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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