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NEW THIS WEEK:

Dave Scott comes to Ottawa.
RunnersWeb.com and TriathlonOttawa.com are excited to announce that Ironman
legend Dave Scott is coming to Ottawa for a clinic and
speaking engagement on April 1-3, 2005.
Triathlon is one of the fastest growing sports in Canada, and there is no
personality in triathlon with a higher profile than Dave
Scott. The six-time Hawaii Ironman World Champion was the first person elected
to the Ironman Hall of Fame and remains very active
in the sport today as a coach, writer and author.
Scott's visit to Ottawa will be see him work closely with a group of 25
triathletes during the weekend clinic, covering all elements
of the sport through both active and lecture sessions. For full details please
visit
http://www.triathlonottawa.com.

About TriathlonOttawa
TriathlonOttawa.com is a local organization in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada dedicated
to the growth of triathlon and physical fitness in
the region, through the provision of resources, training and educational
opportunities.


Special Offer from FogDog:
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Runner's and Triathlete's Web Content Partners:

* Sports Nutrition by Sheila Kealey.
Sheila is one of Ottawa's top multisport athletes and a member of the OAC Racing
Team and X-C Ottawa. She has a Masters in Public
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Associate with the University of California, San Diego. Her
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* WatsonLifeSport
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This Weeks Personal Postings/Releases:
We have ONE personal postings this week.

Please support me in raising funds for the Loeb Fundrace for The Ottawa Hospital
Foundation, the fundraising part of the National
Capital Race Weekend.
One in two people in Eastern Ontario will be touched by The Ottawa Hospital this
year. Our hospital faces many urgent challenges
including the replacement of outdated facilities and equipment to better serve
our community.
You can help by sponsoring me for the Loeb Fundrace. To date, fundraising
efforts during Race Weekend have raised over $3.5 million
for the Hospital.
Your donation will help ensure that the Hospital is ready when you and your
loved ones need it most!
Click on the link below to go to my personal donation page and make a secure
online donation.
https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/StartUp.aspx?SID=339025
Thanks,
Liz Maguire


This Week's Digest Article Index:

1. Science of Sport: Can Low-Fat Diets Help Runners Shed Weight?
2. Health and Fitness: Muscle Cramp & Spasm - Causes, Prevention and Treatment
3. Multisport: The High Cost Of Good Form
4. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
5. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Tears for a Winner
6. A desirable benefit - Does exercise make you feel sexier? Yes, say some
college students participating in a survey on how fitness
affects sexual self-esteem and performance.
7. Can Cycling Cause Asthma?
It was recently announced that numerous tests during the Tour de France were
"positive" for salbutamol, an asthma medication. The
numbers seemed to indicate that an alarmingly high proportion of professional
cyclists appeared to suffer from asthma, leading to
speculation that perhaps this was a cover for salbutamol abuse.
8. Commit to These Lifestyle Changes, And You’ll Be Healthier and Faster Than
EVER!
9. Low-carb Diet Prompts Spontaneous Calorie Cut
Clinical study of Atkins diet suggests carbohydrates stimulate excessive
overeating.
10. The Caloric Cost of Physical Activity and Exercise
11. From Runner's World
12. Experts Say 30 Minutes of Exercise Enough
13. Vitamin E boosts risk of heart failure in some patients - Canadian-led study
14. Time Over Distance - From Wes Hobson
15. Pregnant? Don't Forget to Exercise
16. Multisport: The High Cost Of Good Form
17. Obesity Threatens to Reverse Growth in U.S. Life Spans
18. The Complete Electrolyte Story - Theoretical and Practical Approaches
19. Endurance Training at Athletes' Performance
20. Triathlon: Three workouts to kick start your season
21. Distant Heroes:
An Athlete’s Search for a Graceful Exit.
22. The Power Game
You are on your bike in the middle of a two hour ride and due to the headwind,
you are going a tortoise like 20km per hour.
23. Can too much exercise make you sick?
24. The four stages in the life cycle of a runner:
Most lifelong runners progress through four definable stages of running. The
time spent in each stage will vary from runner to
runner.
25. News Scan - A Collection of News Items


Runner's Web Weekly Poll: "When training for a marathon, how far is your longest
run?"

You can access the poll from our FrontPage as well as voting on and/or checking
the results of previous polls.
Post your views in our Forum at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/runnersweb_forum.html
[Free Registration Required]

Last week's poll was "Will Lance Armstrong win a 7th Tour de France this
summer?"
The results at publication time were:
Answers Votes Percent

1. Yes 38 44%
2. No 36 42%
3. No opinion, don't care 12 14%
Total Votes: 86

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Five Star Site of the Week: Emma-Snowsill.com.
Profile:
Born: 15 June 1981 Queensland, AUSTRALIA.
Home: Gold Coast Queensland
Nationality: Dual Australia and New Zealand.
Nickname: Snowy.
Education: 2nd year of degree in Health Science.
Occupation: Professional Triathlete.
Language: English
Other sports: Basketball, Surfing, Skiing.
Sports Heroes: Lance Armstrong.
Proudest Moments: Winning two WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS.
Check out her site at:
http://www.emma-snowsill.com


Send us your suggestions for our Five Star site. Please check our list of
previous Five Star Sites available from the Five Star
Window under the link "Previous Five Star Sites" as we do not wish to repeat a
site unless it has undergone a major redesign.


If you feel you have something to say that is worthy of a Guest Column on the
Runner's Web, email us at
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Our Photo Slideshow is updated on a random basis. Check it out from our
FrontPage.


Book of the Week: Maximum Performance - Sports Medicine for Endurance Athletes.
Dr. Michael Ross is an emergency physician, a licensed USA Cycling coach, a race
physician, and an avid cyclist. By integrating
biomechanics, medicine, physiology, and training principles, Ross's program aims
to develop a complete athlete and avoid the need to
"patch" holes in health and training. Ross tackles the basic principles of
exercise science, training, and diet, as well as the
common medical problems and overuse injuries that can prevent maximum
performance. Should problems or injuries arise, you will have
a prescription for treatment and recovery in hand. Paperback. 6" x 9". 224 pp.
Black-and-white photos, figures, and tables.
Buy the book from VeloPress at:
http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?velogear+Wy4F9v+mapespmefore.html


More books from Amazon at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/amazon.html
and Human Kinetics at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/human_kinetics.html

This Weeks News:

1. Science of Sport: Can Low-Fat Diets Help Runners Shed Weight?
Are you a runner who would like to lose a pound or two - in hopes of improving
your running? Have you toyed with the idea of
reducing the fat content of your diet - in hopes of losing weight? In either
case, you may find the following article to be
interesting:
On its face, it seems like a decent proposition. Eat less fat, and you should
lose both pudginess and pounds.
After all, fat is the most energy-dense "macronutrient" in the human diet,
offering up nine calories per gram, versus just four
calories for each gram of either carbohydrate or protein. In cases in which
dietary intake is unregulated (i. e., when humans are
eating as they please), a propensity to ingest fat could easily lead to an
excessive consumption of energy and a gain in body
weight.
In addition, many people seem to believe that fat increases the flavor and
overall palatability of comestibles and thus are very
attracted to foods which have a substantial fat content. For individuals with
such inclinations (and a lack of expertise in the use
of herbs and spices to make edibles more exciting), fat-free foods can be rather
bland and tasteless. Fatty fare, on the other hand,
"tastes good" and draws them toward high-calorie banqueting.
Making matters worse, some research has shown that fat produces a smaller
"thermogenic effect," compared with carbohydrate (i. e.,
an intake of fat produces a smaller boost in metabolic rate, compared with the
ingestion of a calorically equivalent amount of
carbohydrate). Thus, fat might be utilized by the human body more efficiently
(with less of its energy lost as heat), compared with
carbohydrate, a situation which could promote the accumulation of body fat
whenever dietary intake skews toward blubber (1).
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050318_RRN_Low_Fat.html


2. Health and Fitness: Muscle Cramp & Spasm - Causes, Prevention and Treatment:
Muscle cramp and spasm are an annoying condition that involves a sudden,
involuntary contraction and tightening of a muscle that
will not immediately relax.
Muscle cramps and spasms can involve part or all of a muscle, or a number of
muscles within a muscle group and although a spasm or
cramp can occur in just about any muscle, the most common muscle groups affected
are:
The lower leg and calf muscles.
The upper leg, including both the hamstrings and quadriceps.
The feet and hands.
Muscle cramps and spasms can range in intensity from a slight twitch to a
severe, agonizing contraction. They can last anywhere from
a few seconds to over 15 minutes and can usually be seen visibly by the way the
muscle twitches and moves under the skin.
People who are at the greatest risk of muscle cramps and spasms are those who
ill, overweight or unfit. Those who take drugs or
certain medication, and those who live or work in excessive heat and humidity
are also prone to cramping. Muscle cramps are also
common among endurance athletes and people over 65 years of age who perform
strenuous physical activity.
What Causes Muscle Cramps and Spasms?
There are a number of factors that contribute to muscle cramps and spasms, the
main ones being:
Poor flexibility and tight muscles;
Muscle fatigue and overuse;
Dehydration; and
Electrolyte and mineral depletion.
A number of other factors include working or exercising in high heat and
humidity, inadequate blood supply, injury or muscle strain
and excessive use of alcohol, drugs and medication.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050318_TSH_Cramp.html


3. Multisport: The High Cost Of Good Form:
The irony is not readily apparent. Some of the world’s truly economical
phenomena require a tremendous expenditure of energy and
power in order to function properly.
Consider Boeing’s in-development Sonic Cruiser. Its twin Pratt & Whitney 4098
engines, the same as power a 777, each develop 98,000
pounds of thrust. The Sonic Cruiser will deliver passengers to their
destinations at a lower fuel cost per seat. But, the engines
will burn fuel at a faster rate than when they’re mounted on a 777. In order for
the economy to be realized, the plane must get to
its destination faster, completing more routes each day. It will cruise at 725
miles per hour, 15 to 20-percent faster than any
commercial airliner flying today.
Consider a much smaller denizen of the air. Wandering albatrosses spend 90
percent of their lives aloft, and may not touch dry land
for nine months at a time. They sleep in the air. Their ten to twelve-foot
wingspans allow for such economy. Not, however, without
considerable strength required to gain flight.
In other words, there may be costs associated with high performance. No one
would question that a Sonic Cruiser operates at the peak
of efficiency, but not without its Pratt & Whitney engines burning fuel up to
20% faster than when mounted on other planes. Put an
underpowered set of engines on this plane and it’ll stall, and come crashing to
earth. Power the Sonic Cruiser with enough muscle
and it’ll outperform any commercial airliner.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050315_DE_Form.html


4. Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine:
* Sugar Before Exercise
For more than 20 years, athletes were told to avoid sugary meals within three
hours of a competition. In 1977, researchers found
that eating sugar within three hours of exercising caused blood sugar levels to
shoot sky high and then to fall to low levels.
Eating sugar causes blood sugar levels to rise. Your pancreas responds by
releasing large amounts of insulin which remain in your
bloodstream when you start to
exercise. The insulin already in your bloodstream plus muscles drawing large
amounts of sugar from your bloodstream can cause your
blood sugar to drop to very low levels. Since 99 percent of the energy for your
brain comes from blood sugar, it was felt that your
brain would suffer from lack of an energy source and you would feel terribly
tired and pass out. Low blood sugar levels cause
tiredness and passing out, but athletes are able to tolerate extremely low blood
sugar levels during competitions without even
slowing down.
More recent research has shown that eating sugar prior to competition can
enhance performance. The extra calories are there to
continue fueling your muscles. You should eat one to five hours prior to
competition and you can eat sugary foods. Your only concern
is that your stomach should be relatively empty when you start to exercise, so
some athletes avoid fatty foods that stay in the
stomach for a longer time. Easily-digestible pre-event foods include fruits and
fruit juices, breakfast cereals with skim milk,
muffins, bagels and so forth.

* Dear Dr. Mirkin: Is it safe to use a hot tub in a hotel or health club?
It's extremely unlikely that you will pick up a viral infection in the hot tub,
but you can get folliculitis, a bacterial infection.
Viruses such as herpes are killed almost immediately in chlorinated water. The
herpes virus can survive for up to four or five
hours on the edge or seats that are not underwater. However, even if you sit on
the same spot that a person with active herpetic
blisters has just left, you probably wouldn't be
infected. To acquire herpes, you need to allow the virus to pass through broken
skin.
Hot tubs that have not been adequately chlorinated can give you folliculitis, a
condition that causes severe itching and red bumps
on the skin. It can be cured with antibiotics, but often goes away by itself
without treatment. If you use public hot tubs, pools
and whirlpools, sit on a towel on the side of the tub or pool, and shower
immediately after you leave the water. If you start to
itch, check with your doctor.


* Dear Dr. Mirkin: What's the best exercise to strengthen my heart and give me
large muscles?
I can't think of any single exercise that will do all that. To strengthen your
heart muscle, you have to exercise vigorously enough
to make your heart pump more blood. This means your exercise must speed up your
heart rate and keep it elevated for a while. The
formula for heart-lung fitness is to exercise vigorously enough to raise your
heart rate at least 20 beats a minute above your
resting rate, and try to work up to 30 minutes, 3 times a week. If you can't
exercise continuously for thirty minutes, exercise,
stop when you feel tired, and repeat the cycle.
To strengthen your skeletal muscles, you have to exercise against increasing
resistance, such as lifting heavy weights or pushing
against special strength-training machines. The greater the resistance without
causing injury, the greater the gain in strength.
However, when you exercise against resistance, your muscles fatigue very
rapidly. If you exercise against resistance for more than
50 continuous seconds, you increase your risk of tearing your muscles. You
cannot maintain resistance that is needed to increase
skeletal muscle strength significantly
for the longer periods needed for heart strength.
You could pick a sport such as cycling for heart muscle fitness, and then climb
lots of steep hills to provide resistance to
strengthen your muscles. However, cycling stresses primarily the upper legs, so
you would still need another activity to strengthen
your other skeletal muscles. It's better to pick a sport you enjoy to
strengthen your heart, such as running, fast walking,
swimming, cycling, dancing or any other continuous exercise. To strengthen your
skeletal muscles, use weights or special
strength-training machines. A good program would include
cycling or running on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and using strength
machines on Tuesdays and Thursdays.


5. Joe Henderson's Running Commentary - Tears for a Winner:
My columns and talks are like my runs. No matter how well planned they seem, I
never quite know where they'll lead. All take
surprising turns on the way to their finish lines.
When I stood up last fall to speak at the Royal Victoria Marathon, I didn't
expect to sit down wiping away tears. They were good
tears for a great friend. They show he's still much missed but also well
remembered.
The theme at the pre-race dinner in Victoria was masters running, which has less
to do with winning races and setting records after
age 40 than with slowing and aging gracefully. The talk started lightly enough
and was meant to stay that way. Fidgety runners don't
need a heavy message on race eve, but only a few laughs and a little
inspiration.
I told of a Canadian runner in his 80s, Whitey Sheridan, who'd run for almost 70
of those years. He advised me on my 40th running
anniversary, "Hang in there, kid. You're just getting started."
This led to talk of winning by surviving. A survivor is the best that most of us
can be. If we can't outrun people, we can at least
outlast them. I've outlasted Olympic champions and world record-holders while
adding up the years of modest efforts.
To this point the Victoria talk had stayed on safe emotional ground. But I was
about to step into territory where tears lurked.
I told of looking up the most to runners who have lasted the longest. The
greatest of those heroes is George Sheehan, whose
definitions of winning survive him.
Smiling through tears, I wrote a biography of George called Did I Win? The title
came from one of the last talks he ever gave to
runners. Someone from the audience, knowing George's condition, asked, "At this
stage of your life what is your biggest concern?"
George was stumped for a moment. Then he put his hands together, looked up in
mock prayer and answered, "Did I win? Have I done
enough? Have I been a good enough runner, writer, speaker and doctor? More
importantly, have I been a good enough father and
friend?"
He didn't think so. That's why he hadn't retired to "watching the waves roll in
and out" from his home on the Jersey Shore. That's
why he ran for as long as he legs would allow, then walked, then swam. That's
why he kept writing columns and worked to finish one
more book. That's why surrounded himself with family and friends right to the
end.
One of the last races George ran was the Crim 10-mile in Michigan. He ran along
in last place with another man, a younger one who
was injured. That runner turned to George and complained, "You know, Doc, we
used to be good."
George came right back with, "We're as good as we ever were. We're doing the
best we can with what we have. You have an injury, and
I have an illness. But we're still out here, giving our all. No one can do more,
or should do less."
George Sheehan redefined winning for us. One definition was to "do the best you
can with what you are given."
I liked another definition even better. The summer after he died, a race was
renamed the "George Sheehan Classic" and moved from the
neighborhood where he'd lived to the hospital where he'd worked. This was his
noontime running course in Red Bank, New Jersey.
More...from Joe Henderson at:
http://www.joehenderson.com/archive/498.html


6. A desirable benefit:
Does exercise make you feel sexier? Yes, say some college students participating
in a survey on how fitness affects sexual
self-esteem and performance.
Working out has long been known to improve one's self-image, but it might boost
sexual image as well.
A new research study found that college students who exercise often and describe
themselves as physically fit also view themselves
as more sexually desirable and believe they perform better sexually than those
who exercise much less.
This isn't the first study linking fitness to a better sex life, but lead
researcher Tina Penhollow says most of the previous
research she found connected physical fitness to improved sexual function and
greater sexual satisfaction.
"We were thinking of ways to expand the current research, and no one has really
studied perceived sexual desirability," says
Penhollow, a doctoral candidate in the health science program at the University
of Arkansas. "We thought fitness and exercise may
make people feel more sexy."
Previous research found that people who were physically active were more likely
to engage in sexual behavior, report better sexual
functioning and have a higher sex drive. According to studies done in 2003,
sedentary men who burned at least 200 calories a day
through exercise could substantially lower their risk of erectile dysfunction,
and women reported being more sexually responsive
after engaging in 20 minutes of vigorous exercise.
More...from the LA Times at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/fitness/la-he-sexuality7mar07,1,3850927.s\
tory?coll=la-health-fitness-news
[Long URL]


7. Can Cycling Cause Asthma?
It was recently announced that numerous tests during the Tour de France were
"positive" for salbutamol, an asthma medication. The
numbers seemed to indicate that an alarmingly high proportion of professional
cyclists appeared to suffer from asthma, leading to
speculation that perhaps this was a cover for salbutamol abuse.
However, recent studies indicate that training and racing themselves may have a
role in the development of asthma. This rather scary
scenario was recently reported by Prof. Kai-Håkon Carlsen of the Voksentoppen
Children's Asthma and Allergy Center in Norway:
"There is nothing like sport to improve your breathing!" people often say. Yet
this is one piece of advice many top athletes must
wish they never listened to, as there is no longer any doubt that an alarming
proportion of them experience quite the opposite
effect: too much training is actually bad for their breathing.
A broad-ranging survey conducted in Norway among 1600 top athletes by the
Norwegian University of Sport and Physical Education
showed recently just how widespread the damage has been. No less than one
athlete in ten - regardless of the type of sport - suffer
from asthma or wheeze.
The US Olympic Committee reached similar conclusions after the 1996 summer games
in Atlanta. Responding to a questionnaire, 117 out
of 700 athletes (or more than 16%) reported suffering from asthma. The worst
affected were the cyclists, where the proportion rose
to 50%!
On Saturday, the lung experts meeting in Florence also mentioned the damage
caused by long-distance running. The organizer of the
symposium on Asthma and Sports, Kai-Håkon Carlsen, professor at the Voksentoppen
Children's Asthma and Allergy Center in Oslo, gave
the findings of a Finnish survey of 58 marathon runners. The study showed that
15 of the runners (26%) exhibited seasonal bronchial
contraction, either in the spring on account of the pollen, or in winter due to
the cold. The same research group confirmed the
findings with a study of 71 long-distance runners, reaching the conclusion that
they were three times more likely to suffer from
asthma than ordinary people.
More...from World of Endurance at:
http://worldofendurance.com/cycling/beginners_column.asp?a_id=17391&st_name=Back\
ToBasics


8. Commit to These Lifestyle Changes, And You’ll Be Healthier and Faster Than
EVER!
Source: Coach Al Lyman, CSCS
What two relatively simple lifestyle changes could you make that would
simultaneously improve your overall health, and also
drastically improve your chances of having your best season ever? Though there
could be quite a few that you might think of, the two
that I want to address are these: get at least 7 or 8 or more hours of sleep
each and every night, and avoid eating anything after
6-7 p.m. each and every day. Phrased more practically it might read avoid eating
at least 3 hours before bedtime, as often as you
possibly can. Now, before I continue, I should first explain that since I’ve
used the words “lifestyle changes” in addressing these
issues, it means that I believe for many of you, these two are not already a
part of your daily lifestyle. If they are, than keep up
the great work and don’t bother reading any further. For the rest of you, read
on and allow me to explain how these two simple (but
not necessarily easy to achieve consistently) variables can have such a HUGE
impact on the quality of your health AND on your racing
success.
According to some interesting research that I read recently, along with a “just
released” paper on weight management by two renowned
scientists,(1) it appears that the quality of your sleep AND how close you eat
to bedtime both have a dramatic effect of the amount
and quality of human growth hormone (hGH) that is secreted in your brain. What
is human growth hormone? It’s a protein comprised of
over one-hundred amino acids that is produced in your pituitary gland that among
other things, stimulates the liver to produce
insulin-like polypeptides called somatomedins(2) and causes the production of
something called insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1)
(3).
Human growth hormone [hGH] is the most abundant hormone produced by the
pituitary gland in the brain. You may have read about it at
one time or another, and heard that it peaks during the rapid-growth phase of
adolescence, then steadily declines with age.
Additionally, hosts of Internet “entrepreneurs” (charlatans?) are espousing the
benefits of [hGH] supplementation, which I
absolutely do not and AM NOT recommending! However, as triathletes, you’re not
really concerned with what happens with [hGH] during
childhood, or about the potential benefits of some “magic pill.” You want to
know how it effects you now. Simply put, since [hGH]
stimulates the repair of tissue damage, rebuilds and restores critical muscle
protein, and is integral in the synthesis of immune
system antibodies, the amount of [hGH] you have floating around in your
bloodstream will largely decide how effectively you recover,
adapt, avoid viral infection, and improve from your daily training. More than
that, it seems it also has a dramatic effect on how
much body fat you carry on your hips and waist during your training! Excited
yet? Keep reading!
More...from TriFuel.com at:
http://www.trifuel.com/triathlon/health/commit-to-these-lifestyle-changes-and-yo\
ull-be-healthier-and-faster-than-ever-000712.php
[Long URL]


9. Low-carb Diet Prompts Spontaneous Calorie Cut:
Clinical study of Atkins diet suggests carbohydrates stimulate excessive
overeating.
A low-carbohydrate diet prompts spontaneous calorie cutting, according to a
strictly controlled clinical study.
The study, by researchers at Temple University School of Medicine in
Philadelphia, shows that water loss, metabolism and boredom
likely aren't the reason why people on the Atkins diet lose weight.
"When carbohydrates were restricted, study subjects spontaneously reduced their
caloric intake to a level appropriate for their
height, did not compensate by eating more protein or fat, and lost weight," says
lead researcher Guenther Boden. "We concluded that
excessive overeating had been fueled by carbohydrates."
Counting calories
Boden set out to study how low-carbohydrate diets affect weight, appetite and
blood sugar in obese diabetics.
The study involved a group of 10 obese people with type 2 diabetes who followed
the Atkins diet for two weeks, cutting their
carbohydrate intake to 20 grams per day with unlimited protein and fat. The
study was conducted in a clinical research center where
every calorie eaten and spent was measured.
"When we took away the carbohydrates, the patients spontaneously reduced their
daily energy consumption by 1,000 calories a day,"
says Boden. "Although they could have, they did not compensate by eating more
proteins and fats and they weren't bored with the food
choices. In fact, they loved the diet. The carbohydrates were clearly
stimulating their excessive appetites."
Participants also had improved glucose levels and insulin sensitivity, as well
as lower triglycerides and cholesterol.
The research is reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine.


10. The Caloric Cost of Physical Activity and Exercise:
While we all can read nutritional labels and have a thorough understanding of
what calories we consume, questions often arise as to
the amount of calories we burn throughout the day undertaking a variety of
different activities. The information provided herein is
intended to answer those questions.
Firstly, we must understand that the total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) our
body spends on a daily basis is influenced by three
factors:
Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), the minimal energy requirement needed to sustain
all the body’s functions in a waking state. This
typically represents 60-75% of TDEE and is affected by:
Body size (larger individuals with more muscle mass will have greater RMR
Age (RMR tends to peaks in early adulthood, declining 2-3% per decade
thereafter)
Gender (females typically have 5-10% lower RMR than males)
Climate (individuals living in extreme environments can have 5-20% increases in
RMR for survival)
Thermic Effect of Food (cost of digestion and absorption) represents 10% of TDEE
with protein foods requiring the most energy to
digest and absorb.
Energy Expended during Physical Activity and recovery. This is the most variable
and represents 15-30% of TDEE on average.
Several formulas of differing accuracies exist by which we can calculate our
TDEE. Some are simply gross estimates and demonstrated
to be quite inaccurate.
More...from the American Council on Exercise (ACE) at:
http://www.acefitness.org/updateable/update_display.cfm?pageID=593


11. From Runner's World:
* Coach's Corner
Slapping is Bad: "When running downhill, try not to let your feet slap on the
ground with each foot plant. Instead, step lightly and
don't 'reach out' with your feet. Slapping can also be a sign of weak muscles in
the shin area, in which case you need to strengthen
them." - Jeff Galloway
* Injury Prevention
When you have a stress fracture, you need to keep as much weight as possible off
the injury, which is why swimming is one of your
best cross-training choices. And while it does not simulate running, vigorous
lap swimming will help maintain your aerobic fitness
and teach you more controlled breathing.
* Performance Nutrition
Four Cloves Are Lucky: Garlic may be tough on your friends, but it's great for
your heart. Eating four cloves of garlic a day may
lower your cholesterol. Researchers from Rhode Island and North Carolina gave 41
men 7.2 grams of aged garlic extract a day (the
equivalent of four cloves); within two months their total cholesterol fell 6 to
7 percent and their "bad" LDL cholesterol fell 4.6
percent. Cooked garlic and garlic supplements offer similar benefits.
* Words That Inspire
"You have to take it as it happens, but you should try to make it happen the way
you want to take it."
-German proverb
* Editor's Advice
"Keep yourself energized by starting your morning off with an 8-ounce glass of
plain water (yes, even before your morning coffee).
Then keep a bottle of water handy and drink about 1 to 2 quarts throughout the
day." -Jane Hahn, RW senior editor
* Training Talk
"Losing isn't contagious, it's not a fatal condition, and it's not forever. It's
more like a cold that makes you miserable for a
while but then goes away, and you're fine." -From Amby Burfoot, The Runner's
Guide to the Meaning of Life


12. Experts Say 30 Minutes of Exercise Enough:
Sixty to 90 minutes of exercise? Every day? That's what the government now
suggests. Even people working out at the gym say most
folks won't consider that, and the experts behind the government's
recommendation say 30 minutes a day is enough for most.
Paul Steinkoenig, 45, of Arlington, Va., now works out about 90 minutes a day
three days a week. Sixty or 90 minutes every day
"sounds higher than certainly what the average American is going to consider,"
he said while using weight machines at the Thomas
Jefferson Community Center in Arlington.
"I think 60 minutes would be a little much for me," added Joseph Allwein, 84,
who was pedaling a stationary bike at the center.
Allwein said he bikes, rows or walks for 30 minutes five days a week.
The panel of doctors and scientists that developed the recommendations put an
emphasis on getting 30 minutes of exercise. But its 25
pages of recommendations were scaled down to three when they were released as
part of the government's new dietary guidelines in
January. Those guidelines gave equal billing to the 60- and 90-minute
suggestions.
More...from the LA Times at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/ats-ap_health12mar15,1,47189\
77.story?coll=sns-ap-tophealth


13. Vitamin E boosts risk of heart failure in some patients - Canadian-led
study:
Folk wisdom has long suggested that daily doses of vitamin E may protect against
cardiovascular disease and cancer. But a massive
Canadian-led study has found that the supplement not only fails to prevent the
world's top two killers - it may also do harm.
"We noted an increase in heart failure" among those taking vitamin E, said Dr.
Eva Lonn, a cardiologist at McMaster University in
Hamilton, Ont., and lead investigator of the study. "So our main message is that
vitamin E does not protect you. It may harm you, so
there's no reason to take it."
At least that's the case for people 55 and older who already have cardiovascular
disease or diabetes, concludes the international
study of more than 7,000 participants, published Wednesday in the Journal of the
American Medical Association.
The findings are part of a follow-up investigation to an earlier study - Heart
Outcomes Prevention Evaluation, or HOPE - which found
that vitamin E had no effect in preventing heart attack, stroke or other
cardiovascular events in more than 9,500 patients who were
followed from 1993 to 1999.
The initial study was extended to see if staying on the supplement longer might
make a difference, with patients followed for an
average of seven years. Dubbed HOPE-TOO, the follow-up also analysed whether
participants taking 400 IU of vitamin E per day had a
lower incidence of cancer compared to those given a placebo.
More...from Canada.com at:
http://www.canada.com/health/story.html?id=f5b6e0eb-3cdd-4129-b344-8cfa37cac084


14. Time Over Distance:
From Wes Hobson
I am not worried about the distance you cover, but rather the time done working
out. I used to get caught up in trying to accomplish
a certain distance. This created added stress which I didn't need for my
training and racing.
The first few years of triathlon was to just get as much distance in as possible
whenever I could. During high school, I
concentrated on the sport of choice depending on which season. For instance, the
Fall was cross-country running, the Winter was
swimming, the Spring was track and Summer was triathlon. I was so busy trying to
do an intense get in shape program in three months
per sport, that I didn't have time to concentrate on triathlon per se. It was
this way in college as for six months of the year, I
did swimming. In the Spring I did the Little 500 bike race with three of my
fraternity brothers and then during the Summer, I fit in
triathlon. Thus, during my educational period, my goal was to train while I
could. I never had a set program for triathlon training.
This changed when I graduated from college and went pro.
Since I had more time with no school as well as no individual sport during a
specific time of year to train, I was able to dictate
my training and I did this based on distance. I had no coach at the time so I
was flying by the seat of my pants and doing whatever
I could read in magazines. I also did whatever I heard others pros doing at the
time. I am not saying this didn't work, but it did
create additional stress that now I look at and realize was not necessary.
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050316_WH_TimeDistance.html


15. Pregnant? Don't Forget to Exercise:
Moderate workouts can ensure a healthier, smoother pregnancy and delivery
(Health Day News) -- It wasn't all that long ago that the moment a woman learned
she was pregnant, exercise was out and pampering
and rest were in.
It was imperative, the thinking went, that the mom-to-be do nothing to risk her
baby's development
Today, doctors say not only is it OK to exercise, but women should stay active
as a way to ensure a smoother, healthier pregnancy
and delivery, while possibly reducing the risk of gestational diabetes.
Dr. Mary Jo O'Sullivan, a gynecologist and professor emeritus at the University
of Miami in Florida, said that in the past, "women
were catered to when they became pregnant," because it was assumed physical
activity would harm the fetus.
But recent research has found that fetal heart rate and birth weight don't
suffer when a healthy woman exercises moderately. Nor
does exercise harm the placenta, the organ that grows on the wall of the uterus
and supplies blood and nutrients to the baby,
O'Sullivan said.
"In a basically healthy woman, a moderate exercise program does not seem to have
a significant impact on the pregnancy as far as the
fetus is concerned," she said.
More...from Health Day News at:
http://www.healthscout.com/news/1/523853/main.html


16. Multisport: The High Cost Of Good Form:
The irony is not readily apparent. Some of the world’s truly economical
phenomena require a tremendous expenditure of energy and
power in order to function properly.
Consider Boeing’s in-development Sonic Cruiser. Its twin Pratt & Whitney 4098
engines, the same as power a 777, each develop 98,000
pounds of thrust. The Sonic Cruiser will deliver passengers to their
destinations at a lower fuel cost per seat. But, the engines
will burn fuel at a faster rate than when they’re mounted on a 777. In order for
the economy to be realized, the plane must get to
its destination faster, completing more routes each day. It will cruise at 725
miles per hour, 15 to 20-percent faster than any
commercial airliner flying today.
Consider a much smaller denizen of the air. Wandering albatrosses spend 90
percent of their lives aloft, and may not touch dry land
for nine months at a time. They sleep in the air. Their ten to twelve-foot
wingspans allow for such economy. Not, however, without
considerable strength required to gain flight.
In other words, there may be costs associated with high performance. No one
would question that a Sonic Cruiser operates at the peak
of efficiency, but not without its Pratt & Whitney engines burning fuel up to
20% faster than when mounted on other planes. Put an
underpowered set of engines on this plane and it’ll stall, and come crashing to
earth. Power the Sonic Cruiser with enough muscle
and it’ll outperform any commercial airliner.
Humans are saddled with the engines with which they’ve been born. Sort of. We
can turn our 170-horse slant-sixes into 300 horsepower
V8s, but not without a lot of blood, sweat and tears. The difficulty in teaching
proper swim and run technique to a triathlete is
that he’s not yet got a big enough engine to pull “good form” off. We’re
presented with the chick-and-egg dilemma. Do you teach good
technique, even though a newbie triathlete can’t sustain it with the engine he’s
got? What’s better? Allowing a neophyte swimmer to
do more yardage with bad technique? To swim until he can’t hold his technique,
even if he can’t hold his good form for very long? Or
to swim with good technique slowly, to gain more distance before losing form?
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050315_DE_Form.html


17. Obesity Threatens to Reverse Growth in U.S. Life Spans:
BOSTON, March 16 - For the first time in two centuries, a generation of children
in America may have shorter life expectancies than
their parents, according to a report that contends that the rapid rise in
childhood obesity, if left unchecked, may shorten life
spans by as much as five years.
The report, to be published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine,
says that the prevalence and severity of obesity is
so great, especially in children, that associated diseases and complications -
like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure
and cancer - are likely to strike people at younger and younger ages.
The report says that the average life expectancy of today's adults, now roughly
77 years, is at least four to nine months shorter
than it would be if there were no obesity. That means that obesity is already
shortening average life spans by a greater rate than
accidents, homicides and suicides combined, the authors say.
And they say that because of obesity, the children of today may wind up living
two to five years less than they otherwise would, a
negative effect on life span that could be greater than that caused by cancer or
coronary heart disease.
"Obesity is such that this generation of children could be the first basically
in the history of the United States to live less
healthful and shorter lives than their parents," said Dr. David S. Ludwig,
director of the obesity program at Children's Hospital
Boston and one of the authors of the report.
More...from the NY Times at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/16/health/16cnd-obese.html


18. The Complete Electrolyte Story:
Theoretical and Practical Approaches
Electrolytes, the mineral salts that conduct the electrical energy of the body,
perform a cellular balancing act by allowing
nutrients into the cell, while excreting waste products. Certain elements,
sodium, chloride, magnesium, calcium and potassium, play
a primary role in cellular respiration -- that of muscle contraction and nerve
impulse transmission. It is at the cell membrane
where these electrolytes conduct electrical currents similar to nerve impulses.
Hydration is the medium which aids electrolyte
transport and is crucial for both the health and performance of the cell. Your
hydration state is mostly dependent upon water intake
or loss thru sweat but is also heavily influenced by electrolyte status.
Sweat
Endurance performance is compromise in warmer temperatures than cooler
temperatures. Here's why: to control an excessive rise in
body temperature, the blood flow to the skin increases in order to dissipate
heat to the environment. This shift of blood to the
skin will result in a lesser proportion of blood, and hence oxygen, being
delivered to the working muscle. In some individuals the
circulatory adjustments may not be adequate and the body temperature will rise
rapidly, leading to hyperthermia (excessive body
heat). Individual sweat rates vary, but those that sweat early, heavily, and
cake with salt tend to be more prone to muscle cramps
during exercise (Burke, 2001). Evaporation of sweat in a hot environment can
purge as much as 3 liters an hour. Alberto Salazar
reportedly lost an average of 3.7 liters per hour of sweat during the hot and
humid 1984 Olympic Marathon in LA (Armstrong et al.
1986). About 99% of sweat is water, with a number of major electrolytes found in
varying amounts. Since sweat is derived from the
extracellular fluid (fluid outside the cell) the major electrolytes found are
sodium and chloride. The concentration of salt in
sweat is variable, but averages about 2.6 grams per liter of sweat loss.
Potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, copper, zinc, amino
acids and some of the water-soluble vitamins can also be found in sweat.
Too much water?
Hyponatremia is defined as a decrease in sodium concentration in the blood,
which can have adverse effects on muscle contraction and
performance. If hyponatremia becomes excessive death can occur. One study
following a three-day cycling stage race competition
concluded that 27% of participants were hyponatremic. Symptoms of hyponatremia
include headache, nausea, muscle cramping and
fatigue. Although there may be many causes of hyponatremia, the most common one
is overhydration, many times resulting from athletes
superhydrating in the days leading up to a race without an appropriate increase
in electrolytes. In some cases, superhydrating can
produce hyponatremia prior to the race ever starting. However, racing with water
only also causes hyponatremic conditions because
the body requires electrolytes to effectively perform cellular respiration.
Hyponatremia, rare in events lasting less than 4 hours,
has been shown in recent medical studies of slower marathon runners and
ultra-distance triathletes to be at least as problematic and
dangerous...if not more so...than dehydration.
More...from XTri.com at:
http://www.xtri.com/article.asp?id=1409


19. Endurance Training at Athletes' Performance:
Imagine somebody approaching you and asking you how to improve your performance
in a particular sport or athletic event.
Where would you even begin? What aspect would you focus on first or rate higher
in importance?
As much as the answer to that open-ended question might seem obvious to some,
for most it's as overwhelming as the number of vitamin
and protein supplements lining the shelves of any health food store.
Recently there's been a lot of focus and chatter among fitness professionals
about building core strength and the foundation, or
pillars, for your working muscles. But even so, we're still flooded with more
information, programs, videos, exercise classes and
books then we can ever use or decipher.
Most of us have also heard of yoga and -- thanks to resurgence over the last
five years -- Pilates. Both are excellent additions to
any training program yet, again, most athletes find themselves either time
constrained or confused as to which aspects of Pilates or
yoga are most beneficial to their specific sports.
It's with these concepts and ideas in mind that I was introduced to a company in
Phoenix aptly named AP.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11559


20. Triathlon: Three workouts to kick start your season:
The competitive season is fast approaching, and the time to transition into more
event-specific training has arrived. For many, the
winter has been a time to put in longer miles and develop technique, but spring
is the time to boost your anaerobic-threshold before
moving into speed work. Your anaerobic threshold is defined as the point
(usually referred to in terms of heart rate) after which
your body is no longer able to produce energy solely via aerobic processes.
However, one of the by-products of anaerobic activity is
lactic acid, which is responsible for the burning felt in your muscles when you
are working very hard. These following workouts are
great anaerobic-threshold boosters and should be performed based on your
individual fitness.
In the pool
This workout can be performed once every month or two as an indicator of
progression. It works off of a base of 65 seconds. You
should calculate your 1500 pace time per 50 and use this as a starting point. In
the following example, the base time is 65 seconds
and then 45 seconds are added for each additional 50.
Following a warm-up, perform the following ladder main set:
50 on 65
100 on 1:50
150 on 2:35
200 on 3:20
250 on 4:05
300 on 4:50
350 on 5:35
400 on 6:20
450 on 7:05
500 on 7:50
More...from the Runner's Web at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050316_LW_KickStart.html


21. Distant Heroes:
An Athlete’s Search for a Graceful Exit.
s I approach my 20th anniversary of competitive running, I have begun to ponder
(and panic), "How will it end? How does an athlete
gracefully retire?" Surely we cannot all go out with the game-winning,
world-championship basket, Michael Jordan style. There must
be those in my sport whose quieter endings bring wisdom and peace. It is to
those distant heroes that I send my plea: How did you do
it? How did you quit? Was it in little deaths along the way, or in a final blaze
of glory? Are you burning still, in embers of
bitterness and regret—or has the fire ignited other areas of your life?
For the Ken Doherty Memorial Fellowship, I proposed a research project that
would allow me to interview a dozen former
distance-running greats from the United States. I intentionally chose runners
who have been left out of the "recognized" annals of
history. We have read countless articles on whom I call "the big five" in
distance running: Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Joan
Benoit-Samuelson, Billy Mills, and Steve Prefontaine. There doesn’t need to be
another book—or movie!—written about them. I wanted
to focus on the lesser-known heroes (and she-roes) who made incredible, if
unheralded, impacts on the running community.
We all know Billy Mills won the gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics in the 10,000
meters. But few people realize that Mills’ teammate,
Bob Schul, won a gold medal in the 5,000m that same Olympics. Was Schul not
colorful enough to garner equal respect and recognition?
Is Schul bitter today? What would he have to teach me about retiring with
dignity?
And what about the Julie Shea, winning the 3k, 5k and 10k at the 1980 National
Championships, yet being told women could race
nothing longer that the 1,500m at the Olympics. Is she angry? Or is she
satisfied with her role in helping to drag the sport of
women’s track and field out of the dark ages?
Who has ever heard of Jack Bacheler, aside from a few local runners known as the
Bacheler Boys? Frank Shorter was HIS protégé. The
now-famous Florida Track Club, which arguably spawned the United States distance
running boom, was started by Bacheler.
My list of distant heroes also includes: Horace Ashenfelter, 1952 gold medallist
in the steeplechase; Jim Beatty, first sub 4:00
indoor miler and world best in the 5,000m; the Jan Merrill and Francie
Larrieu-Smith duel; Kim Gallagher, 1984 silver medallist in
the 800m; Mal Whitfield, two-time gold-medallist in the 800m (‘48 and ‘52);
George Young and Tony Waldrop, along with others yet to
be discovered through my research in the track and field archives at Butler
University.
Essentially, my project will have three parts. First, I will research the lives
and performances of my chosen athletes through the
written material at the National Track & Field Hall of Fame Historical Research
Library. Next, I will conduct in-person interviews
with the former athletes, focusing on both their past achievements and their
current, professional/personal status in life. And,
finally, I will analyze how these athletes came to terms with reaching their
physical peaks so much earlier than their psychological
or spiritual peaks as human beings.
I feel that these travelers who have gone before us can teach us a thing or two
about how to exit the athletic stage gracefully. I
hope to discover—for all retiring athletes—the answer to Tolstoy’s eternal
question: "What, then, must we do?"
More...from Running Times at:
http://www.runningtimes.com/issues/01sept/nesbit.htm


22. The Power Game:
You are on your bike in the middle of a two hour ride and due to the headwind,
you are going a tortoise like 20km per hour.
Although this might demoralize you mentally, physically, you might be getting
just as good of a workout as if you were going 35km
per hour with no wind. As prices decline, more and more triathletes are using
powermeters (wattage) to be more specific with their
training protocol. The advent of portable powermeters such as Power-Tap and SRM,
alongside with the indoor CompuTrainer, has allowed
athletes to measure their power more competently.
Before powermeters or heart rate monitors, athletes gauged intensity by their
rate of perceived exertion (RPE). Triathletes may
describe their workouts as hard, moderate or easy. These terms generalize to
others the intensity experienced during a workout. Many
athletes are so in tune with their body that they can pretty well gauge
intensity; however, RPE is still subjective. Then along came
handlebar mounted computers that could measure speed. However, speed is
influenced by factors such as wind and hills.
The accessibility of mobile heart rate monitors allowed athletes to assess
intensity and create training zones to help determine the
intensity of workouts depending on the athlete's goals and their periodization
of training. Heart rate training also had limits as
heart rate could be affected by stress of the athlete, air temperature, humidity
and diet. These conditions distort the relationship
between heart rate and RPE when compared with velocity. For example, a ride on a
hot day will affect the mind and body differently
than on a cool day. Another limitation of heart rate based training is the time
lag that occurs between a change in intensity and
the resulting shift in heart rate. For example, at the start of an interval,
heart rate may take several seconds or even minutes, to
catch up with the RPE.
More...from Wes Hobson Performance at:
http://weshobsonperformance.com/articles/bike/power_game.html


23. Can too much exercise make you sick?
By David C. Nieman, Dr. P.H. - Gatorade Sports Science Institute
A common perception exists that overtraining or participation in lengthy
endurance type events will cause athletes to become ill. In
fact, results from a survey conducted by the Gatorade Sports Science Institute
show that nearly 90 percent of 2,700 high school and
collegiate coaches and athletic trainers believe that overtraining can
compromise the immune system and make athletes sick.
But can too much exercise really make you ill? A study conducted at the Los
Angeles Marathon reveals that this may be the case.
Results show that:
One out of seven runners who participated in the event got sick after it was
over.
Runners training more than 60 miles a week during the two months before the
race, doubled their odds for sickness compared to those
training less than 20 miles a week. But regular moderate training also appears
to provide protection against colds. Eighty percent
of fitness enthusiasts, for instance, reported in a recent survey that they have
fewer colds than their inactive peers.
So what's a coach to think?
Too much exercise suppresses immune function
Although moderate exercise may help protect athletes from sickness, training for
too long at too high an intensity appears to make
athletes more susceptible to illness.
Laboratory research shows that athletes exercising at a high intensity for 90
minutes or more experience a steep drop in immune
function that can last up to 24 hours. The drop in immune function appears to be
caused by the elevation of stress hormones released
during and following heavy exertion. This is what exercise immunologists believe
allows viruses already in the body to spread and
gain a foothold.
More...from Active.com at:
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=11547


24. The four stages in the life cycle of a runner:
Most lifelong runners progress through four definable stages of running. The
time spent in each stage will vary from runner to
runner.
Some runners never progress past certain stages and some revert back to previous
stages. Some may even skip a stage, but most will
move from one stage to another. The four stages are beginner, weekend runner,
competitor and athlete.
A beginning runner usually starts to run because they want to lose weight and/or
regain some lost fitness. This is the most
difficult stage to begin and has the highest drop-out rate. There is, in many
cases, a lack of confidence and fear of failure in
this stage. Motivation is a problem. Years of bad habits gained while being a
sedentary “couch potato” are hard to break.
A beginner runner usually trains inconsistently and without a concrete goal in
mind. There may be a general goal of weight loss and
fitness gains, but thoughts of speed improvement or long term goals may not be
present.
It is important, in this beginning stage, to train your mind as well as your
body for the challenge ahead. You must try to make
running part of your every day routine.
This stage can last anywhere from a couple of months to as much as a year or
more. Some are happy and comfortable with their
accomplishments in this stage and never leave. Once you begin to feel the health
benefits of running and your increased fitness
makes running easier, you will probably advance to the next stage.
Runners in this stage are many times identified as joggers. I hesitate to refer
to anyone with this term, because many runners are
insulted by the term jogger.
There are many and varied definitions for the term jogger. Many writers refer to
anyone that runs at an easy pace as a jogger, while
faster paces are associated with runners. That is really not an accurate
association. The real difference between a runner and a
jogger is one of attitude and mindset. I believe that the lack of a goal is the
true difference between a jogger and a runner. Speed
is not a determining factor.
More...from the World of Endurance at:
http://worldofendurance.com/runnersguide/training_column.asp?a_id=1061652&st_nam\
e=AchievingPersonalBest



25. News Scan:
* Small Calorie Cut May Boost Cancer Protection
Intermittent fasting shows benefits previously found with severe caloric
restriction
Think fast: Eating three days a week may prevent cancer nearly as much as daily
caloric restriction, suggests a study in mice
A small reduction in calories may have a big impact on cancer prevention, a link
previously only shown conclusively in animals on
severely calorie restricted diets.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have shown that mice given
just 5% fewer calories than mice eating freely had
a significant reduction in cell proliferation, an indicator of cancer risk.
The mice were fed intermittently, three days a week.
"Cell proliferation is really the key to the modern epidemic of cancer," says
Marc Hellerstein of Berkeley.
Normally cells try to fix damage that occurs to DNA, says Hellerstein, but if
cells divide before they can fix the damage it becomes
a mutation in cell offspring.
"Slowing down the rate of cell proliferation essentially buys time for the cells
to repair genetic damage," says Hellerstein.
More achievable
While studies over the past 70 years have shown that substantial calorie
reduction can reduce the rate of cell proliferation and
extend lifespan, intermittent fasting may be more achievable for most people.
Hellerstein and colleagues examined its effects on cell proliferation in several
trials comparing intermittently fasting mice with
mice that ate freely and mice that ate 33% fewer calories.
Trial periods ranged from two weeks to three months.
The researchers found that mice on the 33% reduced calorie diet had
significantly decreased proliferation rates for skin, breast and
T cells. After one month—the greatest effect seen—the proliferation rate in skin
cells was just 61% of that in mice that ate freely.
Intermittently fasting mice also saw benefit, however, with skin cell division
rates 81% of those for mice fed freely.
A 5% reduction in calories in mice is equal to about 100 calories a day in
humans, says Hellerstein.
The research is reported in the American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and
Metabolism .
From BetterHumans.com.

* Congener congeniality
I recently picked up a leaflet published by Health Scotland which said the
darker the colour of my alcoholic drink, the worse my
hangover would be. Whisky, red wine and brandy would lead to a worse morning
after than would vodka or white wine, because the
darker drinks contained something called congeners. After experimenting, I have
to say this seems to be the case. But is it the
congeners? If so, what are they and what do they do?
Most people consume alcoholic drinks for their ethanol content. However many
such drinks also contain amounts of other biologically
active compounds known as congeners. Congeners include complex organic molecules
such as polyphenols, other alcohols such as
methanol, and histamine. They are produced along with ethanol during
fermentation or the drink's ageing process.
Congeners are believed to contribute to the intoxicating effects of a drink, and
the subsequent hangover. People who drink pure
ethanol-based alcohols such as vodka have been shown to suffer fewer hangover
symptoms than those who drink darker beverages such as
whisky, brandy and red wine, all of which have a much higher congener content.
“Congeners are believed to contribute to the intoxicating effects of drinks, and
hangovers”The congener denounced as the main
hangover culprit is methanol. Humans metabolise methanol in a similar way to
ethanol, but the end-product is different. Ethanol
generates acetaldehyde, but when methanol is broken down, a major product is
formaldehyde, which is more toxic than acetaldehyde and
can cause blindness or death in high concentrations. Ethanol inhibits the
metabolism of methanol, which may be why drinking "the
hair of the dog" can alleviate hangover symptoms.
Studies have found that the severity of different drinks' hangover symptoms
decline in this order: brandy, red wine, rum, whisky,
white wine, gin, vodka and pure ethanol.
Eric Albie, Hull, East Yorkshire, UK
From NewScientist.com




*End of Articles*



This Weeks Featured Events:
*Please verify event dates with the event websites*

March 19, 2005:

Catalina Marathon, Catalina Island, CA
10K, 5K
http://www.pacificsportsllc.com/CatalinaMarathon/athlete.htm

Cherry Blossom Marathon, Macon, GA
http://www.cherryblossommarathon.com/

Shamrock Marathon - Virginia Beach, VA
http://www.shamrockmarathon.com

March 19-20, 2005:
World X-C Championships - Saint-Etienne/Saint-Galmier, FR
http://www.athle.com/cross2005
Http://www.iaaf.org

March 20, 2005:

Around the Bay 30K - Hamilton, ON
*North America's Oldest Road Race*
http://www.aroundthebayroadrace.com

Big Island International Marathon, Hilo, HI
10.8-Mile, 5K
http://www.runhawaii.com/

Ironman South Africa - Port Elizabeth, South Africa
http://www.ironmansouthafrica.com

Knoxville Marathon - TN
http://www.knoxvillemarathon.com

Ocean Drive Marathon, Cape May, NJ
http://www.odmarathon.org/

For more complete race listings check out our Upcoming Races, and Calendars.
Check the Runner's Web on Sunday and Monday for race
reports on these events at:
http://www.runnersweb.com/running.html

For Triathlon Coverage check out The Sports Network at:
http://www2.sportsnet.ca/tvschedule/tvsked_sport.php?region=ONTARIO&schedule_id=\
25

Send this to a Friend:
Forward the Runner's Web Digest to a friend and suggest that they subscribe at:
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Have a good week of training and/or racing.

Ken Parker
Runner's Web
mailto:webmaster@...
http://www.runnersweb.com/running.html
A running and triathlon resource portal


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The TRACK PROFILE Reader 2004, an in-depth review of the 2003 season by Bob
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END...OF DIGEST...