Our Club Director participated in Tjurruset (“the Bull Run”), a muddy 10K race in Stockholm, Sweden. It was a popular event with more than 5,000 participants on day 1.
“It started off as an easy trail race, but the swampy last 5K was really tough and muddy and wet. You get the picture. A great challenge and a great race.”, says Ulf.
As always, members – please send us your achievements so that we can share and stimulate.
BioViva USA, Inc. has become the first company to treat a person with gene therapy to reverse biological aging, using a combination of two therapies developed and applied outside the United States of America. Testing and research on these therapies is continuing in BioViva’s affiliated labs worldwide.
BioViva CEO Elizabeth Parrish announced that the subject is doing well and has resumed regular activities. Preliminary results will be evaluated at 5 and 8 months with full outcome expected at 12 months. The patient will then be monitored every year for 8 years.
Gene therapy allows doctors to treat disease at the cellular level by inserting a gene into a patient’s cells instead of using the regular modalities of oral drugs or surgery. BioViva is testing several approaches to age reversal, including using gene therapy to introduce genes into the body.
Source: prweb.
A review, undertaken by scientists at the University of Warwick, of the current evidence on the dietary and health impact of whole grain cereal consumption finds that many of the myths attributed to wheat free diets are just that – myths, and that whole grains such as wheat are beneficial for the majority of people.
Source: University of Warwick. “Wheat in diet: Study on health impact of wheat challenges Stone Age myths and costly diets, providing you go whole grain.” ScienceDaily.
The ability of the circulatory and respiratory systems to supply oxygen to skeletal muscles during sustained physical activity is known as cardiorespiratory fitness. Scott Hayes, from Boston University School of Medicine (Massachusetts, USA), and colleagues assessed a group of adults ages 18-31 years, and a group aged 55-82 years.
All participants underwent brain MRIs and were assessed for cardiorespiratory (heart and lung) fitness via treadmill test. Among the older adults, the team observed that cardiorespiratory fitness was positively linked to the structural integrity of white matter fiber bundles in the brain; no such association was observed in younger adults. The study authors observe that: “[cardiorespiratory fitness] is positively associated with neural white matter microstructure in aging. The association between peak VO2 and [fractional anisotropy – an indicator of white matter integrity] appears to be age-dependent.”
Source: WorldHealth.net.
“Physical fitness can neither be achieved by wishful thinking nor outright purchase.” – Joseph Pilates
Something as easy as adding more spinach, kale, collards and mustard greens to your diet could help slow cognitive decline, according to new research. The study also examined the nutrients responsible for the effect, linking vitamin K consumption to slower cognitive decline for the first time.
“Losing one’s memory or cognitive abilities is one of the biggest fears for people as they get older,” said Martha Clare Morris, Sc.D., assistant provost for community research at Rush University Medical Center and leader of the research team. “Since declining cognitive ability is central to Alzheimer’s disease and dementias, increasing consumption of green leafy vegetables could offer a very simple, affordable and non-invasive way of potentially protecting your brain from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.”
The researchers tracked the diets and cognitive abilities of more than 950 older adults for an average of five years and saw a significant decrease in the rate of cognitive decline for study participants who consumed greater amounts of green leafy vegetables. People who ate one to two servings per day had the cognitive ability of a person 11 years younger than those who consumed none.
In addition to green leafy vegetables, other good sources of vitamin K, lutein, folate and beta-carotene include brightly colored fruits and vegetables.
Source: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). “Eating green leafy vegetables keeps mental abilities sharp.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 30 March 2015.
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Perform the routine in the following manner:
Five recommended health behaviors may prevent four out of five heart attacks in men, a new study suggests.
Middle-aged and older men were much less likely to have heart attacks over an average of 11 years if they drank moderately, didn’t smoke and did everything right on the diet, exercise and weight fronts, the study found.
Only about 1 percent of men involved in the study fit into this ultra-healthy-living category. But they were 86 percent less likely to have heart attacks than those who ate poorly, were overweight, exercised too little, smoked and drank too much alcohol, the researchers said.
The healthiest men could still eventually die of a heart attack, of course, and the study didn’t say if they live longer than others.
Still, “there is a lot to gain and money to be saved if people had a healthier lifestyle,” said study lead author Agneta Akesson, an associate professor with the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institute in Solna, Sweden.
As for women, Akesson is the co-author of a previous study suggesting healthy living has a similar effect on females.
Source: MedicineNet.com
People with fat around their abdominal area are at greater risk of developing hypertension when compared to those with similar body mass index but fat concentrations elsewhere on the body, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Obesity is a known risk factor for hypertension, or high blood pressure, and it is widely reported that the location of fat on a person’s body can lead to increased risk of other health issues like heart disease and cancer. However, the relationship between hypertension and overall obesity versus site-specific fat accumulation is unclear.
For this study, 903 patients enrolled in the Dallas Heart Study were followed for an average of seven years to track development of hypertension. Hypertension was classified as a systolic blood pressure of greater or equal to 140, diastolic blood pressure of greater or equal to 90, or initiation of blood pressure medications. Patients also received imaging of visceral fat, or fat located deep in the abdominal cavity between the organs; subcutaneous fat, or visible fat located all over the body; and lower-body fat.
“Generally speaking, visceral fat stores correlate with the ‘apple shape’ as opposed to the ‘pear shape,’ so having centrally located fat when you look in the mirror tends to correlate with higher levels of fat inside the abdomen,” said senior author Aslan T. Turer, M.D., M.H.S., a cardiologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
At the end of the study period, 25 percent of patients developed hypertension. While higher BMI was associated with increased incidence of hypertension, when abdominal fat content, overall fat content and lower-body fat content were factored in, only abdominal fat remained independently associated with hypertension.
Source: American College of Cardiology. “Location of body fat can increase hypertension risk.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 September 2014.
Abundant in the flavonoids anthocyanin and flavanol, blueberries have been shown in previous studies to improve cognitive performance and brain health. Steven R. McAnulty, from Appalachian State University (North Carolina, USA), and colleagues enrolled 25 men and postmenopausal women, to receive a daily supplement of blueberry powder (equivalent of 250 gm of blueberries), or placebo, for six weeks. Among those receiving the supplement, the researchers observed that natural killer cells rose by 4%. As well, among pre-hypertensive subjects, the blueberry powder caused significant reduction of diastolic blood pressure.
The study authors write that: “blueberry ingestion for six weeks increases natural killer cells and reduces augmentation index, aortic systolic pressure, and diastolic pressures in sedentary males and females.”
Source: WorldHealth.net