Wattbike makes some of the best exercise bikes available, but up until now it has focused on keen cyclists with models like the Wattbike Atom. The Wattbike Proton is designed to be a more accessible bike for anyone looking to get fit at home whether they’re a cyclist or not, with a step-through design and a lower price than the Atom.

It’s still an expensive bike, but you don’t have any ongoing costs with the Wattbike Proton, because the Wattbike Hub app can be used subscription free. It does also connect with any other app easily, opening up a world of workouts and virtual cycling apps like Zwift. It’s one of the best options for indoor cycling whatever your health and fitness aims are as a result.

MONDAY, Sept. 9, 2024 (HealthDay News) — In exercise bike tests, twentysomethings who’d been vaping for at least two years had much lower exercise capacity than those who didn’t, and the losses were equal to those of folks who’d spent a similar amount of time smoking.

The vaping young adults “found it harder to breath, their muscles became more fatigued, and they were less fit overall,” said study lead author Dr. Azmy Faisal of Manchester Metropolitan University in the U.K.

“In this regard, our research indicated that vaping is no better than smoking,” said Faisal, who presented the findings Sunday in Madrid at the annual meeting of the European Respiratory Society (ERS).

According to Faisal, it’s long been known that the use of e-cigarettes “is linked to lung inflammation and damage, and harmful changes to the blood vessels.”

But for young smokers, could a switch to vaping still be healthier? In an ERS news release, he said the jury is still out on that.

“We don’t yet know what longer-term vaping use does to our bodies,” he explained.

To help find out, the Manchester team recruited 60 people in their 20s, all of whom appeared to have normal lung function based on standard tests.

Twenty neither vaped nor smoked, 20 had vaped for at least two years and 20 had smoked for at least 2 years.

Each participant was subjected to exercise tests on a stationary bike, with the intensity of the exercise increased until each person reached their maximum.

Heart, lung and muscle responses were monitored. Artery function was assessed via blood tests and ultrasound.

Some differences were easily gauged. For example, the smokers and vapers visibly got out of breath even before they reached exercise capacity, and long before participants who neither vaped nor smoked.

Vapers’ and smokers’ legs also got fatigued earlier during exercise. Blood tests typically showed high levels of lactate (a sign of muscle fatigue) before they reached top capacity, the researchers said.

Blood tests and ultrasound scans also showed reduced blood vessel performance among the smokers/vapers compared to folks who had neither habit.

In measurements of exercise capacity, vapers and smokers scored about the same, with capacities topping out at 186 watts and 182 watts, respectively. That’s compared to the average 226 watt maximum exercise capacity seen among the never-smokers/vapers.

Finally, average oxygen consumption among exercising vapers and smokers was much lower than that of never-smokers/vapers, at 2.7 litres per minute, 2.6 litres per minute and 3 liters per minute, respectively.

 “In this study, we looked at a group of young people with no apparent signs of lung damage,” Faisal said. “Among the people who had been vaping or smoking for at least two years, we saw important differences in how well they coped with exercise.”

Dr. Filippos Filippidis is chair of the ERS Tobacco Control Committee and a reader in public health at Imperial College London. He wasn’t involved in the study.

According to Filippidis, “although it’s always a challenge to know if the associations we find in these studies are causal or a result of some other systematic differences between groups, people who vape need to be aware that using these products could make them less fit and able to take part in exercise. Doctors and policymakers also need to know about the risks of vaping, and we should be doing all we can to support children and young people to avoid or quit vaping.”

Because these findings were presented at a medical meeting, they should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

Find out more about the dangers of vaping at the American Lung Association.

SOURCE: European Respiratory Society, news release, Sept. 8, 2024

European teenagers may notice a change in their YouTube recommendations, after the video platform said it will stop ushering them toward some types of health and fitness videos, particularly those that “idealise” certain body types.

YouTube – which is among the most popular social media apps for teens – recommends videos that are similar to those the viewer has watched previously. 

That means people can fall into feedback loops, watching many similar videos in a row and at times delving into more extreme content.

YouTube first rolled out these restrictions in the United States last year, and is now expanding them in Europe and around the world, on the guidance of its youth and family advisory committee.

The new rule is an effort to prevent teens from forming “negative beliefs about themselves,” Dr Garth Graham, who heads YouTube Health, and James Beser, YouTube Youth’s director of product management, said in a statement.

So what does this mean and what kind of content will now be restricted?

Which videos will YouTube restrict for teenagers?

YouTube said it will now limit repeated recommendations of videos that:

• Idealise particular fitness levels or weight groups

• Compare and idealise certain physical features, or

• Are socially aggressive, meaning they show intimidation or fighting.

These types of content “may be innocuous as a single video, but could be problematic for some teens if viewed repetitively,” Graham and Beser said.

How does social media affect body image?

Social media can lead to poor body image, eating disorders, and mental health issues, according to a major review of 50 studies from 17 countries published last year. 

That’s because people tend to compare themselves to others they see online, internalise a thin or fit standard as the ideal body type, and engage in self-objectification.

That doesn’t mean everyone is affected equally.

Women and girls, overweight people, and those who already have poor body image tend to be most affected by social media, while people who feel OK about their bodies and have high social media literacy are less affected – a dynamic that researchers call a “self-perpetuating cycle of risk”.

Meanwhile, a 2021 study found that fitness YouTubers – which has been dubbed the “Fitspiration” community – promote unhealthy behaviours, and that viewers reinforce those practices in the comments.

What other steps has YouTube taken?

YouTube already restricts teenagers’ access to some content involving eating disorders and physical fights.

With the new policy, YouTube can also redirect people to crisis hotlines when they search for things related to suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders. 

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The company also said it worked with organisations in Germany and France to craft the update.

What are regulators doing about the problem?

YouTube and other social media sites have come under fire for their effect on young people’s mental health and well-being, and some governments have threatened to crack down.

In the United Kingdom, for example, communications regulator Ofcom ordered tech companies in May to take steps to stop their algorithms from “recommending harmful content to children,” including content on self-harm and eating disorders.

The European Union’s Digital Services Act, which was adopted in 2022, also calls on tech giants to limit children’s access to content that could harm their “health, physical, mental and moral development”.

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