World renowned expert in obesity research to visit Umeå University on Mar. 14

A world renowned expert in obesity research will be visiting Umeå University on Thursday 14 March, including holding a lecture in Aula Nordica. His main message to everyone is to "get up from your office chair."

James A. Levine is a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and co-director of the Mayo Clinic/Arizona State University Obesity Solutions Initiative in Phoenix, Arizona. He is well known for his research on how "daily exercise" can be stimulated in the workplace and in schools. It is not about intensive and regular workouts at the gym or running, but to move regularly in everyday life: Stand and work in the office, avoid taking the elevator, choose the bicycle instead of the car, etc.

In the United States, he has been an invitee to the President's Panel and the State Department. Internationally, he has consulted with governments around the world.

Dr. Levine has made substantial improvements in both the physical and mental health of staff and students where these ideas have been applied. He can tell you about the good experiences from projects in the U.S., where workplaces and schools have been adapted and upgraded to increase the level of activity for everyone. In one of his experiments, he let a group of radiologists walk on a treadmill while they assessed the images - and they discovered that there were more suspicious abnormalities than when they sat down.

The title of Dr. Levine's lecture at 15.00-16.30 in Aula Nordica is "Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis - the key for prevention and treatment of obesity?" It will be held in English and all who are interested are welcome to attend.

Senior lecturer and researcher Margareta Norberg at Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University, will also be giving a lecture in Aula Nordica. The title in Swedish is "Vikt och vardagsmotion i Västerbotten - går det åt rätt håll?" (translates to: "Weight and daily exercise in Västerbotten County - is it going in the right direction?"). She will describe the latest research results from health screening in the region, where she is a medical coordinator.

Source: http://www.medfak.umu.se/english/news//.cid210846