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.  

Exercise helps you to adapt your metabolism to the foods you are eating.  New research shows that after a high-fat diet, a person who regularly exercises is able to "shift metabolic gears" and burn more fat, whereas a non-exerciser will store the fat and preferentially burn protein and carbohydrate sources of energy.

Why?  Our bodies have evolved through times when there was not a supermarket on every corner.  During times of famine it is preferable that the body store fat when possible.  Our ancestors were hunter-gatherer's who primarily ate roots and vegetables and small animals.  On the rare occasion that a large animal was available for dinner, our metabolism adapted to the task of storing more fat when "famine" conditions were present (large quantities of fat were only available from animal sources at the time).  

What are famine conditions?  Three things are commonly perceived by the body as famine:

1. Stress--hunger is a stressful situation, in the past stress was a sensible trigger for fat deposition.  Now researchers believe that just by decreasing stress fat storage patterns in the body will change!  (Read a great article on this in the San Francisco Chronicle)
2. Long periods without food.  For years people have been telling you to have three meals a day--do it!  Have some healthy snacks in between (like nuts and raisins).  When you regularly go long periods without food you trigger the famine response and will store more fat after your meals.
3. Lastly, lack of exercise.  Your body perceives inactivity as you trying to conserve energy during hard times.  New research shows that simply exercising on a regular basis causes you to store less fat.  In other words, you not only burn calories, but change your metabolism.

Remember the law of supply and demand--whatever you demand of the body, it will supply.  If you demand it to store fat by not exercising, having a stressful lifestyle, and poor eating habits, it will!  If you demand it to remain fit and energetic by regular exercise, healthy eating habits, and regular peace cultivation, it will!

 Read the research.

Homocysteine levels in your blood are one of the most accurate markers of risk for heart disease we have.  For many years now, we've know that supplementing with B vitamins will lower homocysteine levels.  This was very exciting--for a while.  Recently several studies have shown that while homocysteine levels drop with supplementation, risk for heart disease and stroke remains unchanged!  

Apparently homocysteine is an indicator of risk, but not the cause of the risk itself (similar to cholesterol).  While B vitamins lower homocysteine levels, they do not change the reason that the homocysteine levels were elevated in the first place!  New research shows a method of lowering homocysteine that truly is effective at lowering your risk of heart disease and stroke---exercise.

Researchers monitored the effects of a 6-months weight-training program on overweight and normal-weight adults.  Homocysteine levels dropped, as did oxidative stress (oxidative stress is the opposite of antioxidant protection--see the Antioxidant Article for more info).  Interestingly, cholesterol levels did not change. 

Numerous studies have shown that weight training decreases risk of heart disease and stroke.  I believe that this is accomplished through multiple systems--the immune system is involved with inflammation, the endocrine system with responses to inflammation and stress, and the nervous system directs it all.  There will never be a pill to cure heart disease--what we do know is that certain lifestyle choices are associated with a dramatically decreased risk--regular exercise, natural eating habits, rewarding work, and regular practice of a stress reduction technique. 

Read the study here.