Exercise Strengthens Bones

It's never too late to strengthen bones with exercise. Every woman, and most men, will suffer from osteoporosis if they live long enough. Hip bones broken by osteoporosis do not heal, and must be replaced immediately. A study from Australia shows that regular exercise helps to keep bones strong and exercising into later life protects bones of older people even more (Journal Osteoporosis International, August 2006). An earlier study from Sweden showed that men who were highly competitive soccer players in their youth and then gave up active sports did not have bigger and stronger bones and did not have fewer fractures than people who never exercised at all. On the other hand, people who did not exercise in their youth, but started and continued...

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Support Stockings Don't Help Exercisers

Elastic compression stockings have no effect whatever on exercise, according to a recent study from France (European Journal of Applied Physiology, July 2006). They neither increase nor decrease endurance, strength, speed, recovery, or blood flow to the limbs. The study did not test the increased warmth generated by compressive stockings, but many people with arthritis have difficulty exercising in the cold and feel better from the warmth generated by a snug wrapping. In hot weather, the support hose can act as a barrier to prevent heat loss, which may make you tire earlier.Many people develop swollen feet and ankles when they stand or sit, which goes away when they lie down. People with this gravity-dependant swelling of their feet and legs...

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Fit Women Live Longer

The strongest, best-coordinated, fastest older women with the most endurance live the longest. French women over the age of 75 were tested to see how fast they could walk (speed), how many chair stands they could do (endurance), how well they could balance themselves (coordination), and the pressure of their handgrip (strength). Women at the low end of scores for the total of the four tests and for each test were at increased risk for dying in the next four years (European Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 21, 2006). Strength, speed, endurance and coordination are measures of fitness, determined by how active you are and how much exercise you get. What you do now is more important than what you did in your younger years. More than fifty years...

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Constipation: Why some foods help

Why do some foods such as prunes help to prevent constipation? At last, scientists at the Medical College of Georgia have explained why high-fiber foods keep you regular (PloS Biology, September 2006). Rough and bulky foods brush against the inner linings of your intestinal tract and break the membranes that surround each cell. Immediately, calcium in the outside fluid moves inside the cell to signal mucous-filled compartments inside the cell to come together and form a patch to heal the breaks in the surface membranes. The cells release mucous to keep bulky stool moving along your intestinal tract. Cells lining your intestinal tract live only around 48 hours anyway, so this damage is not harmful as long as you don’t also take a lot of aspirin...

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Memory Loss can be Caused by Excess Weight

Full fat cells produce proteins called cytokines that turn on your immunity to cause inflammation that damages tissue throughout your body, including your brain. Researchers at Toulouse University Hospital in France tested people first in 1996 and again five years later. During that period, overweight people lost far more of their ability to recall words than their thinner counterparts. (Neurology, October 2006).Your immunity is supposed to protect you from infections. When a germ gets into your body, your immunity produces white blood cells and proteins called antibodies that attach to and kill germs. As soon as the germ is gone, your immunity is supposed to stop making antibodies and white blood cells. In some people the immunity remains...

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Donating Blood: Effects on Athletes and Exercisers

A healthy athlete should be able to recover completely from donating blood in eight weeks, but he may lose some of his ability to train for a few days. Following a donation of one pint, blood volume is reduced by about ten percent and returns to normal in 48 hours. For two days after donating, you should drink lots of fluids and probably exercise at a reduced intensity or not at all. Donating blood markedly reduces competitive performance for three to four weeks as it takes that long for blood hemoglobin levels to return to normal.You should not donate blood more often than every eight weeks because it takes that long to replace lost nutrients. If you donate blood frequently, you need to make sure to replace the B vitamins and possibly the...

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Foods to Build Muscle

If you want to become very strong, you should lift heavy weights, eat carbohydrates before you lift and eat plenty of protein afterwards. Normal amounts of insulin help muscles grow, and eating carbohydrates causes your blood sugar to rise, which, in turn, causes your pancreas to release insulin. Taking in large amounts of protein after a workout helps muscles to recover faster from hard exercise, so you can do more hard work and grow larger and stronger muscles (Journal of Physiology, Volume 573, 2006).To increase muscle strength, the weights you lift must be heavy enough to cause muscle burning while you lift and your muscles to feel sore on the next day. The soreness is caused by damage to the muscle fibers themselves. Most athletes quickly...

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Salt Sensitivity Lowered with Exercise

Excessive intake of salt causes high blood pressure in some, but not all, people. High blood pressure increases risk for heart attacks, strokes, and kidney damage. Why do some people develop high blood pressure when they take in a lot of salt, while others do not? A recent study from the University of Minnesota shows that middle-aged people who start an exercise program lose their tendency to develop high blood pressure when they take in extra salt (Journal of Human Hypertension, May 2006).All people who exercise frequently and hard need to take in extra salt. During World War II, Dr. James Gamble of Harvard Medical School showed that the only mineral that exercisers need in large quantities is salt. If heavy exercisers don’t take in enough...

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Prolonging Life: Why exercise or calorie restriction may be the key

Many studies have shown that animals on calorie restricted diets live longer, have less diabetes, heart attacks and cancers and appear younger. In the latest work at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, monkeys eating only 30 percent of their normal caloric intake live much longer and appear much younger than those eating their full diets (American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism, August 2006).Nobody really knows how calorie restriction with adequate nutrients prolongs life and prevents disease, or whether the animal studies can be applied to humans. The leading theory for calorie restriction with adequate nutrition is that it teaches your mitochondria to burn food to produce much lower amounts of oxidants. Mitochondria...

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Syndrome X: Treat with Lifestyle Change

Syndrome X describes people who have low blood levels of the good HDL cholesterol and high blood levels of triglycerides, which puts them at high risk for heart attacks. HDL cholesterol is called the good cholesterol because it carries cholesterol and triglycerides from your blood to your liver before they can form plaques in arteries. Triglycerides are manufactured by your liver from extra food that you take in, primarily from refined carbohydrates which cause a high rise in blood sugar. Excessive amounts of triglycerides cause a condition called fatty liver that interferes with liver function.Your liver is supposed to remove insulin from your bloodstream after the insulin has done its job of driving sugar from the bloodstream into cells....

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Sagging breasts not caused by exercise

Women can wear bras when they exercise if they want to, but there is no medical evidence that exercising braless will harm them or cause breasts to sag. A breast is made up of skin on the outside, fat underneath and muscles under that. Breasts are held in place by skin and small ligaments that go from the skin to muscles underneath the breasts. The intermittent stretching that occurs during exercise does not stretch out the skin or ligaments. A breast is composed mostly of fat, so when a woman starts to exercise, she loses fat from her breast as well as the rest of her body and they become smaller and may appear to sag. Sagging is determined to some degree by heredity. All women develop some sagging as they age and those with the largest breasts...

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Sea salt or regular table salt?

Should you use sea salt instead of ordinary table salt? While iodized table salt is a good source of iodine, sea salt often is not. If you don't use table salt or eat ocean fish or kelp, get a blood test for iodine. If your iodine level is low, you need to eat more seafood or iodized salt, or take iodine pills. You need to eat foods that contain iodine for your body to be able to make thyroid hormone. The best sources are iodized salt and seafood. Plants can be a good source, but only if they are grown on iodine-rich soil. A study in the Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism (September-October 2003) showed that vegetarians are at increased risk for iodine deficiency that causes low thyroid function. In this study, 25 percent of vegetarians and...

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Cross-training for maximum fitness

Every time you exercise vigorously your muscles are injured, and the harder you exercise, the longer it takes for your muscles to heal. You are not supposed to exercise vigorously again until your muscles stop hurting. You can exercise hard on one day and easy on the next few days, or you can train in two sports. This is called cross-training, and it can make you very fit and help to prevent injuries.Each sport stresses specific muscle groups. Cycling stresses the upper legs, while rowing stresses your back and upper body. If you cycle and row on the same day, you stress your upper legs and upper body on the same day. To reduce your chances of injuring yourself, you should take the next day off, or at least exercise at a very low intensity....

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Knee surgery: Trimming cartilage ineffective

I have said repeatedly that surgery to trim cartilage in the knee is worthless. I have seen many patients who have had cartilage removed by surgeons for an average charge of $5000 and then they must have a knee replacement several years later. The surgeon must know about the harm he is doing because he has to see his patients for followup, when many of them require knee replacement surgery.Now a report in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that knee surgery to remove cartilage is worse than doing nothing. The headline from Baylor Medical School, where the landmark study was performed, is that "Study Finds Common Knee Surgery No Better Than Placebo." Patients with osteoarthritis of the knee who underwent placebo arthroscopic surgery were...

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Glucophage for weight loss

Metformin, sold under the trade name Glucophage, is used to treat diabetes, but several recent papers show that it also helps non-diabetics to lose weight by reducing hunger. You may be overweight because your body makes too much insulin, especially if your store your fat primarily in your belly. When you eat, your blood sugar level rises. The higher it rises, the more insulin your pancreas releases. Insulin makes you fat by acting on your brain to make you hungry, your liver to manufacture fat, and the fat cells in your belly to fill with fat. So the treatment for this type of obesity is to avoid foods that cause the highest rise in blood sugar and to take medications that prevent your blood sugar levels from rising too high. Avoid bakery...

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Overtraining: Know the warning signs

One of the most difficult problems for athletes is knowing when you are training too much. You make a muscle stronger only by stressing that muscle, feeling sore on the next day, and taking easy workouts or days off until the soreness goes away. Then you are supposed to take a hard workout again. If you do not feel soreness on the day after a hard workout, you have not injured your muscles, and they will not become stronger. However, if you try to work hard when your muscles feel sore, muscles do not recover and will feel sore all the time.Every athlete knows that sometimes your muscles still feel little sore several days after a hard workout. You may think that you have recovered from your previous hard workout and you think you are ready...

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Muscles recover faster in the morning

A study from France shows that it takes longer to recover from hard exercise in the evening than in the morning (International Journal of Sports Medicine, Volume 27, 2006). Cyclists performed ten six-second bouts of all out effort, with 30-second rest periods while the researchers measured peak power output, total mechanical work, peak pedaling rate, and peak efficient torque. The same group of cyclists performed these workouts in the morning on one day, and in the evening on another day. They found that the short-term recovery patterns were slower in the evening than in the morning.While the researchers offered no explanation, decreased muscle performance late in the day may have a lot to do with brain function. Each muscle is made up of millions...

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Soybean products: healthful or harmful?

All plants contain chemicals that are healthful and chemicals that can harm us. Fortunately for us, our ancestors learned which plants are edible and healthful, and taught us to avoid those that are poisonous. However, if you eat very large amounts of one food, you can poison yourself, even though reasonable amounts are harmless or beneficial.For example, soybeans contain genistein, a weak estrogen that may help to prevent breast cancer. They contain omega-3 fatty acids that help prevent heart attacks, and are loaded with fiber that helps to prevent diabetes. But they also contain small amounts of trypsin inhibitors that increase risk for pancreatic damage and cancer in animals. Hemagglutinins in soybeans could cause clots to form and travel...

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Fat Belly? Spot Reduction Doesn't Work

What's the best exercise to get rid of belly fat? Sit-ups, crunches and other exercises can strengthen your belly muscles, but there is no such thing as spot reduction. Exercising a muscle does not get rid of fat over the specific muscles that are exercised. If it did, tennis players would have less fat in their tennis arms, but they don't.When you take in more calories than your body burns, you store them as fat. You store more that half the fat in your body underneath your skin and over your muscles. Some people store fat primarily in their hips and are at low risk for heart attacks and diabetes, while others who store their fat primarily in their bellies are at increased risk for heart attacks and diabetes. The "ab" exercises can strengthen...

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Get very strong as efficiently as possible

What’s the most efficient way for a beginning weight lifter to become stronger? A recent study from the University of Sydney in Australia shows that you benefit either from increasing the number of sets of repetitions or from training faster, but not both. Weight lifters were divided into four groups: 1) one set fast 2) three sets fast, 3) one set slow 3) three sets slow. A control group did no lifting. A set was the heaviest weight that they could lift six to eight times in a row. They trained three times a week for six weeks (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, September 2005).The group that did one slow set increased strength by 25 percent. Three sets produced twice the increase in strength of one set. Fast training resulted...

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Awkward running form

Many people look terribly uncoordinated when they run. Telling them to change their form will just make them more uncoordinated. If a coach criticizes a team member for poor running form and doesn't correct the underlying causes, the person is likely to become self-conscious about how he or she looks, and run even more slowly. Coordination usually improves just with repeated practice in the chosen sport.Running form can improve markedly if you can correct muscle imbalances and structural abnormalities with appropriate exercises and perhaps mechanical devices. A coach can videotape the athletes while they run, then review the tape in slow motion to analyze the mechanical defects. For example, leaning forward during running is often caused by...

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Muscles won't turn into fat

You may have heard that if you build up a lot of muscle and then stop exercising, it will turn into fat. Don't use that as an excuse not to exercise. Muscles can't possibly turn to fat. When you exercise, your muscles become larger and stronger because exercise causes extra protein building blocks, called amino acids, to deposit in muscles. All day long, amino acids pass from your muscles into your bloodstream and then back into muscles. Exercise is the major stimulus to force amino acids back into muscles. When you stop exercising, fewer amino acids go into your muscles so the muscles get smaller. Your body has no way to store extra protein, so amino acids that are not used in your muscles are picked up by your liver, which uses them for...

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Isometric Exercises: Don't Waste Your Time

Isometric exercise means that you push against something that doesn't move, such as a wall. Thirty years ago, most weightlifters and athletes in sports requiring strength used isometric training, but you don't hear much about them anymore. The strength gained through performing isometric contractions is only within 20 degrees of the angle you hold. On the other hand, when you lift weights, you become strong through a wide range of motion. Isometrics cause your blood pressure to rise higher than the other methods of strength training. If you have weak blood vessels or heart trouble, you can rupture a blood vessel or develop an irregular heart beat.According to Dr. John D. Fair, Chairman of the Department of History at Auburn University, the...

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Exercise to Lose Weight (New Year's Resolution #3)

Exercise helps you lose weight by raising your metabolism so you burn more calories for several hours after you finish exercising. A study from Oslo, Norway shows that you have to exercise at almost 50 percent of your maximum capacity to increase your metabolism(1). Only vigorous exercise that increases body temperature and makes you sweat will increase your metabolism enough to continue burning more calories after you finish. Exercise makes you hungry so you eat more food, but you do not eat enough to equal the increase in calories that you burn during and after hard exercise. However, intense exercise damages muscles and makes you sore. If you exercise vigorously the next day when your muscles are sore you are likely to injure yourself. If...

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Start a new exercise program! (New Year's resolution #2)

If you want to become fit and use exercise to help prevent a heart attack, first check with your doctor to make sure that you do not have anything wrong with your heart or blood vessels. Intense exercise can increase your risk for a heart attack if you already have a damaged heart. Pick any sport or activity that uses continuous motion (such as running, cycling, swimming, skating, rowing, dancing) that you think you might enjoy. Start out at a relaxed pace until your muscles feel heavy and then stop. For the first several days or weeks you may be able to exercise only for a few minutes. If your muscles feel sore the next day, take the day off. Increase the amount of time gradually until you can exercise 30 minutes a day at a relaxed pace and...

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Best sport for fitness

The best sports for fitness are the ones in which you exercise continuously, those that are least likely to injure you and the ones you enjoy the most. You become fit by exercising vigorously enough to increase the circulation of blood. It makes no difference to your heart how you increase your circulation. The best sports for fitness use your legs because the blood vessels in your legs are so much larger that you can circulate far more blood with your leg muscles. Furthermore, arm exercises tire you earlier because most people have weaker arms.Some sports require a great level of fitness just to start. For example, to jump rope, you must spin the rope more than 80 times a minute to keep it from tangling. Many people can't jump 80 times a minute....

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