Heart Muscles Do Not Get Tired During Exercise

A healthy heart is so strong that it is almost never a cause of tiredness during exercise. Tiredness during exercise comes from your muscles. They run out of fuel or out of oxygen. Skeletal muscles use both fat and sugar for energy. When your muscles run out of their stored sugar supply, called glycogen, they cannot contract and function adequately. You feel tired, your muscles hurt and you have difficulty coordinating them. On the other hand, your heart muscle gets energy directly from fat and sugar in your blood and even from a breakdown product of metabolism called lactic acid. It is virtually impossible for the heart muscle to run out of fuel unless you are starving to death.A healthy heart doesn't run out of oxygen either. Oxygen comes...

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Chronic Stuffy Nose Often Caused by Fungi

If your nose is stuffy during the pollen seasons in the spring and fall, check with an allergist. Allergy injections can help control your symptoms. If your stuffy nose started after puberty, you don't have allergies and your nose is stuffy 12 months a year, allergy injections usually are ineffective. Chronic sinus infections with nasal polyps have been considered incurable because doctors didn't have the foggiest idea what causes them, but researchers at the Mayo Clinic found fungi in 96 percent of people with chronic sinusitis. Nasal polyps are small finger-like, fluid-filled blisters, often associated with asthma and serious reactions to aspirin. The most common fungi are alternaria, penicillium, cladosporium, aspergillus, candida and fusarium....

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Eating Before Swimming Won't Cause Stomach Cramps

If you are going to exercise vigorously for more than an hour, you need to eat before you exercise or your muscles and liver will run out of sugar and you will tire earlier. Your brain gets more than 98 percent of its energy from sugar in your bloodstream. But there is only enough sugar in your bloodstream to last three minutes. So you liver has to constantly release sugar from its cells into your bloodstream. There is only enough sugar in your liver to last about an hour when you exercise vigorously. Eating before exercising can help you to exercise longer. If you do not eat before you exercise for more than an hour, and during exercise that lasts more than two hours, your liver will probably run out of sugar. Your blood sugar level can drop,...

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Prevent Diabetes: Pistachio Nuts May Help

One third of Americans will become diabetic, regardless of their country of origin. Most doctors feel that a person's diet has a lot to do with whether he or she becomes diabetic, and the most likely cause is foods that cause a high rise in blood a sugar after you eat them. A study from the University of Toronto shows that pistachio nuts (and probably most other nuts) help to keep blood sugar levels from rising too high after eating meals that normally cause a high rise in blood sugar (reported at the Experimental Biology meeting, Washington DC, May 2007).The Glycemic Index is a listing how much specific foods raise blood sugar. Foods with a high glycemic index are supposed to be off limits to diabetics, and perhaps they should be restricted...

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High Blood Pressure in Children Increasing

The incidence of high blood pressure in children is increasing, probably because of the increased incidence of obesity. Unlike high blood pressure in adults, doctors can almost always find the cause of hypertension in a child. It may be kidney disease, blocked blood vessels, hormone abnormalities, pinching of the main blood vessels, or obesity. Many children with untreated high blood pressure have evidence of heart damage called left ventricular hypertrophy. Whatever the cause, your child must learn how to control weight by exercising more and taking in fewer calories by limiting foods made with refined carbohydrates, saturated fats or partially hydrogenated oils. He or she will certainly need medication, at least until blood pressure is...

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Health Claims on Food Labels: Not So Reliable

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has loosened restrictions on how much scientific proof is required before possible health benefits appear on food labels. For example, the FDA now allows sellers of certain nuts to claim that "Scientific evidence suggests, but does not prove, that eating 1.5 ounces per day of some nuts, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease." Sellers of seafood that is rich in omega-3 fatty acids will want to claim that their products prevent heart attacks, and so forth, so we will probably see a proliferation of these statements on food labels in the years ahead.A manufacturer cannot claim that a product prevents heart attacks just because it contains nuts. For example,...

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Salt restriction to lower blood pressure: an ongoing controversy

Nowhere in medicine is there more confusion than the issue of salt as a cause of high blood pressure. At a recent meeting of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, Dr. Abdul-Rahman of Newark, Delaware reported that people who lowered blood insulin levels had a significant reduction in high blood pressure even though they also markedly increased their salt intake. Journal reference These obese patients increased their daily salt intake from less than two grams a day to more than 20 grams a day. They avoided starchy and sugary foods and lost around 12 pounds in six weeks. They did not count calories. Their average blood sugars dropped from 106 to 98, average fasting insulin from 21 to 14 mu/ml and average diastolic blood pressure...

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Asthma inhalers: how they improve athletic performance

Drugs called beta-2 agonists, such as salbutamol, salmeterol and terbutaline, open the closed lungs of asthmatics and help them to breathe. They also increase the amount of fat in the bloodstream to increase energy sources of exercising muscles, help to preserve the muscles’ store of sugar, and help muscles to contract with more force. The common inhaled asthma medication called albuterol has been shown to improve athletic performance.These asthma medications are potent stimulants, so they could cause irregular heart beats. It is illegal for Olympic competitors to take albuterol pills. However, asthmatics need their medications, so the Olympic medical committee allows asthmatics to take these same medications by inhaler, provided that a doctor...

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Jumping rope for fitness: pros and cons

To use rope-jumping for fitness, you need to be skilled enough to jump continuously for twenty to thirty minutes, and jumping that long and fast requires that you be in good shape. All you need is a ten-foot rope. The ends of the rope should barely reach your armpits when you stand on the middle of it. You don't need special shoes, but sandals or loose shoes are likely to cause tripping. Start out by spinning the rope forward so you can see it as it passes. Bend your knees to absorb the shock of landing and protect the force of your feet striking the ground. To keep yourself from falling, bend slightly forward at the waist. Start out gradually and work up to thirty minutes three times a week.The fitness benefit from any exercise depends on...

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Inability to chew properly can cause weakness, frailty in older people

Many older people are so weak that they move slowly, are terribly uncoordinated and often fall and break their bones. A study from France shows that part of this problem can be caused by faulty chewing (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, May 2007).As almost all people age, they lose muscle tissue and become weaker. Muscles are built from the protein digested from food. The authors measured protein absorption in older people by feeding them radioactive leucine and then measuring the amount in their blood. Half the subjects had normal teeth and half had full dentures. Those who lost all their teeth had far lower absorption of the protein that they ate, absorbing only 30 percent compared to 48 percent for those who had their own teeth. This...

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Do Not Limit Calories Before Competition

Most athletes know that lack of fluids weakens and tires them, so they take adequate amount of fluids, before, during and after competitions. However, many do not know how much they need extra calories. They often are told incorrectly that the human body as so much fat on board that lack of calories is not a significant problem. Researchers at the University of Wales in the United Kingdom found that moderate calorie restriction two days prior to competition slows down endurance far more than reduced fluid intake over that same period (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, February 2007). Moderate dehydration does not harm performance until a person becomes severely dehydrated. On the other hand, lack of calories stops you cold in your...

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Low Blood Sugar Symptoms Require an Explanation

When blood sugar levels drop, you may feel anxious, shaky, sweaty, hungry, a tingling in your skin or your heart may beat rapidly. More severe symptoms include confusion, a sensation of warmth, weakness or fatigue, loss of memory and in its extreme, seizures and passing out. As you suffer repeat attacks of low blood sugar, they affect you less and your symptoms lessen. If your doctor tells you that you suffer from hypoglycemia, he must then tell you the cause because low blood sugar is the result of something going wrong in your body. It is not a cause. Your brain gets more than 98 percent of its energy from sugar in your bloodstream. There is only enough sugar in your bloodstream to last about three minutes, so your liver constantly releases...

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Fluids Early in Competition Improve Performance

A study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows that drinking fluids earlier can improve performance more than taking them later. Seven highly-trained male triathletes, aged 18 to 35 years, were tested during two simulated Olympic-distance triathlons. They took a full glass of water at 8, 16, 24, and 32 kilometers, and this was compared to taking the same drink 2, 4, 6 and 8 kilometers later in the event (at 10, 20, 30, and 40 kilometers).As you would expect, opening swim times for 1500 meters were similar between trials; as were the second event (40-km cycling) times, but the third event (10-km run) times were faster when the athletes took food and drink earlier. Dehydration does not harm an athlete's performance until...

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New Study Shows Mediterranean Diet Best for Heart Attack Prevention

Here is one more study that shows obesity, heart attacks, strokes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure are influenced by lifestyle. Researchers at the University of Athens, in Greece showed that a person's chances of becoming diabetic or developing high blood pressure, heart attacks or obesity can be predicted by the diet he eats (Preventive Medicine, April 2007).The authors developed a diet score ranging from 0–55 to check adherence to the Mediterranean diet. The gave scores of 0 to 5 each for consuming non-refined cereals, fruits, vegetables, legumes, olive oil, fish and potatoes). They awarded scores of 0 to 5 for eating these foods: never, rare, frequent, very frequent, weekly and daily. They subtracted points for eating red meat,...

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Thirty Minutes Three Times a Week is Not Enough

If you have heard that you get maximum benefit from exercising for 30 minutes three times a week, you've been given bad advice. Exercise can help to lower high blood pressure, cholesterol, insulin levels and body fat. However, for most people, it takes a lot of exercise to see these results.A recent study shows that many people need to exercise a very long time just to achieve a normal life expectancy (Current Opinion in Lipidology, February 2007). One out of three Americans can expect to develop diabetes, and most of these people have bodies that cannot respond adequately to insulin because they eat too much food and do not exercise enough. This causes their blood sugar to rise too high after meals, which, in turn, causes the pancreas to put...

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Ammonia odor caused by common stomach bacteria

Until recently, doctors couldn't explain why some people smell like ammonia when they exercise. A report from Japan tells us why. To smell like ammonia, you have to eat a lot of protein or be infected with a germ called helicobacter. Many weightlifters eat tremendous amounts of protein because they mistakenly think that it will make them stronger. The food you eat contains carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Of the three, only protein contains nitrogen. The body has no way to store extra protein, so when you take in more protein than your body needs, your liver knocks nitrogen off the protein and the nitrogen is eventually converted to ammonia and passes through the sweat glands and kidneys. Some people smell like ammonia when they do not take...

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Blood Pressure-Lowering Diet as Effective as Drugs

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have shown why the DASH diet lowers high blood pressure to normal in more than 80 percent of people with high blood pressure. On the DASH diet you eat lots of leafy green vegetables that are rich sources of nitrites, common salts that your bloodstream, can be converted to nitric oxide which opens blood vessels. This means that nitrites could be a new treatment for high blood pressure, heart attacks, sickle cell disease, and blocked arteries leading the heart, brain and legs. Hemoglobin is the red pigment in red blood cells that carries oxygen in your bloodstream. When hemoglobin releases oxygen, it converts nitrites to nitric oxide, to widen blood vessels. Blood nitrite levels are low in patients...

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Master Athletes Age Better than Non-Exercisers

Almost 50 percent of Americans die of heart attacks and strokes, diseases that are associated with a faulty diet and lack of exercise. Almost 80 percent are overweight or obese, which is also associated with lack of exercise. Yet only 13 percent of people over 65 engage in vigorous physical activity three or more days a week. Among those over 75, only six percent exercise regularly.Master athletes are older men and women who compete in sports at a very high level, no matter how old they are. They are healthier than age-matched people in virtually every category that has been measured. Of course they are more fit, as measured by their maximal ability to take in and use oxygen. They have lower cholesterols, comparable to those of people in their...

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Hot-Weather Exercisers Need Salt to Avoid Fatigue

Fatigue during hot-weather exercise is caused by lack of water, salt, sugar or calories. Of the four, exercisers are most ignorant of their sodium needs. A study from The University of Otago in New Zealand shows that taking a salty drink prior to competition can help an athlete to exercise longer and harder (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, January, 2007; and Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, January 2007). Athletes who took the salty drink had larger blood volumes and greater endurance. Salt makes you thirsty earlier so you drink more, and salt in your body holds water so you have more water available to meet your needs.In 1942, James Gamble of Harvard Medical School was hired to establish guidelines for soldiers fighting in...

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Muscle Soreness is Necessary for Improvement

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...

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