line?  It pays to exercise… so get up and get moving!!!

To your health,

cch

A quick and informative 2 minute video from the BBC based on data from the World Health Organization (WHO) - “Sizing it up: The facts behind global obesity” from my friend Amir.  More detailed data on obesity from WHO can be found here, including the troubling statistic that worldwide obesity has more than doubled since 1980. 

Summary of the video from the BBC/WHO:

1. The wealthier a country is, the greater prevalence of obesity. The lone exception for this direct correlation is Japan.
2. The US leads the G7 (G8) countries in terms of prevalence of obesity at ~1/3 of the population.  This isn’t “news”, for our “F as in Fat” grade for America, see my prior blog post from a few weeks ago. 
3. Developing countries (Brazil, China, India, Mexico) are seeing dramatic increases in obesity rates (along with increases in wealth) in a much shorter timeframe than prior industrialized nations like the US.
4. Worldwide in 2011, more individuals will now die from being overweight or obese, than from being underweight. 

Disturbing trends.  Obesity is an epidemic, a global public health problem that has multifactoral causes.  We need collaboration and action!

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Nice post by Runkeeper co-founder Jason Jacobs.

Lots of cool health/wellness start-ups in and around the Boston area (Runkeeper being one of them) that are utilizing technology in innovative ways. 

Stay tuned - Friday 05/13 a bunch will be on display in Boston at a CareInnovators conference where I’ll be helping out a bit.  Health + tech = Innovation.  Spread the word, hold the date.  Ping me with Q’s.  

 -cch

via NYTimes.

Preliminary studies suggest that weight training helps improve brain/cognitive ability and function.

Another reason to hit the gym and pump iron!

-cch

When you first started playing Mario Bros (for me, 15+ years ago) were you ever thinking about your heart’s health or physical activity?  Well, if you like to play games and are interested in fitness and health… check out this event, Power of Play (January 12, 2011 in San Francisco), sponsored by Nintendo and the American Heart Association!  More evidence of the convergence of technology, health, gaming, and science with the main goal of engaging individuals around their health in a fun way and promoting innovation (and yes, I’ve been harping about this convergence theme before).  A great list of speakers and thinkers already slated to attend.  Spread the word!  The revolution is coming!  Get involved!

-cch