WhealthWatchers Blog

Duh

2012-01-12T14:19:00.000-05:00

Exercise is good for you. Here's another reason, in case you didn't believe everything everyone's been saying for the last 40 years. Exercise turns bad, white fat cells into brown fat cells (which aren't just big clumps of stuff that take up space, but are active and use energy and metabolize), once thought to cease to exist in the human body after babyhood. I never knew "babyhood" was a word. But it makes sense. It's because exercise promotes the creation of something called PGC-1 alpha, recently dubbed "irisin," a protein that continues to benefit the body even once exercise has ceased.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/exercise-hormone-helps-keep-us-healthy/?ref=health

But how muscle cells “talk” to fat, what they tell the fat and what role exercise has in sparking or sustaining that conversation have been mysteries — until, in the new study, scientists closely examined the operations of a substance called PGC1-alpha, which is produced in abundance in muscles during and after exercise.

“It seems clear that PGC1a stimulates many of the recognized health benefits of exercise,” said Bruce Spiegelman, the Stanley J. Korsmeyer professor of cell biology and medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, who led the study. Mice bred to produce preternaturally large amounts of PGC1a in their muscles are typically resistant to age-related obesity and diabetes, much as people who regularly exercise are.

But never fear, you who are exercise averse or immobilized from disease or injury -

In upcoming experiments, Dr. Spiegelman plans to study whether injections of irisin imitate some of the metabolic benefits of exercise in people who, because of disease or disability, cannot work out. He also hopes to elucidate just how much and what types of exercise produce the greatest natural irisin increases in healthy people.

Frugal Dad

2012-01-10T19:31:00.003-05:00

This is a really neat site. Check it out -

http://frugaldad.com/

Unusual Weight Loss Tricks

2011-11-15T14:30:00.002-05:00

These are very interesting. From ThirdAge.

Get Off Your Butts Old Ladies!

2011-11-13T23:49:00.000-05:00

Too Much TV, Too Little Exercise Tied to Depression

More time spent being active might boost self-esteem and women's sense of control, as well as the endorphins in their blood, although the study could not prove directly that watching too much television and avoiding exercise caused depression, she added.

Expensive Pee

2011-10-25T18:15:00.000-05:00

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article that must have old Linus Pauling turning over in his previously-thought-to-be-nutrient-rich grave -

"Is This the End of Popping Vitamins?"

The case for dietary supplements is collapsing.

A succession of large-scale human studies, including two published earlier this month in leading medical journals, suggests that multivitamins and many other dietary supplements often don't have health benefits—and in some cases may even cause harm.

I'm skeptical. I mean, they don't even quote anyone from Tufts' Friedman School of Nutrition. Everyone knows they're the smartest. Go Jumbos!

Heavy Stuff

2011-10-03T13:04:00.000-05:00

Here's an interesting article on the heft of potential presidential candidate, and New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, including a discussion about how odd it is that someone's weight is still fair game for ridicule.