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 to dying from sudden drops in temperature. This study does suggest that you should try to avoid chilling and cold weather if you suffer from heart, lung or blood vessel disease.

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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 be extended to all regular exercisers, you can also expect to live longer and suffer fewer health problems than your non-exercising peers.

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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 more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, and women eating a similar amount were 77 percent more likely to become diabetic than those who did not eat eggs. Risk for diabetes was lower when fewer eggs were eaten (9 percent for one egg per week, 18 percent for two to four eggs and 46 percent for five to six eggs).

This was a self-reported study so it is possible that the people who eat eggs also have other habits that increase their risk. For example, they may be more likely also to eat meat, which may increase diabetes risk, as I reported in the November 9 issue of the eZine.

An egg is a very rich source of saturated fat (1.5 grams) and cholesterol (200 mg), but adding three eggs per day to the average Americans’ diet does not raise cholesterol levels. Cholesterol in eggs has very little effect on blood cholesterol levels in healthy adults. Several studies show no relationship between eating eggs and increased risk for heart disease or stroke and most people can eat one egg a day without increasing heart disease risk. (Journal references for these studies) I eat eggs 2-3 days per week and will continue to do so unless more persuasive research comes along.

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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 eat sugar before you exercise because it will cause your blood sugar level to rise and your pancreas to release insulin, which will cause your blood sugar to drop too low so you will feel tired during exercise. However, the major cause of tiredness that you feel in your muscles during exercise is lack of stored sugar in muscles. Taking any extra calories before and during exercise helps to preserve the sugar that is stored in muscles and help you to exercise longer. If you are going to exercise for more than an hour, eat or drink anything you like before and during your exercise. Most people will not get stomach cramps while exercising, no matter what or when they eat.

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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, the stronger the muscle. Children who start to play tennis before they go into puberty have larger bones in the arm that holds the racquet. They also have larger bones in their tennis arm than those who start to play tennis later in life. The larger and stronger your muscles, the harder you can hit a tennis ball. The best time for future Olympians to start training is while their bones are still growing.

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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, you can check with your doctor to make sure that you do not have a health problem that can make exercise unsafe for you. If you pass, try to exercise intensely at least once a week.
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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 in the later part of the menstrual cycle causes a drop in serotonin that can make some women sad and depressed. Women who suffer migraines may have lower levels of estrogen, the female hormone that can stimulate breast cancers to grow.

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