OK.. If you're driving a Toyota or any other car who's accelerator gets stuck..... TURN THRE IGNITION OFF. I just watched the news about a guy driving a Prius and was hitting speeds of 94 miles an hour (I didn't even know a Prius could go that fast). He was terrified he said. For 20 minutes he had the clarity of mind to call 911 and lay on the breaks but it never dawned on anyone to tell him to turn off the ignition?!?!?! I'm lost for words. The car would have come to a slow roll if he would have simply turned off the ignition. The power steering would get a bit harder to steer and the power brakes would only work for about one or two pumps and then it would be like having manual breaks... but the car would STOP speeding along and putting peoples lives at risk.

I was shopping this week and as I walked into the grocery store I was besieged by little cherub faced girls pushing Girl Scout cookies. Little did they know, but they are contributing to the advanced onset of aging and disease in this country. Its not just the Girls Scouts either. If you understand the mechanisms that signal the body to age - glucose signaling being that mechanism, you understand that we Americans have chosen a host of habits and indulgences that create the perfect storm or aging and illness. Some day when anthropologists look back at our civilization they'll say - "wow they ate themselves to death". And its not the sheer quantity of food that they'll be talking about. Its the choices we make.

Until we all understand this, debating health care is a moot subject because we will always be playing come-from-behind basketball as it relates to the rate of disease outpacing the rate of health.

Numerous accredited studies now show that it is glucose signaling that speeds the aging process. We already know that Type 2 Diabetes is at epidemic levels with over 23 million Americans already stricken with the disease - a disease that is entirely avoidable and completely reversible. In fact while many point to obesity as the cause of Type 2 Diabetes I say its the other way around. Once you become insulin resistant you get fat. Most people are undiagnosed pre-diabetics for decades and fat accumulates over this period of time.

We've all seen Reverend Run on MTV send inspirational and motivating messages to his flock using SMS text's. Well now two studies show those messages may actually influence people's success staying on track and reaching their goals.

Dr. A. J. Prestwick and colleagues with the Institute of Psychological Sciences at the University of Leeds in the UK has shown that receiving text messages that remind subjects of their exercise commitments and support intention and motivation have a significant effect on outcome. Participants in the control based studies who were sent SMS messages to help keep them on track of their exercise commitments were more likely to perform their exercises and lost significantly more body fat than any other subjects in the two studies.

This may mean that simple reminders using this passive technology can be the difference between success and failure. It may also point out that many of us have very short attention spans and have to be continuously reminded to do what we know is best for us. Fitness and health professionals should take advantage of this message and set their charges up on mass-text-message lists to ensure their success.

References:

Psychol Health. 2009 Jul;24(6):677-87. ; Can the effects of implementation intentions on exercise be enhanced using text messages? ; Institute of Psychological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.

Health Psychol. 2010 Jan;29(1):40-9. ; Can implementation intentions and text messages promote brisk walking? A randomized trial. ; Institute of Psychological Sciences, University of Leeds, UK.

We’ve all heard the old adage – “early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”. Well now you can add one more item to that list – increases androgen receptor sensitivity. 

 In fact the mysterious “biological clock” that some would have you believe doesn’t really exist, its formal name – the Suprachiasmatic Nuclei (SCN) – lies deep in the brain right above the bridge of the nose, and is alive and ticking.

 Evidence now exists that its contribution to our daily wellbeing is greater than once thought. It controls the rhythm of our brain and body; through hormone messengers as well as direct neuronal connection to organs, it prepares the body for the oncoming day. At night while we sleep, hormones play like the instruments in a well-orchestrated symphony.

 Deprivation or disruption of normal sleep patterns turns the hormonal symphony into the nightmarish calliope sounds of a bad horror movie. Hormones fire in incorrect sequences – some too much and others not enough.

 We already know that these sleep disruptions, if allowed to occur with regularity over long periods of time, lead to various diseases. What has recently been illustrated is that it may be the disruption of the SCN that heralds the onset of metabolic syndrome as well.

 Through communication and feedback from the Paraventricular Nucleus of the Hypothalamus, the SCN establishes what systems need priming and which need to shut down based upon the 24-hour circadian rhythm. It produces the surges of testosterone experienced by men as well as the pulses of estrogen in women.

 What is possibly more pertinent is that the SCN not only orchestrates the production of hormones but also establishes receptor sensitivity. Those same sleep disruptions may impair the ability of hormones to make their appropriate and desired contributions to health, muscle gains and recovery.

 Lets assume one is on an anabolic steroid cycle and is not getting adequate sleep. The potential benefits of that cycle may not be realized due to the lack of fine-tuning that the SCN bestows on the androgen receptor as it goes through it phases during sleep.

 Many of us feel that high doses of anabolic steroids allow us to, or perhaps, give us license to push the recovery envelope and thus train hard and stay up very late at night – day-after-day. This attitude may be counterproductive in the long run. This lifestyle may lead to less-than-desirable side effects such as glucose management issues, thyroid issues as well as poor muscle development and recovery.

Hormone deprivation therapy is used for both men and women. For men its used during prostate cancer. For women its used to treat breast cancer. It's an inhumane medical approach that causes additional diseases as a result of the side effects.

Women undergo estrogen deprivation therapy for breast cancer most often. This complete blockade of the production of estrogen causes a series of side effects - some uncomfortable and others very dangerous. Women who undergo these therapies generally develop insulin resistance, osteoporosis, heart disease, anxiety, insomnia, hot flushes, tremor, memory loss, loss of energy and depression just to list the most common and most troublesome.

A recent study examined women undergoing estrogen blockade therapy by way of tamoxifen administration as well as women who had underwent the therapy and survived breast cancer. 38 women were given the same type of hormone replacement therapy offered to post menopausal women - a combination of estrogen and progesterone. 37 women were chosen as a control group who received no hormone replacement therapy.

Subjects were required to complete three questionnaires over the course of a year - two were EORC Quality of Life (QLQ) questionnaires specifically for cancer patients. The third was the standard Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

The results were significant. The hormone replacement group had a reduction in insomnia, anxiety and depression while they also saw a simultaneous increase in cognition, memory, social functionality and quality of life. The most exciting part was that these positive effects of hormone replacement therapy were to the greatest degree in the subjects still receiving tamoxifen therapy.

If you know someone who is undergoing estrogen blockade therapy you may want to mention this to them so they can discuss it with their doctor. I've referenced the study below so they should be able to find it on PubMed and bring it to their doctor.

Climacteric. 2010 Mar 2. [Epub ahead of print]

Health-related quality of life during hormone therapy after breast cancer: a randomized trial.

Department of Surgery, Capio St Görans Hospital, Stockholm.

PMID: 20196640 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]