Sightseeing Cyclists Should Pedal Slower

Anything you can do to strengthen your legs will make you more efficient when you ride. Research from Norway shows that the stronger you are, the slower and more efficiently you pedal when you are going at a relaxed pace. Fourteen healthy subjects performed supervised heavy lifting (two sets of the heaviest weight that they could lift 12 times in a row) for 12 weeks, including two days per week of squats and leg curls. They improved by 20 percent in the squats and 12 percent in their leg curls. At the end of the study, their increased strength caused them to use a pedal rate that was about 10 revolutions per minute slower during cycling at half their maximal power output. They used three percent less energy to do this. Journal reference

When you are trying to go as fast as you can, use a fast cadence between 80 and 100 revolutions per minute. However, when you are sightseeing, pedal at 60 to 70 revolutions and you will use less energy to go the same distance. More on the best cadence for all types of cycling

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Caffeine: Why it helps during exercise

In endurance events, the first cause of fatigue is loss of muscle sugar, so athletes do whatever they can to preserve sugar levels. Caffeine causes the body to produce large amounts of adrenalin, which causes fat to be released from fat cells and float in the bloodstream. This extra fat is taken up by the muscles and used for energy, thus preserving the body's limited stored supply of muscle sugar. When muscles run our of sugar, the athlete requires more oxygen to do the same job, slows down, fatigues earlier, and has difficulty maintaining his performance.

A questionnaire from competitors at the 2005 Ironman Triathlon World Championships showed that seventy-three percent of the athletes believe that caffeine improves performance and 84 percent believe it improves concentration. During competition, 65 percent used cola drinks and 24 percent used caffeinated gels. Although caffeine can increase risk for heat stroke and theoretically can cause irregular heartbeats, almost none of the athletes reported suffering any side effects from taking caffeine.
Journal reference; free fitness and health newsletter

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Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Heart Attacks

More than 75 years ago, we learned that lack of vitamin D causes rickets, bone deformities and failure to grow in children. Twenty years ago, reports started to appear showing that lack of vitamin D also impairs your immunity to limit your ability to kill germs. This was followed by studies showing that it also increase risk for certain cancers. Now the Framingham Offspring Study from Harvard tells us that low blood levels of vitamin D increase risk for heart attacks (Circulation, January 2008).

The authors followed 1700 participants (mean age 59) without prior cardiovascular disease for five years. Those with low blood levels of active vitamin D at the onset had one and a half times the chances of suffering a heart attack. Those with low vitamin D and high blood pressure had twice the risk. At this time, nobody knows why lack of vitamin D increases heart attack risk.

Dietary sources of vitamin D include deep-water fish and fortified cereals, but most North Americans meet their needs for vitamin D from sunlight and not from their diets. If you do not get out in the sun at least a few times a week, ask your doctor to check your blood levels of vitamin D. People with dark skin and those who are overweight are most likely to be deficient. Free newsletter

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Plant Omega-3's Better than Fish Oils

Omega-3 fatty acids protect against heart attacks, inflammatory diseases such as rheumatiod arthritis, depression, and attention deficit disorder. You probably know that you can get omega-3s in seafood or fish oils. However, the omega-3 fatty acids in seeds such as whole grains may be even more important in maintaining your health than the omega-3s from fish.

Omega-3 fatty acids are the least stable fats in our diet. Whole grains contain vitamin E to keep the omega-3s fresh and prevent them from turning rancid, but omega-3 fatty acids in fish are not protected by vitamin E and therefore turn rancid much more quickly than the omega-3 fatty acids in seeds.

Three large studies, The Lyon Heart Study, the GISSI Prevenzione Trial, and in The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension Study have established that omega-3 fish oils help to prevent heart attacks and reduce pain and swelling in diseases such as arthritis, psoriasis, and possibly even asthma. Other research shows that the omega-3 alpha linoleic acids in seeds, nuts, beans and whole grain may be as necessary as the omega-3s in fish oils to prevent heart attacks. Journal references

Omega-3s found in fish oils are mostly long chain fatty acids. Omega-3s in plants, particularly seeds, contain much shorter chains and are weaker than the omega-3s found in fish. However, the shorter chain omega-3s, particularly alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), found in leafy greens and seeds are converted to the long chain fatty acids in the human body. Long- chain fish omega-3s enter blood and cells more rapidly and produce more rapid effects than short chain plant omega-3s.

Over the long haul, humans must get omega-3s from plants, as well as fish, because all omega-3s break down very quickly when exposed to oxygen in your body, and you need large amounts of vitamin E to prevent omega-3s from turning rancid. Fish oils are extremely low in vitamin E, while virtually every seed or plant source of omega-3s is loaded also with vitamin E. So your body stores far more short chain omega-3s from plants in your body fat.

Dietary fats are classified by their chemical structure into saturated, polyunsaturated and mono unsaturated. The polyunsaturated fats are further sub-classified into omega-3, omega-6 and omega-9. Omega-6 polyunsaturated fats form prostaglandins that cause clotting, a thickening of the blood and constriction of arteries that cause heart attacks.

On the other hand, omega-3 polyunsaturated fats prevent heart attacks and high blood pressure by helping thin blood, relax arteries and prevent clotting. Over millions of years, humans have consumed a diet that contained approximately equal amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 essential fatty acids, but over the past 150 years, humans have increased their consumption of omega-6s by taking in vegetable oils from the seeds of corn, sunflower, safflower, cotton and soybeans.

These oils are used in most prepared foods, frozen foods, margarines, French fries, potato chips, and bakery products. North Americans eat a diet with a ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids that is almost 20 times higher in omega-6s than omega-3s, instead of the earlier ratio of about 2:1. This abnormally high intake of omega-6s blocks arteries and causes swelling throughout the body. To meet your needs for short chain omega-3 fatty acids found in plants, eat plenty of green leafy vegetables, and seeds such as flaxseed, whole grains, beans and nuts. More on omega-3 fatty acids

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Eight Glasses of Water a Day: No Health Benefit

Eight glasses of water a day will just give you a lot of extra trips to the bathroom. Drinking extra water does not "flush out toxins" or offer any other useful function.

Why do so many people believe this rule? The number originally came from the National Academy of Sciences of the United States Food and Nutrition Board, which publishes recommended daily allowances of nutrients. The 1945 edition of the Food and Nutrition Board said "A suitable allowance of water for adults is 2.5 liters (about 8 cups) daily in most instances." This amount is based on the calculation of one milliliter of water for each calorie of food. HOWEVER, the Board also noted that most of the water you need is in the food you eat.

All foods contain water. Even the driest nut or seed has a lot of water in it. Furthermore, when food is digested, it is converted to energy, carbon dioxide and WATER. Most people can get the fluid the body needs from food, and they only need to drink enough water to prevent constipation.

Researchers have showed that plain water is not needed as long as enough fluid is obtained from other drinks and food. Twenty-seven healthy men consumed one of two diets for three-day periods and were studied in a lab setting. The first diet included plain water while the second omitted it, relying on only foods and beverages other than water for fluid. None of the nine measures of hydration were affected. Journal reference

A reasonable amount for a healthy human is one cup of water or any other fluid with each meal. If you have a problem with constipation you may not be drinking enough water, but if you are not constipated, you are getting plenty. You'll also want to replace fluids whenever you sweat a lot, particularly when you exercise or in hot weather. Drink water whenever you feel thirsty, but there's no health benefit from forcing yourself to drink eight glasses of water a day.

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Fewer Hard Workouts May Make You a Better Athlete

How much time should you spend working at your maximum level in your sport, compared to miles or days spent going at a relaxed pace? Researchers at the University of Madrid in Spain divided competitive distance runners into two groups. One group did frequent intense workouts and fewer slow recovery miles, while the second group did fewer intense workouts and more slow miles. At the end of five months, the runners who did fewer intense workouts and more recovery miles improved far more than those who ran fewer miles and spent a lot of their time trying to run very fast. Journal reference

All competitive athletes from marathon runners to weight lifters know that they must exercise intensely to compete successfully in sports. However, every time you exercise intensely, your muscles are damaged and you feel sore on the next day. If you try to exercise intensely when your muscles are sore, you are liable to injure yourself, break down, or become chronically fatigued with muscles hurting all the time. So athletes train by taking a hard workout that makes their muscles sore, and going easy for as many days as it takes for the soreness to go away. This study shows the importance of allowing adequate recovery time between intense workouts. Recovery workouts make your muscles more fibrous so they can take more abuse when you exercise on your hard days. Principles of training

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Cold Toes Can Mean Diabetes

Painfully cold toes can ruin outdoor sports on cold days. We solve the problem with adhesive toe-warmer packets on our socks. However, if your toes feel cold even when it is not cold outside, or if you have loss of feeling or tingling as well, you need a complete work-up for causes of nerve damage. Numb, cold or tingling feet can be one of the first symptoms of diabetes.

Nerves can be damaged by something pinching or stretching them, such as excessive pressure from moving a limb repeatedly (as in carpal tunnel syndrome in your hand), scar tissue, or a disc problem in your back. Nerves can also be damaged by diabetes; lack of a vitamin (such as B12 in pernicious anemia); infections such as Lyme disease, shingles and herpes; poisonings by substances such as mercury or lead, or by diseases such as multiple sclerosis. You should never ignore a neuropathy because many causes are controllable before you suffer permanent damage to your nerves. Check with your doctor to find the cause of any neuropathy.

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