SportsGeezer

Cutting Calories May Keep Brain Sharp

Art Jahnke — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:10:40 +0000

Researchers have long believed that calorie restriction is good for your body, and now, it appears, it may be good for your brain. Researchers at MIT’s Picower Institute For Learning and Memory figured that out when they decreased by 30 percent the normal diets of mice (yes, mice, not humans) that were genetically engineered to rapidly undergo changes in the brain associated with neurodegeneration. Science Daily reports that after three months of calorie restriction, the mice were given learning and memory tests. The researchers found that there was a delay in the onset of neurodegeneration in the calorie-restricted mice, and they also found that the animals were spared the learning and memory deficits of mice that did not consume reduced-calorie diets. Next, the researchers wondered if they could recreate the benefits of caloric restriction without changing the animals’ diets, so they gave a separate group of mice a drug that activates SIRT1, an enzyme that is normally activated by calorie restriction. Similar to what the researchers found in the mice exposed to reduced-calorie diets, the mice that received the drug had less cell loss and better cellular connectivity than the mice that did not receive the drug. Wait, there’s more: the mice that received the drug treatment performed as well as normal mice in learning and memory tests. Read more from Science Daily.

Statins Quash Benefits of Exercise

Art Jahnke — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:52:07 +0000

Statins are good; they have been shown to prevent heart disease. Exercise is good, it has also been shown to prevent heart disease, but for some people, statins and exercise add up to less than the sum of their parts. Researchers at the University of Missouri have found that simvastatin, a generic type of statin previously sold under the brand name “Zocor,” hinders the positive effects of exercise for obese and overweight adults. True. A U of Missouri news release reports that researchers at the school measured cardiorespiratory fitness in 37 obese people ages 25-59 with low fitness levels. The participants followed the same exercise regimen for 12 weeks; 18 of the 37 people also took 40 mg of simvastatin daily. The researchers found that participants in the exercise-only group increased their cardiorespiratory fitness by an average of 10 percent compared to a 1.5 percent increase among participants also prescribed statins. Wait, there’s more: skeletal muscle mitochondrial content, the site where muscle cells turn oxygen into energy, decreased by 4.5 percent in the group taking statins while the exercise-only group had a 13 percent increase, a normal response following exercise training. Read more from U of Missouri.

The Key To Happiness: Try To Be Happy And Choose The Right Music

Art Jahnke — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:20:48 +0000

Sing Hallelujah, come on get happy, or, you could listen to any number of other songs, as long as they are chosen with an ear toward happiness, and as long you seriously try to be happy. Happiness, researchers at the University of Missouri believe, may be in the ear of the beholder, and it may be attainable through a combination of the right music and a concerted effort to get happy. A U Missouri news release reports that researchers demonstrated in two studies that people could improve their moods in the short term and boosted their overall happiness over a two week period, but only if they listened to the upbeat music of Copland, as opposed to the more somber Stravinsky, and if they really tried to improve their mood. Read more from the University of Missouri.

High Testosterone Men Wear Red

Art Jahnke — Sat, 18 May 2013 11:18:08 +0000

What is it about the color red that appeals to men with high testosterone counts? Or, what is it about the color blue that doesn’t? A news release from the Association for Psychological Science reports that researchers at the University of Sunderland recruited 73 men, who were told only that they would be competing against each other and that their performances would be placed on a leaderboard. The men, whose testosterone levels were checked with saliva tests, were given the option of wearing either a red or blue symbol to represent them in the table and completed the competitive tasks. They also answered questionnaires about personal reasons may have affected their color choice. The researchers found that men who chose red had higher baseline testosterone levels, and they rated their color as having higher levels of characteristics such as dominance and aggression, than men who chose blue. And no, as is routinely demonstrated by the Red Sox, color choice does not influence performance.

Middle Age Fitness Keeps Some Cancer At Bay

Art Jahnke — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:33:56 +0000

Researchers are still miles away from telling us why some people get cancer and others don’t, but a new study conducted at the University of Vermont suggests that fitness in middle age may lower the likelihood of at lease some cancers later in life. HealthDay reports that researchers studied more than 17,000 men who had a single cardiovascular fitness assessment as part of a preventive health checkup when they were 50, on average. The men, whose fitness was gauged by walking on a treadmill, were categorized into five groups, from lowest fitness level to highest. In a follow-up study 20 to 25 years later, the researchers learned how many and which of them had suffered from lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and prostate cancer. They found that 2,332 men developed prostate cancer, 276 developed colorectal cancer and 277 developed lung cancer. They also found that the men who had been most fit had a 68 percent lower risk of lung cancer and a 38 percent lower risk of colorectal cancer when compared to the least fit. Prostate cancer risk, curiously, did not decline with increasing fitness, but the risk of death from it did. The researchers found that even a small improvement in fitness helped: a 50-year-old man who increased fitness so he could last three more minutes on the treadmill could reduce cancer death risk by 14 percent and heart disease death risk by 23 percent. Read more from HealthDay.

Hold The Salt. Wait, Pass The Salt

Art Jahnke — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:50:31 +0000

The many years of warnings about Americans eating too much salt, and the recommendation by the American Heart Association and many others that we take no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day, or a little more than half a teaspoon of salt, are being tossed over shoulders by a new expert committee commissioned by the Institute of Medicine at the behest of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Why? Because that group has determined that there is not enough data about the health of people who eat less than 2,300 milligrams of salt a day to describe any benefit. In fact, as Gina Kolata reports in the New York Times, there may a downside to downsizing salt. Kolata cites a study published in 2011 that followed 28,800 subjects with high blood pressure ages 55 and older for 4.7 years and analyzed their sodium consumption by urinalysis. The researchers reported that the risks of heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure and death from heart disease increased significantly for those consuming more than 7,000 milligrams of sodium a day and for those consuming fewer than 3,000 milligrams of sodium a day. Read more in the New York Times.

Does Your Dog Get A Runner’s High? Woof!

Art Jahnke — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:45:57 +0000

If you run with your dog, does your dog get as high as you do? The short answer is “woof,” meaning “yes, that does seem to be the case.” Researchers at the University of Arizona attempted to find out by measuring the amount of endocannabinoids, which our bodies produce after intense aerobic exercise, and which are believed to be the cause of runner’s high, (and yes, they are the same chemicals that are found in marijuana), after both dogs and humans did 30 minutes of brisk exercise on a treadmill. A University of Arizona news release reports that anthropologist (and runner) David Raichlen found that blood samples for both humans and dogs showed a significant increase in levels of the happy-making chemicals. They “rocked in the blood after a brisk run” said Raichlen, who also noted that the humans reported being much happier after the exercise.

Food Makers Respond To Salt Warning. Not

Art Jahnke — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:55:23 +0000

A few readers may remember way back to 2005, when health experts began beating the drum to reduce the amount of salt in our diets. How did that go? Not so good. Science Daily reports that a recent study by researchers at Northwestern University found that between 2005 and 2011, the sodium content in 402 processed foods declined by approximately 3.5 percent, while the sodium content in 78 fast-food restaurant products increased by 2.6 percent. And while some products showed decreases of at least 30 percent, a greater number of products showed increases of at least 30 percent. “The predominant finding,” the researchers write, “was the absence of any appreciable or statistically significant changes in sodium content during six years.” Why do we care? Because, the researchers remind us, the typical American consumes an average of almost two teaspoons a day of salt, vastly higher than the recommended amount of three-fifths of a teaspoon or no more than 1,500 milligrams, as recommended by the American Heart Association. About 80 percent of our daily sodium consumption comes from eating processed or restaurant foods. Very little comes from salt we add to food.

12 Exercises, 7 Minutes, You’re Done

Art Jahnke — Sun, 12 May 2013 13:02:47 +0000

Yes Virginia, there is such a thing as a seven-minute workout, one that is endorsed by such authoritative experts as Chris Jordan, director of exercise physiology at the Human Performance Institute in Orlando. As Gretchen Reynolds reports in the New York Times, Jordan’s research is explained in an article in the May-June issue of the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Journal, whose practical application comes in the form of 12 exercises that require only a wall, a chair, and yes, your body weight. Jordan recommends that the exercises below be performed for 30 seconds, with 10 seconds of transition time between bouts. Total time for the entire circuit workout is approximately 7 minutes. The circuit can be repeated 2 to 3 times. Click here for a gallery of images of the exercises.

1. Jumping jacks Total body

2. Wall sit Lower body

3. Push-up Upper body

4. Abdominal crunch Core

5. Step-up onto chair Total body

6. Squat Lower body

7. Triceps dip on chair Upper body

8. Plank Core

9. High knees/running in place Total body

10. Lunge Lower body

11. Push-up and rotation Upper body

12. Side plank Core

Why You Should Quit Talking About How Fat You Are

Art Jahnke — Fri, 10 May 2013 11:24:22 +0000

Two reasons you should quit talking about how fat you are: 1. it’s boring, and 2. nobody wants to listen to people talk about their fat problems. OK, only reason number 2 is backed by research, but a single reason should be sufficiently persuasive to keep most people off the subject. Researchers at the University of Notre Dame showed groups of women a series of photos of either noticeably thin or noticeably overweight women engaging in either “fat talk” or positive body talk. The women were then asked to rate the women on various dimensions, including how likeable they were. The researchers found that the women in the photos were rated significantly less likeable when they made “fat talk” statements about their bodies, whether or not they were overweight. The women rated most likeable were the overweight women who made positive statements about their bodies. The researchers acknowledge that fat talk is one way women may attempt to initiate and strengthen their social bonds. Still, they say, it weakens more bonds than it strengthens. Read more from Notre Dame.