SportsGeezer

The Truth About Antiaging Drugs

To believe most of the claims about antiaging drugs that are sold all over the Internet—slimmer waists, better memory, stronger sex drive--you’d have to be born yesterday, an event that may be goal of people who buy the stuff. Bottom line, says this piece in the Boston Globe, the ads are bull, and the stuff they sell you is likely to be a bunch of useless amino acids. One thing that does build muscle mass, the story reports, is human growth hormone, but human growth hormone does not work in pill form. It works only  when injected, and it can only be injected legally for a few medical conditions. Normal muscle loss from aging is not one of them. How well does human growth hormone work? The Globe cites a randomized, double-blind six-month experiment conducted at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine that looked at 136 healthy men and women who were given regular injections of growth hormone only; various hormones; and placebos. Everyone who got the growth hormone saw increases in lean body mass and decreases in fat, but only the men who were given both testosterone and human growth hormone actually got stronger. For them, the increase was about 13.5 percent -- a bit less than what they would have achieved with a hormone-free, conventional weight lifting program. Save your money. Lift iron. Read more.

What is a MET and Why Should I Care?

No. MET, that mysterious acronym that has appeared on many late-model cardio machines, does not stand for "Magnificient Effort Today." It's healthspeak shorthand for "metabolic equivalent units," which is healthspeak longhand for the amount of oxygen our bodies consume when at rest, which turns out to be  3.5 milliliters per kilogram of body weight per minute. The Los Angeles Times does a nice job of explaining  the metric, and of telling us why it's a more useful measurement than "calories burned." (Because calories burned by different people for any particular exercise vary with the person's weight, while METs work the same for everyone.)  The Times also reports that a healthy 50-year-old man should have a capacity of at least 9.2 METs; and a healthy 50-year-old woman should clock in at 8.2 METs or higher, according to a recent study on women's fitness in the New England Journal of Medicine.  The story includes a handy sidebar on MET measurements for different exercises. Read more.

Exercise Builds Knee Cartilage

We always knew that exercise builds muscle. Then, a few years ago, we figured out that it also builds bone. Now it looks like exercise builds cartilage too. A Swedish study reported in the November issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism looked at two groups the meniscus repair patients. As reported on Forbes.com,  one group took part in a supervised program of aerobic and weight-bearing exercise for one hour, three times a week for four months. The other did not. When the study ended, researchers found that those who had exercised reported less pain and greater flexibility than those in the control group, and MRI scans revealed positive changes in the strength and elasticity of their knee cartilage. Researcher Leif Dahlberg was sufficiently impressed to suggest the exercise may help prevent the development of osteroarthritis. Read more about how moderate exercise could save your knees.

Not Exactly News: Women Are More Sensitive Than Men

OK, maybe it's not exactly news that women are more sensitive than men. After all, even Geezer has written about studies showing that women feel pain sooner and more intensely than men do, but he's never known why. Until now. That's because we now have a new study in which researchers counted, yes, literally counted, the number of nerve receptors in a square centimeter of facial skin of 20 cadavers, half of them them men, half of them women. For the men, the average density of receptors was between 8 and 17. And the women?  The average density was between 19 and 34. Medpage Today, which reports on the study, quotes lead researcher Bradon J. Wilhelmi, M.D., of the Plastic Surgery Institute of the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, suggesting that women "may experience pain more powerfully than men, requiring different surgical techniques, treatments, or medicine dosages to help manage their pain and make them feel comfortable." Sounds fair to Geezer. Read more. 

Songs that Make You Go Farther Faster

Now that we've got iPods, iPod minis, iPod nanos, and iPod video, there's no reason to be without music anywhere, ever. Certainly not at the gym, or on the run--although Geezer is still waiting for the aquatic iPod. And because we are ever mindful of Geezer's earlier reports that music improves athletic importance, the only question left is "What should we listen to?" That depends of course on whether we are lifting, running, or doing any number of other things that might be pushed farther and faster by the perfect beat and melody. Fortunately, the editors of Men's Health are all over this, and for a bunch of middle-aged white guys, they pull together an inspirational collection of workout songs for both lifting and running. Geezer votes with the obviously brilliant executive editor Peter Moore, who recommends lifting to Early Talking Heads. For more amusement, read through the piece to the readers' choices for best and worst songs to workout to. Read more.

Budokon: Asian Martial Arts Meet German Engineering

Perhaps it's just that Geezer hasn't spent enough time in L.A. Or perhaps Cameron Shayne, creator of the  bizarre and inspirational physical discipline known as Budokon, has spent too much time in L.A. In any case, Geezer finds Shayne's description of Budokon as "the Porsche of fusion fitness" to be a curious choice of words for a holistic mind/body workout. Whatever. L.A. Times writer Merrill Balassone is totally sold on the workout, which she describes as a combination of meditation, yoga, and the martial arts. Closer inspection of Balassone's piece reveals that Budokon is a combination of combinations, pulling together all forms of hatha yoga, and throwing in Brazilian jujitsu, tae kwon do and Okinawa karate do. If pressed, Geezer will admit that 75 minutes of any physical activity with an instructor who looks like the woman photographed for this story does sound intriguing, but a small voice from his New England upbringing wants to know why he can't just wait for it to start snowing and run up a mountain. To learn more about Budokon, click here.

How to Relieve Low-Back Pain: Anything But Low-Back Exercise

It's not all that surprising that a recent study 681 men and women who sought treatment for low-back pain found that those who exercised more suffered less. But it is surprising that the exercises that relieved low-back pain best had little to do with the lower back. And it's even more surprising that those who did more exercises specifically for the lower back had the greatest amount of pain. In fact, as this Moving Crew piece in the Washington Post reports, back exercises increased the odds of subsequent low back pain and disability by 64 percent and 44 percent, respectively. And among the participants who did lower-back exercises, those who did them the least -- less often than one day per week -- reported the lowest pain levels. What then, should low-back back victims do? Take a walk--a long one, several times a week. The Moving Crew recommends some other non-back exercises to relieve lower back pain here.

Emotionally, You Are What You Eat

Here's yet another way people can learn much more about you than you care to tell them: They can watch you order a meal. If you believe the research findings of Illinois-based psychotherapist and addiction expert Cynthia Power, the food you choose says a lot about they way you feel. The easily persuaded Daily Mail reports that Power studied the eating habits of 500 people who kept diaries of their moods and choices of foods and concluded that people often eat food that they think will change their mood. So what kind of food is chosen for what kind of mood? For that we turn to a quick-reference list of Power's findings published in HamptonRoads.com.

• Angry: Meat
• Sad: Sugary food, caffeine
• In need of comfort: Custard, ice cream
• Lonely: Rice, pasta
• Stressed or ambitious: Crisps, soy sauce, onions
• Sexually frustrated: Biscuits, bread
• Jealous: Pile the plate with anything

The story reports that Power also persuaded herself that people going through crises such as divorce favor favor soft, sweet products such as custard and ice cream because they are “seeking comfort levels with foods they once found in childhood, and people who are stressed crave salty food such as potato chips. Sorry. Geezer is less than 100 percent persuaded, and not at all hungry.

Rowing: Not Just for Preppies Anymore

While it can ever only aspire to the street cred of, say, stickball, the elite, "East Coast" sport of rowing does appear to be winning the cardiovascular systems of at least many middle-aged Democrats. Note, for example, this encouraging piece from the Boston Globe, which claims that rowers don't really have to be at the boat house at 5 a.m. (what?) and points out that Boston's non-profit Community Rowing now has about 1,500 members. Also note that Jane Morse, Community Rowing's board president, was 55 when she started rowing and now, at the age of  63, is 25 pounds lighter and a national champion. Readers whose interest is piqued should check out these Eleven Insights Into the Sport of Rowing on the U.S Rowing website, where Insight Number Two asserts that "Rowers are probably the world's best athletes."  And Geezer always thought those people were into understatement. Want to know more?  Buy or borrow D.C. Churbuck's fine The Book of Rowing.

Less Than Shocking News: Head Hits May Damage Brain

The good news, from the New York Times' Fitness and Nutrition page, is that research suggests that exercise may keep dementia at bay. The bad news, from the same page, is that that exercise had better not include too many bumps on the head. The paper reports on a study of retired professional football players that found that those who suffered three or more concussions in their playing days were five times as likely to suffer mild mental impairment as those who had no concussions. The study, published in the October issue of Neurology, also found that retired players developed Alzheimer's disease at a younger age than American men in the general population. Sounds disturbing, but not surprising. Geezer wants to know: Is it a bad sign when you can't remember how many concussions you've had?  Read more.