Recover Faster From Exercise with Protein AND Carbs

A study from James Madison University shows that runners recover faster when they take in large amounts of protein, carbohydrates and antioxidants after their workouts (International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, Volume 17, 2007). Athletes train by taking a workout hard enough to damage their muscles, feeling sore on the next day, and then going easy for as many days as it takes for the soreness to lessen or disappear. The sooner they recover from their hard workouts, the sooner they can take another hard workout and the stronger they will be.

Muscles are made primarily from protein building blocks called amino acids. Muscles heal from a hard workout when amino acids and other nutrients travel from your bloodstream into the muscles. Eating any food, particularly foods with plenty of protein, immediately after you finish your workout helps your muscles heal faster so you can do more work. The sooner you eat after you finish your hard workout, the quicker you will recover.

This study confirms many others that show that taking carbohydrates and proteins immediately after exercise hastens muscle healing and gets rid of the soreness faster. The defect in this study is that the authors fed a drink that combines protein, carbohydrate and antioxidant vitamins. They concluded that you need all three components to recover faster, and that a drink is superior to food. However, other studies show that you can get the same benefit from a wide variety of foods that are rich in protein and carbohydrates, and that these foods would be so rich in antioxidants and other nutrients that it would not be necessary to take any supplements. More

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Great News for Older Athletes: Marathon Times Do Not Drop Before Fifty

You should be able to compete effectively in sports that require endurance well into your later years. Researchers at the German Sports University in Cologne, Germany analyzed competitive marathon times and showed that trained men and women did not have a significant drop in their race times until they reached their fiftieth birthdays (International Journal of Sports Medicine, Volume 28, 2007). Average marathon and half-marathon times were virtually identical for age groups from 20 to 49 years. Furthermore, the drop in performance for the 50- to 69-year-old subjects was only in the range of 2.6 percent to 4.4 percent for each decade. As expected, women's times for each age group were slower than the men's times by about 10 percent for the marathon and 13 percent for the half-marathon.

These results show that most older athletes are able to maintain a high degree of physical fitness and suggest that most infirmity with aging is caused by lack of exercise, rather than just by the passage of years. If you exercise regularly, expect to be able to be stronger, faster and better coordinated than your peers who do not exercise. More on recovery times in older exercisers; fitness newsletter

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Skin Cancer Risk Linked to Diet, Not Just Sun Exposure

There are three common types of skin cancers: basal cell, squamous cell and melanoma. Basal cell skin cancers rarely spread and almost never kill; squamous cell cancers can spread and rarely kill; and melanomas often spread and have a significant mortality rate. Basal cell and squamous cell cancers are believed to be caused by excessive sunlight exposure, while melanomas are often linked to sunburns. Researchers have wondered whether other factors than sun exposure increase risk for developing these cancers.

A study from Australia shows that people who eat a diet rich in meat and other fatty foods, and low in vegetables and fruits, are at significantly increased risk for developing squamous cell cancer (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, May 2007). This study shows that diet has little or no association with basal cell skin cancers. While nobody really knows how diet may increase risk for squamous cell skin cancers, the most likely explanation is that a diet high in meat and fat may impair your body's immunity so that your antibodies and cells are not able to search out and kill cancer cells. Fruits and vegetables are rich in phytochemicals that help to strengthen your immunity, so these foods may lower cancer risk. More on phytochemicals

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Metabolic Syndrome Linked to Low Magnesium Levels

Metabolic syndrome means you have abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, low HDL (good) cholesterol and high blood pressure, and are high risk for diabetes and heart attacks. It is caused by an inability to respond adequately to insulin. A study from the National Cholesterol Education Program shows that people who are on a diet that is low in magnesium are the ones most likely to suffer metabolic syndrome. (Obesity, Volume 15, 2007).

Nobody really knows why low levels of magnesium prevent cells from responding to insulin. A leading theory is that magnesium is necessary for insulin to act after it attaches to insulin receptors on cells. Before insulin can do its job of driving sugar into cells, it must first attach to special hooks called insulin receptors on the surface of cells. Then it moves sugar into cells by activating an enzyme called tyrosine-kinase. Magnesium is necessary for this reaction to occur.

Another interpretation of this study could be that magnesium deficiency is only an indicator of a very unhealthful dietary pattern that is most likely to cause metabolic syndrome. Since virtually all parts of plants and the animals that eat them contain magnesium, a diet low in magnesium would have to be based on large amounts of white flour, sugar and other highly refined and processed foods. These are also the foods that cause the highest rise in blood sugar. Free weekly newsletter; more on metabolic syndrome

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Asthma or Allergy Sufferers: Cycling is Better than Running

Many people with allergies and lung problems such as asthma should be able to exercise on a bicycle, even when their disease would prevent them from participating in sports that require running. Researchers showed that even people with severe lung disease can ride a bicycle (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, June 2007).

People with obstructive lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have swelling of the tubes that carry air to and from the lungs. This allows their lungs to fill, but prevents the air from leaving their lungs effectively , so that their lungs are so full of air, they cannot get the air out to get rid of excess carbon dioxide or bring in extra oxygen. Of course, this interferes with their ability to exercise intensely. This study shows that during hard cycling, you can still get rid of excess carbon dioxide and take in adequate oxygen, but running interferes far more with your lung functions.

Exercise is beneficial for everyone and helps to prevent heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, dementia, overweight and other health issues. People with lung problems should get their doctor's permission to start and maintain a cycling program, either on a stationary bicycle or on the road. Free newsletter

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Leg Clots in a Healthy Person: Know the Warning Signs

Leg clots occur without warning with sudden pain and swelling in a leg muscle, usually the calf. This is a particularly dangerous condition because the clot can break lose from the veins in the leg, travel to the lungs and block blood flow to kill a person. In a report in the British medical journal, Lancet, doctors at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine showed that infections may cause sudden clotting in the leg muscles called Deep Vein Thrombosis. They showed a 20 percent increase in infections, particularly urinary and respiratory, one to two weeks before a person develops clots. This report supports the current theory of inflammation causing heart attacks, strokes, and clotting. Your immunity is good because it is supposed to kill germs when they enter your body. However, if your immunity keeps on being active, it attacks your own body to damage arteries and other tissues.

People at the highest risk for clots are those who are sedentary for a long time, such as in long distance plane flights, and those who suffer cancers. Since infections are common and deep vein clots are not, you should not worry about clots every time you get an infection. However, if after a urinary or respiratory infection, you suffer sudden pain in a leg without any other explanation, check with a doctor immediately to rule out a clot. Journal reference; more on inflammation

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Sore muscles should guide your exercise program

Your muscles should feel sore on some days after you exercise. If you go out and jog the same two miles at the same pace, day after day, you will never become faster, stronger or have greater endurance. If you stop lifting weights when your muscles start to burn, you won't feel sore on the next day and you will not become stronger. All improvement in any muscle function comes from stressing and recovering. On one day, you go out and exercise hard enough to make your muscles burn during exercise. The burning is a sign that you are damaging your muscles. On the next day, your muscles feel sore because they are damaged and need time to recover. Scientist call this DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness.

It takes at least eight hours to feel this type of soreness. You finish a workout and feel great; then you get up the next morning and your exercised muscles feel sore. We used to think that next-day muscle soreness is caused by a buildup of lactic acid in muscles, but now we know that lactic acid has nothing to do it. Next-day muscle soreness is caused by damage to the muscle fibers themselves. Muscle biopsies taken on the day after hard exercise show bleeding and disruption of the z-band filaments that hold muscle fibers together as they slide over each other during a contraction.

Scientists can tell how much muscle damage has occurred by measuring blood levels of a muscle enzyme called CPK. CPK is normally found in muscles and is released into the bloodstream when muscles are damaged. Those exercisers who have the highest post-exercise blood levels of CPK often have the most muscle soreness. Using blood CPK levels as a measure of muscle damage, researchers have shown that people who continue to exercise when their muscles feel sore are the ones most likely to feel sore on the next day.

Many people think that cooling down by exercising at a very slow pace after exercising more vigorously, helps to prevent muscle soreness. It doesn't. Cooling down speeds up the removal of lactic acid from muscles, but a buildup of lactic acid does not cause muscle soreness, so cooling down will not help to prevent muscle soreness. Stretching does not prevent soreness either, since post-exercise soreness is not due to contracted muscle fibers.

Next-day muscle soreness should be used as a guide to training, whatever your sport. On one day, go out and exercise right up to the burn, back off when your muscles really start to burn, then pick up the pace again and exercise to the burn. Do this exercise-to-the-burn and recover until your muscles start to feel stiff, and then stop the workout. Depending on how sore your muscles feel, take the next day off or go at a very slow pace. Do not attempt to train for muscle burning again until the soreness has gone away completely. Most athletes take a very hard workout on one day, go easy for one to seven days afterward, and then take a hard workout again. World-class marathon runners run very fast only twice a week. The best weightlifters lift very heavy only once every two weeks. High jumpers jump for height only once a week. Shot putters throw for distance only once a week. Exercise training is done by stressing and recovering. Newsletter

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