Join us for the series of 50 articles from Dr Paul Batman PhD.
Use these articles in your classes and business to share with your client and add content for your marketing
Article 1
Retirees take note…. it doesn’t take that much
When the time comes to retire many older adults look forward to sitting back and watching life go by without all the pressures associated with a full time career.
Sadly many of these new retirees don’t get to enjoy their retirement as their bodies begin to break down through lack of use or a newly adopted sedentary lifestyle.
Older males are perhaps the worst in thinking that this newly adopted sedentary lifestyle will improve their quality of life and help them live longer.
As our society ages a greater disproportion of our older adults incur significant health care costs at ages 70 years +. Some of the reasons given for the increased health care costs include increased sedentary behaviour, obesity and cardiovascular disease.
Numerous studies have reported that the more this older aged group is engaged in physical activity the lower their risk of dying. Older women aged 70 years + were reported to experience a 32% lower risk of dying. The type of movement recommended included walking and other types of moderate intensity activities.
A recent Swedish study examined 15,000 males born between 1923 and 1932 that had regular health check ups over a 40 years period (from when the original study was launched).
The survey was repeated again in 2000 and again in 2011.
Initially the researchers found that older men who performed 30 minutes of physical activity for 6 days per week had a 40% lower risk of dying when compared to their “couch potato” counterparts.
When the study was reviewed again in 2011 there were only 3,600 elderly males left of the original 15,000 subjects.
One of the most significant findings was the huge impact that small amounts regular physical activity had on these now elderly men.
The researchers were amazed of the large impact that only a small amount of physical activity had on the overall health of these 70-80 years old men.
Typically a person in the 70 years + age group is unlikely to embark upon a fitness program if they have not previously attempted to get fit at other stages of their life.
The FITT principle has been the cornerstone of physical activity recommendations to improve the health of older adult. While this information can’t be disputed there is large component of energy expenditure in the lives of these oldewr people that seems to be totally ignored.
Alternatively, older adults should be encouraged to increase their physical activity levels by spending more time on their feet and performing free living activities such as household chores, gardening, active transport, active leisure etc in preference to a structured exercise program.
The message is that physical activity at any level, as long as it is consistent can be a major influence on our health and longevity.
Remember that at this age its never too late to start….and it doesn’t take a lot of work to reap some major benefits.
Article 2
Lose weight while you sleep… now that’s a diet
“One of the more interesting ideas that has been smouldering and is now gaining momentum is the theory that sleep and sleep disruption do remarkable things to the body, including influencing your weight” says David Rapport, MD, associate professor and Director of the Sleep Medicine program at NYU.
While the medical profession has known that hormones are affected by sleep, Rapport says that it wasn’t until recently that appetite entered the picture. What brought it into focus was the research on the hormones Leptin and Ghrelin.
Studies report that both of these hormones are influenced by how much or how little we sleep.
If you have ever experienced a sleepless night followed by a day when no matter what you ate you never felt full or satisfied, you may have experienced the workings of Leptin and Ghrelin.
Leptin and Ghrelin work in a checks and balance manner to control feelings of hunger of fullness. Ghrelin, which is produced in the gastrointestinal tract stimulates appetite, while Leptin produced in the fat cells sends a signal to the brain that you are full.
So what is the connection to sleep?
When we don’t get enough sleep, Leptin levels are driven down, which means that we don’t feel satisfied after we eat. Lack of sleep causes the Ghrelin levels to rise stimulating our appetite, which means that we want more food.
The two combined can set the stage for overeating, which in turn can lead to weight gain….Hey wake up and get back to work….
Article 3
Are you sure we need to Detox?
It seems that everywhere we look we see all types of antioxidant supplements or super foods available on the shelves. Antioxidant foods such as broccoli are supposed to neutralise the free radicals and reduce oxidative stress caused by our diet and or the intense exercise we undertake. They reportedly do this by the release of antioxidants.
Ironically it turns out that eating these foods might be more beneficial not only because of their antioxidant capabilities but because of the toxins they contain.
How can this be?
Aren’t we eating these foods primarily to combat oxidative stress and not create more?
There are many fruits and vegetables that we eat that have evolved as toxins to prevent insects and animals from eating them.
Mark Mattson from the National Institute of Ageing reports that plants induce a mild stress response in the form of the release of mild toxins.
Mattson further suggests that broccoli for example, releases a chemical called sulforaphane that activates stress response pathways in the cell that up regulate its antioxidant enzymes.
This means that the broccoli by itself is not releasing enough antioxidants to provide protection.
It is the toxins within the plant that cause an increase in the release of antioxidants from elsewhere in the cell that helps guard against oxidative stress.
It appears over time that the resilience gained by the release of these antioxidants from elsewhere to fight the new toxins is released by the plant causing the cells to build up a resistance to the accumulation of free radical damage to the cell membrane.
It demonstrates that while “out of control” stress is harmful to our health, mild stress is necessary to build up a resistance to fight additional toxins.
To illustrate this point the US Department if Energy commissioned a study in 1980 to evaluate exposure to sustained low radiation levels. They compared workers who were exposed to a mild dose of radiation to a group of other workers who had no exposure at all for over 8 years.
Common sense would tell us that the exposed workers would experience a greater health issues.
The results were confusing as well as dramatic. The 28,000 workers exposed to mild radiation had a 24% lower mortality rate compared to the 32,000 workers who were not exposed to any dose of radiation.
Apparently the mild toxins from the low dose radiation helped the affected workers to build up immunity to the adverse affects of radiation.
Just as with the low dose radiation workers, mild toxins from our food can generate an adaptive stress response the makes the cells more resilient and protects them from further damage.
So it might not be so much about detoxing as building up a tolerance to existing toxins..
Article 4
Exercise and Air Pollution: Is there a real threat?
If someone told you there was an insidious problem within our society that killed 3,000 people per year you would be outraged and determined to do something about it. This problem is not about car fatalities, shark attacks, inactivity or drug overdoses…its simply air pollution.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimated that urban air pollution was responsible for more than 3,000 premature deaths in 2003. Over the past 12 years the air quality had improved markedly but could easily be reversed with our ongoing reliance on coal fired power generation and the population growth so dependent on the increasing use of motor vehicles.
Still, it has been reported that long-term city dwellers could have their lives reduced by 72 days for men and 65 days for women as a result of continually breathing in fine particles.
In a Scottish study 30 healthy men who rode their bike daily to and from work while exposed to diesel fuel emissions presented with constricted blood vessels and reduced action of an enzyme responsible for breaking blood clots in the heart. In another study competitive cyclists who were exposed to different levels of air pollution (ozone) while exercising, decreased their endurance by approximately 30% and their lung function by 22%.
A 2010 study in the Netherlands estimated that short daily trips cycling in polluted cities can reduced their life expectancy from .8 to 40 days.
Even the Sydney Morning Herald in August 2014 reported in a lead article: “Sydney’s air kills more people than car accidents”.
Sydney air consists of two different types of air pollution. Primary pollutants include carbon monoxide, sulphur oxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and particles from dust, smoke and soot.
Secondary pollutants include those that come directly from our environment including sunlight, moisture and other pollutants that react with the primary pollutants.
Outdoor pollution is strongly related to industry and population density. Major contributors to carbon monoxide include cars, buses, truck, planes and combustion of fossil fuels.
Vehicle pollution accounts for approximately 70% of our poor air quality. While the pollution from cars has reduced over the past 20 years, there has been an increase in diesel-powered cars. It is the tiny soot particles from these diesel exhausts that are now causing some of the biggest problems. These very small particles can find their way into the bloodstream where they can contribute to clot formation and hardening of the blood vessels.
Is this a problem given the dramatic increase in outdoor fitness sessions, active transport, leisure time and free-living physical activities?
We actively encourage children and adults alike to go outside and walk more, cycle more and run more either in a structured fitness session, active transport, outdoor household activities or free-living activity.
Globally, 52% of people live in urban areas. In developed countries this figure increases to 78%. This means that exercising outdoors might increase exposure to urban air pollution and could affect the positive benefits of being physically active.
Different forms of active transport is also affected by exposure to air pollution. For example, cyclists travelling in the bike lane in major urban areas might be exposed to smaller particle matter than pedestrians. This is possibly due to their proximity to the traffic. It is also possible that commuters in buses and cars in these urban areas are also being exposed to poorer air quality because they sit in an environment of limited circulating ventilation.
Walkers, bikers and runners who exercise in urban environments before work, at lunchtime or after work could also be placed at risk. When we leave home and start exercising our breathing increases up to 15 times more than at rest, which allows more fine polluting particles to progress deeper down our respiratory system.
Short-term symptoms to pollution exposure include: sore throat, coughing, scratchy throat, headache, chest pains and watery eyes. Just because we don’t experience any of these symptoms doesn’t mean that we are exempt from the problem.
The effects of this exposure to air irritants while moving at low intensities might be minimal to our health but it does affect our overall physical performance. The greatest decrease in performance and health is when exercising at high intensities.
There are a number of physiological changes that take place when exercising in a polluted environment. When exercising at low intensities we tend to still breathe through our nose, which filters many of the airs irritants. Once the intensity increases there is an increase in breathing through the mouth increasing the pollutant dose into our lungs. The small hairs in our nasal passage generally filter air before it gets into the lungs.
The faster breathing rate increases the proportion of fine particles that move down the airways and are not exhaled easily. This can cause an inflammation of the lung tissue that can affect the airway antioxidant defences and increase airway resistance by constricting the air passages, making it harder to breathe.
At the beginning of exercise we start to breathe faster and deeper and then as a means of trying to protect our lungs we start to breathe less, trapping gases in the airway dead space and setting up a potential competition for blood between the skeletal muscles and the muscles responsible for breathing. Our air passages tighten and our breathing becomes much more laboured. Our cardiovascular and respiratory systems start to strain in an attempt to feed our muscles with the required amount of oxygen they are demanding.
The ingestion of these fine particles can also affect the cardiovascular system.
Carbon monoxide has a strong affinity for haemoglobin found on the red blood cell. Carbon monoxide has a 200-250 times greater affinity for haemoglobin (Hb) than oxygen reducing the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood.
As we need oxygen to burn fuel for the supply of energy the heart must beat faster (heart rate) and with more blood (stroke volume) in order to get the required amount of oxygen to the tissues.
If the blood and the oxygen don’t reach the tissue there is a chance of tissue hypoxia or lack of oxygen to the cells.
When oxygen delivery to the cells is reduced there is an increase in the production of free radicals, which causes the cell to become inflamed impairing their basic functions.
The effects of air pollution can last for hours even after the exercise session has finished.
In those with existing coronary heart disease exposure to air pollution can potentially cause myocardial infarctions, irregular heartbeats as well as affect the lining of the arteries.
Overall exposure to air pollution in our urban environments should always be a consideration when planning outdoor activities, particularly when the session is intense.
Low levels of fitness and obesity increase the potential risks from exercising in a polluted environment.
We should always limit our exposure to polluted air in all our physical activities.
Some risk management strategies might include: being aware of the pollen count or pollution levels forecast on the day of exercise, pre treatment for asthmatics to protect against the reduced oxygen levels, exercising in the morning and avoiding mid and late afternoon, exercise as far away from traffic or industry as possible, exercise close to trees and gardens, wear a mask, identify people at risk, avoid smoky areas before the session starts, exercise indoors if the air quality is too poor, always avoid morning and afternoon rush hours, select the days to exercise at a higher intensity e.g. Sundays, exercise at low to moderate levels of intensity on poor air quality days, stay indoors or reduce the time outdoors, limit any exercise on polluted days, if cycling or walking don’t get behind polluting vehicles.
Those bike couriers delivering goods around town with their masks on might not be so geeky after all…
Article 5
What happens to fat when you lose weight?
Given the universal interest in weight loss and fat loss you would think this question has a simple answer.
Of a survey completed on 150 doctors, dieticians and personal trainers the widespread answer in over 50% of the respondents was that fat is converted to heat and energy as it is broken down. Others suggested that fat was excreted in faeces or taken up by the muscle.
The misconception and ignorance of this subject is alarming considering those professionals at the forefront are still unsure of what really happens to fat during weight loss.
We know that when we eat additional carbohydrate, protein and fat it is converted into triglycerides and stored in the adipocyte or fat cell. So if we want to lose weight but at the same time maintain our lean body mass we have to create a situation where we can metabolise fat stored in the adipocyte.
As fat is being metabolised a hormone called lipase is released and is responsible for the further breakdown of fat. Lipase works by breaking down triglycerides in our adipocytes into smaller molecules, and ultimately gets released as energy in the form of ATP, water and carbon dioxide.
ATP is used to fuel our movements as well as our metabolism, but what happens to water and carbon dioxide?
In a study published in the British Medical Journal the researchers have modified existing calculations to identify where fat goes in weight loss.
They reported that the triglyceride (consists of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen) must be broken down to gain access to the carbon, which can eventually be breathed out…
That right…the mass is converted to carbon dioxide and breathed out through our lungs!! So that’s where the fat goes!
What this tells us is that the lungs are the primary excretory organs for weight loss.
Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean that simply by breathing harder or deeper will help you lose more weight. The fat must be broken down to carbon through physical activity or metabolism before it can be exhaled through the lungs.
If we want to lose 10kg of fat we would change our macronutrient contribution of our food plan and participate in more physical activity.
As a consequence of this weight loss prescription we would need to inhale 29kg of oxygen and burn approximately 94,000 Kcals, while producing 28kgs of carbon dioxide and 11kgs of water.
Its been calculated that 84% of the fat used is exhaled as carbon dioxide and 16% is excreted as fluid either in the form of sweat or urine.
Dr Ruben Meerman and Professor Andrew J Brown reported a great case study as to how carbon dioxide is formed and extracted from our body during fat metabolism.
“At rest, an average 70 kg person consuming a mixed diet of carbohydrates, protein and fat exhales about 200 ml of CO2 in 12 breaths per minute. Each of those breaths excretes 33 mg of CO2, of which 8.9 mg is carbon.
When at rest and performing light activities that doubles the resting metabolic rate (2 METS), each for 8 hours, this person exhales 0.74 kg of CO2 so that 203 g of carbon is lost from the body.
Replacing one hour of rest with physical activity that raises the metabolic rate to seven times (7 METS) that of resting (e.g. jogging) removes an additional 39g of carbon from the body, raising the total by about 20% to 240g.”
The calculations from the researchers suggest that weight loss is all about unlocking the carbon from the fat molecule so that it can be exhaled through the lungs.
An interesting and new view to fat loss…