Gretchen Reynolds of the NY Times reports about some very promising experiments with mice that indicate vigorous exercise slows and, in some cases, reverses the negative effects of aging. What surprised the investigators was that exercise not only had an age retarding effect on muscles, including the heart, but all the tissues in the body.
This is promising news. Too many people (a much higher percentage than exercise hard) are preoccupied with hiding the surface effects of aging. Superficial stuff like face lifts, human growth hormone injections, botox injections, and laser vein removal are a multi-billion dollar business. But those are all only skin deep and have nothing to do with health and maintaining your ability to live independently as you age. What's really important to your long term well-being is what's going on under your skin.
The big three debilitating conditions of old age are:
Muscle Loss - You can't lift groceries or walk to a car. You lose your balance and become prone to falls.
Brain Shrinkage - You can't remember things, get confused easily, can't manage your money.
Bone loss - You become prone to fractures when you fall.
Yes, there are some others like a lower sex drive or less bladder control, but those are inconveniences when compared with the life-altering problems caused by the big three.
A TOJ practices a mix of aerobic and anaerobic exercise, especially resistance, to delay the big three. The variety of exercises is fun, but, more importantly, cause more beneficial results in your body. Sometimes you read that an everyday activity such as walking 30 minutes is enough keep you strong and healthy. I have a hunch it takes more than that. Exercise physiologists have known for a long time that it's necessary to interrupt the routine equilibrium of the muscles for them to grow stronger. As you age, you must make them work in different ways just to maintain their strength and mass. The good news is that you can sustain much of your muscle strength and function well into old age.
Focus on your muscles and most other things will take care of themselves. When you work the muscles hard you will also keep invigorating blood flow to the brain (and stimulate Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor, the elixir of brain health) and place stress on the bones, which naturally stimulates them to grow stronger. Your exercise must be supported by a diet with lots of protein, minerals and phytonutrients found in vegetables and fruit to provide the rebuilding in your tissues which occurs after exercise.
You don't want to be one of those people who suffer the big three because they just assume that as you age you are supposed to be more sedentary and let your body fall into disuse, as if your natural role is to spend all your time sitting on your butt playing chess or poker. Resist the stereotypes you see on TV. Ignore the absence of grey-hairs in sports magazines.
Reynolds reports that one of the professors in charge of the study was impressed how the older mice who exercised had still kept their hair. His younger graduate students were more impressed by how the mice's ovaries and gonads had maintained a healthy size. Now all the grad students exercise. Yep, makes you want to pump some iron.
Showing posts with label Gretchen Reynolds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gretchen Reynolds. Show all posts
Brain Candy
Stimulating stuff :
Exercise and Stem Cells
Doing research on rats, the University of Tel Aviv made another small step for mankind towards understanding the miracle of exercise. In this case, they found that endurance exercise (likely it would be true of resistance exercise as well, but guess it's hard to get rats to lift weights) increases muscle stem cells, which might be key to preventing or slowing sarcopenia, the wasting of muscles that occurs with aging. What's interesting is the researcher dreams of finding a pill people can pop. How about just exercising more?
More Is Better
Speaking of pill popping, the credible Institute of Medicine has released the results of their research on Vitamin D. In the past few years, an alphabet of vitamins has been touted to do all kinds of wonderful things for us; first it was C, then E, and lately Vitamin D. While all these vitamins do play important roles in our health, somehow when we hear something is good, we think more must be even better. Often the "more" message is supported by the supplement industry. Read what the IOM has to say. Contrary to rumors, most North Americans get enough Vitamin D, so crucial to bone health. Remember Vitamin D shortage is what causes rickets, a disease with skeletal deformities. The IOM confirms Vitamin D is important to bone health, but other claims about cancer prevention and heart health are questionable. There's a nice chart with recommended levels by age.
Getting Vitamins the Good Old-Fashioned Way
Dr. Mercola has a concise collection of info on vegetables, which is the preferred way to get our nutrients (see the Becoming a Lean, Mean, Eating Machine last month). Especially useful is a chart showing which vegetables are worth the premium to go organic. Mercola sells supplements, but to his credit, his article concludes that the best way to get your nutrients is by eating vegetables.
Why Wii Fit?
Gretchen Reynolds has an excellent article in the NY Times about exercising via video games like Wii Fit. No surprise, studies find the games are not physically demanding enough to for most folks to get the health benefits of real exercise. However, they did find that the technology worked well to improve the balance of older folks in their 70's. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the exercises might not help TOJ's of all ages, too. Balance is completely overlooked in many exercise routines.
Exercise and Stem Cells
Doing research on rats, the University of Tel Aviv made another small step for mankind towards understanding the miracle of exercise. In this case, they found that endurance exercise (likely it would be true of resistance exercise as well, but guess it's hard to get rats to lift weights) increases muscle stem cells, which might be key to preventing or slowing sarcopenia, the wasting of muscles that occurs with aging. What's interesting is the researcher dreams of finding a pill people can pop. How about just exercising more?
More Is Better
Speaking of pill popping, the credible Institute of Medicine has released the results of their research on Vitamin D. In the past few years, an alphabet of vitamins has been touted to do all kinds of wonderful things for us; first it was C, then E, and lately Vitamin D. While all these vitamins do play important roles in our health, somehow when we hear something is good, we think more must be even better. Often the "more" message is supported by the supplement industry. Read what the IOM has to say. Contrary to rumors, most North Americans get enough Vitamin D, so crucial to bone health. Remember Vitamin D shortage is what causes rickets, a disease with skeletal deformities. The IOM confirms Vitamin D is important to bone health, but other claims about cancer prevention and heart health are questionable. There's a nice chart with recommended levels by age.
Getting Vitamins the Good Old-Fashioned Way
Dr. Mercola has a concise collection of info on vegetables, which is the preferred way to get our nutrients (see the Becoming a Lean, Mean, Eating Machine last month). Especially useful is a chart showing which vegetables are worth the premium to go organic. Mercola sells supplements, but to his credit, his article concludes that the best way to get your nutrients is by eating vegetables.
Why Wii Fit?
Gretchen Reynolds has an excellent article in the NY Times about exercising via video games like Wii Fit. No surprise, studies find the games are not physically demanding enough to for most folks to get the health benefits of real exercise. However, they did find that the technology worked well to improve the balance of older folks in their 70's. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the exercises might not help TOJ's of all ages, too. Balance is completely overlooked in many exercise routines.
Food for Fitness
Emil Zatopek, the great Czech distance runner in the 1950's, once said, "If you come to think of it, you never see deer, dogs and rabbits worrying about their menus and yet they run much faster than humans." (This is from The Quotable Runner edited by Mark Will-Weber, a great book.)
He could have added neither do bears and elephants that are stronger than humans, nor kangaroos that jump further than humans, nor eagles that can see better than humans, nor whales that swim better than humans.
Yet we do. Right now this TOJ is reading a book entitled Power Eating by Susan Kleiner, which packed with references to studies, recommendations, recipes, do's and don'ts, lists, and eating plans. Wow, there's a lot to worry about -- nutrient timing, food combinations, right mix of carbs, fat and protein, hydrating not too much, not too little. You will not find an exercise magazine that doesn't have promise nutrition secrets inside the cover to make you better.
No doubt there's some truth among all those facts and opinions, but you have to be your own ultimate guide when it comes to deciding what you will eat and drink because we are all the same, but we are also different.
I found I felt weak and spacey on a vegetarian diet although Brendan Brazier has developed the endurance and strength to successively compete as an elite triathlete while eating a 100% vegan diet.
Science is uncovering as many mysteries and contradictions as it is certainties. For instance, check out the article by Gretchen Reynolds about "What Exercise Science Doesn't Know About Women" in which she reports a study that made a surprising discovery. The conventional training wisdom is that you can hasten recovery after a hard workout if you eat a mix of carbs and protein. However, the study discovered that is only true for males. Women, in fact, recover faster with straight carbs.
This TOJ likes to stay abreast of current thinking on these topics, but figures it's best to discover what's true for you. I appreciate all the hard work and time intelligent people put into finding some truths about food. But for most of us, nutrition will have a much bigger impact on our health than it will our performance, no matter what physical activities we prefer.
Another quote I really liked was by Don Kardong, an American marathon Olympian in the 1970's: "Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos." Now that's wisdom.
He could have added neither do bears and elephants that are stronger than humans, nor kangaroos that jump further than humans, nor eagles that can see better than humans, nor whales that swim better than humans.
Yet we do. Right now this TOJ is reading a book entitled Power Eating by Susan Kleiner, which packed with references to studies, recommendations, recipes, do's and don'ts, lists, and eating plans. Wow, there's a lot to worry about -- nutrient timing, food combinations, right mix of carbs, fat and protein, hydrating not too much, not too little. You will not find an exercise magazine that doesn't have promise nutrition secrets inside the cover to make you better.
No doubt there's some truth among all those facts and opinions, but you have to be your own ultimate guide when it comes to deciding what you will eat and drink because we are all the same, but we are also different.
I found I felt weak and spacey on a vegetarian diet although Brendan Brazier has developed the endurance and strength to successively compete as an elite triathlete while eating a 100% vegan diet.
Science is uncovering as many mysteries and contradictions as it is certainties. For instance, check out the article by Gretchen Reynolds about "What Exercise Science Doesn't Know About Women" in which she reports a study that made a surprising discovery. The conventional training wisdom is that you can hasten recovery after a hard workout if you eat a mix of carbs and protein. However, the study discovered that is only true for males. Women, in fact, recover faster with straight carbs.
This TOJ likes to stay abreast of current thinking on these topics, but figures it's best to discover what's true for you. I appreciate all the hard work and time intelligent people put into finding some truths about food. But for most of us, nutrition will have a much bigger impact on our health than it will our performance, no matter what physical activities we prefer.
Another quote I really liked was by Don Kardong, an American marathon Olympian in the 1970's: "Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos." Now that's wisdom.
CINNAMON CHOCOLATE BANANA ICE CREAM
5 large frozen bananas broken into chunks
1/3 cup cocoa or carob powder
1/4 C. agave nectar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 to 3 Tbs. water
Put all ingredients in a blender and blend into a thick cream adding water if needed. Serve immediately or place in freezer.
The Spirit Is Willing, But the Feet Are Weak
Not too many people watch my YouTube videos, so when the one about running barefooted on the Oregon Coast drew a few hundred viewers, I knew a mini-mania was spreading like H1N1.
The mania started with Christopher McDougall's best selling book Born to Run, in which he argued running barefooted is more natural and easier on your feet and joints than in shoes. He'd had a chronic injury and found running barefooted offered a complete cure. McDougall's mentioned Barefoot Ken Bob, a pioneer and missionary for the barefoot running movement, and elevated him to minor celebrity status, which resulted in an interview in February's Runner's World. (An interesting aside: Runner's World, whose bread and butter is ads for running shoes, did not feature on the front cover the interview with Barefoot Ken Bob and a podiatrist who believes in wearing running shoes.)
McDougall didn't stop with just saying barefooted running is better, but implied that running shoes are actually bad for you. You'll can watch a video version of his frontal assault on running shoes on YouTube. The crux of his argument is that highly engineered shoes, with engineered materials and features like arch support and anti-pronation, place unnatural forces on ankles, knees and hips. Recently a rare and small study confirmed that running shoes do subject the joints and hips to some significant forces that could lead to wear and tear. Gretchen Reynolds wrote an article in the NY Times that discusses some other studies and the pros and cons of running barefooted.
But I don't think any of these studies found much that is surprising or very useful. A basic law of physics is that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you compress rubber with force, it will return a certain amount of force. However, when you're running that can be a pleasant sensation because it gives you feeling the shoes are providing a little spring, helping propel you forward. And I have no doubts that running shoes offer some real benefits, especially if you are running long distances on hard surfaces.
When I ran barefoot on Agate Beach in Newport, Oregon, it felt great. Oregon beaches are firm because they are a mix volcanic rock that has been ground through eons into fine, dense particles that when mixed with sand and water provide a forgiving surface on which to run. If you look at your prints, you see the sand itself supports your foot. You don't needs shoes! I look forward to running on that beach again. It does feel great to run barefooted and feel the earth under your feet.
But this TOJ won't be selling my running shoes on Ebay any time soon. In Colorado where I run on rocky mountain trails, my feet would be at high risk for cuts, puncture wounds, deep bone bruises, and frostbite. The human foot, like the rest of the body, is well designed, but it's not perfect. It doesn't perform equally well in all conditions, for people of all physiques and of all ages. I compared the thin soles on my feet to the thick pads on my dog's feet. Paws down, my dog, not me, is born to run barefooted.
Decades ago when I ran track in high school, the soles on track shoes consisted of a piece of thin, flexible leather with a few spikes screwed to it. It was very similar to running barefooted, and after working out on cinder tracks for an hour, your feet hurt like hell. Like all kids back then, if you were athletic, you spent lots of time in U.S. Keds made of a flimsy canvas top glued to a soft rubber sole. They were more comfortable than the track shoes, but not much.
It wasn't until I ran in my first pair of Nike running shoes, with the original black waffle sole, that I began to believe in human progress. The human diaspora out of Africa at the dawn of civilization placed us in environments that are quite hostile to hairless bipeds, whether on remote wilderness trails or city streets. We survived by being clever enough to invent clothes, shelter, and, yes, shoes. Many Native Americans, like the Apaches, where great runners, and they protected their feet with moccasins. Today theTarahumara Indians in Mexico, so admired by McDougall, protect their feet with huaraches. Feet are sensitive, which is why they are often an area of attack for torturers.
When it comes to running, just like any other exercise, we all need to discover what works best for us. For some, like McDougall and Barefoot Ken Bob, it might well be running barefooted. If it would help you, go for it! There are barefoot running clubs popping up everywhere if you need to get some expert advice. And the shoe manufacturers are coming up minimalist shoes that protect your feet while providing many of the advantages of running barefooted. Check them out. But be advised that if you run barefooted, you will run slower.
Ultimately, I think the barefoot mania will fade. I'm guessing a similar small percentage of the running community will migrate to barefooted running as, say, the small percentage of the general population that goes to nudist colonies. Like the Good Book says, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Especially your feet.
The mania started with Christopher McDougall's best selling book Born to Run, in which he argued running barefooted is more natural and easier on your feet and joints than in shoes. He'd had a chronic injury and found running barefooted offered a complete cure. McDougall's mentioned Barefoot Ken Bob, a pioneer and missionary for the barefoot running movement, and elevated him to minor celebrity status, which resulted in an interview in February's Runner's World. (An interesting aside: Runner's World, whose bread and butter is ads for running shoes, did not feature on the front cover the interview with Barefoot Ken Bob and a podiatrist who believes in wearing running shoes.)
McDougall didn't stop with just saying barefooted running is better, but implied that running shoes are actually bad for you. You'll can watch a video version of his frontal assault on running shoes on YouTube. The crux of his argument is that highly engineered shoes, with engineered materials and features like arch support and anti-pronation, place unnatural forces on ankles, knees and hips. Recently a rare and small study confirmed that running shoes do subject the joints and hips to some significant forces that could lead to wear and tear. Gretchen Reynolds wrote an article in the NY Times that discusses some other studies and the pros and cons of running barefooted.
But I don't think any of these studies found much that is surprising or very useful. A basic law of physics is that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you compress rubber with force, it will return a certain amount of force. However, when you're running that can be a pleasant sensation because it gives you feeling the shoes are providing a little spring, helping propel you forward. And I have no doubts that running shoes offer some real benefits, especially if you are running long distances on hard surfaces.
When I ran barefoot on Agate Beach in Newport, Oregon, it felt great. Oregon beaches are firm because they are a mix volcanic rock that has been ground through eons into fine, dense particles that when mixed with sand and water provide a forgiving surface on which to run. If you look at your prints, you see the sand itself supports your foot. You don't needs shoes! I look forward to running on that beach again. It does feel great to run barefooted and feel the earth under your feet.
But this TOJ won't be selling my running shoes on Ebay any time soon. In Colorado where I run on rocky mountain trails, my feet would be at high risk for cuts, puncture wounds, deep bone bruises, and frostbite. The human foot, like the rest of the body, is well designed, but it's not perfect. It doesn't perform equally well in all conditions, for people of all physiques and of all ages. I compared the thin soles on my feet to the thick pads on my dog's feet. Paws down, my dog, not me, is born to run barefooted.
Decades ago when I ran track in high school, the soles on track shoes consisted of a piece of thin, flexible leather with a few spikes screwed to it. It was very similar to running barefooted, and after working out on cinder tracks for an hour, your feet hurt like hell. Like all kids back then, if you were athletic, you spent lots of time in U.S. Keds made of a flimsy canvas top glued to a soft rubber sole. They were more comfortable than the track shoes, but not much.
It wasn't until I ran in my first pair of Nike running shoes, with the original black waffle sole, that I began to believe in human progress. The human diaspora out of Africa at the dawn of civilization placed us in environments that are quite hostile to hairless bipeds, whether on remote wilderness trails or city streets. We survived by being clever enough to invent clothes, shelter, and, yes, shoes. Many Native Americans, like the Apaches, where great runners, and they protected their feet with moccasins. Today theTarahumara Indians in Mexico, so admired by McDougall, protect their feet with huaraches. Feet are sensitive, which is why they are often an area of attack for torturers.
When it comes to running, just like any other exercise, we all need to discover what works best for us. For some, like McDougall and Barefoot Ken Bob, it might well be running barefooted. If it would help you, go for it! There are barefoot running clubs popping up everywhere if you need to get some expert advice. And the shoe manufacturers are coming up minimalist shoes that protect your feet while providing many of the advantages of running barefooted. Check them out. But be advised that if you run barefooted, you will run slower.
Ultimately, I think the barefoot mania will fade. I'm guessing a similar small percentage of the running community will migrate to barefooted running as, say, the small percentage of the general population that goes to nudist colonies. Like the Good Book says, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Especially your feet.
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