As Waistlines Widen, Brains Shrink

For every excess pound piled on the body, the brain gets a little bit smaller.

That’s the message from new research that found that elderly individuals who were obese or overweight had significantly less brain tissue than individuals of normal weight.

“The brains of obese people looked 16 years older than their healthy counterparts while [those of] overweight people looked 8 years older,” said UCLA neuroscientist Paul Thompson, senior author of a study published online in Human Brain Mapping.

Much of the lost tissue was in the frontal and temporal lobe regions of the brain, the seat of decision-making and memory, among other things.

The findings could have serious implications for aging, overweight or obese individuals, including a heightened risk of Alzheimer’s, the researchers said.

“We’re all trying to protect our bodies and our brains from aging and this is just one factor that’s accelerating that on top of all the other factors such as pollution, smoking, alcohol. We all lose some tissue as we get older and they’re saying this is being accelerated,” said Paul Sanberg, distinguished professor of neurosurgery and director of the University of South Florida Center for Aging and Brain Repair in Tampa.

According to the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, 30 percent of American adults 20 years and older — more than 60 million people — are now obese, while another 36 percent are considered overweight. Either condition puts you at a much higher risk for type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart disease, as well as cognitive problems.

The findings seem to explain why heavier people are more prone to such cognitive conditions. “This is the first study to show physical evidence in the brain that connects overweight and obesity and cognitive decline,” said Thompson, who is professor of neurology at UCLA and a member of the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging.

The researchers studied brain images of 94 people in their 70s who had participated in an earlier study looking at cardiovascular health and cognition. None of the participants had dementia or other cognitive impairments. They were followed for five years, and any volunteers who developed cognitive symptoms were excluded from the study.

Clinically obese people had 8 percent less brain tissue, while the overweight had 4 percent less brain tissue compared to normal-weight individuals.

Dr. Jonathan Friedman, an associate professor of surgery and neuroscience and experimental therapeutics at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine noted that the causal relationship here is not clear. Theoretically, he said, a smaller brain might mean appetite and weight-control centers of the brain are actually propelling the weight-gain process.

Thompson believes it may be a vicious cycle. “Each one is contributing to the other,” he said. A person’s genetics may be contributing to overeating and weight gain, which leads to less activity, which leads to a shortfall in the oxygen and nutrients that the brain needs to thrive and grow.

Overall, though, the findings really weren’t surprising, added Dr. Mitchell Roslin, chief of obesity surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

“Obesity affects every system in your body. The body can’t be splintered. It’s completely linked. We are what we eat and we eat too much,” he said. “The bottom line is that an obese, sedentary person is going to have a breakdown of every organ system, and that includes a greater chance of impotence and infertility and other things that people don’t generally think are directly related to obesity.”

My Noodle Workout

People always ask me how I got my massive guns (arms…for those of you uneducated in gym speak).  Well, here’s the secret workout I’ve been performing for the past 7 weeks.  Give it a try, and you’ll never be called linguine arms again!

Happy Meal Law: No Toys with Food in Santa Clara

County officials in Silicon Valley trying to curb childhood obesity voted Tuesday to ban restaurants from giving away toys and other freebies that often come with high-calorie meals aimed at kids.

The ordinance is largely symbolic as it would only cover unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County, meaning only about a dozen fast-food outlets and several other family-owned restaurants would be affected.

But its chief sponsor says it’s still important because it paves the way for other areas to act, may spur action by fast-food chains to offer healthier choices and can help parents by taking away a child’s incentive for wanting less healthy food.

“This ordinance does not attack toys. Obviously, toys, in and of themselves, do not make children obese,” said county Supervisor Ken Yeager, who pushed for the ban. “But it is unfair to parents and children to use toys to capture the tastes of children when they are young to get them hooked on eating high-sugar, high-fat foods early in life.”

The ban, which faces a final vote next month, would prohibit restaurants from giving away an incentive item, like a toy, with a meal that contains more than 485 calories, more than 600 milligrams of sodium and excessive amounts of fat and sugars.

Efforts to trim high calorie food from children’s plates have been made all over the nation, most recently in a campaign led by first lady Michelle Obama. One in three American children is overweight or obese.

County supervisors said restaurants encourage children to choose specific menu items by linking them with free toys and other incentives. The Federal Trade Commission estimated that about $360 million was spent in 2006 on toys that were included in kids’ meals.

A 2008 study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest showed that 10 out of 12 meals that came with toys exceeded the recommended caloric limits for children, Yeager said.

The California Restaurant Association lobbied against the ordinance saying it was misguided and another example of government overreaching. The organization placed ads in local newspapers against the ordinance and conducted a poll they said showed that an overwhelmingly number of county residents opposed such a measure.

In other McDonald’s news: here and here.

Working Out With Others Is Less Painful

A person’s threshold for pain increases when training in a social setting.

Researchers had members of the Oxford rowing team participate in two typical 45-minute virtual-rowing sessions — one with teammates and one alone. They then measured the athletes’ pain thresholds with a blood pressure cuff tightened around the athletes’ arms. The rowers who had worked out in the group could tolerate twice as much pressure and discomfort.

The theory behind these findings is that social interactions up the body’s production of endorphins — the feel-good chemical that lessens the sensation of pain.

Federal Study Shows Mercury in Fish Widespread

No fish can escape mercury pollution. That’s the take-home message from a federal study of mercury contamination that tested fish from nearly 300 streams across the country.

The toxic substance was found in every fish sampled, a finding that underscores how widespread mercury pollution has become.

But while all fish had traces of contamination, only about a quarter had mercury levels exceeding what the Environmental Protection Agency says is safe for people eating average amounts of fish.

The study by the U.S. Geological Survey is the most comprehensive look to date at mercury in the nation’s streams. From 1998 to 2005, scientists collected and tested more than a thousand fish, including bass, trout and catfish, from 291 streams nationwide.

“This science sends a clear message that our country must continue to confront pollution, restore our nation’s waterways, and protect the public from potential health dangers,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement.

Mercury consumed by eating fish can damage the nervous system and cause learning disabilities in developing fetuses and young children. The main source of mercury to most of the streams tested, according to the researchers, is emissions from coal-fired power plants. The mercury released from smokestacks here and abroad rains down into waterways, where natural processes convert it into methylmercury _ a form that allows the toxin to wind its way up the food chain into fish.

Some of the highest levels in fish were detected in the remote blackwater streams along the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana, where bacteria in surrounding forests and wetlands help in the conversion. The second-highest concentration of mercury was detected in largemouth bass from the North Fork of the Edisto River near Fairview Crossroads, S.C.

“Unfortunately, it’s the case that almost any fish you test will have mercury now,” said Andrew Rypel, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Mississippi who has studied mercury contamination in fish throughout the Southeast. He said other research has shown mercury in fish from isolated areas of Alaska and Canada, and species that live in the deep ocean.

Mercury was also found in high concentrations in western streams that drain areas mined for mercury and gold. The most contaminated sample came from smallmouth bass collected from the Carson River at Dayton, Nev., an area tainted with mercury from gold mining. At 58 other streams, mostly in the West, the acidic conditions created by mining could also be contributing to the mercury levels, the researchers said.

“Some ecosystems are more sensitive than others,” said Barbara Scudder, the lead USGS scientist on the study.

All but two states _ Alaska and Wyoming _ have issued fish-consumption advisories because of mercury contamination. Some of the streams studied already had warnings.

“This is showing that the problem is much more widespread,” said Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst for the Environmental Working Group, which has pushed for stronger advisories on consumption of mercury-laden fish and controls on the sources of mercury pollution. “If you are living in an area that doesn’t have a mercury advisory, you should use caution.”

How to Live to 100

The US has the most centenarians with current estimates as high as 72,000, leading website The Centenarian states. In fact, if the population of centenarians continues to increase at its current rate of expansion, there could be close to one million people of 100 years of age or more by 2050 residing in the US.

 Meanwhile, in the UK, while the overall numbers of centenarians are much smaller, the trend is the same. The Office of National Statistics reports around 9000 centenarians today in The UK and Wales, a 90-fold increase since 1911, and a seven percent increase from just half a decade ago in 2005. Estimates show that at the current rate of expansion, the UK’s centenarian population could reach over 40,000 by 2031. And, just as in other parts of the industrialized world, people aged over 90 are the fastest growing segment of the population in the UK.

 In Japan, the number of centenarians are also extremely high, making Japan only second to the US with a current population of about 30,000 centenarians. At its current rate of expansion, Japan’s population of centenarians may rival that of the United States in sheer numbers in the years ahead. Certainly, by 2050, Japan proportionally will have the most centenarians in the world.

 

  New research in Denmark suggests that most babies born in rich countries this century will eventually make it to their one hundredth birthday. In fact, according to Danish experts, since the 20th century people in developed countries are living around three decades longer than in the past. Now some believe that this figure could go even higher. If improvements in health continues, “a majority of children born since the year 2000 will celebrate their hundredth birthday,” states James Vaupel, of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, in Rostock, Germany.

 The estimate comes after Vaupel and colleagues in Denmark examined studies published globally between 2004 and 2005 on numerous issues related to aging. They found life expectancy is increasing steadily in most countries and in Japan, which has the world’s longest life expectancy, more than half of the country’s 80-year-old women are expected to live to 90.

How Not to Use Swiss Balls

Very impressive…Crossfitters would consider this their workout of the day.

Hammy the Hamster Goes Organic

Hammy the Hamster can tell the difference between conventional and organic foods…can you?

Hiring the Right Personal Trainer…Part 5

The most abused training technique: plyometrics.

Plyometrics is a type of high-intensity power training in which a muscle is loaded and contracted in rapid sequence.

Also known as shock training, plyometrics was developed by Yuri Verkhoshansky with the goal of utilizing elastic energy to jump higher and throw farther. This elastic energy is generated during explosive muscular contractions, such as landing from a jump and then rapidly contracting the muscle by jumping up as high as possible.

Plyometrics, while not dangerous, are an extremely advanced training method, which should not be performed by the casual athlete. While running, your body absorbs a force up to three to four times your body weight. Plyometrics can generate forces up to six times your body weight, placing demands on your joints and tendons they may not be prepared to handle.

So What ?

One of the main concerns with plyometrics involves their long-term use by people who have not been properly instructed in their use. Plyometrics were designed to be used 2 or 4 times a year, whenever an increase in peak power production was required to improve performance with each phase lasting 3-4 weeks. Compare that to the majority of trainers who use plyometrics with their clients year round. Not only does this increase a client’s risk of injury, but it reduces the effectiveness of the technique over time.

What Your Trainer Does Not Know

In addition to knowing how to implement plyometrics, the trainer must make certain to teach the client proper landing mechanics. Improper landing mechanics is one of the most common causes of non-contact ACL injuries in young women. 

The heavier you are, the greater the risk of injury. A heavier athlete will generate greater forces upon landing than a lighter athlete. However, there is a difference if you are 225 lbs at 8% body fat instead of 225 lbs at 30% body fat.

 In order to ensure the client can properly handle the large forces generated, they need to be able to squat a specific percentage of their bodyweight. If you weigh 225 lbs, but struggle to properly squat with 200 lbs, there is no way you are going to safely handle 6 times your body weight upon landing. Your tendons will disintegrate like month old Olive Garden bread sticks. 

 Athletes training with plyometrics during their athletic season are the definition of crazy. Most sports already involve a plyometric component and performing additional work in the weight room is going to decrease your performance on the field.

What to Ask

Ask your potential trainer what criteria they have for determining when and how to implement plyometrics. Remember, plyometrics are usually reserved when an increase in power output is desired, such as before a competitive event. They should not be used just because your trainer ran out of different exercises for you to perform.

As you can see, there are numerous factors to consider when hiring a trainer. My goal has been to empower you with the best information possible to ensure you hire a trainer capable of helping you reach your goals.

The Banda Strength Institute, dedicated to clients like you with the same goal as ours – to be the best.

Chef Boyardee Rat?

Yet another reason not to eat canned food!

An Ohio women who opened a can of Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs for her daughter claims to have found not spaghetti and meatballs:

“I opened it up and my face was very close to it and immediately you could tell there was a dead rodent on top, in fact you couldn’t even see the spaghetti and meatballs at all,” said Jennifer Aker.

Jennifer contacted ConAgra, the manufacturer of the product, who asked for a photo of the tainted goods. Instead, Aker’s nephew shot a video of the can and its contents and put it on YouTube. The video is below.

ConAgra, who is reportedly sending a courier to retrieve the product to conduct tests on it, has asked Aker to freeze the contents of the can in the meantime.

Con Agra has released the following statement in response to the potential time bomb of a dead rodent in its canned food:

“We take all consumer inquires seriously, and when a consumer has a bad experience, we work with them to determine the source of the problem and correct it. We also work with them to make up for their experience as best as we are able.”