Recent Research and News Items

Don’t Forget to Walk

A walk a day keeps Alzheimer’s at bay. Active Living reported on a recent study from the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Routine exercise such as a 15-minute walk three times a week will help to ward off dementia and related conditions among people age 65 and older.

Results of a six-year study by the Group Health Cooperative Center for Health Studies in Seattle were quite dramatic. The subjects comprised 1,740 older adults with no signs of cognitive problems. Those who exercised three or more times weekly had up to a 30% lower risk of developing these conditions than less active participants.

“Earlier research has shown that low blood flow can damage the parts of the brain used for memory, “ said lead author Eric Larson. “So one theory is that exercise may prevent damage and might even help repair these areas by increasing blood flow.”

The study did not provide direct proof that exercise will ward off dementia or make it go away, Larsen added. For that, a clinical trial covering several years would have to be undertaken.

Another Phoney Diet

Is one cell phone picture really worth 1,000 words or calories?

Sprint Nextel Corp., the third-largest US wireless services company, is offering a service that lets camera-phone users send pictures of their food to nutrition experts and receive advice on their eating habits.

For $9.99US a month, the service will let users send pictures of each of their meals to a nutrition advisor at Quebec City-based MyFoodPhone and get personalized video feedback on their eating habits every two weeks, Sprint said in a statement yesterday.

Users will be able to see their food photos on an Internet food journal on which they also can log data such as weight, exercise and calories burned, the company said.
“Of course, there are ways people can cheat on the diets, but they’re not going to be fooling anyone but themselves,” said Marc Onigman, a spokesman for MyFoodPhone.

MyFoodPhone has offered the service for about two years, and it has been running on a trial basis with Sprint for a month-and-a-half, Mr. Onigman said. The company has “couple of dozen” advisers working for it now and many more who are trained and ready to work, he said, without being more specific.

“With Sprint as a partner, there’s no limit to how many people we can take,” Mr. Onigman said this week in an interview.

A Useful Index for Problem Pounds

Many men seem impervious to information about overweight. In the US, 25% of overweight and obese men thought their weight was just fine in an April 2006 report. Women are more sensitive, but still struggle to lose weight, much to the delight of the diet industry.

One of the problems may be references to Body Mass Index (BMI), which is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by weight in meters squared (Kg/m2). Not a formula likely to resonate with anyone other than researchers, particularly in the USA where metric measures sound decidedly ‘foreign’.

The good news is that scientists at Glasgow Royal Infirmary have come up with an easy way to know if you are overweight and if that weight is unhealthy. They tracked the medical history, weight, body measurements and clothing size of 360 men and women.

An analysis of the results found that people who wore larger dress sizes and pants had the greatest chance of developing cardiovascular disease – surprise!

What is interesting is that health risks started to become significant at a pants size of 36 for men and a dress size of 16 for women. At size 38 for men and 18 for women, the respective risks were between 4 and 7 times higher than for people in smaller sizes.

I can just see the health zealots wanting to put up medical alert signs on large clothing sizes, “You are now entering the dangerous clothing zone.”

The only problem of using this simple technique as a way of assessing excess and unhealthy weight, is that the clothing manufacturers are unscrupulous and will continue the trend, which is already evident in women’s clothing, of “vanity sizing”. Their rationale is that, if it makes people feel good, will call a 36inch waist pant a 34, fine. Anything to sell more product.

If you can’t trust clothing sizes, one foolproof way to see if you are carrying too much weight is to stand naked in front of a mirror. Then jump up and down and stop suddenly. If your flesh continues to move after you’ve stopped it might be time for some more physical activity and a lot fewer calories.

Eat Less, Live More

The Baltimore Aging Study showed there were a number of well-defined markers identifying people who lived longer and healthier lives. These markers include:

• Lower core temperature
• Lower metabolic rate for a given lean body mass.
• Higher DHEA levels
• Lower insulin levels
• Less damage to DNA

In order to test these concepts in people, Dr. L K Heilbronn and colleagues at the Pennington Biomedical Research Centre in Louisiana conducted a six-month trial in which subjects were randomized to one of four groups: a control group eating their usual diet, a diet-restricted group fed 25% less energy than their usual intake, a diet plus exercise group in which the diet was restricted by 12.5% and exercise increased to consume 12.5% of their usual energy intake, or a very low-calorie group fed only 890 calories a day until they lost 15% of their body weight and then stabilized by increasing intake.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on April 5, 2006.

Researchers found when compared with the control group, all forms of energy restriction resulted in lower metabolic rate of the lean body mass, lower insulin levels, increased DHEA and reduced DNA breaks. All the above changes are markers of longevity in humans.

For the first time it was shown in humans that simply reducing energy intake may have the potential to promote a longer life. Of greater interest is that reducing intake by 25% had the same effect as reducing intake by 12.5% and increasing exercise to consume 12.5% more energy, showing it is not simply dietary penance but net energy balance that determines health. In short, exercise more to enjoy more food.

In this context, if we examine Canada’s Food Guide “rainbow” and healthy choices, it becomes clear “healthy foods” such as whole grains and vegetables, have a low-calorie density, and enhancing the quantity of these foods automatically reduces energy intake while satisfying hunger. Calorie dense foods do the opposite, as do foods rich in fat.

The dietary concept for longevity may simply be restriction of the net quantity of energy by eating less energy-dense foods and exercising more rather than complex formulae created by governments.

A So-What Pedometer Study

It’s interesting how some studies get picked up by the press ad featured as a news item. A recent Belgian study concerning the accuracy of inexpensive pedometers has been featured in a number of magazines and newspapers of late.

The study was first published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine and at first glance seemed intriguing. However, when I downloaded it and read it more thoroughly it seemed more like the sort of study I’d have given a failing grade to as a graduate supervisor.

The essence of the study is this. The authors acquired 1000 pedometers, called the ‘Stepping Meter’, which retail for one Euro apiece (approx. $1.40CAD). They then had a team of 35 adults; wearing 6 pedometers at a time (5 Stepping Meters and one Digiwalker), test 30 Stepping Meters each. To the surprise of no one the 1 Euro Stepping Meters appeared less reliable than the relatively expensive Digiwalker.

Here are some questions I have:

1. Do you have to test 1000 pedometers of the same make and model to show that a very cheap one is less reliable than an expensive Japanese Yamax Digiwalker? It’s rather like testing 1000 $3.00 watches against a Rolex.
2. Did the researchers test the accuracy of the Digiwalker? (The paper does not state which model of Digiwalker was used). When I tested single models of 3 different Digiwalkers I found all were within 1% accuracy at 4mph but no one was within 1% accuracy at 2mph. In fact one, an SW500, had an unacceptable 7.25% error at 2mph. It interests me that researchers often hold up Digiwalkers as the criterion for pedometer testing when apparently better pedometers are available.
3. Because the subjects wore 6 pedometers at a time, the pedometers were spread in various positions on their belts or waistbands. “3 pedometers were randomly worn on the right and 3 on the left.” When I have tested pedometers in different positions I have found significant variations. The best place to wear a pedometer is over the point of the hipbone. As it is moved closer towards the navel, accuracy deteriorates.

Heavy Teddies an Answer to Childhood Obesity? – I don’t think so

Researchers at Indiana State University experimented with having children play with heavier toys to help them burn more calories and provide some heavy artillery in the battle against childhood obesity. Dr. John Ozmun claimed that playing with 1.4kg blocks and weighted teddy bears lead to higher heart and breathing rates than playing with unweighted toys. The mind boggles, but it’s interesting to speculate on other ways to develop the musculature of our children and infants.

I’m sure there are research papers to be written and funding to be found for testing such things as:

• Heavy cutlery
• Weighted cups and plates
• Chain mail children’s clothing
• A 2kg box of crayons
• Lead inserts for the TV remote

When Eating Becomes an Unnatural Act

Dr. Russell Keast, a senior lecturer in the school of exercise and nutrition sciences at Australia's Deakin University, has developed a new snack food with a parmesan cheese cracker, organic mashed potato and special healthy additives.

He said, "This new snack has natural additives such as an anti-inflammatory agent, omega 3 fatty acids and zinc to improve brain and heart function, boost male virility and improve immunity."

Dr. Keast said it was the first time the anti-inflammatory agent oleocanthal had been included in a manufactured food and research was continuing into its flavor and health promoting properties.

A natural appetite suppressant which makes the consumer feel fuller for longer, and a natural compound to increase liking for a product, have also been added to the snack food.

Samples of the snack are being presented to the food industry at a workshop at Deakin University to point the way to healthy snacks of the future.

"Overall, the snack is a vehicle for these health promoting compounds. However, it must be flavorsome and popular so people will want to eat it repeatedly," Dr. Keast said. "An agent in the snack will help prevent overeating it. While it is not a natural food, it is an innovative food.”

Late Breaking Research News – Physical Activity is Good for You

Three big, new studies have been released in the past few days and what they show is that physical activity is good for young and old, weak and strong, healthy and sick, active or sedentary, in fact, exercise is good for everybody.

A few years ago, at my suggestion, Steve Nash gave his parents the gift of a complete physical at the Cooper Institute in Dallas, Texas. Steve’s dad, John, who is in great physical shape and still playing soccer in his 50s, sent me an update he received from the Institute.

Some of the key results show that unfit people are three times more likely to have a heart attack, almost twice as likely to have high blood pressure, three times as likely to have diabetes and the women are three times as likely to have a stroke. However, perhaps the most telling finding was the big difference in the ability of the fit and unfit respondents to perform the activities of daily living, ranging from kneeling to prolonged standing and from fishing to leisurely cycling.

Thank you for your support of the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study (ACLS).

Last year the Cooper Institute sent questionnaires to all patients examined at the Cooper Clinic since 1970. This effort was part of an important research project funded by the National Institutes of Health, and was designed to evaluate the relationship between physical activity and physical fitness and health and function. Information from the ACLS survey provides us with valuable data that will enable us to remain one of the world’s leading centers on physical activity and health research.Your responses to our questionnaire are greatly appreciated.

• General Info: Over 22,000 completed questionnaires were returned. Thirty percent of the respondents were women with an average age of 59 years and an average weight of 145 lbs. The men had an average age of 60 years and an average weight of 191 lbs. (Martin’s note: This is an above average group of men and especially women.)

The July edition of Heart reports on a study from Germany by Rothenbacher et al. The researchers interviewed 312 senior adults with heart disease and 479 without any diagnosed cardiovascular disease. Probably the strongest finding is that by 65, physically active people were about 60% less likely to develop heart disease than their sedentary peers. The other interesting finding is that you can start exercising in middle age or late middle age and almost catch up to the life time exercisers in the low risk group.

Lastly, Dr. Marlo Shapiro wrote an article titled, “Exercise, a disease dodging option” based on a review of exercise and disease in the Canadian Medical Journal. Highlights include:

1. Active people reduce their chances of premature death by 35%.
2. Walking as little as 2 hours a week can reduce the risk of premature death by about 50%. And, of course, walking more is better!!!
3. There are strong links between exercise and the likelihood of avoiding:
   1. Diabetes
   2. Heart disease
   3. Colon cancer
   4. Breast cancer
   5. Osteoporosis