Posts Tagged ‘blood pressure’

Play v.s. Exercise

February 26th, 2010

Awesome Image taken by Toby Green - flickr

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Researchers have found that in just 3 short months, a group of inactive men with high blood pressure were able to drastically lower their BP, resting pulse rate and body-fat % by playing soccer.

That’s right – soccer.

In fact, the results were significantly better than results achieved via the typical medical advice on healthy diet & exercise. (link to study)

The researchers found that “a regular game of soccer affects numerous cardiovascular risk factors such as maximal oxygen uptake, heart function, elasticity of the vascular system, blood pressure, cholesterol and fat mass far more than e.g. strength training and just as much if not more than running”.

More than running?

But, isn’t that what soccer is? You run and chase the ball over here…and then you chase the ball over there…etc, etc….

So, why is playing soccer better than just running around a track?

What’s the difference?

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The difference is that soccer is played with other people, and when you play soccer you talk and laugh and compete with those other people.

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And that makes it fun.

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And fun + exercise is better than running on a treadmill while watching Anderson Cooper make his serious “news-man” face.

But, maybe you don’t like soccer. Maybe it’s a little too Euro for your taste.

Doesn’t matter.

Find some physical activity that:

  1. Gets your heart beating, and
  2. You think you may enjoy

Maybe you join a running club, or lift weights with a buddy, or go swimming with the old ladies at the community center, or play softball or volleyball or basketball or play ping pong with nunchucks

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It doesn’t matter what the activity is.

Fun + Exercise = Good for You

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Posted in Exercise, I Wanna Be Healthy, I Wanna Look Great, fat loss, fitness, obesity, weight loss

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Fighting Fat With Vinegar

October 14th, 2009

oil and vinegarYour Grandma was right.

It turns out that the acetic acid found in plain ole’ vinegar is effective in suppressing body fat accumulation.

The Science

Earlier this year, Japanese researchers found that laboratory mice fed a high-fat diet and given acetic acid developed significantly less body fat (up to 10 percent less) than other mice.

Based upon their findings, the scientists believe that acetic acid fights fat by turning on genes for fatty acid oxidation enzymes. The genes churn out proteins involved in breaking down fats, thus suppressing body fat accumulation in the body.

link to the study

Conclusion

Vinegar is cheap, harmless and versatile in the kitchen.

It may also help you metabolize sugars more efficiently, lower blood pressure and lose weight.

What do you have to lose?

Links to more vinegary/weight loss research

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Posted in Diet - General, Diet/Nutrition, Research, diabetes, fat, fat loss, fitness, fitness - research, health, healthcare, nutrition, obesity, weight loss

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Loneliness worse for your health than smoking and obesity

February 16th, 2009
Picasso - the old guitarist

Picasso - the old guitarist

According to the research of Dr. John Cacioppo, loneliness has a major impact on your overall health – both mental and physical.

In his research, Dr. Cacioppo employed brain scans, monitoring of autonomic and neuroendocrine processes, and assays of immune function to test the influence that social connection has upon our health. His research showed how our perceptions, behavior and physiology are strongly affected by a loss of that connection.

In fact, Dr. Cacoppo’s research has shown that loneliness can cause:

  • an increase in your blood pressure

  • an increase in your level of stress and cortisol production

  • a negative impact on your immune system

  • an inability to get a good nights sleep

  • an increased level of depression and anxiety

  • an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease

  • a reduction in your will to exercise

  • an increase in your cravings for comforting foods high in processed carbohydrates

  • an increase in caloric consumption

  • an increase in alcohol consumption

  • an increase in the consumption of a variety of drugs…both legal and illegal, and…
  • a feeling of sadness that feeds upon itself, causing even more isolation and an even greater sense of loneliness.

These finding were presented by Dr. Cacioppo at the most recent conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

According to Dr. Cacioppo, “healthwise, the difference between a lonely person and a popular person was akin to “a smoker and a non-smoker”.

“That stunned all of us, myself and all my colleagues in terms of the effects it had,” he said. “It shows just how powerful it is.

“Loneliness lowers the ability to control yourself. It is really easy after a bad day to have a second scotch and a third to get some comfort.”

Dr. Cacioppo’s research has led him to believe that our need for connection can be traced back through our evolutionary roots.

In order to survive in the past, humans needed to bond to rear their children. In order to flourish, they needed to [increase their levels of altruism and cooperation].

Just as physical pain is a prompt to change behavior, such as moving a finger away from the fire, loneliness evolved as a prompt to action, signaling an ancestral need to repair the social bonds.

The problem of social isolation is likely to grow as conventional family structures die out, said Dr. Cacioppo.

People are living longer, having fewer children later in life and becoming increasingly mobile around the world.

Surveys also show that people report significantly fewer close friends and confidants than those a generation ago.

All of this adds up to more loneliness and more health problems because of that loneliness.

According to the good doctor, we need to realize that “human beings are simply far more intertwined and interdependent—physiologically as well as psychologically—than our cultural prejudices have allowed us to acknowledge”.

And if we don’t address our very real need for connection, we are risking our own psychological and physiological health.

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“If you want to go fast,” says an African proverb, “go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

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HIIT Training: The Cure for Insulin Resistance, Type 2 Diabetes, Metabolic Disease and Obesity?

January 28th, 2009
Art by Bill Hall - billhall.com

Art by Bill Hall - billhall.com

It’s official:

HIIT training is AWESOME!!!

Researchers from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland have concluded that:

The efficacy of a high intensity exercise protocol, involving only 250 kcal of work each week, to substantially improve insulin action in young sedentary subjects  is  remarkable.

This novel  time-efficient  training paradigm can  be  used  as  a  strategy  to  reduce  metabolic  risk  factors  in  young  and middle aged sedentary populations who otherwise would not adhere  to  time consuming traditional aerobic exercise regimes.

And for those of you that don’t know, here are the risk factors of Metabolic Syndrome that HIIT training is so effective at reducing:

  • Abdominal obesity (excessive fat tissue in and around the abdomen)
  • Atherogenic dyslipidemia (blood fat disorders — high triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol and high LDL cholesterol — that foster plaque buildups in artery walls)
  • Elevated blood pressure
  • Insulin resistance or glucose intolerance (the body can’t properly use insulin or blood sugar)
  • Prothrombotic state (e.g., high fibrinogen or plasminogen activator inhibitor–1 in the blood)
  • Proinflammatory state (e.g., elevated C-reactive protein in the blood)

People with the metabolic syndrome are at increased risk of coronary heart disease and other diseases related to plaque buildups in artery walls (e.g., stroke and peripheral vascular disease) and type 2 diabetes.

It’s estimated that over 50 million Americans have it.

And I am 100% sure that you don’t want it.

metabolic-syndrome

So, what do you need to do?

  1. Go to your doctor and get checked out – Max intensity sprints combined with a sky high B.P. is just asking for trouble.
  2. Go through my HIIT resources
  3. Find an exercise bike, set of stairs, outdoor track or even a carpeted area in your home to do burpees
  4. Schedule 3 x 15 minute HIIT workouts per week
  5. Get HIITing

And I am serious about the doctor. I don’t mean to sound like your mother, but a visit to your doctor at least once a year for a check-up is a very, very, very good idea.

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Want To Lower Your Blood Pressure?

September 18th, 2008

Common sense tells us that exercise is good for us.

Scientific research tells us that “exercise, of appropriate intensity and duration, could help maintain normotension if post-exercise hypotension persists over subsequent everyday activities.

In English:

  • Exercise lowers your blood pressure – hypotension
  • Our lifestyles make us prone to high blood pressure – primary hypertension
  • The B.P. lowering effect of regular exercise balances out the B.P. raising effect of our lifestyles to give us a healthy blood pressure – normotension

So, What Now?

In this study, researchers looked at how exercise intensity affected our “at rest” blood pressure.

During the study, the researchers:

  • Monitored the B.P. and heart rate of 6 normotensive males for 24 hours after a workout.
  • The 6 guinea-pigs performed 4 different workouts over the course of the entire study.
  • The workouts differed only in their intensity.
  • Workout #1 was the control workout: They did nothing. No workout
  • Workout #2 consisted of 30 minutes of cycling at 70% of their V˙O2peak
  • Workout #3 consisted of 30 minutes of cycling at 40% of their V˙O2peak
  • Workout #4 consisted of cycling at 40% of their V˙O2peak until they had matched the work output achieved in Workout #2.

V˙O2peak is the highest amount or volume(V) of oxygen(O2) you can consume while exercising at your maximum capacity.

The Results

While the participants slept, their resting blood pressure (B.P.) was monitored

  • Workout # 2 produced the greatest reduction in resting B.P.
  • Workout #1 had little to no effect on the participants’ B.P.
  • Workout #3 had the second lowest effect on lowering B.P.
  • And even though Workout #4 produced the same amount of work as Workout #2, even it did not have as strong an effect on the participants’ blood pressure (90 % CI for difference = − 22.1 to − 0.1).

Conclusion

  • Daytime exercise can elicit a physiologically meaningful lower BP during sleep, and
  • Exercise intensity is the most important factor in this phenomenon.

So there you go folks, increase your exercise intensity and lower your blood pressure.

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News Flash! Caveman Diet Good…Your Diet Bad

May 10th, 2008

Swedish scientists have just published a research paper that indicates that eating a diet rich in lean meat, vegetables, berries and nuts is effective in lowering YOUR chances of suffering a heart attack or stroke.

Keeping in mind that it was only a three week study, and additional long term research will be required, scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden found that the volunteers reduced body-fat, lowered their blood pressure and slashed levels of a blood-thickening agent (plasminogen activator inhibitor-1) known to cause deadly clots.

The results, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, support earlier scientific and real world findings that praise the health benefits of the Paleolithic/Caveman Diet.

The theory behind this way of eating is that prior to the advent of agriculture (10,000 years ago) our ancestors lived only on foods that could be speared or picked from trees and plants.

Some scientists argue the human genome has been unable to keep pace with our advances in agriculture and food preparation. The theory is that the modern human body is not genetically programmed to thrive on our modern diet. Our technology may be modern, but our bodies haven’t fully caught up and chronic ailments like obesity and type 2 diabetes are the result.

To that end, following the Paleolithic/Caveman Diet means no cereals, bread, milk, butter, cheese or sugar but plenty of lean meat, fish, fruits, vegetables and nuts.

To test its effect, the Swedish researchers recruited 20 healthy volunteers and put them on caveman rations for three weeks.

Each patient was assessed for weight, body mass index, blood pressure and cholesterol at the beginning of the experiment.

They were then given a list of stone-age foods they could eat, including fresh or frozen fruit, berries or vegetables, lean meat, unsalted fish, canned tomatoes, lemon or lime juice, spices and coffee or tea without milk or sugar.

Banned foods included beans, salt, peanuts, dairy products, pasta or rice, sausages, alcohol, sugar and fruit juice.

However, they were also allowed up to two potatoes a day and a weekly treat of dried fruit, cured meats and a portion of fatty meat.

After three weeks, the volunteers were tested again.

Among the 14 who successfully completed the diet, the average weight loss was around five pounds. BMI dropped by 0.8. Systolic blood pressure fell by an average of three mmHg. And the levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 dropped by 72 per cent. Other favorable effects were the increase in antioxidants and a healthier potassium-sodium balance. One potential negative was the reduction of calcium. This effect should be addressed in further studies.

Official Scientific Conclusion:

This short-term intervention showed some favourable effects by the diet, but further studies, including control group, are needed. blah,blah,blah

My Conclusion:

Fruit, vegetables, lean meat good. Bagel-Fuls BAD.
If you are interested in changing your diet, I have a pretty easy how-to post here.
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