Drink Up

Time - "Why Do Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers?"

A friend sent me that article back in August. Forgot until just now to post it. When I received it, I replied that I took exception to the fact that he had put me first on the distribution list. Then I wrote that I was just kidding and was honored. And also that it was probably why I was replying at 230 in the morning, from a bar.

Basically, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin found that, even accounting for every external variable that could be unrelated to the actual alcohol consumption, such as socioeconomic reasons, or work-related stress, etc., those who drink alcohol outlive those who do not.

So, it sounds to me like you'd better start drinkin'. Please also note the correct usage of the past participle of "to drink," that is, "drunk." Please, please, please learn it. It drives me crazy that people get it wrong so often.

I Drink at Home, YEEEEAAAAH, With Somebody Else

Alcohol sales are historically recession resistant, but not at bars anymore. It's way cheaper to buy some booze at the store, invite a few buddies over, and have a little party. If you live somewhere awesome like Miami, you can enjoy views of palm trees and water. If you live somewhere on the boring side, at least you can hang out outside during the summertime. Maybe play some bean bag toss and listen to music with a few beers. Good times.

From Time - 

"Sales of alcoholic beverages at bars and restaurants fell 4.6% in 2009, while sales at liquor stores, supermarkets and other retailers for "at home" drinking rose 1.2%, the report said. Americans are gulping 10 drinks on average each month at home, compared with only 5.7 drinks in bars and restaurants, the report notes."

The article goes on to discuss a proposal by New York's governor, David Patterson, to allow wine sales at grocery stores. I don't know why that guy gets such a bad rap. I think he's great.

MSN Health & Fitness to Time Magazine: "You Suck"

So, that Time article about exercise not making people thin was, of course, a big hit with all the people who want an excuse for not losing weight. There are undoubtedly millions of people who want to think that there is nothing they can do about the excess weight they carry and this article justified that mindset.

It reminds me that studies show that most people search the internet not for unbiased information from which to learn, but rather that which backs up a previously held belief.

MSN Health & Fitness writer, David Zinczenko, whose name sounds like he should be playing professional tennis, writes in his article -

"Bottom line: Our responses to diet and exercise are all highly individualized, explains Dr. Church. Sure, some people might compensate for their exercise by eating more, but according to Dr. Church, this isn’t the fault of exercise. More likely, he says, it’s because people don’t realize how easy it is to consume 1,000 calories at the drive-thru compared to burning just 250 calories on a treadmill. 'If your weight is a concern for you, exercise is important. But it doesn’t give you license to eat what you want,' cautions Dr. Church. 'You still need to pay close attention to what you’re putting in your mouth.'

"Exercise can protect your muscle. A Penn State University study found that people who lifted weights along with a program of diet and aerobic exercise had the same weight loss as those who only dieted (or who dieted and performed aerobic exercise). The difference? The lifters lost 5 pounds more fat because almost none of their weight loss came from muscle. Read: Resistance training didn’t improve weight loss, but it did improve fat loss. And isn’t that what really matters?

"Exercise may help you stick to your diet. University of Pittsburgh researchers studied 169 dieters for 2 years and found that the participants who didn’t follow a 3-hour-a-week training plan ate more than their allotted 1,500 calories per day. The reverse was also true—sneaking snacks sabotaged their workouts. 'One healthy behavior without the other will not work—you need to diet and exercise to maintain long-term weight loss,' says lead study author John Jakicic, Ph.D. That’s because both actions can act as a reminder to stay on track.

"Exercise may target belly fat. While weight loss was similar among all four groups in the LSU study, only the groups that exercised saw their waist size decrease. The Time story downplays this finding, but isn’t it relevant? Think about it: This study actually shows that even a small amount of low-intensity exercise—performed in, say, just three 24-minute sessions a week—could help your jeans fit better. In other words, it makes you thinner. Doesn’t sound like a waste of time to me."

I don't think a fair reading of the Time article leads to the conclusion that exercise is not good for you. Time does, however, play up the argument that it doesn't make you thin, and certainly doesn't put much emphasis on the health benefits of exercise, which was a disservice to Time readers.

Time: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

That's the most read and most emailed article on time.com today. It's no surprise that the topic concerns many. That there's so much disagreement about what it takes to lose weight is pretty amazing, considering how much medicine and health care have advanced. The conclusion of the article is basically this -

"The problem ultimately is about not exercise itself but the way we've come to define it. Many obesity researchers now believe that very frequent, low-level physical activity — the kind humans did for tens of thousands of years before the leaf blower was invented — may actually work better for us than the occasional bouts of exercise you get as a gym rat. 'You cannot sit still all day long and then have 30 minutes of exercise without producing stress on the muscles,' says Hans-Rudolf Berthoud, a neurobiologist at LSU's Pennington Biomedical Research Center who has studied nutrition for 20 years. 'The muscles will ache, and you may not want to move after. But to burn calories, the muscle movements don't have to be extreme. It would be better to distribute the movements throughout the day.'"

So what the article argues is that what you eat is more important than how much rigorous exercise you do. You're better off keeping moderately active and eating less rather than working out feverishly and then rewarding yourself with ice cream and a cigarette (though there isn't one mention of cigarettes in the entire article, which I find somewhat surprising).

You Don't Want This 'F' on Your Report Card

From Time.com -

"...[A]re parents really failing to notice their little angels piling on the pounds? Yes, says the U.K.'s Department of Health. 'Today, when more children are overweight compared with previous generations, it can be harder for parents to objectively identify if their child is overweight,' says a spokeswoman from the Department of Health. 'Research shows that most parents of overweight or obese children think that their child is a healthy weight. Some research showed that only 10% of parents with overweight or obese children described their child as overweight.'"

The article discusses the fact that parents of U.K. students will be notified by schools of their children's weight, whether it be normal, underweight, overweight, or worse. Some schools in the U.S. already note students' weights on report cards. The reason the 10% statistic is so alarming is that more than 3 times that amount are actually overweight or obese.

The Science of Sleep

Very interesting stuff on Time.com. People who sleep too little (fewer than 6 hours/night) or too much (more than 9 hours) are less healthy than people who sleep juuuuuust the right amount (7 to 8). Normal sleepers drink and smoke less, are of healthier weight and have lower rates of depression. As usual, there is no proof of a cause-and-effect relationship, but it's good to know this stuff if you're trying to take control of your life and move in a better direction.

Columbia University sleep researcher, James Gangwisch -

"We're getting to the point that they may start recommending getting enough sleep as a standard approach to weight loss and the prevention of obesity."

As my brother Mark says, "if you're not exercising or getting enough sleep, then you have your priorities screwed up". Which reminds me that I read in Forbes last night that the average American household watches 8 hours of TV a day! That horrifies me.

One last thing. "The Science of Sleep" is a great movie. Especially if you like weird European movies that employ several languages at the same time (English, Spanish, French, in this case).

Delicate Genius Alert!

Dr. Scott Haig, an orthopedic surgeon in New York, has written a piece in Time about patients who Google. I have wondered how the abundance of health information on line has impacted the communication between doctor and patient, and here is an inside look. The phenomenon seems to irritate him quite a bit.

Frankly, the doctor comes off as a pompous jerk. He berates the patient for being selfish, but I think most normal people out there can sympathize with a person who is sick or injured. This doctor seems to prefer when patients don't ask too many questions, but on the other hand, ridicules "non-compliant Bozos who won't read anything longer than a headline. They don't want to know what's wrong with them, they don't know what medicines they're taking, they don't even seem to care what kind of operation you're planning to do on them. 'Just get me better, doc,' is all they say."

George Costanza would definitely throw his hands up about this delicate genius.