Remember good cholesterol? You know, HDL cholesterol, the kind that was associated with reduced risk of stroke? Forget it. Now comes a study from researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute suggesting that people with genes that boost HDL levels  do not, in fact, have a lower risk of heart attacks. Strange. The Boston Globe reports that the scientists in looked at a gene variation that raises HDL levels, and should consequently give people a 13 percent decreased risk of heart attack. But when the researchers compared the genetically blessed with people who didn’t have the gene, there was zero difference in heart attack risk. Wait there’s more: another study, in which researchers examined a panel of 14 genetic variations that raised HDL levels, also found that inheriting those variations did nothing to reduce the risk of heart attack. Read an almost inscrutable summary of the study here.

If you’re not born stupid,  you’re not out of the woods. You can always become stupid, and researchers at UCLA are now suggesting that high-fructose sweeteners can help. PsychCentral reports that scientists at the school put high-fructose corn syrup, which is commonly added to processed foods from soft drinks to baby food, in the water of two groups of rats. One of the groups was also fed omega-3 fatty acids in the form of flaxseed oil and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). After six weeks, the high-fructose fed rats who did not get omega-3s navigated a maze much slower than the omega-3 rats, and their brains showed a decline in synaptic activity. The omega-3 deprived rats also developed signs of resistance to insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar and regulates synaptic function in the brain. The moral of the story? If you’re going to drink beverages with high-fructose sweeteners, make sure you also eat foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, like salmon, walnuts and flaxseeds. Better yet, skip the high-fructose beverage. Read more from PsychCentral.

What doesn’t break your bones makes them stronger. Especially if what doesn’t break your bones is a load-bearing sport like basketball or volleyball. How to we know? Because when researchers at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden measured the bone mass of more than 800 young men and studied their exercise habits, they found that after five years, the men who did a lot of load-bearing activities at the start of the study and those who increased their amounts of exercise during the five years had a better chance of building bone than those who weren’t as active, according to a recent report in HealthDay. And now the numbers: The researchers found that men who played load-bearing sports for four hours a week or more had an average 1.3 percent increase in hip-bone density, while who remained sedentary over the five years had an average 2.1 percent decrease in hip-bone density. Read more in HealthDay. Read an abstract of the study here.

In the video bellow, New York Times’ Phys Ed columnist Gretchen Reynolds talks with Martin Gibala, chair of the kinesiology department at McMaster University, who has good news for time-strapped people who don’t want to be health strapped: 20 minutes a day three times a week will do it, if that 20 minutes is spent doing high intensity interval training, or HIIT.  You know, one minute ON, one minute OFF..

The good news is, you don’t need the weight, of your weights, that is. Researchers at McMaster University have learned that doing more repetitions with less weight builds muscle and increases strength just as effectively as training with heavy weights. HealthDay reports on the study, which looked at how different combinations of weight and repetitions affected the leg muscles of young men. The men trained three times a week for 10 weeks doing one of three resistance training regimens: one set at 80 percent of maximum load; three sets at 80 percent of maximum load; or three sets at 30 percent of maximum load. A set, in this case, meant doing as many reps as possible, typically eight to 12 times a set at the heaviest weights and 25 to 30 times a set at the lowest weights. HealthDay reports that heavy weights and light weights built muscle and strength equally well. Read more from HealthDay.

Want to know why the United States is the fattest country in the world? Ask the researchers from Penn State and the University of Maryland who got a look at data from the American Time Use Study. They learned that most Americans exercise only two hours a week, exactly half of what is recommended by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That federal agency would like all adults to get about four hours of physical activity each week; 2.5 hours of moderate exercise and an hour and fifteen minutes of vigorous activity, such as running and muscle strengthening. A Penn State news release reports that the researchers found that walking is the most prevalent activity, engaged in by about 5 percent of Americans. The most popular active sport is basketball, followed by football, soccer, baseball, volleyball and hockey. Among seniors 65 or over, golf is the most popular activity other than walking, but seniors are about as active as younger adults in many fitness activities, such as workouts, aerobics and cardiovascular exercise. Why does it matter? Because according to a new study by researchers at University of Texas-Southwestern Medical Center and the Cooper Institute, fit middle-aged men and women have significantly lower medical expenses later in life compared to people who failed to stay in shape. HealthDay reports that the more-fit study participants had 38 percent lower medical costs many years later, measured by Medicare and other insurance claims from 1999 through 2009.

Sports physiologists have yet to analyze the muscle groups that benefit most from the popular Yemenite entertainment plainly named “camel jumping,” but we’re guessing it’s good for the core, and not so good for the ankles. The New York Times’ Lens gives us an enlightening photo essay, shot, admittedly, by a photographer in Yemen who got bored waiting around for actual news. Anyone up for an over-50 team?

Even computer geeks take vacations, and when they do, they often spend some time in the real world. Inside Tech, an online journal for IT professionals, recently recommended their 19 top outdoors vacations. Here are the top 10:

1. Camping in Big Bend

2. Fly fishing the Madison River

3. Whitewater Rafting in the Chatooga

4. Hiking through the Garden of Gods

5. Kayaking the Russian River

6. Whale Watching in San Diego

7. Sandboarding in Florence (Oregon)

8. Cattle Driving in Wyoming

9. Climbing Half Dome

10. Caving in Kentucky

Read about more great outdoors vacations from Inside Tech.

Thinks about this.. Better yet, think about nothing at all, just focus on whatever sensations are around you–noise or light or nothingness. Because no thought at all, it turns out, is good for your brain. The Harvard Gazette reports that researchers at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found that meditation can alter the physical structure of our brains, increasing the thickness in parts of the brain that deal with attention and processing sensory input.The Gazette reports that when researchers compared brain scans of 20 experienced meditators (who did Buddhist insight meditation) with those of 15 nonmeditators, they found that those most deeply involved in the meditation showed the greatest changes in brain structure. Next question: Since this type of meditation counteracts the natural thinning of the thinking surface of the brain, could it play a role in slowing – even reversing – aging? More non thinking is needed. Read more in the Harvard Gazette.

Inspired by the media’s discovery that recently injured Yankee closer Mariano Rivera is 42-years-old, Jason Gay writes in the Wall Street Journal that the older he gets, the greater his allegiance to athletes of a certain age. Those include Martin Brodeur, Nick Lidstrom, Dara Torres, Jens Voigt, and funny car driver John Force, who at 63, Gay writes, is old enough to be in Aerosmith. It’s true. Also Janet Evans, the 40-year-old swimmer who is attempting to make the U.S. Olympic team for London. One possible danger of aging athletes, David Brown suggests in Big League Stew, is that the mind may go before the body. Brown reports on an argument between Jamie Moyer of the Rockies and Chipper Jones of the Braves, two players with a combined age of 89 years. As Brown tells it, Jones, 40, told reporters that Moyer, 49, was paranoid, and had accused him of stealing signs in the fifth inning as he led off second base before relaying them to Brian McCann in the batter’s box.