UCSF is enrolling participants in a one-year study of the health benefits of yoga and stretching among overweight adults with metabolic syndrome, after a 10-week pilot study yielded promising results.

The “Practicing Restorative Yoga or Stretching for Metabolic Syndrome,” or PRYSMS, study is being conducted in partnership with UC San Diego and funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. It will consist of frequent group classes as well as at least three days per week of home practice, with half of the participants assigned to gentle yoga and the other half to active stretching.

The study will take part in two one-year waves over the next two years, with participants split evenly between UCSF and UC San Diego.

PRYSMS investigators are hoping to enroll approximately 160 underactive, overweight adults aged 21 to 65 who meet the criteria for metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions — increased blood pressure, elevated insulin or cholesterol levels, or excess body fat around the waist — that in combination can increase an individual’s risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. About one-quarter of adults in the United States has some combination of these high-risk conditions, according to the UCSF Department of Medicine.

“We know that diet and exercise work when it comes to reducing an individual’s risk of diabetes and heart disease, but those behaviors are very hard for some people to sustain,” said PRYSMS lead investigator Alka Kanaya, MD, an associate professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and a faculty member at the UCSF Diabetes Center. “If we can offer something novel that is enjoyable and easy to sustain, we can help combat these health epidemics.”

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UC San Diego researcher Ernesto Ramirez has logged more than 34 miles of walking in the past month, and he hasn’t even had to leave the office to do it.

Ramirez, who is affiliated with the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at UC San Diego, has designed and built what he calls the “Active Desk” — a raised work station connected to a standard treadmill that allows him to walk while he works.  The project stems from a body of scientific research that links sedentary behavior (like sitting at a desk all day) with an elevated risk of mortality from all causes and from cardiovascular disease. A study published this year in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that the trend remains significant when adjusted for age, sex, smoking status, alcohol use — and even time spent in leisure time physical activity.

In other words, you might feel virtuous squeezing in that morning run, but if you spend the rest of the day planted in a chair, you’re still putting your health at risk.

“This data clearly supports the notion that spending increased amounts of time ‘tied to chair’ can actually be detrimental to your health,” notes Ramirez, who is a doctoral student with Joint Doctoral Program in the collaborative Public Health program between UC San Diego and San Diego State University.

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Andrea Khoo has three words for you: Strength, grace and athleticism. Once a self-proclaimed “junk-food junkie” who did anything to get out of P.E. classes in high school, today Khoo is a UC Davis P.E. lecturer and competitive bodybuilder who uses her own fitness to motivate others. “Exercise, fitness and good health are the catalyst to helping men and women appreciate themselves and be happy with their lives,” she says.

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