SportsGeezer

Supplements Do Nothing for Cardiovascular Risk

Women who take folic acid and vitamin D supplements to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease are doing something for nothing, according to a new study by Harvard Medical School doctors working at Brigham and Womens Hospital. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at more thatn 2700 women for more than seven years. Some of the women took folic acid and vitamin D; some didn't. When the smoke cleared, the researchers came to this
Conclusion After 7.3 years of treatment and follow-up, a combination pill of folic acid, vitamin B₆, and vitamin B₁₂ did not reduce acombined end point of total cardiovascular events among high-risk women, despite significant homocysteine lowering.

Read more in JAMA.

Boomers Remain Stoners

Will baby boomers carry their love affair with drugs into old age? That's the less-than-scientific suggestion of three researchers at the National Institute of Drug Abuse, who write in a recent issue of Neuropsychopharmacology that "several observations suggest that (the growing population of boomers) will likely be accompanied by a precipitous increase in the abuse of drugs, including prescription medications and illicit substances, among older adults." How do they know? The Scientific American reports that the scientists looked at hospital data showing the number of people aged 55 and older who sought emergency-room treatment and mentioned using various drugs. According to Sciam, the number of cocaine mentions rose from 1,400 in 1995 to almost 5,000 in 2002, an increase of 240 percent. Similarly, mentions of heroin increased from 1,300 to 3,400 (160 percent), marijuana from 300 to 1,700 (467 percent) and amphetamine from 70 to 560 (700 percent). Data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health corroborate those trends. In 2002 some 2.7 percent of adults between 50 and 59 admitted to illicit drug use at least once in the preceding year. By 2005 that number had increased significantly, to 4.4 percent. Once a year? Did they say once in the preceding year? Geezer is not ready to panic.  Read more in The Scientific American.

Boomers Remain Stoners

Will baby boomers carry their love affair with drugs into old age? That's the less-than-scientific suggestion of three researchers at the National Institute of Drug Abuse, who write in a recent issue of Neuropsychopharmacology that "several observations suggest that (the growing population of boomers) will likely be accompanied by a precipitous increase in the abuse of drugs, including prescription medications and illicit substances, among older adults." How do they know? The Scientific American reports that the scientists looked at hospital data showing the number of people aged 55 and older who sought emergency-room treatment and mentioned using various drugs. According to Sciam, the number of cocaine mentions rose from 1,400 in 1995 to almost 5,000 in 2002, an increase of 240 percent. Similarly, mentions of heroin increased from 1,300 to 3,400 (160 percent), marijuana from 300 to 1,700 (467 percent) and amphetamine from 70 to 560 (700 percent). Data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health corroborate those trends. In 2002 some 2.7 percent of adults between 50 and 59 admitted to illicit drug use at least once in the preceding year. By 2005 that number had increased significantly, to 4.4 percent. Once a year? Did they say once in the preceding year? Geezer is not ready to panic.  Read more in The Scientific American.

Wii Fitness Gets Real, Kind of, (watch video)

The market for home exercise gear is set for what dot.com business pundits used to call "a major paradigm shift."  And while few people had any idea what in the world dot.com pundits were talking about, this likely shift is very clearly rendered in a New York Times video clip, in which two women allow Nintendo’s latest brainchild, Wii Fit, to put then through their paces. Lots of paces. Geezer is definitely intrigued. Check out the video here. And the Times article, in which many people offer their assessments of Wii Fit, here.

Take the President's Latest Fitness Test

Don't worry, the latest adult fitness test issued by the federal government is not really "The President's Challenge," they just call it that. If it were, one of the events would be a mountain bike race against three Secret Service agents through the hills of Texas. No, this is just the most recent edition of the government's idea of physical fitness, complete with an online data feedback loop to let you know if you make the grade. Accept the Challenge.

Cleansing: A Big Waste of Waste

At one end of the spectrum of bogus health and medical treatments, we have the billion dollars spent each year on marketing by big pharma. On the other end, so to speak, we have colon cleansing. In this "moving" piece in the Boston Globe, health columnist Judy Foreman talks to health and medical experts about the benefits of "cleansing." Foreman's most powerful endorsement: "Some alternative medicine practitioners... believe - although research is skanty - that cleaning out the colon occasionally may help some people."  Not quite powerful enough for Geezer. Read more in the Boston Globe.

Five Muscles You Never Knew You Needed, or Even Had

Rodale's charitable effort to make a magazine for the middle-aged male tosses this piece on five muscles you never knew you had, or needed, in with the customary listings of remedies (younger women) for mid-life (younger women) crises (younger women). In Latin, they are: Gluteus medius, levator scapulae, external obliques, serratus anterior, sartorius. Also, in English, they are: Gluteus medius, levator scapulae, external obliques, serratus anterior, sartorius.
"Think of these smaller muscles as the support crew," Michael Maina, an associate professor of health and human performance at Roanoke College, tells readers. "They help your prime-time muscles perform at their best." Read all about them in Best Life.

Best Cities for Empty Nesters and Others

The methodology is hard to find, not to mention suspect, if only because it places Bridgeport at the top of a list of best mid-size regions for several groups of people, but the lists are, well lists. Geezer is persuaded that author Richard Florida is way ahead of the rest of us. He would have to be, wouldn't he, to describe himself as a "public intellectual"?  Read Florida's list of best cities to live in for people in different stages of life.

Manly Stuff: Four Ways to Treat Enlarged Prostates

If you are male and do not have an enlarged prostate, just wait. Chance are: you will. As this four-part series on treatments for enlarged prostates reports, two out of three men over sixty have some symptoms of the unpleasant condition. Happily, scientists are all over this problem, which afflicts men at a time in  their life when they have the most money to spend on treatments. This piece, is the L.A Times reports on four ways to go:
Drugs 
Diet and exercise
Saw palmetto
Surgery

Testing the Body Fat Tests

Washington Post reporter Howard Schneider was never a big believer in body fat as a measure of fitness, or, for that matter, of body fat measure as a measure --of anything. In this piece, which includes a less-than-information-packed video, Schneider introduces innocent readers to a technology called bioelectrical impedance, which passes a small current through conductive foot pads or handheld electrodes (and, in some cases, both). The current can pass easily through water-rich muscle fiber, but it bogs down in fat. Based on a measure of impedance (how much of the current gets through from one electrode to the other), the machines use mathematical models to estimate the amount of fat that got in the way en route. Wait, there's more about other ways to measure body fat, but it's unclear why, because, as Schneider tells us, it doesn't work.
Read more in the Washington Post.