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...

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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...

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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,...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Insulin Levels May Determine Diet Effectiveness

If you are not sure what type of weight loss diet is best for you, you may want to have your insulin levels checked. Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital showed that people with high insulin levels lose weight more effectively on low-refined- carbohydrate diets (Journal of the American Medical Association, May 16, 2007). The researchers measured blood insulin levels one half hour after eating. They then placed overweight patients on either low-fat or low-refined-carbohydrate diets. Those with insulin levels above average at 30 minutes after eating lost more weight on the low-refined-carbohydrate diet.When blood sugar levels rise too high, the pancreas releases too much insulin. This converts sugar to triglycerides. Then you use up the...

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Rethinking the Maximum Heart Rate Formula

For more than forty years, fitness instructors have based exercise prescriptions on the maximum heart rate formula of 220 minus your age. A study from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan shows that this formula may be wrong (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, May 2007). The researchers found that the original formula overestimated the maximum heart rate for younger exercisers and underestimated the maximum rate for older ones. The new formula they recommend is 206.9 - (age x .67) = maximum heart rate.Athletes train by taking a hard workout on one day, feeling sore on the next day, and then going easy for as many days as it takes for the soreness to go away. Then they take another hard workout and repeat the cycle. Most exercise...

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Carbohydrate Loading Benefits Can Last Several Days

An important part of your energy for vigorous exercise comes from the sugar stored inside muscle cells. When you run out of stored muscle sugar, your muscles may hurt and be more difficult to coordinate. Carbohydrate loading is a technique athletes use to increase the stored sugar in their muscles. Four days before a competition, they exercise vigorously and then for the next three days, they eat their normal diet plus large amounts of extra carbohydrates in foods such as bread, spaghetti and potatoes. A recent study shows that after carbohydrate loading, the muscles will be full of extra sugar for up to five days (European Journal of Applied Physiology, February 2007).At three, five and seven days of limited activity after the loading process,...

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Mitochondria Efficiency: New Key to Aging Well

An exciting report from the University of Washington in Seattle shows how exercise prolongs lives (Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, April, 2007). The leading theory for aging is that mitochondria produce oxidants that damage the DNA in cells to shorten life. Mitochondria are parts of cells that convert food to energy. They function by stripping off electrons and protons from food to produce energy. When they do this, they end up with free electrons that eventually attach to oxygen, which produces free radicals that stick to genetic material in cells to cause permanent damage.As you age, your muscles lose mitochondria and those that remain become smaller so that they produce far more free radicals. Anything that increases the size or number...

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Diabetes Control or Prevention: Strength Training, Protein Benefits

A study from Purdue University shows that lifting weights and eating extra protein can help to prevent or control diabetes, while enlarging muscles at the same time (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, May 2007). Thirty-six men and women in their sixties lifted weights three times a week for 12 weeks. They ate either a diet that contained 112 percent of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of protein or 150 percent of the RDA. The higher protein group ate more eggs and dairy products.After 12 weeks, the weight of both groups remained the same, and they gained the same amount of muscle and lost the same amount of fat. Both groups had the same reduced rise in blood sugar after eating a sugared meal. This means that they reduced their chances...

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Interval Training Techniques Can Be Used By Every Exerciser

Athletes train by "stressing and recovering". On one day, they take a hard workout which damages their muscles, on the next day, they feel sore and take easy workouts, and when the soreness goes away, take a hard workout again. They also break down individual workouts into intervals of stress and recovery. After warming up, they increase the intensity of the workout until they feel burning in their muscles, become short of breath, or exceed a certain heart rate. Then they slow down and when they have recovered partially, they increase their intensity again. They repeat these stress and recovery intervals until their muscles start to stiffen and they are then stop the workout. A report from The National Institute for Occupational Safety and...

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Heatstroke or Just Fatigue? Know the Warning Signs

After you have played a long tennis match on a hot summer day, you feel weaker and less accurate with your shots. The fatigue, muscle weakness, tired aching feeling and decreased coordination that you get in any sport lasting several hours is caused by low levels of fluids, salt or calories. There are no early warning signals. By the time you feel hungry, you have already run low on calories and are ready to crash. By the time you feel thirsty, you are already severely dehydrated and feel weak and tired. By the time you are low on salt, you already have tired, aching or burning muscles; feel weak, tired and dizzy; and may already have muscle cramps.The primary limiting factor in sports that require great endurance is the time it takes for your...

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Eat during hard exercise, even if you want to lose weight

Don't skip snacks during a long bike ride or other hard exercise, even if weight loss is your goal. You will need to eat food or drink sugared beverages to be able to ride long enough to burn significant calories and lose weight. Your muscles need a constant supply of sugar to keep you going. Cyclists who do not eat run out of their stored muscle sugar in about two hours. When you run out of stored muscles sugar, your muscles hurt and you lose coordination. You will not be able to ride fast because when your muscles run out of their stored sugar, they use fat for energy. Fat is not an efficient source of energy for exercising intensely. You will ride much faster when your muscles are full of sugar. Intense exercise helps you to burn extra...

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Recovery Times Do Not Decrease with Age

Many older athletes notice that their muscles weaken with aging, even though their recovery times from hard workouts are the same as when they were younger. A study from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia confirms this. Two groups of experienced cyclists raced in 30-minute time trials on three consecutive days. The first group had an average age of 24 while the second group's average age was 45.Both groups maintained their average power during the three trials. They had the same amount of muscle damage, measured by the release of a muscle enzyme called CPK. Both groups had a drop in their maximal heart rate of three beats per minute during their third time trial. The maximal voluntary isometric contractions of the quadriceps muscle...

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Health Benefits of Alcohol Explained by New Study

Various studies have concluded that moderate drinking of alcoholic beverages may improve health and prolong life. However, nobody really knows why this may be true or what doses of alcohol may prevent disease. One possible explanation is given by a study from The University of Sydney in Australia that shows alcoholic beverages help to prevent blood sugar levels from rising too high after meals (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, June 2007). This means that alcohol could help to prevent the damage caused by high blood sugar levels.When food reaches the stomach, the pyloric valve closes and does not allow food to enter the intestines until it is turned into a soupy liquid. Anything that keeps food in the stomach longer will help to lower...

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