Your Health: Any exercise is good exercise

Ten-minute workoutEven 10 minutes of vigorous exercise can have positive effects on your body.Research led by Massachusetts General Hospital found that 10 minutes of a hard workout produced more than 20 metabolites in the body that burn calories and fat and control blood-sugar levels.Researchers believe the results could help in fine-tuning exercise for both performance and for health effects.O Canada! or Mexico?Two new studies shed light on retirement in neighboring countries.Canadians age 50 to 64 worry much less about their futures than their American counterparts, as reported in a study at the 2010 Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences in Montreal.Americans often reported their dreams for retirement had been shattered by recent plunges in real estate, the job market and the stock market.Canadians felt more in control of their futures and worried less about losing health care if they lost their jobs.South of the border, researchers found that Americans who retire to Mexico love it because it's cheaper to live there, but they often find themselves cut off from their families and from mainstream Mexican life.Drug resistanceResearchers say patients who take an antibiotic for respiratory or urinary infections are more likely to develop bacterial resistance to that drug, making it harder to knock out future infections.Researchers in the British Medical Journal found patients on antibiotics had more than twice the risk for developing resistance within the first couple of months after treatment, compared with patients who didn't take antibiotics. Some evidence suggested that multiple courses and longer duration of treatment led to more resistance.The authors recommend that the "fewest number of antibiotics should be prescribed for the shortest period possible."Pneumonia vaccineMcHenry County residents 19 and older who've never gotten a pneumonia vaccine can get it at the county health department in Woodstock.The shot is free for those with Medicare Part B or Medicaid, and $35 for others.The pneumococcal vaccine doesn't guarantee you won't get pneumonia, since there are different causes for the disease, but it does prevent 10 to 25 percent of all pneumonias. Those over 65 are considered at highest risk.Call (815) 334-4931 for an appointment or see idph.il.us/public/hb/hbpneumo.htm to learn more about the disease.An A in parentingIs being a parent tougher than you expected?Parents can get advice stressing guidance over discipline, routines to make life easier, child-proofing the home and taking care of themselves at a three-session parenting class.The classes will run from 6:30 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. Tuesdays June 15, 22 and 29 at the DuPage County Health Department center at 422 N. Cass Ave. in Westmont.The cost is $20 per couple and includes a workbook.For information or to register, call (630) 682-7400, ext. 7607, or e-mail jdiskin@dupagehealth.org. For information on upcoming parenting classes in Spanish, call extension 7985.