Pain researchers have long been fascinated by the apparent ability of placebos to relieve pain without any chemical influence.  Now they understand.  Placebos do relieve pain, but they don’t do it without the help of chemicals. People who expect pain relief get it because their brains release endorphins- our bodies […]

The good news is that coffee provides more healtfhul antioxidants than any other food in the American diet. The bad news is that coffee provides more healthful antioxidants than any other food in the American diet. News24.com reports on a study conducted at the University of Scranton that looked at […]

Serious cyclists have known for years that core muscles–strength of the abdominal, oblique and back muscles– are the key to endurance. Now a study suggests that core strength is also the key to fewer injuries. The study, conducted at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Sports Medicine, ran 15 competitive […]

It may not be a sport for everyone. In fact, it may not be a sport, but tree climbing has had an international championship for 25 years, and the level of competition just keeps, well, climbing. The Wall Street Journal, (which Geezer is unable to link to at the moment) […]

Eight years ago, a researcher at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas identified a gene in mice that, when damaged, made the mice grow old fast and die sooner than they should. As the Washington Post reports, the scientist,  Makoto Kuro-o, dubbed the gene Klotho, after the […]

In every sport, there’s speed and there’s quickness, and in every sports bar, there’s some turkey who will be pleased to explain the difference, without speed or quickness. So it’s refreshing to hear from a professional trainer who unapologetically conflates the two, and who tells Men’s Health that, with proper […]

Want a new drug? How about a new stock in a company with a new drug? How about both? Then you want to buy stock in Cortex Pharmaceuticals, and you want to score some CX717, the newest member of the class of drugs know as ampakines. The BBC reports that […]

When there’s absolutely no fitness news to report, Geezer doesn’t panic: he shops. Often, he shops for the kind of very cool athletic accoutrements that no one, no matter how driven or how adventurous or how rich, will ever need. Ever. That’s approximately how he ended up here, at Outside […]

Just below the Arctic Circle, where the summer sun shines 21 hours a day, the East Glacial River offers rafters a journey over waterfalls and through phosphorescent green pools. Mark Sundeen, who has worked as a river guide in Utah and Alaska, writes in the New York Times travel section […]

Just a few years after the corporate world started designing workspaces with fitness in mind–longer walkways, more stairs–architects have translated the concept to home design. And just a few months after that happened, writers started to write about it. One such writer is Joan Vos MacDonald, whose "High Fit Home: […]