UPDATE: Omega-3 Fatty Acids

First the good news: Omega-3 fatty acids reduce post-partum depression by as much as 50 percent. This seems to indicate that the post-partum depression is, at least in part, a nutritional deficiency. While pregnant and nursing, the infant gets priority use of any omega-3 fats in the mother's diet. Since most Americans are deficient in this essential fat anyway, consuming more will help the baby to grow a large, well-functioning brain and keep the mother from becoming deficient and depressed.

Now the bad news: omega-3 fats do not seem to offer any protection against cancer, at least not in the latest meta-study.

Researchers examined data from 38 studies that tracked patients for up to 30 years, and said most showed there is no cancer protection from omega-3 fatty acids. Although a few studies found some risk reduction for cancers of the breast, prostate and lung, those studies were relatively small and not definitive, said Dr. Catherine MacLean, the lead author and a researcher at the Rand Corp. and Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.

"It doesn't mean that omega-3 fatty acids don't have other health benefits — it's just that reducing cancer risk isn't one of them," MacLean said.

However, the review is unlikely to be the last word on the issue. Diet is known to play a role in cancer and the researchers evaluated observational studies, which provide mostly circumstantial evidence.

The reviewed studies examined the effects of fish oil — in both pill form and as food — on 11 kinds of cancer, mostly tumors of the breast, colon, lung or prostate.

Emphasis added. You still need to be getting omega-3 fats in your diet for a myriad of health reasons.

More on Choosing a Personal Trainer

Here is a new ABC News article on the benefits of working with a trainer--and how to choose one.

Jan. 27, 2006— So you made your usual New Year's resolution to get in shape. But studies show that by late January most of us have already strayed. (We didn't need a fancy study to figure that out, did we?) Maybe what you need to do is outsource your willpower. My best workout success has been with a personal trainer. But beware! The government doesn't regulate personal trainers, so anybody can become one.

"I am a personal trainer." Saying it is all you have to do to make it so. You don't need a degree. You don't need a certification. For that matter, the government doesn't regulate the organizations that provide certification. About 15 different groups do so
nationally — some respected, others not. Several organizations certify people as trainers after one weekend of classes. Others require simply an open-book test. When I investigated personal trainers, I even found a group that was willing to certify me by mail if I sent a videotape of myself exercising!

Personal training costs $50 to $100 an hour and up, so it ought to be a weighty decision. If you get the wrong trainer, you'll lose money and you won't lose weight. You could also seriously injure yourself. Don't choose a trainer just because he or she has a great body. Choose somebody who can help you achieve your fitness goals. Finding a good trainer should wear you out a little bit — just like a good workout.

Try to find a personal trainer who has a college degree in a relevant field like kinesiology, biomechanics, exercise physiology or health and fitness plus a credible certification. The American College of Sports Medicine and the National Strength and Conditioning Association are the most respected certifying organizations. Knowing who trained the trainer is really the key.

Here are some tips to becoming a savvy consumer when it comes to hiring a personal trainer:

• If a trainer claims to be certified by a national agency, ask for the agency's name, number and Web site so you can confirm.
  
• Check to see that the trainer keeps up with continuing education.
  
• Many certifying organizations keep grievance records, so you can find out if the trainer's background is clean.
  
• Some trainers carry liability insurance, and that's another thing you may want to look in to.
  
• Check the trainer's references and make sure his or her fitness philosophy is a good match for you.
  
• Make sure your trainer is capable of performing CPR.
  
• Get the trainer's cancellation policy in writing before you start working with him or her. (My trainer requires 24 hours' notice or I have to pay. Sounds strict, but I actually like it because it motivates me to stick with my workouts unless I have a good reason.)
  
• If a trainer suggests you use herbal supplements, resist. Personal trainers are not qualified to advise on supplements, and many are risky.
  
• If a trainer pushes you to do exercises that hurt or make you uncomfortable, say no until you can get a second opinion.

This is all good advice, although herbal supplements are often better than prescription medications--and safer. The medical establishment, of which writer Elisabeth Leamy is a part, denigrates any supplement not produced by a drug company paying them kickbacks, so beware the "magic pill" your doctor prescribes.

Other good certifications include the ISSA (International Sports Sciences Association) and the ACE (American Council on Exercise).

Type-II Diabetes Is Preventable, But There's No Money in That

The Nation has a good article on how the diabetes epidemic is being completely ignored by the medical community because there is much more money to be made treating the complications of diabetes than in preventing it.

The article also looks at how the food industry is making the problem worse.

This is a disease of low- and middle-income people. They are the ones who live off factory-made food loaded with the grease and sugar from which American people are sickening at an ever younger age.

At home and at school children are habituated to eating what will kill them. There is profit in poisoning the population, and lethal food peddling, unlike lethal drug peddling, is legal. A go-getting, job-creating ad agency entrepreneur can make a hell of a lot of money teaching children how to grow fat and kill themselves.

These two issues are prime examples of why we need an Integral fitness solution, not another diet plan or exercise program. If we do not look at the cultural values around food and health and the the societal support (economic, in particular) for getting sick from diabetes (as shown in this article), we'll never solve the problem.

The problem is not simply weak people who eat too much of the wrong foods. When the food industry is contributing to the problem in every way possible and the medical community cuts diabetes prevention programs because there is more money to be made on dialysis and amputations than on preventing the disease in the first place, it's the society that helps create and support the problem.

To solve the problem of obesity and diabetes, we must also look at how our economy supports these diseases. We need an integral approach to the problem.

Soy Does Not Live Up to Health Claims

The American Heart Association now claims that soy has no effect on heart disease and does not lower cholesterol. The evidence has always been sketchy on this claim, so it's good news that they've clarifed the issue with new research.

The report also noted that soy isoflavones provide no benefits in preventing breast, uterine, or prostate cancer. Soy and its isoflavones have no impact on menopausal "hot flashes," either.

I suspect that continued research will find that soy actually increases cancer risk in some people.

From the ABC News story:

An American Heart Association committee reviewed a decade of studies on soy's benefits and came up with results that are now casting doubt on the health claim that soy-based foods and supplements significantly lower cholesterol.

The findings could lead the Food and Drug Administration to re-evaluate rules that currently allow companies to tout a cholestorol-lowering benefit on the labels of soy-based food.

The panel also found that neither soy nor the soy component isoflavone reduced symptoms of menopause, such as "hot flashes," and that isoflavones don't help prevent breast, uterine or prostate cancer. Results were mixed on whether soy prevented postmenopausal bone loss.

Based on its findings, the committee said it would not recommend using isoflavone supplements in food or pills. It concluded that soy-containing foods and supplements did not significantly lower cholesterol, and it said so in a statement recently published in the journal Circulation.

Read the rest here.

For Women, Larger Waistline Equals Greater Heart Disease Risk

Some people reject the idea that being obese is unhealthy, but the evidence keeps piling up.

From UPI:

A New York Presbyterian Hospital study says women with waistlines of 35 inches or more are at greater risk of heart disease than thinner women.

The research, jointly done with Sister to Sister: Everyone Has a Heart Foundation Inc., and published in Thursday's issue of the Journal of Women's Health, studied more than 6,000 women without known heart disease.

It found 90 percent had at least one major risk factor for heart disease, and one-third had three or more. The risk factors included high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Increased waist circumference was also correlated with a woman's 10-year chance of having a heart attack or dying of heart disease.

"Measuring waist circumference may be a simple method that women can identify themselves as being at increased heart-attack risk and empower them to seek further evaluation and possible treatment from their doctors," says lead author Dr. Lori Mosca.

T-Nation Interview With Paul Chek

T-Nation interviews Paul Chek, very cool. Chek is a bit of a maverick in the fitness world. While most trainers only look at the physical mechanisms involved in losing fat or building muscle, Chek includes emotions, the mind, subtle energies, and the soul. It's these last two that often get him in trouble with the establishment--and make him important to the integral world.

From the introduction to the interview:

I'd been assigned to interview Paul Chek, I'd been on the phone with him for close to four hours, and I didn't understand a single goddamn thing he was saying.

How was I going to transcribe this? How was I supposed to cut it down to 5000 words for an article? How was I supposed to get info out of this guy when every question I asked about protein and training garnered me an hour long diatribe about magnetic poles, chi, God, the planets, "cosmic consciousness," and the soul?

Shit.

Was this interview a bust? Had I wasted his time and mine?

No, I didn't think so. Because in the back of my mind, I knew that Chek was one of the best in the world in his field: corrective and high-performance exercise kinesiology. In fact, with his holistic approach, he's practically reinvented the field. I knew that, at 44 years old, Chek could outperform a lot pro-athletes in their twenties. (In his own words, he can "hammer the shit out of them in the gym." And he really can.) And his physique is pretty damn impressive too. There was something to learn here. Maybe a lot.

I also knew that while a lot of Chek's ideas were "out there," all really innovative and powerful concepts sound a little crazy at first... Or hell, maybe he's just a nutcase. I'll leave that for you to decide.

Read the rest here.

FitBit's News You Can Use

Here's the December update from Exercise ETC.

FitBits
December 31, 2005
Exercise ETC’s Review of Exercise Related Research
Compiled by Jeannie Patton, MS, CSCS

Testosterone Supplementation Greatly Increases Muscle Size in Elderly Men

Many older adults experience a loss of muscle mass and strength due to deconditioning, illness, injury or major surgery. The purpose of this study was to determine the benefit of progressive resistance training and testosterone administration to improve muscle strength and cross-sectional area for elderly men.

Seventy-one males with an average age of 78 served as subjects and were randomly placed into one of four exercise groups. The groups consisted of low-intensity resistance training (20% of the one repetition maximum) with injections of either testosterone or a placebo and high-intensity resistance training (80% 1RM) with injections of either testosterone or a placebo. Each subject received training and injections for 12 weeks.

Strength improved in all 4 groups, but was statistically greater in the high-intensity training group. Subjects who had the testosterone injections saw significantly greater increases in cross-sectional area than the placebo group, but not significant gains in strength. Interestingly, no protocol resulted in significant increases in functional
capacity.

The results of this study indicate that high-intensity strength training produces greater gains in muscle strength, but that the addition of testosterone significantly increased cross-sectional area. This study indicates that Fitness Professionals have a range of program design options in designing training programs to meet their clients’ goals. In addition, trainers should remember that gains in muscle strength and size do not necessarily parallel gains in function.

Sullivan, Dennis, H. et al. Effects of muscle strength training and testosterone in frail elderly males. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2005: 37(10), 1664-1672.

Can I get a "Well, no shit?" It should not even require a study to determine that if you give testosterone-deficient older men some of the magic T, they will increase their muscle mass and strength, especially with higher intensity training. Who gives away money for such dumbass studies? And how do I get some?

On the other hand, there are still doctors who do not believe that steroids have any use whatsoever. For them, I guess these studies are necessary.

Post-rehab Exercise Critical To Restore Strength After Knee Replacement

The first few months after knee replacement surgery are critical to restore the function of the knee extensors (quadriceps). The purpose of this study was to document quadriceps strength before knee replacement and to compare it to results at 30 and 60 days following unilateral knee replacement surgery.

Thirty-eight men and women with an average age of 72 served as subjects. Force production of the knee extensors was assessed before surgery and at 30 and 60 days after surgery.

The study demonstrated a significant reduction in force production in the involved limb after the surgery: Force production was at its lowest level 30 days following surgery. By 60 days after the surgery, strength had improved and approached pre-surgical levels.

The results of this study clearly document the necessity for rehabilitation to continue for at least 60 days, which is when many physical therapy programs cease. Keep in mind, though that this only brings the strength up to pre-surgical levels which were deficient (compared to the uninvolved limb) to begin with. This study documents the necessity for post-rehabilitation and/or home exercise programs past the 60-day period.

Rossi, Mark, D. et al. Early strength response of the knee extensors during eight weeks of resistive training after unilateral total knee arthroplasty. Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research. 2005, 19(4), 944-949.

Having worked with several joint replacement clients, I can personally attest to the necessity of post-rehab training. Further, personal training for the first six months should be covered by insurance--that's how important it is for the patient.

As a side note: the better condition the patient is in going into surgery, the faster and more completely s/he will recover. All joint replacement patients should be encouraged to build as much functional strength as possible prior to surgery. And doctors should use glutamine and branched chain amino acids as part of the IV drip during and after surgery, as well as prescribing these supplements post surgery to maintain as much muscle mass and strength as possible until rehab can begin. It's the little things, people.

Kevin Trudeau's "Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About" Is Crap

Kevin Trudeau is the most recognizable face in the infomercial realm. He has been promoting and selling scam programs and cures for more than fifteen years. He is the only person ever banned from selling products on television.

The Federal Trade Commission said that Trudeau falsely claimed that a coral calcium product could cure cancer and other serious diseases and that a product called Biotape could cure or relieve severe pain.

"This ban is meant to shut down an infomercial empire that has misled American consumers for years," said Lydia Parnes from the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "Other habitual false advertisers should take a lesson: mend your ways or face serious consequences."

Trudeau can sell his scam of a book under First Amendment protections. But he was forced to pay $2 million in "customer redress" for the coral calcium scam, as well being banned from:

appearing in, producing or disseminating future infomercials that advertise any type of product, service or program to the public, except for truthful infomercials for informational publications.

"In addition, Trudeau cannot make disease or health benefits claims for any type of product, service or program in any advertising, including print, radio, Internet, television and direct mail solicitations, regardless of the format and duration."

Trudeau spins it that the government dropped the charges (since he was never convicted of anything). He claims the government was just trying to silence him for exposing their secret agenda to keep Americans sick.

From the ABC Nightline story:

Instead of products such as Coral Calcium, Trudeau now hits the airwaves to sell his book, which promises magical natural cures. But not all of them are in the book. "Natural Cures" often refers readers to his Web site, which requires lifetime membership at a price of approximately $500.

But in the book or on the Web site, many doctors have expressed serious concerns about Trudeau's cures, saying his advice is not only misleading, it could actually hurt people.

"Stop taking nonprescription and prescription drugs," the book instructs. "Remember, drugs are poisons. This includes vaccines."

Trudeau says drugs are only OK in exceptional circumstances — such as trauma or in surgery. His book makes other outrageous claims.

Trudeau writes in his book — which has sold more than 5 million copies and will be listed as No. 1 on this Sunday's New York Times best-seller list for hardcover "advice" books — that "the sun does not cause cancer. Sun block has been shown to cause cancer. The ingredients in sun block are now strongly believed to be the number one cause of skin cancer." He says "antiperspirants and deodorants contain deadly poisons," and that AIDS is "one of the greatest hoaxes and deceptions ever perpetrated on the American public."

The government and the pharmaceutical companies conspire to keep natural cures from you, he insists, to make money by selling medicine.

"It's so profitable to the companies that sell it," he says. "Chemotherapy kills more people than cancer itself."

Trudeau has no medical training and no particular health expertise.

But wait, if you order now, there's even more life-threatening "information" in his book:

Asked for his "natural cure" for diabetes, Trudeau continually cites a study from the University of Calgary, which he says "has 25 years of research" of a natural way to make it so "diabetes can be, if not completely cured and wiped out in America, dramatically reduced by this herbal combination."

But when asked, the University of Calgary told ABC News that "there is no scientific evidence that any herbal remedy can cure any form of diabetes. In our review of the claims made by Kevin Trudeau's book, we have established that there have been no human studies conducted at the University of Calgary in the past 20 years on herbal remedies for diabetes."

Trudeau responded that he was "shocked and amazed" and that he would send us documentation he was referring to. We never did receive that documentation.

The book also claims: "All of the author's royalties on the sale of this book are being used to help fund the mission of educating people about natural health care and exposing corporate and government corruption."

But that "mission of educating people" includes paying for Trudeau's flights and luxury hotel stays as he jets around the country for interviews, he acknowledges.

My guess is that most of the claims in his book are wrong and could endanger lives. He needs to be ignored, and perhaps banned from all television appearances.

Americans Are Starting to Accept Their Fat

We used to look at bodyfat as something almost as evil as, well, lobbyists. But in recent years, Americans have began to accept the fact that they are fat and have revised their ideals of attractive bodies to reflect that new resignation.

Rising instances of obesity have led to Americans being more accepting of excess weight in others and themselves, a survey by market research firm NPD Group has found. The survey, which tracked the changing attitudes of 1,900 people that represent the American population, found that only 24 per cent of Americans found a person carrying excess weight unattractive, as against the 55 per cent that did so two decades earlier.

The irony is that many people still claim that they need to lose at least 20 pounds. I suspect--and the article also mentions this--that the results of the study might have more to do with the fact that 65 percent of the population is overweight. It becomes much harder to reject extra bodyweight when you have some, too.

Many remain skeptical and argue that the findings might stem from the subjects themselves being overweight. Kelly Brownell of Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University felt that the results reflect the resigned attitude of overweight people.

“These studies don't pick up on implicit, unconscious bias. It's like if you asked people around the country if they had racial bias. There's a difference between what people say and what actually happens,” Brownell said.

The fact that the survey also found that overweight youngsters are 50 per cent less likely to go on dates than their normal body counterparts reinforces Brownell's contention.

National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance's Marilyn Wann said that fat people are often at the receiving end of jokes, mainly because consumerism has brought in the concept of physical perfection. “Everyone thinks it's okay to make fun of fatties,” she said.

It's never okay to make fun of someone who is heavy. You have no idea how much pain I see in my clients as a result of their weight and the self-esteem loss they suffer due to other people judging them. I have been guilty in the past of thinking obesity was a self-control issue--often, it's not. There are deeper issues at work--issues which require some emotional self-exploration.

On a related topic, there are some who believe that the health risks of being overweight are exaggerated and that the pharmaceutical industry is behind it. I never trust big pharma, but I'm skeptical of their claims. Read this article and judge for yourself.

A History of Fad Diets

ABC News has an amusing story on the history of fad diets. Take home message: choose an eating plan that you can stick with for life. The weight might come off more slowly than if you use the "cabbage soup diet" or William the Conqueror's approach (alcohol only), but you'll be able to keep the wieght off instead of doing the yo-yo thing.