Weight Lifting Rules for Middle Age and Beyond
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
Many middle-aged and older people have started to lift weights, since extensive data show that lack of muscles increases risk for diabetes, heart attacks and premature death (British Medical Journal, September 2009; Journal of Physiology, September 2009). However, within the first few weeks of their new weight-lifting programs, most get injured and quit.
Usually they are injured because they try to train like younger men: by picking the heaviest weight that they can lift ten times in a row, resting and repeating that set two more times. Then they feel sore for the next few days and when the soreness lessens, they lift heavy weights again, usually two or three times a week. This type of training almost always injures older novice weight lifters and ends their training program.
The safest way for most older men and women to gain strength and increase muscle size is to join a gym and try to use 15 to 20 Nautilus-type machines every day. On each machine they should pick the weight that they can lift and lower 10 times in a row comfortably, without straining or damaging their muscles (which would make their muscles feel sore on the next day). If they feel the least bit sore, they should take a day or days off until the soreness is gone. As they become stronger and the weights feel very easy for them, they should try to lift 15 times in a row, then 20 and perhaps 25 times. They should always do just one set. Only when they can lift that weight at least 20 times in a row and not feel sore the next morning, should they increase the resistance by going to the next heavier weight.
The key to this program is to avoid injuring their muscles by lifting weights in a single set and increasing the number of repetitions gradually so they do not cause next-day muscle soreness. They should not increase the weight (resistance) until they can lift a set of at least 20 daily and not feel sore the next day.
Before any older or out-of-shape person starts an exercise program, he or she should check with a physician to rule out serious problems that might be aggravated by weight lifting.
This program is for beginners and is intended to prevent injuries that plague older people when they first try to lift weights. It will not build very large muscles. It will, however, increase strength and provide the other benefits of a weight training program. After many months (injury-free) on this program, if a person wishes to build larger muscles, he or she can transition to a more traditional weight training program
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Prevent Heart Disease by Reversing Your Biological Clock
Prevent Heart Disease by Reversing Your Biological Clock
Human cells have biological clocks called telomeres which cap the ends of chromosomes. The telomeres shorten in length everytime a cell divides and replicates. Eventually, the telomeres become too short for cell division and the cell dies. Shorter telomeres accelerate a cell’s biological clock and are considered markers of aging.
Telomeres, Biological Clocks & Heart Disease
The American Heart Association discovered a link between shorter telomeres in white blood cells (immune cells called leukocytes) and the development of heart disease. Researchers sought to determine the relationship between telomere length and the risk of high blood pressure in men and women between the ages of 30 to 80 years.
The telomere length was measured in 388 people with high blood pressure and 379 healthy people. What they found was that older people and people with high blood pressure had the shortest telomeres.
It makes sense. High blood pressure causes physical damage to the white blood cells circulating in the bloodstream. Damaged cells need to regenerate by initiating cycles of cellular division. The more a cell divides, the faster the telomeres shorten. The end result is an accelerated biological clock and aged immune cells.
Aged and dysfunctional immune cells can have devastating consequences. For instance, systemic inflammation increases and damages the arteries feeding the heart. Complications include higher blood pressure and an increased risk for stroke and heart disease.
Participants with shorter telomeres were found to be more than three times as likely to develop heart disease compared with those who had longer telomeres. Researches also found that if the healthy subjects developed high blood pressure over the course of follow-up they too had shorter telomeres.
Analysis of the data confirmed that both short telomeres and high blood pressure were independent risk factors for developing heart disease. To prevent heart disease you need to maintain healthy blood pressure and slow-down the biological clock by keeping telomeres long.
Maintaining Healthy Blood Pressure
The trinity of nutrients can help you maintain healthy blood pressure. Supplementing your diet with these three powerful nutrients is simple, safe, and effective. Remember to check with your doctor before starting any supplement, especially if you’re taking blood pressure medications.
1. Grapeseed Extract
Supplementing with 150mg/day of a high quality grapeseed extract was shown in several studies to reduce and stabilize pressure.
2. Milk Peptides
Spliting milk protein in half creates a small protein fragment (peptides) called CVH-15. The protein fragment inhibits certain blood proteins that increase pressure. Take 1500mg/day of milk peptides.
3. Pomegranate Extract
A true superfood, pomegranate has been proven to work without side effects. Eating pomegranate is good, but you still need to supplement with 100mg/day.
Keeping Telomeres Long
HIV researchers from the National Institutes of Health have been exploring methods for lengthening the telomeres in white blood cells. White blood cells with long telomeres live longer and could strengthen the immune system in HIV patients. They successfully identify one herb that significantly lengthens the telomeres in white blood cells.
Astragalus is an herb cultivated in Asia and has been used for centuries to strengthen the immune system and treat winter viruses. The researchers concluded that 500mg/day of Astragalus can significantly lengthen the telomeres in white blood cells.
Life Extension® has tons of information on how to prevent heart disease. Visit the web site today and you will learn about innovative strategies for maintaining a healthy heart.
Michael A. Smith, MD
Eggs Do Not Cause Heart Attacks
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
Eggs have not been shown to increase risk for heart attacks, according to an an extensive review of the world’s scientific literature in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine (July-August 2009). For example, the Physician’s Health Study followed doctors for 20 years and showed no association between eating eggs and heart attacks or strokes. However, the doctors who ate lots of eggs did die earlier than those who avoided eggs, possibly because they also ate more bacon, sausage and butter.
The concern that eating eggs can cause heart attacks comes from the fact that eggs are one of the most concentrated sources of dietary cholesterol. Indeed, adding one egg per day can raise blood cholesterol levels by one to three percent. However, virtually all large population studies show no association between eating eggs and blood cholesterol levels. In fact, the Framingham Heart Study and NHANES study found that high-egg eaters had lower cholesterol levels than very-low eggs eaters.
Journal references on all of the studies mentioned in this article
Current opinion is that some people have their blood cholesterol levels raised by eating eggs, while others do not. Indeed, 70 percent of Americans will not have their cholesterol levels affected by eating eggs. Furthermore, those who did have their cholesterol levels raised by eating eggs, had rises in both their good HDL and bad LDL cholesterol levels and also had higher large particle cholesterol that prevents heart attacks. Both rises in the good HDL cholesterol and cholesterol particle size help to prevent heart attacks.
I have started to eat eggs again after avoiding them for more than forty years. I continue to load my plate with lots of vegetables and fruits, and eat reasonable amounts of fish. I avoid all meat from mammals. I avoid all refined carbohydrates except during and immediately after exercise. My recommended diet
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Muscle Growth Hindered by Obesity or High-Fat Diet
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
A study from the University of California, Davis shows that a high-fat diet prevents exercising mice from enlarging their muscles (Journal of Physiology, December 2010). The mice received either a low fat, high carbohydrate diet or a high fat, low carbohydrate diet for 14 weeks. Each group was divided into those who performed progressive resistance exercises with their plantaris muscles or those that did not do this exercise. Those who exercised on the low fat, high-carbohydrate diet had substantially larger muscles than those who exercised on the high-fat diet. Chemical analysis of their muscles showed that the high fat diet group had lower levels of polysomes (Akt and S6K1) necessary for making protein.
If this study can be applied to humans, it will mean that not only does a high-saturated-fat diet make you fatter, it also keeps you from enlarging your muscles. We know that both full fat cells and eating large amounts of saturated fats (the dominant fat in meat) turns on your immunity to cause inflammation that can prevent the body from making protein necessary for enlarging muscles. (Journal of Nutrition, January 2009). A high saturated-fat diet also blocks insulin receptors and thus prevents your body from responding to insulin, which is necessary for muscles to heal from intense workouts. Insulin drives amino acids, the protein building blocks, into muscles to help them heal faster. Anything that blocks muscles’ ability to respond to insulin will decrease amino acid entry into muscles and thus delay healing so you can’t recover as fast for your next workout.
Further journal references and recommendations
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More Exercise is Better
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
Dr. Paul Williams of the University of California at Berkeley thinks that the American Heart Association’s recommendation of “half an hour a day of exercise” is way too little. He has followed more than 100,000 runners for 20 years and has shown that exercising much more than that will dramatically reduce the high incidence of heart attacks, strokes, certain cancers, glaucoma, diabetes, cataracts, macular degeneration, gout, gall stones, diverticulitis, and many other ailments (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, March 2009). Dr. Williams found that running 40 miles per week can lower risk of stroke by 69 percent, heart attacks by 37 percent and diabetes by 68 percent. To prevent progressive weight gain with aging, the runners needed to add 1.4 miles a week each year.
How inactivity kills: Human muscles get their energy by extracting sugar and fat from their blood supply. When muscles are at rest, they need insulin for sugar to pass into their cells. However, when muscles contract, sugar passes into their cells without requiring insulin.
Extra fat blocks insulin receptors so insulin can’t do its job of driving sugar into cells and blood sugar rises to high levels. This causes sugar to stick to the surface of cell membranes. Once stuck to cell membranes, sugar can never get off and is eventually converted to sorbitol which destroys the cell to cause all the terrible side effects of diabetes.
The extra sugar outside cells is converted to fat, which blocks insulin receptors even more and prevents insulin from doing its job, leading to more weight gain and eventually to diabetes. Thirty-five percent of North Americans will become diabetic because they exercise too little and eat too much. More on why inactivity shortens life Why more exercise is better: Contracting muscles remove sugar rapidly from the bloodstream, without needing insulin, during and for up to one hour after exercise. The effect tapers off to zero at about 17 hours (American Journal of Clinical Nurtrition, July 2008). You are protected maximally from high rises in blood sugar and fat during and immediately after exercise. Therefore, the more time you spend contracting muscles, the longer you will be protected from the cell damage that leads to cancers, heart attacks, strokes, and other consequences that shorten your life or impair its quality.
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Almost All Obese Men Will Eventually Become Diabeic
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
This month, two studies show that being overweight shortens life. A study from the University of Uppsala in Sweden followed 1800 Swedish overweight men, from age 50 for 30 years and showed that almost all are at high risk for heart attacks and premature death (Circulation, December 2009). The authors showed that overweight men who originally did not have metabolic syndrome eventually suffered from metabolic syndrome, diabetes and heart attacks.
Metabolic syndrome is considered to be early diabetes and includes high blood sugar and triglycerides, high blood pressure, low good HDL cholesterol, and abdominal obesity (40 inches for men, 35 for women). In this study, being overweight without metabolic syndrome increased heart attack rate by more than 95 percent, and being verweight with metabolic syndrome increased the rate by more than 155 percent.
In another study, researchers at the University of Bristol in the UK and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden analyzed more than a million Swedish mother-son and father-son pairs over age 50. They showed that the sons who were overweight tended to have parents who had died prematurely and had an extremely high incidence of heart attacks, diabetes, and some cancers (British Medical Journal, January, 2010).
Fat cells are like endocrine glands. As they fill with fat, they release hormones that turn on your immunity to cause inflammation. An overactive immunity damages artery walls to cause heart attacks and strokes. High blood fat levels block insulin receptors so your cells cannot respond to insulin and your blood sugar levels rise too high. This causes sugar to stick to cell membranes to damage arteries to cause heart attacks and strokes. Since your insulin receptors are blocked, your pancreas releases increasing amounts of insulin which constricts arteries to cause heart attacks.
Storing fat primarily in your belly rather than in your hips means that you already have high insulin levels, which shortens lives and increases heart attack risk. Insulin specifically causes fat to be stored in your belly.
If you can pinch more than an inch of fat in your belly, you are overweight and at increased risk for metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart attacks, and premature death. You should first be cleared by your doctor for exercise and try to exercise every day. Avoid all foods that cause a high rise in blood sugar, particularly sugared drinks, foods made from flour, and sugar-added foods. Eat large amounts of vegetables. Avoid red meat, lose weight, and make sure that your vitamin D3 level is above 75 nmol/L.
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Mediterranean Diet Most Healthful
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
A comprehensive review of the world’s literature, covering research in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from 1966 to 2008, shows that eating a Mediterranean diet prolongs life and prevents heart attacks, cancer, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease (British Medical Journal, September 2008).
The combined studies included more than 1.5 million people followed for up to eighteen years. The reviewers analyzed total diet, rather than individual components of diet, because “the analyses of single nutrients ignore important interactions between components of a diet and because people do not eat isolated nutrients.”
The Mediterranean diet contains abundant amounts of fruits, vegetables (including olives), whole grains, beans, seeds, nuts, fish, and up to two glasses of red wine a day. It does not include red meat and has only small amounts of dairy products (cheese).
In studies analyzing single components in the diet, eating red meat is associated with premature death, heart attacks, strokes, at least 23 different cancers, and arthritis. Not eating lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, seeds and nuts is associated with the same diseases. The more different vegetables you eat, the longer you live. Fish eaters live longer than people who do not eat fish.
It is sad that the Western Diet has reached Greece, where three-quarters of the adult population is overweight and the incidence of diabetes, heart disease and arthritis approaches that found in North America. The Mediterranean populations are sacrificing their health to the convenience and taste of “fast food” instead of following their traditional diet.
List of the most recent (2009) studies supporting the Mediterranean diet
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The Hygiene Hypothesis
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
A study on mice may explain why it’s not so bad to get lots of infections when you are young. Many studies show that children raised on farms are less likely to develop allergies than those raised in cities. If your immune cells and proteins do not get a lot of practice and learn how to recognize bacteria and viruses, they may attack pollen, mold, dust and other particles that are not bacteria to cause allergies that show up as skin rashes, nasal and lung obstruction and irritation.
Researchers at The University of Marburg in Germany worked with a line of mice that had been genetically programmed to develop asthma. They sprayed Acinetobacter lwoffii, a type of bacteria found in farmyards. into the noses of pregnant mice, and this prevented their newborns from developing asthma (The Journal of Experimental Medicine, December 2009).
Asthma means intermittent obstruction of the bronchial tubes that carry air to and from the lungs. It is caused by the body’s immune cells and antibodies attacking something unknown in the lungs to cause the bronchial tubes to fill with mucous, the inner linings of the bronchial tubes to swell, and the muscles surrounding the bronchial tubes to constrict and block the airways.
When a germ gets into your body, your immune cells and antibodies recognize that the germ has surface proteins that are different from your own surface proteins, and they attack it to try to kill it. This causes swelling and irritation. The Hygiene Hypothesis is that exposure to lots of germs when you are young gives your immunity practice in attacking germs so it will not attack your own body tissues or non-germs such as mold, dust or pollen.
This study shows that exposing a pregnant animal to germs can prevent allergies in their offspring. However, it is unreasonable and probably dangerous to recommend exposing pregnant women to infections. We await further studies to see if extreme cleanliness and protection from infections causes allergies.
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Stress Fractures Caused by Weak Muscles and Over-Striding
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
One of the most common injuries in runners is a stress fracture of the lower leg (tibia) because running fast causes the foot to hit the ground with tremendous force that can shatter bones. A study from the University of Minnesota shows that women with stress fractures do not have weaker bones, they have smaller and weaker calf muscles (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, December 2009). Another study from Iowa State University in Ames, in the same journal, shows that longer strides cause the greatest foot strike forces that increase bone fracture risk.
Strong muscles may help to prevent bones from breaking by absorbing more force from the foot hitting the ground during running. Most distance runners do not use weight machines to strengthen their leg muscles. They strengthen their calf muscles by running very fast no more often than three times a week.
In the Iowa study, reducing stride length by ten percent reduced force of the foot striking the ground and therefore reduced force on the tibia.
Shortening your stride will not slow you down. When your foot hits the ground, your Achilles tendon contracts to store up to 60 percent of your foot strike force. Then when you step off that foot, your Achilles tendon releases the stored energy to drive you forward. Over-striding deprives you of some of this stored energy. Since many runners take strides that are too long, shortening stride length usually allows them to increase cadence and will help to increase speed and endurance.
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Why Sprinting Improves Endurance
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
Jens Bangsbo of the University of Copenhagen has shown that if you want to run, cycle or swim faster at any distance, you have to train at a pace that is almost as fast as you can move (Journal of Applied Physiology, November 2009). He asked competitive distance runners to reduce their mileage by 25 percent, and to run 8 to 12 30-second sprints 2-3 times a week, with some additional 0.6-0.8 mile sprints 1 or 2 times per week, for 6 to 9 weeks. The control group of runners continued their regular training program, and showed no improvement. The sprint group improved both their 3K (1.8 mile) and 10K (6 mile) race times by more than three percent (more than a minute in the 10-K race). Half of them ran their best times ever, even though many had been racing for more than five years.
Two years ago, Dr. Bangsbo did ground-breaking research supporting the leading theory that exhaustion of the sodium- potassium pump is the major cause of muscle fatigue during exercise (Acta Physiologica, November 2007). In this new study, he shows how sprint training improves a muscle’s capacity to pump potassium back inside muscle cells during exercise, which helps all athletes run or cycle faster in competition, even in endurance events such as marathons and multi-day bicycle races.
A muscle can contract only if it has an electrical charge across the muscle cell membrane. This electrical charge comes mainly from having sodium primarily outside the cell and potassium primarily inside the cell. This higher concentration of sodium outside the cell and higher concentration of potassium inside the cell is maintained by sodium-potassium pumps in the cell membranes. The pumps get their energy from an enzyme called ATPase.
When the brain sends electrical signals along nerves leading to each muscle fiber, sodium moves rapidly into muscle cells followed by an equivalent movement of potassium out of the cells, causing the muscle fibers to contract. However, the sodium- potassium pump cannot pump potassium back into the cells as fast as the rapidly-contracting muscle cells move potassium out.
Dr. Bangsbo showed that during rapid contractions, muscle cells lose potassium so fast that there is a doubling of the potassium outside cells in less than a minute. The electrical charge between the inside and outside of muscle cells is reduced, and they contract with much less force until finally they cannot contract at all. During continuous contractions of muscles, the loss of force from a muscle contraction is directly proportional to the amount of potassium that goes outside the cells.
Over time, repeated muscle contractions themselves will markedly increase the ability of the sodium-potassium pump to pump potassium into cells. The greater the force on a muscle during training, the more effectively the potassium pump can pump potassium back into muscles, resulting in greater endurance for the athlete. So intense training is necessary for endurance, and any training strategy that increases the number of intense workouts will give the athlete greater endurance.
You can also increase the effectiveness of the sodium potassium pumps by being excited before a race (which increases adrenalin), and by eating before and during races (which raises insulin levels). Hormones known to strengthen the sodium- potassium pump, and therefore to increase endurance, include adrenalin, insulin, insulin-like growth factor I, calcitonins, amylin, thyroid, testosterone and cortisones.
How to apply this information to your training program:
You cannot gain maximum endurance just with continuous exercise. To improve your potassium-sodium pumps, you have to put maximum force on your muscles. This requires some form of interval training. (CAUTION: Intense exercise can kill a person with blocked arteries to the heart; check with your doctor before increasing the intensity of your program.)
Intervals are classified as short intervals that take fewer than 30 seconds and do not generate significant amounts of lactic acid; and long intervals that take more than two minutes and generate large amounts of lactic acid. The longest you can exercise with maximal force on muscles is about 30 seconds. All competitive athletes should do some sort of 30-second interval. Nobody knows how often you have to do this, but most runners and cyclists do short intervals once or twice a seek. You probably should do long intervals also. However, applying near-maximal force on muscles for more than 30 seconds causes considerable muscle damage, so you have to allow muscles to recover by doing slow training for one or two days afterwards.
Since short intervals do not accumulate much lactic acid, you can do a large number of repetitions during a single workout. Long intervals cause a tremendous amount of muscle damage, so you can only do a few long intervals during a workout. A sound endurance program should include a lot of slow miles, one or two workouts with many short intervals, and probably at least one workout that includes a few long intervals each week.
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Junk Food Alters Intestinal Bacteria in Just One Day
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
After just one day of switching from a plant-based diet to a high-fat-and-sugar diet, mice with human intestinal bacteria developed bacteria associated with obesity in humans, and soon became grossly obese (Science Translational Medicine, November 11, 2009).
Dr. Jeffrey Gordon of Washington University in St Louis first showed that certain types of bacteria in the human intestinal tract can break down food more efficiently and help you absorb a greater percentage of calories from the food that you eat. He also showed that humans whose intestinal tracts are dominated by these bacteria tend to be overweight.
In this new study, Dr. Gordon created germ-free mice and fed them a low-fat, plant-rich diet. Then he fed them bacteria extracted from human stool and continued to feed them a low-fat, plant-based diet for one month. By sequencing the microbes’ 16S rRNA gene, he showed that the intestinal bacteria in the mice were the same as those living in a healthy human’s intestines.
One month later, he switched half the mice to a high-fat, high-sugar diet. After 24 hours, the intestines of the mice had increases in the obesity-causing bacteria, Firmicutes, and decreases in the obesity-preventing Bacteroidetes. The mice continued to grow fatter and fatter, even when switched back to the low-fat, plant-based diet.
What does this mean to you? When you eat a diet rich in refined carbohydrates (fruit juices, sugared drinks and foods made from flour and sugar) and fat (meat, fried foods, and fatty desserts), you develop intestines full of bacteria that thrive on these foods, break down these foods more efficiently, and then absorb far more calories from these foods. If you want your gut flora to help you maintain a healthful weight, you should eat primarily fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, seeds and nuts.
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New Vitamin D Recommendations
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
At the University of Toronto School of Medicine’s “Diagnosis and Treatment of Vitamin D Deficiency” conference on November 3, 2009, thirty of the world’s leading researchers on vitamin D recommended 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily (the current recommendation is 600 IU). Vitamin D3 blood levels should be 100-150 nmol/L (40-60 ng/ml); the existing recommendation is 30-50 nmol/L.
Vitamin D pioneer Dr. Cedric Garland presented data showing that raising vitamin D levels to 200 nmol/L decreased breast cancer risk more than 77 percent. He said: “Breast cancer is a disease so directly related to vitamin D deficiency that a woman’s risk of contracting the disease can be virtually eradicated by elevating her vitamin D status to near that level.” Recent work has shown that all cells in the body have “vitamin D receptors” to control normal cell growth. Garland presented new evidence that low vitamin D status compromises the integrity of calcium-based cellular bonding within tissues, which allows rogue cancer cells to spread more readily.
Vitamin D deficiency is associated with at least 24 cancers, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, falls and fractures, psoriasis and many other health problems.
More on Vitamin D
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Will avoiding dietary sugar prolong life?
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
Nobody has yet shown any way to extend the life span of humans. However, both exercise and calorie restriction (with adequate nutrients) have been shown to extend the life span of animals. Both of these measures apparently extend life by increasing the number and size of mitochondria in cells and making them turn food into energy more efficiently. Each cell in your body contains up to several hundred mitochondria which provide the most efficient chemical reactions in your body for converting food into energy.
An exciting new study on worms offers a potential method for you to prolong life and good health. When blood sugar levels rise too high, sugar enters cells in large amounts. An earlier study showed that adding sugar to the diet of the worm, C. Elegans, shortens its life (Cell Metabolism, October 2007). Now the researchers have found that preventing sugar from entering cells by altering the genes for DAF-2, DAF-16 and Heat Shock Factor-1 causes the same changes as avoiding sugar and extends the worms’ life span up to 20 percent (Cell Metabolism, November 2009). These benefits could also occur in humans because we have the same three genes that control sugar entry into cells as those of the worms.
Calorie restriction and exercise probably prolong life by the same mechanism: they enlarge and activate mitochondria in cells that turn food to energy. This helps mitochondria to clear free radicals much more rapidly from the body. Free radicals can damage cells and therefore shorten life. The worms’ cells responded to the absence of sugar inside cells by increasing their ability to clear free radicals from their bodies which prolonged their lives. Indeed, when sugar was allowed to again enter their cells, they still could clear free radicals faster and live longer because their enlarged mitochondria were more efficient in removing free radicals.
This research on worms questions the way doctors treat type II diabetes when they prescribe drugs to lower blood sugar levels by driving sugar into cells. The best treatment may be to develop diets and drugs that prevent blood sugar from entering cells in the first place.
For now, we know that you will shorten your life and increase risk for many diseases by allowing blood sugar levels to rise too high after meals. A diet that keeps sugar from rising too high after meals (and reduces the entry of sugar into cells) can prevent diabetes, help control all the side effects of diabetes (JAMA, December 16, 2008), cause the most weight loss, and allow many type II diabetics to safely stop their medications (Nutrition and Metabolism, January 2009). Avoid foods that cause the highest rise in blood sugar levels: sugar in liquid form (sugared drinks, fruit juices, and adding sugar to any drink); foods made from flour (bread, spaghetti, macaroni, pretzels, bagels and so forth); and foods with added sugar.
You should also exercise every day. Exercise causes muscles to remove sugar from the bloodstream at a very rapid rate and this effect lasts maximally for about half hour after you stop exercising, then tapers off until it stops completely after about 17 hours. Furthermore, since lack of vitamin D causes high blood sugar levels, you should make sure that your blood level of vitamin D3 is above 75 nmol/L. New vitamin D recommendations
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Just Getting Old Does Not Cause Diabetes
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
A study from the University of Pittsburgh shows that the marked increase in diabetes in older people is caused by obesity and lack of exercise, not by aging alone (Diabetes Care, August 2009). Most cases of diabetes are caused by cells not being able to respond to insulin, rather than by lack of insulin. Inability to respond adequately to insulin is caused by being overweight, not exercising, lacking vitamin D and/or eating too many refined carbohydrates.
In this study, the same insulin responses were found in young and old endurance-trained athletes, young and old normal-weight subjects, and young and old obese subjects. Regardless of age, athletes had better insulin responses than normal-weight sedentary subjects, who had better insulin responses than overweight people.
If you are overweight, try to lose the extra weight. Check with your doctor and start or continue an exercise program. Get a blood test called vitamin D3. If it is below 75 nmol/L, you need more sunlight or vitamin D pills. When you are not exercising, avoid sugar water and flour.
More on diabetes prevention and treatment
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Preventing Sugar Spikes After Meals
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Preventing sugar spikes and restoring insulin sensitivity is the first step in preventing diabetes. If you’re at risk for diabetes (middle age, family history, overweight, inactive) follow these suggestions:
1. Eat Soluble Fiber
Soluble fiber interferes with carbohydrate absorption from the intestines into your bloodstream. By limiting absorption, less sugar enters the blood and prevents spikes.
I suggest supplementing with psyllium husk or beta-glucan 10 to 20 minutes before each major meal. Both of these soluble fibers come in powder form and mix well with water.
2. Take Chromium Polynicotinate
Chromium polynicotinate is a trace mineral that enhances the effect of insulin. With chromium, cells don’t needs as much insulin to uptake glucose. The more sensitive the cells are to insulin, the less is released into the blood.
Take 500 mcg of chromium polynicotinate with each major meal.
3. Try Coffee Berry & Cinnamon
Cinnamon is well known by naturopathic doctors for its positive effects on blood sugar. The problem is that whole cinnamon contains oils that prevent it from working. The best suggestion is to take 200 mg with each meal of a water-based cinnamon extract free from the oils.
Cinnamon works better with the herb coffee berry. Coffee berry inhibits the conversion of glycogen (stored sugar) to blood glucose, thus helping to minimize spikes and the amount of insulin released. About 50 mg of coffee berry with each meal should do the trick.
4. Take Lipoic Acid
Glucose (blood sugar) destroys the insulin receptors sticking out from the cell’s membrane. Without these receptors, insulin won’t work. Lipoic acid is a naturally occurring antioxidant that protects insulin receptors. I suggest taking 200 to 300 mg/day of R-lipoic acid (the “R” form is more potent).
5. Eat Complex Carbohydrates
Complex carbs have less effect on blood sugar spikes. Foods like oatmeal, bran, wheatgerm, and whole grain breads take longer to breakdown to glucose. The long it takes to breakdown carbs to glucose, the less insulin is released.
A word of warning: all carbohydrates, complex or not, eventually become glucose. I suggest cutting the servings breads and cereals in half.
Summary
Preventing sugar spikes after meals restores insulin sensitivity and is the first step in diabetes prevention. To learn more, read the Life Extension Foundation’s diabetes protocol.
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Michael A. Smith, MD |
No Evidence Cycling Weakens Bones
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
No data exists in the scientific literature showing that any type of exercise weakens bones. Bone growth depends on the forces exerted on them by gravity and contracting muscles. So any activity or exercise that causes you to contract your muscles will strengthen bones (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, November 2009).
Previous studies showed that world class cyclists had reduced bone densities in their spines. However, bone density tests do not measure bones strength. They measure how much bones block X-rays that try to pass through them. The only way to measure bone strength is to see how much force it takes to break a bone.
The most likely explanations for broken bones in cyclists are high-impact crashes and/or lack of vitamin D. I recommend that all cyclists get a blood test called Vitamin D3 in December or January. If it is below 75 nmol/L, they are deficient in vitamin D and at increased risk for breaking bones. To prevent fractures, they should do winter training in the southern sunbelt or take at least 800 IU of Vitamin D3 per day.
A recent review of 12 blinded, controlled scientific studies showed that oral vitamin D reduced non-vertebral and hip fractures in patients over 65 years of age (Evidence-Based Medicine, October 2009). Blood levels of vitamin D below 75 nmol/L cause parathyroid hormone levels to rise too high, which causes osteoporosis. A main function of vitamin D is to increase calcium absorption from the intestines into the bloodstream. When blood levels of vitamin D fall below 75 nmol/L, levels of ionizable calcium drop. This causes the parathyroid gland to produce large amounts of its hormone. Higher than normal blood parathyroid hormone levels take calcium out of bones to cause osteoporosis.
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Fasting Does Not Increase Endurance
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
Some people think (incorrectly) that fasting before a race or competition will increase their endurance. Fasting weakens and tires you. How long you can exercise a muscle depends on how much sugar, called glycogen, you can store in that muscle and how long you can keep it there. When a muscle runs out of its stored glycogen, it slows down because it requires more oxygen to burn more fat. It also accumulates more lactic acid to become acidic which causes a burning pain, and it becomes more difficult to coordinate.
Every time you move a muscle, some of the stored glycogen is used up. Every time you eat, some of the food can be stored as glycogen in that muscle. When you go for more than an hour without eating, you use up glycogen without replacing it. If you don’t eat before you compete, you start with reduced stores of glycogen in your muscles and you will not be able to compete at your best.
It is nonsensical to claim that fasting increases endurance by causing muscles to burn more fat and less glycogen so muscles can retain their stored glycogen longer. When you start with less glycogen, you still use it up faster and run out of fuel earlier. You can increase endurance by cutting back on exercise four days before your competition and eating as much or more than usual. Eat one to three hours before competing. If your event lasts more than an hour, take fluid, sugar and protein (whole grain bars, sugared drinks, etc.) during your event.
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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - a new explanation
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
Sixty-seven percent of 101 patients diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) were found to be infected with a retrovirus called XMRV (Science, published online October 8, 2009). One hundred percent of those with CFS who subsequently developed lymphomas or leukemias were infected with the XMRV virus. If further studies confirm this finding, doctors will soon have a test to diagnose this horrible condition and possibly a vaccine to prevent it.
More than a million Americans are seriously ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, also known as Myalgic encephalomyelitis. CFS symptoms include severe weakness, exhaustion after any activity, loss of memory, and chronic recurrent infections. Patients rarely recover.
The retrovirus XMRV was first found in humans in 2006, in prostate cancer cells. It has been shown to cause nerve damage, immune deficiency, lymphoma and leukemia in animals. Retroviruses do not have their own DNA; they use the DNA of the host cells they invade. Retroviruses include HIV that causes AIDS, and Human Lymphotropic Viruses that cause leukemia and lymphoma. Just as some people infected with HIV do not develop AIDS, not everyone infected with XMRV will develop CFS. XMRV has been found in 3.7 percent of healthy Americans tested, adding up to an estimated 10 million Americans carrying this virus.
Although not proven yet, there is every reason to believe that XMRV is spread by exposure to body fluids (saliva, blood, semen). Having an infection with one of these retroviruses impairs your immunity so that you are more likely to become infected when exposured to any other germ.
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The Potassium Deficiency Myth
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
Sports drink promoters have convinced many athletes that they need special drinks to replace potassium during exercise. A recent study of female soccer players confirms that this is a myth (International Journal of Sports Medicine, June 2009). When body levels of potassium are low, the kidneys and sweat glands conserve potassium so effectively that potassium deficiency rarely occurs.
Tiredness in healthy athletes can have many causes, but low potassium is not one of them. Many years ago, Dave Costill of Ball State University tried to create potassium deficiency in healthy national champion runners. He couldn’t do it because potassium is found in all foods except refined sugar, and his athletes would not stay on a diet that consisted only of hard candy. Even with prolonged exercise in very hot weather, potassium needs can be met by eating virtually any food.
Potassium deficiency CAN be caused by certain drugs, such as diuretics or corticosteroids, or by severe diarrhea or repeated vomiting. One of the best female long-distance runners in the country came to me to find a cause for her sudden drop in performance. All tests I ordered were normal except for a low blood level of potassium. I knew that hard exercise does not cause potassium deficiency and that the most common cause of potassium deficiency is vomiting, but she repeatedly denied doing this. I then requested that she collect her urine for one day and the laboratory reported that it contained three times as much potassium as normal. This proved that she was bulemic. To control her weight, she was sticking her finger down her throat to makie herself throw up. After she was able to accept the diagnosis, she got help, stopped vomiting and went on to win several national long distance running titles.
With vomiting, you throw up the stomach’s acid (hydrogen) and the blood becomes alkaline. This causes the kidneys to retain hydrogen and consequently lose huge amounts of potassium in the urine. In both athletes and non-athletes, the most common cause of low potassium blood levels and high potassium urine levels is vomiting.
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Preventing Muscle Cramps
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
Most older textbooks explain that muscle cramps are caused by lack of water (dehydration) and lack of salt. However, studies on endurance athletes show that athletes who cramp do not have less body water or sodium than those who do not cramp (British Journal of Sports Medicine, June 2009). So the current explanation for muscle cramps in conditioned athletes is that prolonged, intense exercise damages muscles, which can cause sustained contractions or cramps.
Cramps may occur as a side effect of drugs used to treat high cholesterol, high blood pressure or diabetes. Oral contraceptives, various other drugs or alcohol can also cause muscle cramps. If you suffer from recurrent muscle cramps that cannot be explained, check with your doctor. Possible causes include pinched nerves, Parkinson’s disease, hypothyroidism, diabetes, narrowed arteries, low blood mineral levels, or metabolic diseases that cause muscle damage. However, these diseases are rarely the cause of cramps in athletes.
Cramps can often be prevented by slowing down when a muscle starts to feel tight. However, athletes usually are not willing to do this during competition or hard training, so they will continue to suffer from occasional cramps and work them out as they occur. You can help to prevent cramps with a training program that includes both hard days and recovery days. We do this by cycling at 18-20 mph pace on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and 10-12 mph pace on the other four days.
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New Rules for Sunscreens
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
If you use sunscreens, be sure to reapply them frequently. Many sunscreens contain the filters octylmethoxycinnamate, benzophenone-3 or octocrylene, which reflect ultra violet rays away from your skin to protect it only when they are on the surface of the skin. However, when these sunscreens are absorbed and the skin is not re-coated, they increase skin production of harmful oxidants that can cause skin aging and cancer (Free Radical Biology & Medicine, September 2009). Reapplying the sun screen so some remains on the skin’s surface can prevent this damage.
• Before you go out in the sun, apply sunscreens to the areas with the most exposure to sunlight over your lifetime: the top of your ears, your face, the back of your neck, and your arms and hands. It is the cumulative exposure to UV light that increases skin cancer and aging.
• To meet your daily vitamin D requirements from sunlight, expose your legs or other areas of your body that have received little cumulative sun exposure over your lifetime. Take care to avoid sunburn.
• Reapply sunscreens every hour or two, particularly when you are swimming or sweating.
• Some sunscreens contain stronger UVA filters (avobenzone, mexoryl, titanium dioxide or zinc) that are less likely to be absorbed into the skin. You do not need to reapply these if they leave a visible white paste on your skin. Check the list of ingredients.
A comprehensive review of more than 1000 sunscreens was conducted by the Environmental Working Group in summer of 2009. Their findings, with brand name listings and recommendations, are available at http://www.ewg.org/cosmetics/report/sunscreen09/investigation/summary-of-findings
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Large Thighs are Good
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
Large thighs appear to confer health benefits, not risks. A study reported this month shows that people who have small thigh muscles, independent of how much fat they have in their bellies, are at increased risk for premature death, particularly from heart attacks (British Medical Journal, September 2009). 2800 men and women aged 35 to 65 had their thighs measured and were followed for ten years. Those whose thigh circumference was below 24 inches (60 cm) were at increased risk for death from heart attacks.
Other studies show that having very low body fat is also associated with early death, as are being overfat or storing fat primarily in the belly. If you store most of your fat in your belly and have very small thighs or buttocks, you are probably already diabetic or prediabetic and at significant risk for a heart attack.
Another interesting study on benefits of thigh fat
Why belly fat is risky
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CRP Better Predictor of Heart Attacks than Cholesterol
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
Blood tests for cholesterol and C-reactive protein (CRP) both help to measure heart attack risk, but CRP may be more important. CRP measures inflammation which indicates an overactive immunity, while cholesterol measures a type of fat in your blood. Having a high CRP blood test increases your risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke by twice as much as having a high cholesterol (New England Journal of Medicine, November 2002). Everything that activates your immunity can increase risk for heart attacks and everything that damages your body turns on your immunity. Inflammation is part of the immune reaction that protects you from infection. It causes redness, pain and swelling, and can damage the inner lining of arteries or break off clots from arteries to block the flow of blood which can cause strokes and heart attacks.
If you have a high CRP, try to correct the known causes: any type of infection such as chronic gum disease, high blood pressure, alcohol use, smoking, low levels of physical activity, chronic fatigue, eating a high protein/high meat diet, or having elevated triglycerides, insulin resistance or diabetes. People with sleep disturbances, depression, or any of the “auto-immune” diseases such as rheumatiod arthritis or psoriasis are also likely to have a high CRP and are at increased risk for heart attacks. More
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Osteoarthritis: Treat with Exercise
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
A review article from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver shows that exercise does not increase the rate of knee damage in people with osteoarthritis, and usually reduces knee pain and disability (Canadian Family Physician, September 2009).
If you develop pain in your knee that was not caused by an accident or trauma, your doctor will usually check you for known causes of joint damage. If he finds no cause, he will tell you that you have osteoarthritis, which means that he doesn’t know why your knee hurts. Most people with osteoarthritis (not associated with trauma) are overweight, do not exercise, and/or have weak muscles that support knee movements.
Osteoarthritis causes a higher incidence of disability than any other chronic condition. It makes exercise difficult, and not exercising increases risk for heart attacks. One in three North Americans over 60 have X ray evidence of osteoarthritis.
People with osteoarthritis should avoid contact sports, but exercise is more effective than any medication to treat this condition. The best activities include swimming and other water- based exercises, stationary cycling or cycling on the road, and muscle strengthening exercises using Nautilus machines or similar equipment at a gym. People with knee osteoarthritis should avoid sports that involve sudden shocks to the knee, such as when the foot hits the ground during running. Inactivity and overweight increase your chances of further knee damage and often lead to a joint replacement. More on arthritis
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Preventing Loss of Muscle Strength with Aging
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
As you age, you lose muscle size and strength much faster than you lose endurance or coordination. Researchers at the University of Nottingham in England show that a major cause of loss of muscle is that aging prevents muscles from responding to insulin and that exercising helps to slow this loss of muscle size and strength (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, September 2009).
Insulin drives amino acids into muscles to help them recover from exercise and maintain their size. Researchers traced radioactive amino acids and showed that insulin drives the amino acids into muscles much more effectively in 25-year-olds than in 60-year-olds. They also showed that the blood flow in younger people’s legs is much greater and supplies far more nutrients and hormones. However, three exercise sessions per week over 20 weeks markedly increased blood flow in the legs of the older subjects, enough to reverse muscle wasting.
People of all ages can use this information to help themselves become stronger. Athletes in all sports train by stressing and recovering. They take a hard workout, damage their muscles, feel sore the next morning, and then take easy workouts until the muscles heal and the soreness goes away. The athlete who can recover the fastest can do the most intense workouts and gain the most strength.
Eating a high carbohydrate-high protein meal within half an hour after finishing a workout raises insulin levels, increases amino acid absorption into muscle and hastens recovery (Journal of Applied Physiology, May 2009). The carbohydrates cause a high rise in blood sugar that causes the pancreas to release insulin. Insulin drives the protein building blocks (amino acids) in the meal into muscle cells to hasten healing from intense workouts. Muscles are extraordinarily sensitive to insulin during exercise and for up to a half hour after finishing exercise, so the fastest way to recover is to eat protein- and carbohydrate-rich foods during the last part of your workout or within half an hour after you finish.
Here’s how Diana and I (ages 67 and 74) use this information on insulin sensitivity. We ride hard and fast for about 20 miles on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. On our recovery days, we ride slowly for one to three hours. Mid-day we go to a buffet restaurant and eat a large meal with fish, shrimp, vegetables and other sources of protein and carbohydrates. After eating, we ride slowly for one or two more hours. Riding before we eat makes our muscles very sensitive to insulin. This causes insulin to drive amino acids rapidly into our muscles and help them recover faster. Riding after we eat helps us to avoid a high rise in blood sugar that damages cells. You can use either plant or animal sources of protein; both contain all of the essential amino acids necessary for cell growth.
More on principles of training
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