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« Previous EntriesWeight 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Preventing Sugar Spikes After Meals
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 the suggestions in this article.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
