The How of "Why Exercise Works"

Scientists may now have the "How" of why exercise works:

"The anti-cancer effects of exercise are due to increases in a protein that blocks cell growth and induces cell death, according to Australian researchersThe protein, called insulin-like binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3), inhibits another protein called insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), thereby blocking IGF-1's proliferative effect on cell growth, the study hints.

Dr. Andrew M. M. Haydon and colleagues at Manash Medical School in Melbourne"

Haydon also added:

"physical activity can increase IGFBP-3 levels, which, in turn, reduces the amount of free IGF-1." IGF-1 has been shown to stimulate cell growth, inhibit cell death, and promote angiogenesis -- the formation of new blood vessels, which tumors need to grow."

see also: The Surprising Effect of Exercise

Not even one!

Simply put, do not SMOKE!!

This was reported many places, but I will show you Forbes' version:

THURSDAY, May 25 (HealthDay News) -- Children who light up just once are twice as likely to become steady smokers later.

British researchers report that, among 11-year-olds, the desire to smoke can lie dormant for more than three years after trying just one cigarette.

The researchers call this a "sleeper effect," and it doubles the risk that a child who smokes just one cigarette will become a regular smoker, according to their report in the July issue of Tobacco Control.

Reasons to shop at smaller grocery stores from the NY Times

Need another reason not to shop at the "big stores"?

From the NY Times:

"A visit to a large supermarket can be a daunting experience: so many aisles, so many brands and varieties, so many prices to keep track of and labels to read, so many choices to make. No wonder. To repeat: An astonishing 320,000 edible products are for sale in the United States, and any large supermarket might display as many as 40,000 of them. You are supposed to feel daunted-bewildered by all the choices and forced to wander through the aisles in search of the items you came to buy. The big companies that own most supermarkets want you to do as much searching as you can tolerate."

and later in the same article:

"Supermarkets say they are in the business of offering "choice." Perhaps, but they do everything possible to make the choice theirs, not yours. Supermarkets are not social service agencies providing food for the hungry. Their job is to sell food, and more of it. From their perspective, it is your problem if what you buy makes you eat more food than you need, and more of the wrong kinds of foods in particular."

And later yet:

"This strategy, is based on research proving that "the rate of exposure is directly related to the rate of sale of merchandise." In other words, the more you see, the more you buy."

Shoppers can be in and out of our stores in fraction of the time of the big stores, have to look at less than a quarter of the items. These facts will let you buy just what you need and not enough to feed an army for a month!

Chocolate the wonder drug?

I just report them:

From ScienceDaily:

"A West Virginia professor has good news for chocoholics -- eating chocolate improves memory, reaction time and cognitive ability.

Dr. Bryan Raudenbush of Wheeling Jesuit University led the study, "Effects of Chocolate Consumption on Enhancing Cognitive Performance," Reliable Plant reported. He found that subjects who had consumed either milk chocolate or dark chocolate 15 minutes before they were tested performed better than those given carob or nothing at all."

Pregnant? DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOL!!!

Reuters:

"For pregnant women, even a few alcoholic beverages per week during the first or second trimester can have harmful consequences on the cognitive development of the unborn child.

A long-term study has found that 10-year-old African-American children who were exposed to between two to six drinks per week during pregnancy, particularly in the second trimester, had a lower IQ compared with children who were not exposed to alcohol while in the womb."

Smart Balance

I have been remiss about telling you of new products that we have "picked up". So I will include cheat and include a single line that has several new products out.

SmartBalance who got their start with spreads has several new products: a Peanut Butter Spread, a vegetable oil, two kinds of microwave popcorn, and a mayonaise.

All are made with the SmartBalance policy of no transfat and having a blend "of polyunsaturates, mono-unsaturates and saturates - including, a favorable balance between Omega-6 and Omega-3 polyunsaturates."

Pain medicine and heart problems

Well we've all seen the headlines for quite a while on Vioxx and other pain killers, but now maybe kinds that are sold over the counter are also being implicated. So until we know more, you should probably try to cut back on your consumption--especially if you are on blood pressure medication.

From WebMD:

"May 22, 2006 -- Common painkillers raise the risk of heart failure heart failure-related hospitalization in people over 60, a new study shows.

The risk is even greater for those who already have heart failure. And even very short-term painkiller use can be dangerous, the study finds -- especially for people taking blood-pressure-lowering medications."

From Medical News Today:

"Their conclusion was that not only do NSAIDs raise the risk for patients with a history of cardiovascular disease, but also people without any history of heart disease.

Many health experts wonder whether NSAIDs should be available so readily in supermarkets."

"Healthy" may not be low calorie!

A cardinal rule to remember: just because something says it is good for you, it may not be!

From Yahoo News:

"It turns out those "healthy" foods were just as fattening as the chips and soda they replaced: The yogurt was filled with Reese's Pieces and the low-fat cookies were brimming with sugar that kept her hunger on razor's edge.

As concerns grow over rising obesity rates, so does confusion about the difference between what is healthy and what aids weight loss — with many believing the two are interchangeable."

Benzene in soft drinks

From Medical News Today:

"According to a sample of 100 drinks, the FDA found that 5 had benzene levels over the 5 parts per billion limit set for drinking water."

and later:

"If a soft drink contains Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) plus either sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate, benzene can form in it when exposed to heat and/or light.

The FDA says it has informed the companies of the five drinks. Some have reformulated the drinks, while others say they will do so. Officials say people should not be concerned about their safety. However, several groups disagree."

Are Vitamins worth it?

Are vitamins worth it? I'll let MedicalNewsToday answer that:

"You see multivitamins for sale in supermarkets, health shops, pharmacies, general grocery stores and health clubs. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide take them regularly, without fail. But, what good do they do us? We simply don't know"

From USA Today:

Americans spend billions of dollars on vitamins each year, but an expert panel says there's not enough scientific evidence to determine whether a multivitamin/mineral supplement every day helps prevent chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer.

"We have found no reasons to recommend that people either take them or not take them," says J. Michael McGinnis, chairman of the committee and a senior scholar with the Institute of Medicine."

and later:

"Some vitamin researchers who attended the conference support the use of multivitamins. "Most Americans know they are not eating as well as they should, and they recognize that multivitamins can help fill nutrient gaps," says Jeffrey Blumberg, a nutrition professor at Tufts University in Boston. Studies show that many people's diets fall short on many key nutrients such as vitamin E, vitamin C, vitamin D, magnesium and calcium, he says.

He says many experts recommend multivitamins for the elderly, dark-skinned people — often deficient in Vitamin D — and women of childbearing age. "Taking a multivitamin is a smart lifestyle choice when combined with eating a healthy diet and exercising," Blumberg says.""

Surprising news on exercise

We all knew exercise was good for you, but this one took me by surprise! A plesant surprise but a surprise:

From Physorg.com

" While doctors and scientists have long agreed that physical activity has health benefits, Rutgers cancer researcher Allan Conney and his New Jersey colleagues have found that exercise can even protect against skin cancer"