That's right, you can even become part of the Anti-Aging Blog! Simply tell your favorite anti aging story or tip here! A link to your submission will be included below and will become a permanent part of the site for others to read!
Combat-Aging.com Newsletter Volume 1, Number 18
Do you have down days? Cosmetic Tips; Calorie and Longevity; Psycho-Cybernetics and Weight-loss
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Combat-Aging.com Newsletter Volume 2, Number 1
Anti-aging newsletter: Combat aging with nutrition and exercise. "It's never too late!"
Continue reading "Combat-Aging.com Newsletter Volume 2, Number 1"
Combat Aging Newsletter, Number 15, March 9
Antiaging newsletter: Combat Aging with better nutrition and exercise
Continue reading "Combat Aging Newsletter, Number 15, March 9"
Dr. Mirkin Answers a Question about Maximum Heart Rate
With age, maximum heart rate slows down, but can be increased by intense training.
Continue reading "Dr. Mirkin Answers a Question about Maximum Heart Rate"
Combat Aging... Anti-aging strategies for achieving lifelong fitness and health
Veteran consultant fed up with anti-aging hype, exposes the myths about aging. Discover how thousands of people combat aging, getting fitter, leaner, and stronger than they ever thought possible.
Continue reading "Combat Aging... Anti-aging strategies for achieving lifelong fitness and health"
Anti-aging strategies for achieving lifelong fitness ...
Veteran consultant fed up with anti-aging hype, exposes the myths about aging. Discover how thousands of people combat aging, getting fitter, leaner, and stronger than they ever thought possible.
Continue reading "Anti-aging strategies for achieving lifelong fitness ... "
Hypertrophy Specific Training: Part 2 Strategic Deconditioning
By preventing overtraining, strategic deconditioning becomes the key to Hypertrophy Specific Training
Continue reading "Hypertrophy Specific Training: Part 2 Strategic Deconditioning"
Fruit and Nut Salad
Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables every day? This recipe for a fruit and nut salad may help you reach your goal.
Continue reading "Fruit and Nut Salad"
Aging and Weight Loss
I know how it feels to be fat and rejected. Not long ago, I used to weigh 320 pounds. I am now 180 pounds and still losing. I was a normal healthy child,
Continue reading "Aging and Weight Loss "
Contribute To Combat Aging
Would you like to share your knowledge about combatting aging? Great, find out how you can submit your story or tip here.
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Milo of Kroton
Milo of Kroton was "the most illustrious of athletes...". Born over 2,000 years ago in an ancient Greek colony of southern Italy, Milo won the Olympic wrestling championship six times.
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Lose Fat, Build Muscle
How to lose fat and build muscle at any age, a practical guide
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Your comments, questions, ideas, interesting info
How can you help? Your comments, questions, ideas, info could help others.
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Fitness and Nutrition Links
Links to Interesting Sites
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Combat-Aging.com Newsletter Volume 1, Number 22
Anti-aging newsletter: Combat aging with nutrition and exercise. It's never too late!
Continue reading "Combat-Aging.com Newsletter Volume 1, Number 22"
Master Athletes
Master athletes are older men and women who compete in sports at a very high level.
Continue reading "Master Athletes"
Combat-Aging.com Newsletter Volume 1, Number 21
Anti-aging newsletter: Combat aging with nutrition and exercise. It's never too late!
Continue reading "Combat-Aging.com Newsletter Volume 1, Number 21
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Keeping Up With Madonna - and the Joneses
Article from WebMD
The good news -- for Madonna, at least--is that her lifestyle is likely to slow the aging process. "At this age, you get a widening of the field, as it were," James Pawelczyk, an associate professor of physiology at Penn State University, tells WebMD. "People who have been taking care of themselves are relatively insulated from those [aging] changes compared with those who haven't."
Her exercise and diet both play a role. By mixing cardiovascular activity, strength training, and flexibility exercises, Madonna has minimized her risk of heart disease, preserved her bone density, and likely reduced her risk of breast cancer, [says Barbara Bushman, professor, department of health, Missouri State University].
And what about that diet? Extremely restrictive macrobiotic regimens were once blamed for diseases like scurvy, anemia, and kidney failure. But more popular versions of the diet now allow fish, beans, nuts, and other protein sources. Today's macrobiotic diet somewhat mirrors federal dietary guidelines, says Kristine Clark, director of sports nutrition at Penn State. It's the sort of diet that could prevent and even treat age-related disease. (Article by Richard Sine)
Madonna Versus the Joneses
"At this age, you get a widening of the field...." What Dr. Pawelczyk means is that by the late forties, lifetime differences in lifestyle cause big variations in apparent aging.
One person's experience is not scientific evidence, but Madonna is not alone in demonstrating the anti-aging benefits of lifestyle. Madonna has domestic staff to free her for exercise, but many others (the Joneses) manage to prepare their own meals and make time for fitness too.
A Modest Proposal
Keep a diary for a week of the hours spent watching TV. If you cut by half the time spent watching TV, how many hours would
you be able to devote to improving
your health?
Continue reading "Keeping Up With Madonna - and the Joneses"
A Shock to the System
Jakarta, Indonesia, April 29, 2006
People who don't work for a living have no idea what it's like and a quirk of the mind makes us forget quickly once we have left the workforce. When I returned to work after a three-year break, I thought that I could just take up where I left off--just set the alarm clock for an ungodly hour and get on with it. Not so. The first week when the clock said five PM, the hour that usually finds me on my way to the gym, my energy banks were just about TV-couch-potato level. There I was flopped upon the sofa like a damp rag all wrung out.
Was I mistaken? Is it true that it's impossible to find the time and energy to exercise?
Continue reading "A Shock to the System"
Working Out Overseas
I felt awkward. True, the names were the same, machines marked 'Cybex' and other familiar brands. But the gym in the hotel has different models than the ones I'm used to. Besides, almost everything is marked in pounds instead of kilograms--must be an American franchise. Zounds! My first task was to change my spreadsheet and print a new workout schedule in pounds.
Missing Workouts
I missed two workouts, Monday and Wednesday. So on Friday, I repeated the workout from the previous Friday and shifted the whole schedule by one week.
Adjusting Our Programs
We can't just skip missed sessions for two reasons. First, any program that is worth doing has
progressive effort. The weights lifted get heavier as we progress, but we don't suddenly jump the level of weight from 10 pounds to 20 pounds. We add small increments, maybe 5 pounds per session.
The second reason applies more to older athletes: deconditioning is swift. Six days off means that we are deconditioned compared with the previous week. If we miss sessions, we should drop back to lower weights and work back up.
I was naughty and I paid for it
This Friday, instead of reducing the weights a little, I used the same weights as last Friday. Today, Sunday, I was still feeling the ache in my muscles, but I went back to the gym anyway.
Yes, I lost a week and will have to be more vigilant. It's so easy to get back from work and just put your feet up.
But I've been down that road before. It's downhill all the way and well marked--with tombstones all the way to the pit.
Mainly, I don't want the hassle of climbing back out of the pit.
Continue reading "Working Out Overseas
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Message for Breaditarians
Jakarta, Indonesia, April 15, 2006
When I was 10 years old, I asked my mom to buy 'brown bread', not knowing that brown bread was just white bread dyed brown. So they faked it.
Buying Readymade Bread
We have been eating home-baked whole-grain bread for 15 years, dark dense chewy bread with crunchy crusts and seeds inside and out.
We freeze the bread and keep it in the freezer, popping slices into the toaster as needed. I take a teaspoon of olive oil for each slice and run the spoon over the bread, round side down, letting the oil spill over the edges of the spoon, spreading the oil over the surface as I go.
With real wholegrain bread, the result is a low-glycemic-index snack. We Got Conned
On our first day shopping in Jakarta, we searched for real bread and found one loaf of rye bread and one loaf of multi-grain bread. What we got was not as heavy as bread I make at home, but it looked OK. As it turned out, the multi-grain loaf had maybe one part wholegrain for four parts white flour. We were taken in by the whole grains sprinkled on the outside of the loaf. The rye loaf was about 60 per cent rye and 40 per cent refined wheat flour.
Moee Choo, my wife, says that one slice of our homemade bread and houmous and some fruit lasts her about three and a half hours, but store-bought bread with houmus lasts only two and a half hours. What's worse, the glycemic boost from store-bought bread drives a craving for carbohydrate that lasts all day.
Metabolic Syndrome or Syndrome X
If you feel very hungry soon after eating, you may be developing carbohydrate sensitivity. Your reaction to bread may tell you that you have to become strict about limiting refined carbohydrates.
As O'Keefe and Loren say:
Many current vegetarians would be more appropriately labeled 'breaditarians.' Modern vegetarian diets often rely heavily on processed carbohydrates such as white rice, potatoes, and white flour and sugars. The South Asian paradox refers to the relatively high prevalence of coronary heart disease despite low levels of LDL [bad] cholesterol and low prevalence of obesity in urban vegetarians from India who consume a diet high in refined carbohydrates. In westernized societies, sugar intake has increased substantially during the past two centuries.... A recent study showed that a high-glycemic-load diet is the most important dietary predictor of HDL level (as an inverse relationship). A high-glycemic-load diet predisposes a person to the metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular [heart-artery] disease and is one of the most atherogenic [artery-narrowing] features of our modern eating pattern.
James H. O'Keefe Jr, MD; Loren Cordain, PHD.Cardiovascular Disease Resulting From a Diet and Lifestyle at Odds With Our Paleolithic Genome: How to Become a 21st-Century Hunter-Gatherer.Mayo Clinical Proceedings. January 2004, Vol. 79, No. 1.URL: http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com (Full article available online.)
Continue reading "Message for Breaditarians
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Greetings from Sunny Downtown Jakarta, Indonesia
Jakarta, Indonesia. Monday, April 10, 2006
We arrived in Jakarta this morning from Singapore, raring to go on a new consulting assignment, only to discover that today's a public holiday. So my wife and I went shopping instead, mainly for food.
I will continue to eat the same wholefood diet as at home. Some things we brought with us, like a two pounds of raw almonds, a pound each of quinoa and millet and two bags of psyllium husk.
Other things we knew we could buy here, like prunes, raw peanuts, olive oil, made-in-Italy tomato base, whole-grain rice, whole-grain rye bread and all sorts of fresh fruit and vegetables. However, supermarket prices in Jakarta are twice as high as in Malaysia, which is almost next door--Penang is about 1000 miles (1,600 km) from Jakarta, about the distance from New York to St. Louis, Missouri.
The raw peanuts are for making a "bean" sauce. For a working person who prepares his own meals, peanuts have the advantage that they take less time to cook. Since peanuts are higher in good fats than other beans, they are a top notch food when prepared without added oil, sugar or salt. The final sauce does need a little olive oil for sauteing the onions and garlic and, although the made-in-Italy tomato base does contain a little salt and sugar, I don't add any.
So now we are all stocked up. I just prepared a 16-ounce (480 ml) whey protein shake with ground almonds and prunes added, containing about 85 grams of protein. Half will be for breakfast with a slice of whole-rye toast and olive oil plus a pear. The rest will be for lunch in the office, along with an apple and orange.
When we got back to our serviced apartment, we decided not to cook. Instead, we celebrated our arrival by going out to dinner. I had a local dish called gado-gado, made with boiled vegetables tossed with a spicy peanut sauce.
In mid-2003, when I left Jakarta, I weighed 35 pounds (16 kg) more than now. Maybe I'll gain weight during this visit. I have no objection, so long as most of any weight gained is muscle and not fat.
Posted April 14th when we got our broadband connection.
Continue reading "Greetings from Sunny Downtown Jakarta, Indonesia
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Decline With Age Is the Default Option
Jakarta, Indonesia. Monday, April 11, 2006
Twenty years ago, whenever I reported for duty on an assignment, the first week I could barely hobble to the office. At age 55, I wrecked my back every time I traveled, just by heaving suitcases on and off trolleys. Finally, my wife banned me from lifting suitcases. At age 32, her workouts in the gym had made her stronger than me. So my wife lifted lifted the suitcases for the next 18 years, until our last assignment in 2003, also in Jakarta.
This trip we traveled with 150 pounds (68 kg) of luggage, including two laptop computers. But as she approaches age 52, my wife can no longer heave the bags like she used to. So I've got my old job back, baggage handler.
If you ever needed proof that an older person can regain muscle and strength, my experience might convince you. On Sunday and Monday this week, I humped 150 pounds of luggage in and out of 4 taxis, on and off 6 trolleys, in and out of one X-ray machine and one security strapping bench. I counted 12 times shifting most of those bags, a couple of them weighing 40 to 50 pounds. A couple of times, I carried the two biggest bags, one in each hand.
So what happened to my back? Nada. Rien. Zilch. Kosong. Nothing at all.
After a year of shifting weights in the gym, humping heavy bags just does not do it for me anymore--I mean wreck my spine like before.
Posted April 14th when we got our broadband connection.
Continue reading "Decline With Age Is the Default Option
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Combat-Aging.com Newsletter Volume 1, Number 19
Anti-aging newsletter: Combat aging with nutrition and exercise. It's never too late!
Continue reading "Combat-Aging.com Newsletter Volume 1, Number 19"
The Problem with Men
Abigail Trafford writes,
'The plight of men doesn't get better with age. In retirement, men seem to have more difficulty in finding new purpose and joy in life once their identity is cut off from the workplace. They lose whatever status a job title conferred. They find themselves marginalized in a society that discriminates against older people. The risk of depression is significant -- and the highest rates of suicide are found in white men over 65.'
Source: Washington Post, Tuesday, April 4, 2006.
Men, I've got news for you!
A new career is waiting for you as a Minuteman in the
Anti-Aging Army, part-time or full-time--it's up to you. The hours are flexible, with training at home and in the local gym.
While in boot camp, live on short rations. Like John Rambo, you fix your own grub. Living off the land is how we do it--food straight from fields and streams and oceans--none of that factory stuff.
Your weapons are aerobics, to get lean and weights, to get mean. You discover how to use three kinds of ammo: proteins, carbs, and fats and you gotta get 'em right.
Be proud to wear the uniform: trim slacks and a close-fitting T-shirt on a slim body, muscles toned again, skin clear and smooth.
We don't march, but we do have a spring in our step--no hobbling along, eyes to the ground, grumbling and mumbling.
What's at stake are
independence and
freedom from fear of decline and decrepitude.
Continue reading "The Problem with Men
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Did you get your soluble fiber today?
Elke Naumann and colleagues have reported that a soluble fiber obtained from oats reduces LDL cholesterol, the 'Lousy' stuff, by almost eight per cent.
In the experiment, the participants took fruit juice with added soluble fiber derived from oats, called 'beta-glucan'.
There are cheaper and more readily available forms of soluble fiber than beta-glucan. Another concentrated form of soluble fiber is psyllium husk, available from health-food shops. (Drugstores sell a brand-name version called Metamucil.) The main advantage of psyllium husk and plain water may be that you get zero calories, but apples and pears, garbanzo beans and prunes all contain soluble fiber.
How does it work?
Possibly, soluble fiber works by binding
bile acids, resulting in less recycling of bile and more excretion from the large bowel. (A side benefit of using soluble fiber is
reduction in constipation and easier bowel movements.)
An eight percent reduction in LDL cholesterol may not seem much, but when you combine the effect of soluble fiber with three or four other food effects, the total reduction in bad cholesterol can add up. This additive effect is what makes the
Portfolio Eating Plan work, as described in my free e-book.
Source: Elke Naumann, Angelina van Rees, Gunilla Onning, Rickard Oste, Markus Wydra and Ronald Mensink, Beta-Glucan incorporated into a fruit drink effectively lowers serum LDL-cholesterol concentrations,
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 83, No. 3, 601-605, March 2006http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/83/3/601.
Continue reading "Did you get your soluble fiber today?
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Not Obese? Normal and Merely Overweight People May be at Risk Too!
Like people who live in the wild today, our remote ancestors had less body fat than what we now consider 'normal'.
Our ancestors adapted to a world where food was scarce. Perhaps this explains why 'normal' weight men may be at risk of developing metabolic syndrome.
Comment
Possibily, 'normal' weight means too much fat, at least for men. As men age and lose muscle, they replace the muscle with fat. Thus, a normal-weight middle-aged man might carry 25 to 30 per cent body fat, compared to the 15 per cent body fat he carried at age 20.
Dieting just won't achieve what is needed in men or women. To regain muscle, a middle-aged person needs progressive resistance-training. To lose fat, the same person need aerobics to burn off the fat.
From my perspective, middle age is between 50 and 75--I've still got 6 months remaining--unless I move the goal posts.
Bret Goodpaster and colleagues report:
'Subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue [skin fat] was associated with the metabolic syndrome only in normal-weight men. Intermuscular adipose tissue [muscle fat] was associated with the metabolic syndrome in normal-weight and overweight men.'
'In contrast, subcutaneous thigh adipose tissue [thigh fat] was inversely associated with the metabolic syndrome in obese men and women'. (bolding added).
Source: Bret H. Goodpaster and colleagues (including Anne Newman, M.D.) Obesity, Regional Body Fat Distribution, and the Metabolic Syndrome in Older Men and Women, Arch Intern Med. April 11, 2005.
Metabolic syndrome is a condition associated with high blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure that increase risk for diabetes and heart disease. (Dr. Abe Mirkin.)
Continue reading "Not Obese? Normal and Merely Overweight People May be at Risk Too!
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It's safer to look like a pear than an apple
Article by Dr. Abe Mirkin
If you are woman who is thinking about getting liposuction to rid yourself of the fat in your thighs, think again. Dr. Anne B. Newman, of the University of Pittsburgh found that thigh fat may be good fat (Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, August 12, 2005). Older women with lots of fat in their thighs are at much lower risk for 'metabolic syndrome,' a condition associated with high blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure that increase risk for diabetes and heart disease. The bad fat appears to be stored in the abdomen and wraps around organs. In post-menopausal women, heavy thighs and buttocks are associated with lower triglycerides, blood sugar and blood pressure. However, women who also stored lots of fat in their bellies lost much of their advantage.
We aren't sure how thigh fat prevents disease. It may be a receptacle that draws triglycerides and other fats from the bloodstream or it may draw fat from the abdomen and around organs where it could be lethal. Sadly, there is no way to store fat only in the thighs. When you gain weight, you add fat everywhere. But it's safer to look like a pear than an apple.
Continue reading "It's safer to look like a pear than an apple
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Liquid Calories? You better believe it!
"Save 17,528 calories per month--just by doing this one thing!"
If added to your diet in excess of what you actually need to operate, 17,528 calories would convert into 5 pounds (2.3 kg) of fat!
Elaine Magee makes it clear that's an imaginary headline, but when she reveals how she did the calculation, you begin to realize it's not that far-fetched.
One Thing I would like to add to what she says... Eating fruit is a whole lot healthier than drinking juice. First, you get all the pulp and that helps slow down the impact of the fruit sugar as well as add fiber to your diet. And second, you know for certain you're not going to get any extra sugar, flavorings, colors and preservative the manufacturer thinks you need to rate his product higher.
But Elaine's blog is about a whole lot more than just the trade-off between fruit and fruit juice. A BEST READ if ever I saw one!
Continue reading "Liquid Calories? You better believe it!
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The Two Faces of Grapefruit: Health Hazard or Health Hero
Researchers studied the impact of grapefruit on cholesterol levels. Shela Gorinstein and colleagues found that red grapefruit lowers cholesterol and especially trigycerides.
Triglycedride levels before and after treatment with red grapefruit were 2.32 versus 1.69 mmol/L. (In the US: 205 versus 150 mg/dL.)
Eating red grapefruit every day reduced triglycerides by 27 per cent. This result is spectacular, but the lesson to draw from this experiment is not that we should eat red grapefruit every day. The experiment confirms the words of Hippocrates:
"Let food be thy medicine, and let thy medicine be food."
So what's the problem?
Grapefruit is great for anybody who is not on medication or taking herbal remedies. However, grapefruit can be hazardous for anyone taking conventional medicine or herbal remedies,
especially calcium blockers used for high blood pressure and Viagra. Grapefruit magnifies the effects of some drugs and herbs.
If you intend to eat grapefruit and are taking medication, do show your healthcare provider the
complete list of drugs, herbals and supplements you are taking just to be on the safe side or ask a pharmacist. Check out this Web site: http://www.powernetdesign.com/grapefruit/
In the article cited, the researcher write:
"...fresh red grapefruit contains higher quantities of bioactive compounds and has significantly higher antioxidant potential than blond grapefruit. Diet supplemented with fresh red grapefruit positively influences serum lipid levels of all fractions, especially serum triglycerides and also serum antioxidant activity. The addition of fresh red grapefruit to generally accepted diets could be beneficial for hyperlipidemic, especially hypertriglyceridemic, patients suffering from coronary atherosclerosis."
Red Grapefruit Positively Influences Serum Triglyceride Level in Patients Suffering from Coronary Atherosclerosis: Studies in Vitro and in Humans,Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 54 (5), 1887-1892, 2006.Continue reading "The Two Faces of Grapefruit: Health Hazard or Health Hero
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Five Common Mistakes When Trying to Lose Fat and Gain Muscle
Pauline Nordin pinpoints common mistakes and reveals how to avoid them.
1. Getting Too Much Cardio (Aerobic Exercise)
When you stress the body with exercise, the hormone
cortisol is released. To cope with cortisol, cycle the cardio by decreasing the volume for a couple of weeks.
2. Cutting Out Carbs
Cutting carbs too much and too long can trigger the starvation response. When this happens, your body slows down the metabolic rate, burning less fat. Better to cycle the carbs: increase on some days and cut back on other days.
3. Using Weights that are Too Light
Dieting and cardio shed fat, but may cause loss of muscle. Keeping weights heavy can protect muscle.
4. Not Getting Fibrous Foods
Vegetables require a lot of energy to digest compared to the amount of energy they contain, unlike high energy-density foods, such as milk, protein powder, bars, yogurt and fruit.
5. Eating Fake Protein
Some protein bars look like candy bars and some are just that! Better to eat real meals with real protein.
Please refer to Pauline's article for advice in her own words
. Pauline has opened a new Web site dedicated more to fitness than hardcore bodybuilding. URL:
www.paulinefitness.com.
Comments
Cutting Back on Cardio does
not mean
no cardio. It may mean dropping to three hours per week if you normally do six hours per week.
Cycling Carbs Try increasing carbs two days per week.
This doesn't mean going wild with junk food. It may mean having extra slices of whole-grain toast with a dip made from a bean paste, such as hummus and having spaghetti with one of the Italian-style sauces (hold the cheese).
Using Heavy weights Not all trainers use heavy weights and low repetitions all the time.
Hypertrophy-Specific Training combines light, medium, and heavy weights over a nine-week cycle. There is more to bodybuilding than size and strength. Training with lighter weights conditions the joints helping to avoid injury from heavy weights.
For more information about how to calculate weights and repetitions check out this URL: www.combat-aging.com/hst-1.html.
VegetablesEat your vegetables, but don't cut back on fruit. Scientists are discovering more and more health benefits from fruit. To reduce the impact of the sugar in fruit, avoid fruit juices. Instead, eat the whole fruit. Add fruit to salads containing lettuce, cucumber, seeds and olive oil. Add fruit to low-fat yoghurt and breakfast cereals.
ProteinDo avoid protein bars. Avoid excessive animal protein too, especially red meat and poultry.
Check out this free e-book for a
homemade protein shake.URL: www.combat-aging.com/anti-aging-subscribe.html. (Name and e-mail address not required.)
Please note that the word
"hardcore" on Pauline's site means
"really serious", not something naughty.
Continue reading "Five Common Mistakes When Trying to Lose Fat and Gain Muscle
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FREE Online Health Food Book
Dr. Abe and Diana Mirkin have put the entire contents of one of their most popular books,The Good Food Book, on their website.
The Good Food Book has 100 recipes, food lists, help for special situations such as losing weight or controlling blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes, and lots more. (The link takes you directly to the online book.)
Continue reading "FREE Online Health Food Book
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Something fishy about fish oil?
The benefits of fish and linseed oils as elixir of life: Another health myth?
Dr. Lee Hooper of the School of Medicine, University of East Anglia (UK) and colleagues reviewed the scientific literature for evidence that omega-3 fatty acids affect total mortality, cardiovascular events, and cancer.
They found no clear evidence that omega 3 fats have an effect on total mortality, combined cardiovascular events, or cancer.
One critic, a PhD candidate, pointed out,
"...the authors focused on omega-3 [fatty acid] intake, they excluded studies examining blood omega-3 [fatty acid] levels."
"...omega-3 [fatty acid] levels of adipose [fat] tissue samples...represents long-term exposure to omega-3 [fatty acid] intake and allows relatively unbiased assessment of the exposure."
"...Hooper's systematic review excluded many useful retrospective studies by selecting only prospective studies looking at dietary intake."
"By excluding [blood and fat tissue studies], the estimated effect measure is likely to be biased."
Fumiaki Imamura, PhD Candidate, Maryland, USA.
(Competing interests: None declared)
Note: I added the terms in square brackets [] and bolding for clarity and emphasis.
Source: Hooper, L. and others. Risks and benefits of omega 3 fats for mortality, cardiovascular disease, and cancer: systematic review, British Medical Journal, 24 March 2006.
My Comment
Floyd Chilton, PhD explained how fatty acids (fats and oils) produce both inflammatory and anti-inflammatory effects within the body. In his book
Inflammation Nation, he shows that it is the
excess of AA (arachidonic acid) that is the culprit in inflammatory diseases.
Read the shocking truth about farmed salmon. Can it be that lean beef is safer than chicken? If your public library does not have the book, they can borrow it from another library for you to read.
Supplementing with fish oil (omega-3) and primrose/borage oil (GLA) is like throwing water on a fire. With very high levels of dietary AA, supplementation will have little effect because the fire is too big. But with low levels of dietary AA, supplementation has a better chance of putting out the flames.
My free e-book explains Dr. Chilton's approach in more detail. The e-book is available at www.combat-aging.com/anti-aging-subscribe.html.
(You don't have to subscribe or even give your name and e-mail address. But do check back for the next update.)
How much muscle will you lose this year?
Yes, if you're over 30, you are losing muscle.
Unless you do strength training, you lose about five per cent of your muscle every ten years.
By 60, you will lose 15 per cent of the muscle you had at 30.
After 60, you lose 10 per cent of muscle per decade. By 80, 35 per cent of muscle has gone.
Age 80? Why worry?
My grandmother was alert and active at 87. She did all her own housework and cooking.
She fell down the cellar stairs, her hands and arms not strong enough to support her weight. She fractured her hip and was never able to walk again. I remember the tears in her eyes when, near the end, she lay there looking at me, gripping the bed sheets tightly in her bony hands, saying "I don't want to go. I don't want to go".
About six months after I started strength training at age 73, I slipped going down the stairs, reached out and grasped the hand rail my wife had installed for just such an occasion. By then I was already stronger and was able to break my fall. As I was falling, my grandmother flashed into my mind.
About 40 per cent of hip fractures occur in elderly men, but I don't want to go before my time just because I failed to keep my arms and legs strong.
Strong Muscles for Safety
It's not enough to put up hand rails in the bathroom and along the stairs. You need to train the muscles in your hands and arms to support your weight when you stumble.
Can Older People Become Strong?
It takes time, but no more time than watching TV an hour a day.
After a little over a year, I can do five unassisted dips, lifting and lowering myself (132 pounds/60 kg) between parallel bars. This means I can support half my weight with one hand, enough to break a fall and avoid a fractured hip.
Getting Lean Helps
Losing a lot of fat makes your body weight easier to support. And the lighter you are, the lighter you fall.
Keep Your Balance
The more fit you become, the less chance you have of falling. And when you do stumble, you may be able to recover instead of taking a tumble.
Walking, running and simulated skiing all help to avoid falls by improving coordination and balance.
Continue reading "How much muscle will you lose this year?
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Combat Aging Newsletter v01n17
Anti-Aging Newsletter, Do you get DOMS, Prostate Cancer and Masturbation
Continue reading "Combat Aging Newsletter v01n17"
