SportsGeezer

Researchers Say Body Fat May Encourage Cancer

The L.A. Times reports that the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund has issued 10 recommendations for cancer prevention, including limiting consumption of red meat and alcohol, avoiding processed meats and -- most importantly -- shedding those extra pounds. The paper quotes  W. Philip T. James, chairman of the London-based International Obesity Task Force and one of the 21 members on an international panel that prepared a recently released report, stating that even small amounts of excess body fat, especially if carried at the waist, increase risk.  The new report claims that increased body fat, particularly in the abdominal area, affects levels of hormones and growth factors, which can influence the development of cancer cells. In addition, the report says, obesity is characterized by "a low-grade chronic inflammatory state" in the body that can promote cancer.  The L.A. Times reports that the most recent study, which took five years to prepare, reviewed more than 7,000 studies published worldwide. It said it found a convincing connection between excess fat and cancers of the esophagus, pancreas, colon and rectum, endometrium and kidney, along with breast cancer in post-menopausal women.
Read more in the L.A. Times.

It's Official: Organic Food Is Better For You

Is there really any reason to fork over the extra cash for food that is produced organically. There is if you believe the Newcastle University researchers who recently grew fruit, vegetables and reared cattle on adjacent organic and non-organic sites across Europe. The scientists, whose study was funded by the European Union, found levels of antioxidants in milk from organic cattle were between 50% and 80% higher than normal milk. As the BBC reports, the also found that organic wheat, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, onions and lettuce had between 20% and 40% more nutrients. Read more from the BBC.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Going the Distance

To accompany its extraordinary one-hour documentary, "Marathon Challenge," the crew at Nova has put together a web page that is almost as informative as the video.  "Marathon Challenge," which attempts to demonstrate that anyone ( OK, almost anyone) can run 26.2 miles, fast, airs at 8 EST tonight. The web page, we hope, will remain in place for a very long time, right here.

Does Stress Turn Hair Gray?

What really turns hair gray? The answer, according to this article in the Scientific American, is the death of melanocyte stem cells, which produce pigment that colors hair black or brown or red or yellow. Like all cells, melanocyte stem cells are programmed to die at some point, but does stress hasten their death? The answer, says Sciam, is "posssibly," but at this point, it's too soon to blame stress for your gray hair.   Read more in the Scientific American.

Meditation Eases Chronic Pain

Geezer recalls the less-than-usefyl advice that was routinely offered by high school coaches to anyone who complained about pain. "Don't think about it." Now comes a study from an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh suggesting that the best advice may be "Don't think about anything."
The L.A. Times reports on research that tracked the effect of mindfulness meditation on chronic lower back pain in adults 65 and older. The paper reports that the randomized, controlled clinical trial found that the 37 people who participated in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program had significantly greater pain acceptance and physical function than a similar size control group. Subsequently, the control group took the same eight-week program and had similar results.
Read more in the L.A. Times.

Is Alberto Salazar Crazy, or What Exactly?

Having just finished John Brant's magnificent and disturbing profile of Alberto Salazar in the New York Times Play magazine, Geezer is trying to figure out if the story should be read as inspiration or admonition. Who knew that Salazar went fourteen minutes without a heartbeat after a "temporarily fatal" heart attack last summer? Who knew that in 1987 Salazar made a religious pilgrimage to a church in what is now Bosnia, where he witnessed the miraculous conversion of the chain on his rosary beads from silver to gold? Who knew that Salazar's father once hid Fidel Castro in his Havana attic, and later took part in the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion? Who knew that Alberto Salazar attended the same high school that Geezer's kids attended? (OK, Geezer was aware of that).  Note to people who still read books: When you've read this, you can read more about Salazar in John Brant's Duel in the Sun: Alberto Salazar, Dick Beardsley, and America's Greatest Marathon.

"Walkstation" Will Combine Office Work and Road Work

Faithful SportsGeezer readers certainly recall the efforts of Dr. James Levine, a Mayo Clinic obesity researcher in Rochester, Minn, to build a combination desk and treadmill that would allow obsessives to exercise as they work on computers. Now comes a report from CNN that Levine has persuaded Steelcase, the office furniture maker, to manufacture his "walkstation," thus liberating office workers from what Levine describes as their "chair-imprisoned" work lives. The paper reports that the product is designed for a low-impact slow stroll rather than a sweat-inducing run-walk. It will sell for about $4,000 and should be available the week before Thanksgiving dinner. Read more from CNN.

A Drinking Man's Guide to Calorie Counting

From the 2005 U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee come this advice on how to keep drinking and stay thin:

Alcoholic Beverages	Beverage Serving Size (ounces)	Number of Alcohol Servings/Beverage	Calories
Beer	12	1	150
Light beer	12	1	110
Dark beer	12	1	168
Non-alcoholic beer	12	1	70
Distilled spirits (Scotch, vodka, bourbon, gin etc.)	1.5	1	100
Dry dessert wine***	5	1	198
Sweet dessert wine***	5	1	344
Red wine***	5	1	105
White wine***	5	1	100
Sparkling white wine***	5	1	106
Amaretto sour** (Sweet and sour mix, almond amaretto liqueur, tequila, orange juice)	6	4	421
B-52** (Kahlua coffee liqueur, amaretto almond liqueur, Bailey's Irish Cream)	1.5	1	91
Bloody Mary** (Vodka, tomato juice, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, lime)	4.6	1	120
Chocolate martini** (Vodka, Creme de Cacao)	2.5	1.67	188
Cosmopolitan** (Vodka, Triple Sec, Rose's lime juice, cranberry juice)	2.5	1.67	131
Daiquiri** (Light rum, limes, powdered sugar)	2.7	1	137
Gin and tonic** (Gin, tonic water, lime)	7	1.33	189
Hurricane** (Dark rum, light rum, orange juice, pineapple juice, Grenadine, 151 proof rum, cherries, pineapple and sugar	10.4	3	384
Irish coffee** (Irish whiskey, coffee, sugar, whipped cream)	10.2	1	159
Mai Tai** (Dark rum, light rum, sweet and sour mix, grandaine, 151 proof rum, ice)	4.9	1.82	306
Kamikaze (Vodka, Triple Sec, lime juice)	3	1	180
Manhattan** (Whiskey, Vermouth, Bitters)	2.1	1.33	132
Margarita** (Coarse salt, lime, white Tequila, Triple Sec, lime juice, crushed ice)	6.3	3	327
Martini** (Gin, dry Vermouth)	2	1.33	119
Mudslide** (Vodka, coffee liqueur, Irish cream, vanilla ice cream)	12	4	820
Pina colada** (Malibu run, pineapple juice, cream	8	2.13	312
Rum and coke****)	12	2.67	361
Screwdriver** (Vodka, orange juice)	7	1.33	208
Whiskey Sour** (Whiskey, lemon juice, powdered sugar, cherry, lemon slice)	3	1.33	125

What Stress Can Do to You, and What You Can Do About Stress

Now that a new study by the American Psychological Association  has revealed that one-third of Americans are living with extreme stress and nearly half of Americans believe that their stress has increased over the past five years, this could be a good time to take some anti-stress action. This site, aptly named Stress-Relief-Exercises, describes several useful--you guessed it--stress relief exercises.
To enhance his readers' stress, Geezer would like to point out some of the more horrific revelations of the APA study: Nearly half of all Americans report that stress has a negative impact on both their personal and professional lives. About one-third (31 percent) of employed adults have difficulty managing work and family responsibilities and 35 percent cite jobs interfering with their family or personal time as a significant source of stress. Stress causes more than half of Americans (54 percent) to fight with people close to them. One in four people report that they have been alienated from a friend or family member because of stress, with 8 percent connecting stress to divorce or separation. Yikes!

Now You Can Vibrate Fat Away, Almost

OK, the headline "Now You Can Vibrate Fat Away" isn't exactly true, unless you happen to be a mouse, but it could be true very soon. National Geographic reports on research conducted at State University of New York at Stony Brook that found that laboratory mice that spent 15 minutes a day on a vibrating platform developed 28 percent less fat than control mice. The magazine reports that scientists theorize that as the mice developed, the vibrations mimicked muscle activity and induced their stem cells to develop into bone or muscle cells rather than fat cells. Read more about fat in National Geographic.