I recently posted an article on the benefits of vitamin D, and the recent realization that a high percentage of people are deficient.  Research is showing that among other functions, vitamin D has the ability to up-regulate and down-regulate genes.  In other words, when we have suboptimal levels of vitamin D our genes are not turned and off appropriately.  Genes are used to create proteins which are the building blocks of nearly everything in our body--from our structure (bone, ligament, tendon, etc) to neurotransmitters, hormones, blood, etc.  

This wide range of effects translates a host of problems linked to vitamin D deficiency including poor immune function, less vitality, and decreased athletic function.   Specific to athletic function, a recent New York Times article highlighted the following:

"In one of the studies, four Russian sprinters were doused with artificial, ultraviolet light. Another group wasn’t. Both trained identically for the 100-meter dash. The control group lowered their sprint times by 1.7 percent. The radiated runners, in comparison, improved by an impressive 7.4 percent." (**note that ultraviolet light causes the formation of vitamin D).

"when researchers tested the vertical jumping ability of a small group of adolescent athletes, Larson-Meyer says, “they found that those who had the lowest levels of Vitamin D tended not to jump as high,” intimating that too little of the nutrient may impair muscle power. Low levels might also contribute to sports injuries, in part because Vitamin D is so important for bone and muscle health. In a Creighton University study of female naval recruits, stress fractures were reduced significantly after the women started taking supplements of Vitamin D and calcium."

I highly recommend having your vitamin D level checked with your next blood work.  If it is low supplement with 2,000IU of vitamin D for 6 weeks and recheck.  With my family I have everyone supplement with about 1,000IU for about three weeks, then we take about a three week break.  WE also get plenty of sunshine!  If you are local, I have an excellent product in my office.

A new study shows that athletes who use low-level laser prior to exercise recover significantly faster.  The study design used an 830nm laser (I have one in my office) or a placebo laser on athletes prior to exercise.  The treated group had much lower creatine kinase (an enzymatic marker for muscle breakdown) and blood lactate (a waste product created by muscle) than the untreated group.  The authors concluded "These findings suggest that LLLT (low level laser therapy) may be of benefit in accelerating post-exercise recovery."  Read the study here.

Another recent study showed that after 3 minutes and 20 second of low level laser over the biceps muscle, individuals were able to perform an average of 4.5 more repetitions of biceps curls (75%) of maximum weight) than without the laser therapy!  Read the study here.

Jefferey Spencer, Lance Armstrong's Chiropractor for the seven tour's that Lance won, used low level laser on Lance daily throughout each tour--these studies shed light on the effects of laser therapy for athletes!  If you've been to my office with a tindinitis, chances are I've used laser therapy on you.  If you have questions about athletic applications please ask!

If you want to improve coordination and steadiness, yoga is for you.  A new study shows that 8 weeks of regular yoga practice produces consistent improvement in balance, coordination and steadiness.  These benefits stand to benefit all types of athletes as well as older people at risk for falling.

The study also showed a significant increase in leg strength.  These combined findings make yoga ideally suited to older people.  The single greatest risk factor for not being able to be independent as we get older is lack of leg strength.  The greatest predictor of falling is poor balance.  Said another way, if your legs are weak you are less likely to be able to live  on your own when you are older and if your balance is not optimal you are more likely to fall and break a hip. 

Here is a test you can do at home to determine whether your balance may be in need of a yoga-tune-up. 

• Stand in front of your bathroom sink. 
  
• Place your hands on the sink and lift one foot so that you are standing on one foot. 
  
• Close your eyes and lift your hands off the sink keeping them close enough to the sink to catch yourself if you lose your balance. 
  

Can you stand for 10 seconds?  Try it on the other foot.  If you can't last 10 seconds I suggest a trip to the chiropractor (another therapy proven to improve motor coordination) and a visit to your local yoga studio!

Read the study here.

A new study demonstrates powerful benefits of strength training in cancer patients after chemotherapy.  The authors of the study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, concluded "High-intensity resistance training has persistent effects on muscle strength, cardiopulmonary function, quality of life, and fatigue. Rehabilitation programmes for patients treated with chemotherapy with a curative intention should include high-intensity resistance training in their programme."

Just having a diagnosis of cancer can prove both psychologically challenging and tiring.  Chemotherapy itself, while sometimes necessary, is toxic to the body.  This study demonstrates that high intensity strength training helps to rebuild the body after the trials of chemotherapy.  I believe that this happens for three reasons; most obviously, strength training builds muscle--that alone is associated with a higher quality of life.  Less obviously, the demands of strength training require your body to create more energy--that process requires your cells to produce more mitochondria.  Mitochondria not only supply your muscles with more energy, but also your nervous system and immune system.  Third, strength training produces lasting hormonal changes including higher levels of human growth hormone (HGH).  You've probably read about HGH's role in antiaging medicine.  The most healthful way to increase HGH is not going down a back alley and buying it off a guy named "Bubba" or going to a Beverly Hills antiaging specialist and paying thousands of dollars for a therapy that will probably shorten your life---the best way is to push heavy iron hard!

If you read that last paragraph again I hope that you'll agree that its not only cancer survivors that should be lifting weights--it's everyone!

Link to the research. 

A new study demonstrates that supplementing with vitamin C actually decreases athletic performance.  Its a great study because the authors actually figured out why they got the results they did--here's the synopsis:

The researchers took a group of "healthy, sedentary men" and divided them into 2 groups.  Group A did routine aerobic exercise for 8 weeks and took no supplements.  Group B did the same workout program, but took 1 gram (1,000 milligrams--what you find in one "emergen-C") of vitamin C.

The researchers measured a key marker of endurance fitness called the VO2max before and after the study.  Here are the results:

• The group that did not take vitamin C improved 22%
• The group that took vitamin C improved 10.8%

Put another way, the group that took the vitamin C achieved less than half of the gains that the other group experienced!  The interesting part is why, and here it is in a large nutshell.

Exercise in and of itself creates free radicals.  These free radicals then trigger the body to make 2 major antioxidant enzymes: superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase.  These two antioxidants are incredibly powerful neutralizers of free radicals and they appear to be part of a signaling system that causes the body to make mitochondria.  Mitochondria, in turn, are the "energy factories" of our cells.  Increasing their numbers gives us further ability to create energy for endurance.  The researchers in this study found that taking vitamin C inhibited the body's natural antioxidant pathways  as well as the creation of new mitochondria.  So the bottom line is: if you take vitamin C you decrease your body's natural antioxidant defense system and literally sabatage your capacity to create energy.  Here's the scary part--millions of Americans are taking 1,000mg of vitamin C every day without even thinking about.  We have a surge of fatigue-related diseases such as chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia.  Ironically, these very populations are the ones often taking more vitamin C because they think its good for them!

Please read my Antioxidant Article to get a better understanding of how to increase your antioxidant status.  You just can't substitute for whole foods!  Pill-form antioxidants are killing you!

Read the study here.

There are many supplements that are useful in building strength and endurance in athletes.  Unfortunately, there are many more scams then there are useful products.  Here's a list of some proven supplements that you can safely use to improve your athletic performance.

Creatine Monohydrate:  There have been over 800 studies logged in the National  Library of Medicine on creatine supplementation, and the results have been overwhelmingly positive.  Creatine is a naturally occurring substance that your body makes.  Your body uses creatine phosphate to "re-energize" your body's energy source, ATP.  After your body uses ATP (adenosine triphosphate) for energy, it becomes ADP (adenosine diphosphate)--in other words, the ATP loses a phosphate.  Creatine phosphate can then give it's phosphate to ADP, making it ATP again.  This means that you are able to expend more energy without fatigueing.  This translates to better performance.  Creatine has been shown to be extremely safe, but I would not recommend it to anyone with kidney problems as the kidneys are required to process creatine.  Creatine use causes more water to be stored in muscle tissue, so be sure to get enough fluids to avoid dehydration.  Interestingly, new research shows that creatine supplementation can lift mood in people with depression by increasing energy levels in brain--other research has shown benefit in strengthening the heart after heart attack!

Whey Protein:  Whey protein has been shown again and again to aid in the development of muscle.  In addition, and more importantly in my opinion, undenatured whey protein raises glutathione levels.  If you've read my antioxidant article, you know that glutathione is your body's main antioxidant and detoxifier.  This is extremely important for athletes since energy production generates huge amounts of free radicals--the more you exercise the more free radicals you create.  I have an excellent undenatured whey protein on my website--check it out.  Also check out my whey protein page (you'll see that I also tout whey protein for it's bone building power--I have many patients with low bone density reporting increased bone density scores after one year of whey supplementation!)

Beta-Alanine:  This amino acid buffers acidity in the body.  As your muscles work you create acid that increases fatigue.  Supplementing with beat-alanine increases carnosine in muscle tissue, which buffers the acid and allows you to do more muscular work without fatigue (carnosine itself is broken down and not absorbed well--because of this it does not work as well as beta-alanine).  Most studies have used about 4 grams per day.  The benefits of beta-alanine are best for short bouts of explosive energy.

Ashwagandha and Ginseng:  These two herbs are similar in that they are both adaptogens--herbs that provide a boost to the immune system and a long-term boost in energy levels (endurance).  Ashwagandha is from the Ayurvedic tradition, and ginseng is from the Chinese and Korean traditions.  They both come with a host of health benefits, and I recommend giving each a try and seeing which you prefer, or, rotate back and forth between the two.  You can read more about Ashwagandha here, and more about Ginseng at The Sigung's website--here.

More research is mounting as to how vibration therapy builds bone (read this recent blog on the subject).  The New York Times reports that “Dr. Rubin, director of the Center for Biotechnology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is reporting that in mice, a simple treatment that does not involve drugs appears to be directing cells to turn into bone instead of fat.”

Dr. Rubin rerported not only an increase in bone density, as has been seen in other studies in humans, but a 27% reduction in fat!  He believes that stem cells in bone marrow are being guided to become bone cells rather than fat cells.  Prior studies in people have shown increases in strength and in lean muscle mass (as well as bone density), but to my knowledge this is the first study that actually looked at the amount of body fat.

Click here to read the report in The New York Times.  I have a vibrating plate in my office and have seen patients achieve profound results.  You can buy a relatively affordable home unit at www.soloflex.com.  Check it out!

More and more research is demonstrating that exercise not only strengthens bone, muscle, and character, it strengthens your mind.  In particular, regular exercise greatly increases the capacity for neurogenesis, or the ability to create new neurons (nerve cells) in the brain.  

Once upon a time it was thought that neurogenesis in the brain did not occur, but research in the past several years has sown that it does occur, and that regular exercise is a key component.  Here is a link to a great piece from the New York Times on the subject.  The article also discusses other brain healthy activities and substances, such as chocolate, socialibility, diet, and stress.  Check it out. 

Practicing Yoga Postures for an hour increases levels of a powerful chemical messenger called GABA in your brain.  GABA is a neurotransmitter (messenger in the nervous system) that has the effect of creating calmness and decreasing anxiety.  Some research shows that elevated GABA levels result in elevations in Human Growth Hormone (HGH).  In May, researchers published a study showing that practicing Yoga postures for 1 hour results in a 27% increase in GABA levels in the brain!

The authors concluded "This suggests that the practice of yoga should be explored as a treatment for disorders with low GABA levels such as depression and anxiety disorders."  Indeed, there has been a great deal of research on Yoga as a treatment for anxiety and depression, and it works, this study sheds some light as to how. 

If you would like to know more about Yoga, meditation, prayer, or other stress reduction techniques, check out our "Stress Reduction" page here.

Read the study here.

 

A very cool new study showed that old-timers can turn on their genes.  Researchers compared the muscle tissue from old men versus young men.  They found that the old men were much weaker and had “differently expressed genes”.  They found that this difference in genetic expression resulted in dysfunction of the part of the cell that creates energy (the mitochondria).

The researchers than put the geezers through a 6 month weight training program.  At the end of the program they had made significant strength gains in comparison to their younger comrades, and, they actually turned their genes back on!  This means greater strength, but also greater vigor and energy!

The authors concluded “We conclude that healthy older adults show evidence of mitochondrial impairment and muscle weakness, but that this can be partially reversed at the phenotypic level, and substantially reversed at the transcriptome level, following six months of resistance exercise training.”

Read the study here.