SportsGeezer

And Don't Forget to Turn Off the Aging

Someday, maybe soon, scientists may be able to turn off the genetic mechanism that tells our bodies to change as we age. The Scientific American reports that researchers have discovered genetic switches in roundworms —whose genetic makeup is remarkably similar to that of humans—that cause them to grow old when flicked on but, when off, may extend their lives. Readers note well, the researchers do not believe that all of the ravages of aging are controlled by genetic action. The owners of human bodies can do plenty of damage themselves, by smoking, eating poorly, and otherwise behaving badly. Stanford University School of Medicine biologist Stuart Kim, who co-authored the new study published in the journal Cell, likens our aging bodies to ten year old cars. "It's partly rust and it's partly the gas pedal and brakes," he says. "If I wanted to fix it up so I could keep driving it, I'd want to wax it to prevent rust and then I'd fix the gas pedal and the brakes, as well."
Read more in the Scientific American.

Jane Brody on Health Facts You Don't Need to Know

Has it really been 45 years since Jane Brody started writing about health and medicine? No wonder she's so damn good. In this piece in the New York Times, Brody boils those four and a half decades of knowledge down to eight "facts" that have spread like a virus through popular culture, and are, in fact, not facts at all. Here are the five faves of Geezer, who is never in danger of being mislead, because he can never remember anyone's advice long enough to follow it.
1. Don't swim after eating.
2. Take painkillers only for serious pain.
3. Natural is safer than man-made.
4. Drink eight glasses of water a day.
5. Use cotton swabs to clean your ears.
Read more about these widespread misconceptions, and others, at the New York Times.

Viagra Goes Both Ways, In Some Cases

The good news is that, in an admittedly small study--98 women,--the little blue pill boosted the sexual pleasure of 72 percent of a test group. The less than good news is that all of the women in the test group were suffering from some measure of depression, were taking SSRIs, and had reported "arousal problems". And the even less good news is that several other studies searching for evidence that Viagra could improve the sexual response of women who were not depressed have come up dry, so to speak.
Read more in the Los Angeles Times.

More Than You Want to Know About Aging, and Less Than You Want to Know About What You Can Do About It

Geezer thanks the infographics editors at the Washington Post for this informative, if discouraging, visual aid, describing the influence of time on our bodies. Did you know that visual acuity begins to decline in your 40s? Did you know that the number of taste buds starts to decline when women are in their 40s and men are in their 50s. (Geezer has no comment on (any) gender issues.) Did you know as we age, some nerve cells lose their coating, which can slow the speed of message transmission. Did you want to know any of this?
Read more in the Washington Post.

Percentage of States that Reached Obesity Reduction Goal: Zero

Way back in the year 2000, officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services figured out that the nation whose health was in their care was being overrun by fat people. Where did they come from? What, other than fast food, did they want? Whatev. Those same officials came up with something called A Healthy People, 2010, a program whose goal, among others, was to reduce to 15 percent the proportion of adults who are obese. How are we doing? Not so good. The CDC reported this week that in 2007, not a single state achieved that goal, and overall, 25.6 percent of Americans over the age of 18 are obese.
Read it and weep.

Women Do Best with Mediterranean Diet, Men with Low-Carb

The most encouraging news in this interesting piece by Tara Parker-Pope is that the long-secret nuclear research center in Dimona, Israel has been put to its best use yet: the desert facility was the site of a recent research project that looked at the results of three diets--low-carbs, Mediterranean, and Atkins.
The bottom line(s): Parker-Pope reports that the biggest weight loss happened in the first five months of the diet — low-fat and Mediterranean dieters lost about 10 pounds, and low-carbohydrate dieters lost 14 pounds. By the end of two years, low-fat dieters showed a net loss of six pounds, and the Mediterranean and low-carbohydrate dieters both lost about 10 pounds.Men did better on the low-carbohydrate diets, losing 11 pounds compared with about 9 pounds for the Mediterranean diet. Women fared best on the Mediterranean diet, losing about 14 pounds compared with about 5  pounds on the low-carbohydrate plan.
Read more from Tara Parker-Pope in the New York Times.

In Energy Drinks, Vitamin B Is Short for BS

Contrary to what ads would have us believe, Hope Barkoukis, chairwoman of Sports, Cardiovascular and Wellness Nutritionists, a practice group of the American Dietetic Assn, tells the L.A. Times, B vitamins are not little packets of energy. Putting B vitamins in energy drinks is brilliant marketing, she says, "but it doesn't have any basis." Barkoukis tells the Times that most Americans gets all of the B vitamins they could possibly need in their diets, and extra B vitamins are quickly flushed from our systems. And now the bad news, Barkoukis says that while the body can easily handle huge doses of vitamin B-12, the Institute of Medicine warns that more than 100 milligrams of B-6 each day -- what you'd get from 2 1/2 bottles of 5-Hour Energy -- may damage nerves in the arms and legs.
Read more in the L.A. Times.

Women Athletes More Likely to Suffer Head Injuries

Say good-bye to the notion that female athletes play with more caution than men do. Say hello to the fact that, when it comes to head injuries, women players have it all over their male counterparts. The Boston Globe reports on the unexpected results of a study conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Researchers found that concussion rates were higher in women than in men in soccer (27 percent higher), basketball (66 percent higher), and ice hockey (80 percent higher). Roughly 1.4 women soccer players out of 1,000 get a concussion, compared to 1.1 college men out of 1,000. Female ice hockey players get injured more than male football players, according to the research with 2.7 injuries out of 1,000 athletes compared to 2.3. Wait. It gets worse. The Globe also reports that researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have found that female soccer players, mostly high school athletes, were more impaired following a concussion than male players.When the athletes' post-concussion neuropsychological scores were compared with preseason scores, the change was significantly more dramatic in female players with regard to reaction time and number of symptoms. Female players also had greater deficits in verbal memory and processing speeds.
Read more about women and head injuries in the Boston Globe.

Ten Theories About Why We Are Fat

The Los Angeles Times, whose newrsoom is about to get much thinner, offers up a handy ten-point primer on why we all got so fat.
1. It's the stress.
2. No. It's a virus.
3. It has something to do with the temperature.
4. It's all that high-fructose corn syrup.
5. It's eating too much low-fat food.
6. It's too many drugs.
7. It's our parents' fault, like everything else.
8.It's all the pollution.
9. It's too little sleep.
10. I knew we shouldn't have quit smoking.

Why You Don't Want to Run in Smog

Tell us again,why don't we want to run in smog? Because, as the L.A. Times reports, exercise exacerbates the unhealthful effects of pollutant-rich air. During exercise, muscles need more oxygen to work, breathing rates increase by about seven times. When that happens, the lungs take in and expel double to triple the normal amount of air -- dramatically increasing their exposure to pollutants.
The paper reminds those fortunate enough to live in Southern California that the air quality board issues health warnings based on ozone and pollutant levels; an index of 101 to 150 is unhealthy for sensitive groups. An index of 151 to 200 is considered unhealthy, meaning everyone should discontinue prolonged, vigorous exercise outdoors that lasts more than an hour. And finally, very unhealthy air, with an index of 201 and above, comes with a warning that all  vigorous outdoor activity should be stopped.
Read more in the L.A. Times.