Vonnies Health Spot

EXERCISE: WHAT WORKS FOR ONE DOES NOT WORK FOR ALL

Isn’t it frustrating when you know you’re exercising and limiting your food intake and you still can’t drop the caboose as fast as your skinny-minnie friend? You and she may be exercise partners and you just know the both of you are expending the same number of calories. So how is it that she can get into that size-nothing dress and you’re still jiggling away on the elliptical?

Dr. Neil King, Queensland University of Technology behavioral scientist and lead author of a study conducted in collaboration with the University of Leeds in Britain says he has the answer. “When it comes to losing weight, a lot of people assume if you lose less than the predicted weight, then you aren’t exercising enough, and that is why you aren’t getting the desired results. This study is the first evidence-based study that shows despite people doing the same amount of supervised exercise, people lose different amounts of weight.”

The investigation focused on 35 overweight and obese people from the UK. The goal of the study was to identify and characterize the variability in exercise-induced weight loss. The participants undertook a 12-week supervised exercise program that was individually tailored to expend 500 calories per session. During this time their weight loss and behavioral outcomes were monitored. The results of the study show that the role of exercise alone could be undermined by “compensatory responses” such as a person’s increased hunger and food intake as a result of increased energy expenditure.

Dr. King says the investigation shows that some individuals were predisposed to compensatory responses (the study refers to them as “compensators”), rendering them resistant to the theoretical weight-loss benefits of exercise. “For some people, this might be in response to an automatic biological drive, whereas for others it might be a deliberate reward-based increase.”

“The individual variability here demonstrates the need to treat people as individuals,” Dr. King says. “It also highlights the importance of determining the mechanisms that may explain this variability, such as how to treat the more resistant compensatory person to improve their weight management outcomes.”

Dr. King said the novelty, and therefore the strength of this study, was that the exercise was supervised. “… unlike unsupervised exercise interventions, any variability in weight loss cannot be explained by differences in exercise compliance.” The study was recently published in the International Journal of Obesity.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION
So you may ask, how does this apply to me? Personally, I find the above information to be “old news.” My appetite has always increased when I exercise, which, I guess, makes me one of those hardcore compensators. And when I cut back on my food intake I become too weak and lethargic to push myself into an exercise mode. So there you have it … a catch-22 situation. Increased exercise = increased eating. Decreased eating = decreased exercise. So what’s a person to do?

A couple of tricks I have developed may help you.

1.    Don’t go longer than three hours without food. Snack between meals on healthy foods, but keep the calorie content low. Try fruit, low-fat string cheese, a handful of nuts or a low-cal protein drink. The goal here is to keep your blood sugar stable.
2.    Drink a lot of water. It helps to add some flavor to it. You might try Sassy Water; 2 liters of water (about 8 1/2 cups), 1 teaspoon of freshly grated ginger,1 medium cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced, 1 medium lemon, thinly sliced, 12 small spearmint leaves. Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher and let flavors blend overnight. Drink the entire pitcher by the end of each day www.flatbellydiet.com.
3.    Eat lots of high fiber foods with each meal. They can be cooked, that’s better for people who suffer from sensitive digestive systems. Fill at least two-thirds of your plate with things like green beans, carrots, spinach, mustard greens, kale.
4.    Try to keep each meal or snack below the 400-calorie range.
5.    Eat a small amount of monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fat with each meal and snack.
6.    Do continue to work out. Even if your girth exceeds what you would like it to be, exercise is important for general good health. It increases many feel-good hormones, sharpens the thinking process, helps digestion, helps to strengthen your cardiovascular system, helps to keep your skeletal muscles strong for functional strength, and helps your proprioception (balance), so even if you never again enjoy the figure or the physique you had in college, you’re maintaining health.

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Disclaimer: The purpose of this weblog is not to dispense medical advice nor in any way is meant to be construed as diagnostic or prescriptive. Always check with your physician before beginning any new program or trying any of the items discussed in the posts that appear on this site.

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Disclaimer: The purpose of this weblog is not to dispense medical advice nor in any way is meant to be construed as diagnostic or prescriptive. Always check with your physician before beginning any new program or trying any of the items discussed in the posts that appear on this site.

REVERSE BRAIN ATROPHY WITH EXERCISE?

Science told us in the past that we’re born with all the brain cells we will ever have (the moral of the story being “take care of what you’ve got, because you ain’t gonna get no more”). Well, surprise, surprise! New research shows that the old tale is not true.

In the late 1990s, several lines of research began turning investigators’ concepts of mood disorders upside down.

BRAIN CELL REGENERATION
Research showing that neurogenesis—the birth of new brain cells—can continue throughout life. They have found that the process of neurogenesis is an ongoing one, with new brain cells being born even as old brain cells die off. Researchers have also found that depression appears to inhibit this birth of new brain cells. In animal studies, stress puts a halt to the process of neurogenesis. Under stress, existing cells shrink and the total number of cells decreases. Exercise and “environmental enrichment,” on the other hand, have a beneficial effect. In humans, there are hints that exercise may help reverse brain atrophy.

THE ROLE OF DEPRESSION
People who’ve had depression are likelier to have a smaller hippocampus (a part of the brain that plays a role in emotion and is associated with memory and learning). The more severe and long-lasting the depression, the greater the loss of brain volume. This process of brain atrophy also affects the frontal lobes, which are involved in managing emotional reactions. The good news is that most of the change seems to be related to cell shrinkage, rather than outright cell death, and thus can potentially be reversed.

HOW DO ANTIDEPRESSANTS HELP?
What about the familiar neurotransmitters such as serotonin and norepinephrine? They are still understood to play a significant role in mood disorders—but with a new twist. Most people are familiar with the research that underlies the use of fluoxetine (Prozac) and similar antidepressants. These drugs block the reuptake of certain neurotransmitters at receptor sites in the brain, thus increasing the concentrations of serotonin and other neurotransmitters in the synapses (gaps) between cells in the brain. This increase is believed to be responsible for the elevation of mood.

PROMISING DISCOVERIES
The twist? More recently, instead of focusing on tinkering with the level of neurotransmitters between cells, researchers have looked at what happens when the neurotransmitter binds to the cell membrane. The reactions that then go on inside the cell are now thought to be more important to the cell’s functioning than the binding of the neurotransmitter to the outside. For instance, researchers have found that antidepressants increase levels of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which helps nourish neurons, helping them become more active and make more connections to other cells. Researchers also have found that antidepressants are involved in neurogenesis—at least in rats, increasing the production of new neurons in the rat hippocampus.

THE CAVEAT
The extent of the response varies among individuals and may be moderated by how severe a person’s depression has been, and how often it has recurred. And psychotherapy still has a role to play because how we interpret a stressful event can have a significant impact on our emotional response and ability to recover.

The above was excerpted from The Anatomy of Mood -- Biology and the Brain, published by Johns Hopkins Medical Research Hospital. For more information, go to www.johnshopkinshealthalerts.com.

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In a recent comment, Tim Wang asked about whether I plan to publish a collection of the posts I have authored in the past and the answer is yes! Watch for the first volume of Vonnies Health Spot to appear by the end of January 2008! Soon there will also be CDs available and in the future we hope to produce DVDs of health lectures and exercises.

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Disclaimer: The purpose of this weblog is not to dispense medical advice nor in any way is meant to be construed as diagnostic or prescriptive. Always check with your physician before beginning any new program or trying any of the items discussed in the posts that appear on this site.

JANUARY IS GYM MONTH, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE YEAR?

A well-known phenomenon in the fitness industry (and probably in the general population as well) is that in January there is a huge increase in gym membership sign-ups. People have come through the holidays just fine, but may have put on a little more girth around the middle than they’re happy about. With January being the month of fresh beginnings, they decide that this is the time to get into shape and take care of the jelly belly sitting on their belt line.

They start off fired with a host of good intentions, but by the end of February, the zeal has waned and the vision of that fancied svelte figure no longer remains a strong enough motivation to hie themselves off to the gym on a regular basis. That extra 3 to 5 pounds gained throughout last year begins to look normal, so while the fat cells settle in for a long stay, folks let out their clothing, stop buttoning the top button on their jeans, or buy new outfits in a larger size. And so it goes.

The catch is to realize that lean fitness is a lifelong endeavor. It doesn’t happen through harelike fits and spurts of obsessive dieting and exercise, only to be followed by the siren song of ennui, cycled over and over again throughout a lifetime. Instead, it requires the steadfast plodding of the tortoise, moving persistently toward the goal, maintaining a consistency of endeavor.

ONE GUIDELINE ABOVE ALL ELSE
Recently, the experts have settled on one measure that is the most important for maintaining your health. More important than the figures on your scale, more important than body-mass index, more important than your clothing size … it is your waist to hip ratio.

You can find out if you have dangerous fat deposits in your body by calculating this ratio. Excess fat usually concentrates in two different regions—your upper body (at the waistline or above) and your lower body (at hips and thighs). To determine your risk level, measure your waist at the smallest point between your rib cage and navel. Take your hip measurement at the widest point, around the buttocks. Then divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement. If you’re female and have a ratio of over .80 or a man with a ration of more than .95, you’re likely to have increased health risks, such as cardiovascular, diabetes, cancer, or arthritic joint problems for starters.

WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?
You don’t have to go on a stringent diet, or work yourself into an exhausted heap on the floor. What you do have to realize is that this is a long-haul endeavor. But it’s as easy as walking for 30 minutes a day at a brisk pace, and cutting down on your food portions. Limit your fat and alcohol intake. It also is a good idea to build some muscle tissue, which is metabolically more active than fat. You can do that in the comfort of your own home. For the upper body, push-ups are always a good old standard as are squats for the lower body. Anything else you do for activity is gravy (pardon the pun).

So enjoy your piece of chocolate once in awhile, indulge in that glass of red wine. Just don’t go hog wild.

Then get on with the rest of your life.
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Disclaimer: The purpose of this weblog is not to dispense medical advice nor in any way is meant to be construed as diagnostic or prescriptive. Always check with your physician before beginning any new program or trying any of the items discussed in the posts that appear on this site.

CALCIUM SUPPLEMENTATION DOES HELP PREVENT FRACTURES

Well, it seems the jury is in … again. Taking supplementary calcium does, indeed, increase bone mineral density (BMD) and give people a little added protection against fractures. In recent years experts have been split on the issue of whether supplementary calcium gives any added protection, but a study completed at the University of Western Sydney, in Sydney, Australia, headed up by Benjamin Tang, M.D., and reported in The Lancet, concluded that calcium supplements, whether taken with vitamin D or not, reduce the risk of fractures by 12 percent. In addition, they found that protection doubles when the supplements are taken correctly (see below).

The investigators arrived at these findings by culling through the results of 17 studies, composed of 52,625 people who were over 50 years of age. Most of the study participants took calcium or calcium plus vitamin D, which helps the body absorb calcium, for an average of 3½ years.

The best way to consume calcium: The National Osteoporosis Foundation, www.nof.org, recommends that you ingest a total of at least 1,200 mg of calcium and 800 to 1,000 IU of vitamin D, in three doses throughout the day and take with meals for best absorption.

Personally, I drink a glass of milk several times a day and make sure I get about 20 minutes of sunlight on my skin daily for the vitamin D. Then for good measure, I take a supplement of about 600 mg of calcium and a multi with 400 IU of vitamin D. If I can’t make it outdoors for a couple of days, I increase the vitamin D intake through supplementation. I’ve found that calcium supplements cause constipation, but I would rather take a laxative once in awhile than take a chance on having a hip fracture later on in life.

Many people believe that hip fractures in the elderly are caused by falls. In reality just the opposite is true—the fracture occurs first, then the individual falls. This is because the bones have become too fragile to support the weight of the body.

Weight-bearing exercise in addition to supplementation helps to keep bones strong too. Walk 30 minutes a day on most days and lift weights at least twice a week. Researchers make a point that compliance is an important factor. As with any health issue, the primary step is in your hands. You have to pay attention to your own care and be consistent if you expect to prevent future problems.

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Disclaimer: The purpose of this weblog is not to dispense medical advice nor in any way is meant to be construed as diagnostic or prescriptive. Always check with your physician before beginning any new program or trying any of the items discussed in the posts that appear on this site.