Farmed Tilapia and Catfish are More Like Chicken than Fish

Fish are heart-healthy foods because they usually have high levels of omega-3 fatty acids and low levels of omega-6's.. However, researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine show that farm-raised tilapia and catfish contain less than one-eighth the amount of omega-3's found in farmed salmon or trout. The tilapia and catfish also had much larger amounts of omega-6 acids than salmon or trout. The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in tilapia and catfish averaged 11 to one, about the same as that of chicken (Journal of the American Dietetic Association, December 2008).A crucial part of a healthful diet is the ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s. Your immunity is supposed to be good for you by killing gems before they can harm you. However, if your...

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Nuts Combat Metabolic Syndrome (Syndrome X)

Nuts are concentrated sources of fat and calories, but they are high in monounsaturated fats which are healthful. A new study from Spain shows that adding nuts to a Mediterranean diet helps to reverse Metabolic syndrome, defined as having three or more of the following: 1) abdominal obesity, 2) high triglycerides, 3) low HDL (good) cholesterol, 4) high blood sugar and 5) high blood pressure. More than 20 percent of North Americans have metabolic syndrome and are at high risk for diabetes. Many of these people will die prematurely, usually from a heart attack.This study involved 1,200 men and women from 55 to 80 who followed one of three diets for one year. Sixty-one percent of the study group had metabolic syndrome. The first group followed...

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Understanding Delayed Muscle Soreness

If you exercise properly, you are supposed to work hard enough to damage your muscles so they feel sore on the next day. This is called delayed-onset muscle soreness. You should then exercise at reduced intensity for as many days as it takes for the soreness to go away.An article from St Mary’s University College in New Zealand reviews scientific studies on exercise-induced muscle damage (Sports Medicine, December 2008). When muscles feel sore from exercise, they are swollen and leak proteins from inside their cells into the bloodstream, and they cannot generate their usual force. You really have no choice. You must put far less pressure on sore muscles or you will injure them, delaying recovery and your ability to exercise intensely again.Sore...

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Cold weather may increase risk for various health problems

Nobody really knows why, but recent research show that sudden drops in environmental temperature are associated with increased risk for disease and death (American Journal of Epidemiology, December 2008).Researchers at the University of Athens in Greece studied people in 15 European cities. They plotted the average temperature for that day against the number of deaths in that city and showed that a 1?Centigrade decrease in temperature from one day to the next is associated with a 1.72 percent increase in daily heart attack deaths, a 3.30 percent increase in respiratory deaths, and a 1.25 percent increase in stroke deaths.This study does not tell you to move to warmer climates because those who live in warmer cities are far more susceptible...

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Exercisers Age Better

Athletes who compete into their eighties suffer few medical problems, but those who lapse into inactivity regress toward the general population norms for fitness, weight control and health problems, according to a study in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine (November 2008). People who compete into later life in sports such as running or cycling can maintain their competitive edge into their eighties. Each muscle is made up of millions of muscle fibers. With aging, particularly after age 50, you lose muscle fibers so you become weaker. You cannot slow the loss of muscle fibers, but you can compensate for the loss of fibers by increasing the size of each remaining muscle fiber with regular vigorous exercise. If the results of this study can...

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Eggs Increase Risk for Diabetes?

Research from Harvard Medical School suggests that eating an egg a day may increase a person’s risk for developing diabetes (Diabetes Care, December 2008). This is the first large study to support the general belief that eating eggs frequently may harm you. However, animal studies have failed to show any association between eating eggs and diabetes, and the authors of this study did not offer any explanation for the increased risk.The authors studied 20,703 male physicians without diabetes from the Physicians' Health Study (1982-2007) and 36,295 non-diabetic female health professionals from the Women's Health Study (1992-2007). The men were followed for 20 years and the women for 11 years. Men who ate seven or more eggs per week were 58 percent...

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Eating Before Exercise OK for Most People

Many people believe that exercising right after you eat will cause stomach cramps, but that doesn't usually happen. Whenever your stomach fills with food, its muscles contract and require large amounts of blood. When you exercise vigorously, your heart pumps large amounts of blood to your skeletal muscles. If your heart is not strong enough to pump blood to both your stomach and your skeletal muscles, blood is shunted from your stomach muscles, the muscles lack oxygen, lactic acid builds up in muscles and they start to hurt. However, most people can exercise after eating without suffering cramps because their hearts are strong enough to pump blood to both their exercising muscles and their stomach muscles.Some researchers believe that you shouldn't...

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Lifting Weights Does Not Hamper Children's Growth

Lifting weights before puberty growth does not prevent children from growing to their full potential height. Bones grow from growth centers that are weakest part of bone, but strength training during growth does not damage these growth centers and children who lift weights in programs with experienced supervision do not suffer more injuries than adults. There used to be concern that growing large muscles would make people musclebound and interfere with coordination, but this does not happen. With increased strength comes increased speed and increased coordination in movements requiring strength.Having large strong muscles makes you a better athlete. Muscle growth is limited by the size of the bones on which they attach, so the larger the bone,...

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Reduce Belly Fat with Intense Exercise

Researchers at the University of Virginia show that intense exercise is far more effective in reducing belly fat than less intense exercise (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, November 2008). Storing fat primarily in your belly usually means that you have very high insulin levels which increase risk for heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and even some cancers. Insulin causes fat to be deposited in your belly.Exercise makes muscles more sensitive to insulin so that you need less to do the same job. The more intensely you exercise, the more sensitive muscles become to insulin. You cannot exercise intensely every day because intense exercise damages muscles and you have to allow time for muscles to recover. However,...

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Why Migraines May Reduce Breast Cancer Risk

Few migraine sufferers can see any bright side to their pain, but now we have one study showing that a history of migraines is associated with a lower risk for breast cancer. The report appears in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (November 2008). Researchers pooled data from two studies of postmenopausal women to compare odds ratios among 1900 with breast cancer and 1400 controls. Women who had migraines showed reduced risks for ductal and lobular carcinomas, especially hormone-receptor–positive tumors.One of the triggers for migraines is a sudden drop in estrogen that causes a drop in brain levels of serotonin, the neurotransmitter that makes you happy and smart. Premenstrual syndrome occurs when the sudden drop in estrogen...

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Inflammation: More Important than Cholesterol

At the American Heart Association conference in New Orleans, researchers from the Jupiter study reported that statin drugs caused people with normal cholesterol but with high C-reactive protein levels to suffer 54 percent fewer heart attacks, 48 percent fewer strokes, 46 percent fewer angioplasties or bypass operations and 20 percent fewer deaths from any cause than those taking placebos (NEJM, November 9, 2008). The results were so dramatic they made the front page of the New York Times, Washington Post and many other newspapers.A C-reactive protein test (CRP) measures inflammation. Inflammation is caused by anything that keeps your immunity active such as chronic infections or anything that damages tissue such as smoking, having high cholesterol...

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Still Eating Red Meat? You May Want to Reconsider

Several years ago, Professor Ajit Varki of the University of California, San Diego discovered a molecule called Neu5Gc that appears in the tissues of every mammal except humans (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 29, 2003). Now he has put together the pieces of a puzzle that may explain why humans evolved with large brains and why, if we want to live into old age, we should probably avoid eating meat from any other mammals (Science, October 31, 2008).His theory depends on evolution. Living creatures on earth started as one-celled organisms, progressed to 2 cells, and eventually to fish and birds. A mutation occurred in progressing to mammals, who developed the gene to make Neu5Gc. Mammals progressed to apes and Neanderthals,...

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Side Stitches

Side stitches are caused by a stretching of the ligaments that run downward from the diaphragm to hold up the liver. You breathe once for each two strides. You breathe out when one foot, usually the right, strikes the ground. So, your diaphragm goes up when the force of your foot strike causes your liver to go down. This stretches the ligaments to cause pain. You can relieve the discomfort by stopping running and pressing your fingers deep into your liver to raise it up toward your diaphragm. At the same time, purse your lips and blow out as hard as you can against the tightly held lips. Pushing the liver up releases the stretched ligaments. Breathing out hard against resistance lowers your diaphragm. The pain usually goes away immediately...

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Reduce Oxidants to Lower Heart Attack Risk

A study from the University of Dundee in Scotland shows that neither antioxidants nor aspirin pills prevent heart attacks in diabetics (British Medical Journal, October 2008). Heart attacks occur when a plaque breaks off from the walls of a coronary artery and travels down an ever-narrowing artery to form a clot and block the flow of blood to the heart muscle. Aspirin helps to prevent clotting and therefore prevents heart attacks. Ibuprofen and other nonsteroidal pain medications block aspirin so they can increase clotting and heart attack risk in susceptible individuals.One of the strongest risk factors for a heart attack is diabetes; 80 percent of diabetics die of heart disease. Diabetes could be such a strong risk factor for heart attacks...

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Exercise-Induced Asthma

We have known for more than 25 years that exercise-induced asthma is caused by breathing dry, cold air, but for the first time we may know why this happens. Researchers at the Naval Medical Center-San Diego have just shown that exercise-induced asthma is associated with diminished secretion of lung mucous (Chest, September 2008). These same people also produce far less saliva, sweat and tears.So when certain susceptible people breathe hard and fast, in air that is cold and dry, the bronchial tubes are not protected by an adequate supply of mucous in their lungs. This irritates the bronchial tubes to cause wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath. People who are least likely to suffer exercise-induce asthma would therefore be those who produce...

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Eat More Fish and Less Vegetable Oil

The Japanese have the lowest incidence of heart attack in the world, yet they have the same rates of high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes, and they smoke as much as Americans do. It's not because of their genes because Japanese who move to Hawaii and the continental United States have a significant rise in their heart attack rates and the same amount of plaques in their arteries as Americans (Journal of the American College of Cardiology, August 5, 2008).On the average, Japanese in Japan eat fish eight times a week and they add far less vegetable oils to their prepared foods. This study shows that Japanese living in Japan have twice as much long-chain omega-3s in their blood as those who left Japan. They also have lower blood...

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Overweight is not Destiny

Nobody has to be fat, but some people may have to exercise for many hours just to control their weight. For example, a gene associated with fatness has been identified in the Amish who live near Lancaster, PA. A study from the University of Maryland shows that Amish men with that obesity gene who burned more than 980 calories per day through physical activity were not fat. The same applied to women who burned more than 860 calories per day (Archives of Internal Medicine, September 2008).Exercise causes you to eat more food, but when you are very active, you do not increase the amount of calories to equal what you burn. For example, if your exercise program causes you to burn 1000 more calories per day, you will usually increase your food intake...

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Check Vitamin D Levels this Winter

In this newsletter I have reported that low vitamin D levels are associated with increased risk for heart attacks, strokes, at least 17 different cancers, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, depression and osteoporosis. Adequate blood levels of vitamin D are thought to be over 75nmol/L. Researchers at the University of Toronto have now shown that in the winter, more than 93 percent of the people in Toronto have concentrations below 75 nmol/L, and 75 percent have concentrations below 50 nmol/L (BMC Public Health, September 26, 2008).Only those with light skins had average vitamin D intakes exceeding the current Recommended Adequate Intake (RAI = 200 IU/day). Those with dark skin and/or excess weight had very low levels of vitamin D. Dark skin blocks...

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Stretching Pros and Cons

Researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia reviewed the world's literature and concluded that stretching does not prevent muscle soreness that follows vigorous exercise (1). Athletes train by taking a hard workout, feeling sore the next day, and then taking easy workouts for as many days as it takes for the soreness to go away. Since stretching does not reduce muscle soreness, it will not help you to recover faster from hard exercise. The best way to recover from exhausting competition is to move with little pressure on muscles, such as cycling on a stationary bicycle (2).Stretching does not prevent injuries (3). Muscles and tendons tear when the force applied to them is greater than their inherent strength. Anything that makes a...

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Broken Knee Cartilage is Forever

A team of researchers at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario have shown that arthroscopic removal of loose cartilage and trimming of knee cartilage is no better than doing no surgery at all (NEJM, September 11, 2008). The only other study that also used sham surgery was done at Baylor Medical School and showed the same results (New England Journal of Medicine 2002;347:81-8). The procedure is done when a surgeon inserts small tubes through the skin into the knee joint and trims the edges of cartilage and removes loose pieces of cartilage from the joint.You hear about many athletes returning to the athletic field after breaking cartilage in their knees and having surgery. However, almost all will have pain in their knees for...

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Don't Regain Lost Weight

A new study shows that older people who diet without exercising lose huge amounts of muscle. When weight loss was combined with exercise, they did not lose muscle (Journal of Applied Physiology, October, 2008). Loss of muscle slows metabolism even further because larger muscles burn more calories at rest.In this study, elderly sedentary people were placed in three groups: 1) Diet only, 2) exercise only, 3) diet and exercise. Those who dieted and exercised for four months lost more fat and less muscle than those who only dieted. Most of the exercisers chose to walk on a treadmill, which is not a very vigorous endeavor.This also explains why losing weight repeatedly through dieting shortens a person's life span. Many people go on diets and lose...

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Plastic Bottles and Containers: New Concerns

A study from Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, U.K. shows that high levels of urinary Bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical compound commonly used in plastic packaging for food and beverages, is associated with heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and abnormal liver tests (JAMA, Sept 17, 2008). BPA can break down to form female hormones called estrogens that are linked to breast and uterine cancer in women, decreased testosterone levels in men, and may also cause birth defects.You are exposed to BPA, primarily through food, drinking water, tooth sealants that you may receive in a dentist's office, and exposure through your skin and lungs from household dusts. Ninety percent of Americans have detectable levels of BPA in their urines.Although the safety...

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Cancer: More Environmental than Genetic

More than 85 percent of the known causes of cancers are environmental, not genetic. Normal cells undergo apoptosis, a process in which each cell lives only so long and then dies. Cancer means that the DNA in cells cannot do its usual job of telling a cell when to die, so the cells grow forever and can spread to other parts of the body to kill you. Scientists have developed drugs and other treatments to destroy the process that makes cancer cells immortal. However, each cancer cell has hundreds, and even thousands, of different pathways that they can use to make them live forever. Pancreatic cancer cells have an average of 63 mutations (Science, September 4, 2008), and a brain tumor called glioblastoma has at least 47.So when scientists develop...

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Limit All Sugared Drinks, Not Just HCFS

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contains approximately 59 percent fructose and 41 percent glucose, while fruits juices contain a ratio of 50 percent glucose to 50 percent fructose. There really is no difference. HFCS is no better and no worse than any sugared beverage or fruit juice, it is just cheaper. When manufacturers process corn for oil, the residue is a sugary liquid that used to be thrown away. In the 1950s, soft drink makers discovered that HFCS could be added to sweet drinks at a fraction of the cost of cane sugar. Then scientists noticed that Americans have gotten progressively fatter from the 1950s to the present. This is the same period that HFCS was added to the American diet.In the following years, many respected scientists tried...

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Burning Feet while Cycling

Many cyclists suffer from "burning foot syndrome", pain on the bottom of the feet, particularly during a long ride. After years of this problem, I tried a simple tip from RoadBikeRider, a free weekly newsletter from some of America's best long distance bicycle riders: Ed Pavelka, Fred Matheny, and Lon Halderman. They suggest moving the cleats back as far as possible toward the arch of the foot. All of the other articles I have read and all of the experts I have consulted recommend that you set your cleats on your shoes so that the ball of your big toe is exactly aligned with the axle of the pedal. Following Lon Haldeman's advice, I moved my cleats back last week and my feet have stopped burning. I also think I am riding faster.This flies in...

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Cracked skin on your heels

If you have painful cracks in the skin on your heels, try applying tape across the split skin to limit movement of the cracked edges. Let the tape fall off, as pulling it off may tear the skin even more. Friction irritates the cracks, causing more pain, so avoid loose slip-on shoes, sandals or any other footwear that causes friction. Do not file the skin as this can cause even greater thickening (called the Koebner phenomenon) that leads to cracking.Your podiatrist can prescribe topical medications, such as urea-based creams or cortisone creams, to help heal the cracks. Cortisone creams should be used with caution since they can cause permanent thinning of the skin. If your symptoms are severe, your doctor may recommend cortisone injections,...

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Exercise benefits: new studies

This month's literature shows that exercise prevents cancers and helps to improve mental function with aging. Researchers from the University of Melbourne in Australia show that adults with memory impairment improve mental function after a six-month exercise program (JAMA, September 3, 2008). Another study, from Tokyo, shows that adults who exercise regularly and are active are less likely to develop a range of cancers (American Journal of Epidemiology, August 2008). The researchers followed 80,000 Japanese adults for up to ten years. Those who were more active had reduced risk for developing any type of cancer, particularly cancers of the colon, liver, pancreas or stomach.This benefit was greatest in those who were not overweight, showing...

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Nitric Oxide May Help Athletes

Should you believe claims that nitric oxide supplements will enlarge muscles and increase endurance? Actually, there are no products that contain nitric oxide because it is too unstable. However, supplements containing arginine (an amino acid) in combination with another blood vessel widener, alpha- ketoglutarate, can stimulate the blood vessels to increase production of nitric oxide. This dilates blood vessels that bring blood to muscles. Several studies show that the nitric oxide releasers may help athletes exercise longer, but the data are weak, sparse and not very impressive. If you take these supplements and do not exercise to your maximum, you are wasting your money. However, if you are already exercising as hard and as fast as you can,...

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Monosodium Glutamate: Weight Gain?

Many people still avoid MSG as the culprit in "Chinese restaurant syndrome", even though no scientific studies were ever able to show that MSG causes headaches, flushing, tingling or anything else. However, a recent study of Chinese peasants suggests that MSG may cause weight gain (Obesity, August 2008). The subjects were divided into three groups, based on the amount of MSG used, and those in the group that ate the most MSG were nearly three times more likely to be overweight than non-users. Previous studies on mice and rats found the same effect. Dr. Ka He, the lead author of the study at the University of North Carolina, concludes that MSG makes food taste better so people eat more.It's not easy to avoid MSG even if you read food labels....

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Salt Helps to Retain Fluid

Researchers at Loughborough University in Leicestershire, UK show that the salty drinks help your body to retain fluid and therefore increase the time that you can exercise, particularly in the heat (European Journal of Applied Physiology, July 2008). They fed drinks of four different salt concentrations to competitive cyclists. The higher the concentration of salt, the less urine they produced. This shows that salt helps their bodies to retain water so they will have more fluid available to cool their bodies in the heat. However, this study showed that it did not improve their performance.In 1942, the United States Government asked James Gamble of Harvard Medical school to set up guidelines for soldiers who must fight in the heat. His classic,...

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More exercise, less high blood pressure

People who continue to exercise throughout their lifetimes are far less likely to develop high blood pressure and the more they exercise, the less likely they are to develop high blood pressure (Journal of Hypertension, June 2008). In various studies, up to 91 percent of the North American population suffers from high blood pressure which puts them at markedly increased risk for strokes, heart attacks, kidney damage and arteriosclerosis. Virtually all scientists agree that this frightening incidence of high blood pressure is caused by lifestyle, and the major lifestyle factors are lack of exercise, obesity, and eating too many calories, refined carbohydrates and saturated fats.For some people, but not all, increased intake of salt also contributes...

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Measure Abdominal Fat, Not Just Weight

Researchers at the University of Michigan report that not all people who are fat are at high risk for heart attacks (Archives of Internal Medicine, August, 2008). They showed that 51 percent of overweight adults (36 million Americans) have normal blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar, while 25 percent of normal- weight Americans (16 million) have high levels of at least two of these tests. The media picked up this study with headlines such as "Better to Be Fat and Fit Than Skinny and Unfit" (New York Times, August 19, 2008).However, the entire study is flawed. The authors measured overweight, not abdominal obesity. If you just compare weight to height to define obesity, more than 50 percent of professional football players would be obese,...

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Saturated fat risks cancelled by exercise

The Masai of Kenya and Tanzania eat the same type of high animal-fat diet as North Americans, but they have a very low incidence of heart attacks. In spite of the large amount of saturated fats in their diets, they have lower body weights, waist measurements, blood pressures and cholesterol levels (British Journal of Sports Medicine, July 2008). This is explained by the fact that the average Masai burns 4,000 kilocalories a day, which is roughly equal to walking 12 miles every day (this number includes the amount you burn for normal daily activities such as breathing and sleeping).Saturated fat is the dominant fat in meat, chicken and whole milk dairy products. It raises cholesterol only when a person takes in more calories than he burns. A...

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Dieting Without Exercise Does Not Work

A new study from Israel shows us once again that dieting without exercise does not work. The participants took off only six to 10 pounds in two years. No matter what diet they were on, most regained some of the weight they lost in the early months by the end of the study (New England Journal of Medicine, July 17, 2008). It didn't make any difference whether the overweight person was on a low-fat or low-carbohydrate diet, or the healthful Mediterranean-type diet that stresses fruits, vegetables, whole grains beans, seeds, nuts and seafood. However, their small weight loss did result in improved cholesterol and blood pressure readings.If you really want to lose weight for good, you have to exercise. Appetite is controlled in a part of your brain...

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Lifestyles Determine Who Lives Longest

According to a new National Geographic book, The Blue Zones, people live longer in the Barbagia region of Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Loma Linda, California (a community of Seventh-Day Adventists); and the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. The lessons drawn from these cultures are the same as those I've preached to you for the last thirty years: eat more vegetables, exercise, minimize stress, don't be overweight, and avoid smoking. Your odds also increase if you are married, live in a rural area and are a woman.In this 1960's, people in the Georgian Republic in Russia, Abkhazians in Pakistan and the Vilcabambas in Ecuador were reported to live long lives, but it turned out that they were among the world's greatest liars, rather than the...

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Progress report on our training program

Several of you have asked about our training progress since I retired from my radio show and full-time medical practice. Diana and I are a 66-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man who want to ride a tandem bicycle faster than any one else in our age group. We know that training for sports requires stressing and recovering. On one day, we take a hard workout in which we ride as fast as we can, feel sore the next morning, and then go slow for as many days as it takes for the soreness to leave our muscles.Since we often go to rallies on weekends, we usually ride very fast on Saturday and Sunday. I feel so sore on Monday that I take the day off, and then go slowly for the next four days because it takes that long for my muscles to recover. So we...

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Football players more likely to become diabetic

People who have huge muscles usually have high levels of insulin because insulin causes muscles to grow. Exercise makes muscles so sensitive to insulin that it prevents blood sugar levels from rising too high. However, when these people stop exercising, their muscles are not as sensitive to insulin and blood sugar levels rise, this causes insulin levels to go even higher, so they eat more and gain weight.A study from Mt. Sinai Medical Center shows that National Football League linemen are more than twice as likely as other Americans to develop diabetes in later life. More than 60 percent of NFL linemen become diabetic, compared to only 30 percent for the average American (The American Journal of Cardiology, May 2008).People who have large muscles...

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Caffeine Boosts Hot Weather Performance

A study from Toledo, Spain shows that giving caffeine to dehydrated bicycle racers helps them ride faster, longer and with more power in hot weather (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, July 2008). When combined with water and carbohydrates, caffeine ingestion increases the force of muscular contractions which helps them to pedal with more power. Almost all professional bicycle riders take caffeine is some form because they know it helps them to ride faster.Another recent study from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign shows that caffeine helps to reduce muscle pain in riders pedaling as hard and as long as they can (International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, May 2008). Other studies have shown that caffeine...

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Causes and Treatment of Heatstroke

A recent report from South Africa shows that the most likely cause of death during hot weather sports events is heat stroke, when the body temperature rises so high that it cooks the brain (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, July 2008). The treatment for a person who collapses from heat stroke is immediate immersion in cold water.An excessive rise in body temperature is caused either by producing too much heat or by inability to dissipate the extra heat. When you exercise, almost 80 percent of the energy that is used to drive your muscles is lost as heat. That means that the harder you exercise, the more heat you produce. But heat stroke is more likely to be caused by inability to get rid of heat than by producing too much heat. Stimulants...

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Improving a Child's Running Form

When children look very awkward when they run, they usually have an imbalance in their muscles, or muscle or nerve damage. Telling an awkward child to change his form won't help and will probably just make him self-conscious. The child should first be evaluated by a physician for conditions that affect nerves and muscles. If none is found, the coach should have the child repeat the running motions over and over until the brain can coordinate the body's motions about his center of gravity. The faster he runs, the more likely he will be to acquire a running form that is efficient and does not waste energy with unnecessary side movements.Your center of gravity is the spot in your body with equal weight in front and in back. Every motion you make...

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Changing Cancer Genes with Lifestyle

If you believe that cancer is genetic and there's nothing you can do to prevent it, take a look at the latest study from Dr. Dean Ornish. He reports that after just three months of a healthful diet and exercise, the genes associated with prostate cancer changed toward normal (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June 17, 2008).The study involved 30 men with low-risk prostate cancer who had chosen not to undergo treatment unless their cancer got worse. The men followed a plant-based diet that avoided meat, saturated fat, and processed or refined foods; walked at least 30 minutes six days a week and at least an hour three days a week; and participated in a weekly support group. Each day they also did an hour of simple yoga-based techniques...

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Tip for Hot-Weather Competitors

If you compete in a sport during hot weather, you may be helped by this tip for recovering between events. Researchers at Edith Cowan University in Australia showed that you can recover faster and compete at a higher level by soaking your legs in cold water (14 degrees C) for five minutes during rest periods between events (British Journal of Sports Medicine, June 2008). The cooling session dropped body temperature a half degree centigrade and the athletes were able to cycle faster with greater power outp...

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Vitamin D deficiency linked to many health problems

The hottest subject in medicine today is the amazing number of diseases associated with low vitamin D levels. People with low levels of vitamin D are at double the risk for blocked arteries in their legs, called peripheral artery disease (Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, June 2008); markedly increased risk for heart attacks and strokes, angina, and heart failure (Circulation, January and April 2008; Archives of Internal Medicine, June 2008); increased rate of aging of their tissues (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, November 2007); cancers of the breast, lung and colon (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, November 2007); diabetes (Epidemiology, May 20, 2008). Other recent articles show that Vitamin D helps pain...

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Hip Fat can be Hardest to Lose

I'm not overweight; how can I lose the fat in my hips and thighs?First, realize that people who are shaped like pears live longer than those who are shaped like apples (storing fat primarily in their bellies). "Pears" are less likely to develop diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, and many types of cancers. As you have already found out, diets are of not of much value to people who are generically programmed to store fat in their hips. For a diet to get rid of your hip fat, you would have to be hungry all the time. Exercise will work, but you may need to exercise more than three hours a day to get rid of hip fat. However, you might not have time for a job or your family.Have you noticed that most female athletes have large buttocks? People who...

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New Theory on Recovery from Workouts

The soreness that you feel 8 to 24 hours after an intense workout is caused by a tearing of the muscle fibers. The fastest way to get muscles to heal is to have your body produce lots of insulin and also provide a supply of protein to repair the damaged tissue. We have known for a long time that insulin drives sugar into cells for energy. Now we know that it also drives protein building blocks called amino acids into the muscle cells to help them heal faster. A study from New Zealand shows that protein loading immediately after exercise helps cyclists recover faster so they can ride harder for several days after an intense workout (Physiologie Appliquée, Nutrition et Métabolisme, February 2008).On the surface of muscle cell membranes are little...

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Low maximum heart rate signals fitness

No matter how hard I exercise, my heart rate never gets as high as my husband's. Should I be concerned? No; it may just mean that you are in very good shape. Researchers at Liverpool John Moores University in England showed that athletes have much lower maximum heart rates than sedentary people and that female athletes have lower maximum heart rates than male athletes (International Journal of Sports Medicine, February 2008).Most exercisers should not even bother with heart rate calculations. Your training heart rate occurs when you exercise vigorously enough to make your body require more oxygen. You can tell when this happens because you will start to breathe deeper and faster, raising your shoulders with each breath. Once or twice a week,...

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Salt restriction hinders exercisers

Most doctors recommend low salt diets because of the evidence that taking in too much salt can cause high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. However, this may not be good advice for dedicated exercisers. If you exercise heavily and restrict salt, you will not replace the salt you lose through sweating, which can cause high blood pressure as well as fatigue, cramps and muscle pain. When the body is low in salt, the adrenal glands produce large amounts of aldosterone and the kidneys produce renin, which constricts arteries and can raise blood pressure.Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine showed that people on low-salt diets are actually more likely to suffer heart attacks than those on high salt diets...

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Fewer Omega-6's May Reduce Cancer Risk

Researchers at UCLA show that reducing intake of corn oils helps to prevent prostate cancer in mice (Cancer Research, April 15, 2008). Corn oil and other vegetable oils are extremely rich sources of omega-6 fatty acids.Fats are classified by their chemical structure into omega-3s, omega-6s, and omega-9s. Omega-6s cause your body to produce prostaglandins that turn on your immunity to cause inflammation, while omega-3s turn down your immunity to reduce inflammation.Your immunity is supposed to be good for you. When a germ enters your body, your immunity produces white blood cells and proteins called antibodies that attack and kill the germ. After that germ is gone, your immunity is supposed to stop making so many immune cells and proteins. If...

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Breast Cancer Risk Lower with Exercise

A recent study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that exercise starting during adolescence can protect girls from breast cancer (Journal of the National Cancer Institute, May 2008). Researchers tracked 65,000 nurses who answered questionnaires about exercise. Within six years, 550 were diagnosed with breast cancer before menopause. Those who exercised regularly as teens were 23 percent less likely to develop premenopausal breast cancer than their sedentary peers. Ages 12 to 22 appear to be the most important time to use exercise to help prevent breast cancer.Higher estrogen levels increase risk of breast cancer. Exercise lowers estrogen by reducing body fat. Fat cells make estrogen, and after the menopause fat...

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Kidney function improved by exercise

We already know that exercise helps to prevent heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, obesity and certain cancers, and may extend life span. Now a report from Italy shows that exercise may also help to prevent kidney damage that occurs with aging (Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, May 2008).Doctors measure kidney function by calculating the ability of the kidneys to rid the body of a breakdown product of metabolism called creatinine. Regular exercisers have lower blood creatinine levels and also have kidneys that are better able to clear creatinine from the bloodstream as measured by a test called Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR).According to this study, professional bicycle racers have better kidney function than both sedentary people and recreational...

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Ibuprofen reduces risk of Alzheimer's

Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine followed 250,000 veterans over the age of 55 years and showed that taking ibuprofen for five years was associated with a 40 percent reduction in the development of Alzheimer's disease (Neurology, May 2008).Alzheimer's disease is associated with the deposition of tangled webs of protein in the brain. Several previous studies show that ibuprofen reduces these protein deposits in the brains of animals. A leading theory on the cause of Alzheimer's disease is that a person's immunity attacks the brain to cause dementia. Ibuprofin reduces inflammation, the body's response to an overactive immunity. Another study in the same issue of Neurology showed people that with shorter arms and legs may be...

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Smoking Bans DO Reduce Teen Smoking

Teenagers who live in cities or towns with strict smoking bans are 40 percent less likely to become regular smokers, according to a study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine (May 2008). The study also reported that youths with smoking parents or friends are at high risk for smoking themselves, but strong smoking bans in restaurants reduce the chance that they will become smokers.Massachusetts passed a workplace smoking ban that included restaurants in 2004. Since then, high school smoking rates in Massachusetts have dropped from 21percent of students in 2005 to 18 percent in 2007. At least 23 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico now require most public places and workplaces, including restaurants and...

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Progesterone helps to prevent uterine cancer

They're supposed to prevent pregnancy, and they do, but intrauterine devices (IUDs) also reduce uterine cancer risk by more than 40 percent (Meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, May 6, 2008).An IUD is a small, T-shaped plastic device inserted into the uterus. Only two percent of women who use contraception in the United States choose an IUD, despite the proven safety and effectiveness of this long-term method. Worldwide, however, IUDs are the most widely used reversible contraceptive. Most IUD's prevent pregnancy by releasing small amounts of the hormone progesterone into the uterus. This is also why they help to prevent uterine cancer.The ovaries of healthy women are supposed to produce two hormones: estrogen...

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How Vitamin Pills May Affect Lifespan

The issue of vitamin supplements is far from settled. Most doctors take multivitamins themselves and recommend them to their patients. However, I continue to believe that it is better to get vitamins in whole foods than in pills.Most vitamins are parts of enzymes that start chemical reactions in your body. Each chemical reaction produces end products that are changed by further chemical reactions from other vitamins to other products that benefit your body. When you take a vitamin that has been isolated from the hundreds of other substances found in foods, that enzyme causes a chemical reaction that accumulates a disproportionate amount of its end products. If the substance that acts as an enzyme for the next chain of chemical reactions is...

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Prevent Injuries: Background Before Peaking

Injuries often occur when people start a new exercise program, change to a different sport, or return to exercise after a long break. In the enthusiasm to get started, it is easy to overstress muscles that have not been used before. That's why "background before peaking" is one of the most important principles of training. It takes several weeks or even months to build up strength and endurance for any new sport.Competitive athletes in all sports use this principle. First they spend many months in background training, working out for long hours, mostly at low intensity, followed by a shorter period of peak training in which they do far less work, but at a much greater intensity. A few months before an important race, they reduce their workload...

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Weight Lifting Past Fatigue Does Not Strengthen Muscles More

When you want to become very strong, you try to lift very heavy weights. Weight lifters have known for a long time that you don't pick up the heaviest weight you can move, raise it once and then quit for the day. They do their weightlifting in sets. For example, they lift and lower a weight in three sets of ten or one set of six. If you exhaust your muscles by bench pressing a weight for three sets of ten, is there any benefit to try to do another set? Researchers from Australia showed that you gain nothing if you force extra lifts after your muscles are exhausted (Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, August 2007). This study should serve as a warning particularly to young lifters. Plan your workouts. When your muscles are tired or...

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Get Your Vitamins From Food, Not Pills

One in three women and one in four men in the United States take vitamin pills. If you are among them, you may be doing more harm than good. In a wake up call to the multibillion dollar vitamin pill industry, a review of 67 randomized trials of vitamin pill effects on life and health has found that taking vitamin pills may shorten life (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 1, 2008). Other studies have shown that taking vitamin pills may increase risk for cancers and heart attacks.This review of 232,000 adults showed that those taking beta-carotene, vitamin A, C, and E and selenium gained no benefit over those who took placebos or no pills. "The findings show that, if anything, people in trial groups given beta-carotene, vitamin A...

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Will Organic Foods Make You More Healthy?

According to a report published by The Organic Center's State of Science Reviews(March 2008), organic foods are more nutritious than those grown conventionally. But since the average North American eats far more food than is necessary, it is doubtful that adding more nutrients to the diet will have much effect on health. A review of 97 scientific papers shows that organic food has higher levels of eight of 11 nutrients studied, including greater concentrations of polyphenols and antioxidants. However, we don't know how much of these nutrients the body requires. With 35 percent of the population becoming diabetic, 91 percent developing high blood pressure, 78 percent having high cholesterol levels, and 40 percent dying of heart attacks and...

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How Exercise Prevents Diabetes AND Preserves Your Brain

Several studies show that vigorous exercise can help to prevent and to treat diabetes. A recent study from the University of Missouri in Columbia helps to explain why (American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, April 2008).The vast majority of people who have diabetes do not lack insulin. Their disease is caused by an inability to respond to insulin. Since their cells do not respond to insulin, blood sugar levels rise and damage their cells. By studying blood flowing to and from the hind legs of obese rats, researchers found that acute muscle contractions markedly increased the passage of sugar into skeletal muscles, and markedly increased the flow of electrons in mitochondria.Muscle cells have anywhere...

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Vitamin C Won't Help You Exercise Longer

Some exercisers take vitamin C because they think that it will help them recover faster and therefore become better athletes. However, a study from the University of Valencia in Spain shows that vitamin C pills can make an athlete tire earlier during long-term exercise. (Journal reference)Every muscle cell has hundreds, and even thousands, of small inclusions called mitochondria that turn food into the force that drives muscles. They do this by shuffling electrons to produce energy. After the electrons are moved, they can end up stuck on oxygen molecules to produce poisons called oxidants that make muscles burn, and feel sore and tired. The human body produces antioxidants that help protect a person from cell damage from these oxidants. Large...

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Microwaving Does Not Harm Foods

A report from the nutrition department of Cornell University should convince you that microwaving food does not destroy its nutritional value. Dr. Gertrude Armbruster and her colleagues showed that fruits and vegetables lost the least vitamin C when microwaved, compared to other cooking methods. Vitamin C is a good indicator of the amount of nutrients lost because it is both water soluble and sensitive to heat (Newsweek, March 14, 2008).Microwave ovens use electromagnetic waves that vibrate water molecules inside food to produce heat. Most nutrients in food are not destroyed by microwaving because they are not in the watery layer. An earlier study from Spain, widely reported in the news media, claimed that microwaving broccoli destroyed all...

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Vitamin D and Muslce Pain - Special Report

Over the last few years I have reported on numerous studies linking vitamin D deficiency with various diseases: diabetes, heart attacks, at least 30 types of cancer, and autoimmune disease such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis (a list of these reports appears below).This winter I have had a series of baffling exercise- associated muscle injuries. My blood levels of vitamin D have been extremely low, even though I spend a lot of time outside riding my bike. I reviewed my diaries and found that wintertime injuries have been a lifelong pattern for me. I have not been able to find any strong evidence that lack of vitamin D causes muscle injuries. However, it is associated with muscle weakness, falling in older people, bone deformities and fractures.People...

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