Antioxidants are good. The free radical molecules they neutralize are bad. Or so we’ve all been led to think. Now a study of exercise and insulin sensitivity turns that conventional notion on its head.

While the word on multivitamins is discouraging for postmenopausal women hoping to stay healthy (check out “The latest bulletin from the vitamin wars” below) new findings on exercise offer good news.

What’s the best remedy for an aching back? According to results from a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health, most chronic back pain sufferers don’t know the answer–in large part because their doctors aren’t telling them.

I started yoga a year ago, when we brought a yoga instructor here to the workplace for a lunch-hour class. I have done aerobics and strength training in the past, but yoga was new to me. I really enjoy it, even though I’m still very much a beginner. The class is very low-key and I’m not pressured to do anything more than what I’m comfortable with.

Within just a few class periods I could tell my balance was better and my flexibility had increased. And they’ve continued to improve. Another benefit to yoga – and any other type of exercise – is stress reduction. I find I am able to control my hunger better when I control my stress level, and that happens far more often on the yoga days. I plan to continue both yoga class and the walking I am doing with my co-workers.

I’m also managing to control my weight.

Are physically active women less likely to develop breast cancer? The latest evidence says yes. And new findings also suggest who’s most likely to benefit.

Take a stroll in the morning or the early evening in the Brazilian city of Recife, and chances are you’ll see lots of people exercising. U.S. health experts say Brazil’s fifth-largest city has found just the recipe for encouraging good health and fitness.

At 91, Merceda Schmidt still volunteers as a school teacher and piano accompanist, and she often walks to her appointments, tallying up more than three miles a week. “It’s just in my nature–the batteries I got when I was born,” says Schmidt, who lives in Calgary, Canada. “My legs want to go.” She can thank those restless legs for her unusually sharp mind, a new study suggests.

PDQhealth is proud to introduce The Ms.Fits! This team from the University of Iowa will be taking part in Live Healthy Iowa, a 100-day program that challenges participants to eat better, be more active and shed some pounds. We’ll be tracking their progress each week. Along the way, PDQhealth plans to publish interviews with experts in fitness, motivation, and nutrition designed to help our team (and our readers) achieve their goals. Check in for more soon. And share your comments with the Ms.Fits–or else just cheer them on.

For years the nation’s expanding girth has been blamed on lazy lifestyles. If more of us would just get off the couch and get moving, the thinking goes, we wouldn’t have to worry about weight loss plans and diet books. New evidence paints a more complicated picture.

A funny thing happened after University of Michigan scientists ended an exercise study in which volunteers used devices called pedometers to count the number of steps they took. The research subjects kept on walking. The reason: they loved using their pedometers.