Michelle’s life changing experience with CrossFit & the Paleo Diet

“Last July I switched from my previous gym to CrossFit Auckland and immediately noticed how quickly my fitness changed. I still wasn’t losing weight though so knew it must be down to my diet and lifestyle. After seeing photos from a friends wedding in January I knew I really had to change my lifestyle if I wanted to see results. Fate stepped in and I saw the CrossFit Auckland Paleo challenge advertised at the Box and signed up on the spot. I had no idea what the Paleo Diet really involved but knew it was what I needed. I gave myself the goal of losing 20kgs by the time I left for Europe which was in seven months time (the challenge started on the 1^st of February).”

Read more at Julianne's Paleo & Zone Nutrition

Mark Sisson's training deload week

A deload week is a “take it easy” week. It’s a break from training hard and training often, and scheduling a deload week is often how hard-charging athletes and weight lifters (a notorious bunch who never want to take a break) force themselves to recover from their pursuits. Exercise, you see, especially effective, intense, hard exercise, requires that we recover. It’s just like any injury, wound, illness, or stressor faced by our body. We have to recover before we can get stronger. In fact, you don’t get stronger from the act of lifting weights. You get stronger by recovering from the act of lifting weights. 

Learn more at The Deload Week: What It Is, How to Do it, and Why It Might Help You Get Stronger

Brain Health: Put down that puzzle and go for a walk

Today’s issue of Neurology includes a research study on the relationship between physical activity and brain protection during aging. The amount of self-reported physical activity in 638 persons was correlated to brain health as visualized on MRI. The brains of those with a greater amount of physical activity showed less brain aging as measured by less atrophy (shrinkage), less loss of grey and white brain matter, and fewer hits (tiny holes) in white matter. While these hits, called hyperintensities on MRI, are often viewed as a normal part of aging, they most likely have underlying causes such as hypertension or neuroinflammation. This study provides evidence that they are occur less frequently in people who are active.

Also, the commonly held belief that performing crossword puzzles keeps older people sharp was not supported in this study. As the BBC reports:

Exercise did not have to be strenuous - going for a walk several times a week sufficed, the journal Neurology says.

But giving the mind a workout by doing a tricky crossword had little impact.

The study found no real brain-size benefit from mentally challenging activities, such as reading a book, or other pastimes such as socialising with friends and family.

Take home: In the elderly, exercise beats puzzles for brain health.   

Related Posts

• Walking, the Ideal Exercise
• Brain Health: Stay smart with exercise
• This Mother’s Day give the gift of brain health
• Quote: Exercise and the brain

Body Rhythms: What is the best time to exercise ... and tweet?

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on biorhythms and their importance to our health. Columnist Sue Shellenbarger writes:

Most people organize their time around everything but the body's natural rhythms. Workday demands, commuting, social events and kids' schedules frequently dominate—inevitably clashing with the body's circadian rhythms of waking and sleeping.

As difficult as it may be to align schedules with the body clock, it may be worth it to try, because of significant potential health benefits. Disruption of circadian rhythms has been linked to such problems as diabetes, depression, dementia and obesity, says Steve Kay, a professor of molecular and computational biology at the University of Southern California. When the body's master clock can synchronize functioning of all its metabolic, cardiovascular and behavioral rhythms in response to light and other natural stimuli, it "gives us an edge in daily life," Dr. Kay says.

Here are a couple of biorhythms regarding physical activity:

• “Physical performance is usually best, and the risk of injury least, from about 3 p.m. to 6 p.m."
• “Muscle strength tends to peak between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. at levels as much as 6% above the day's lows ...” 

And a few rhythms not discussed in your biology or psychology class:

• Twitter messages are less likely to be “steeped in fear, distress, anger or guilt in the morning.”
• “… re-tweeting is best from 3-6 pm
• “… posts to Facebook at about 8 p.m. tend to get the most "likes." 

Learn more at The Peak Time for Everything

Related Posts

• Changes in brain architecture due to altered sleep/wake cycles 
• Dim lights at dusk for better sleep
• The end of night

Anthropologist Herman Pontzer on Paleolithic energetics

In a recent post, I commented on the multi-institutional research study, published in the July 25 of Plos ONE, that challenges conventional wisdom on the role of an active lifestyle in preventing obesity. Anthropologist and the lead author Herman Pontzer discuss the study in The New York Times article Debunking the Hunter-Gatherer Workout:

The World Health Organization, in discussing the root causes of obesity, has cited a “decrease in physical activity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing modes of transportation and increasing urbanization.”

This is a nice theory. But is it true? To find out, my colleagues and I recently measured daily energy expenditure among the Hadza people of Tanzania, one of the few remaining populations of traditional hunter-gatherers. Would the Hadza, whose basic way of life is so similar to that of our distant ancestors, expend more energy than we do?

The short answer: no. The study, while adding some subtle complexity to the role of physical activity, strongly points to the nutritionaly deficient Western diet as the primary cause of the obesity epidemic:

All of this means that if we want to end obesity, we need to focus on our diet and reduce the number of calories we eat, particularly the sugars our primate brains have evolved to love. We’re getting fat because we eat too much, not because we’re sedentary. 

I would add: we eat too much of the wrong things. It is much harder to overeat when the diet consists of lean meats, fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts and berries, and contains, minimal, if any, grains, refined sugars, or dairy. While physical activity is important to great health, its major role is improving cardiovascular, neurological, and musculoskeletal health rather than reducing weight.

Physical activity is very important for maintaining physical and mental health, but we aren’t going to Jazzercise our way out of the obesity epidemic. 

Related Posts

• Do hunter-gatherers really burn more calories per day?

Do hunter-gatherers really burn more calories per day?

Daily activity of the Hadza. Image: Andreas LedererI often see persons in the office with neurological complaints such as headaches, dizziness, difficulty with memory and thinking, or alterations in mood that also have a BMI (Body Mass Index) in the obese category. A common reason offered for not being able loose weight is their inability to exercise.

Conventional wisdom holds that hunter-gathers maintain a normal weight through a combination of the Paleolithic diet and an active lifestyle that burns more calories. According to a new multi-institutional study, Hunter-Gatherer Energetics and Human Obesity published in the July 25 of Plos ONE, this conventional wisdom seems to be incorrect. As described by Science Codex:

The research team behind the study, led by Herman Pontzer of Hunter College in New York City, along with David Raichlen of the University of Arizona and Brian M. Wood of Stanford measured daily energy expenditure (calories per day) among the Hadza, a population of traditional hunter-gatherers living in the open savannah of northern Tanzania. Despite spending their days trekking long distances to forage for wild plants and game, the Hadza burned no more calories each day than adults in the U.S. and Europe. The team ran several analyses accounting for the effects of body weight, body fat percentage, age, and gender. In all analyses, daily energy expenditure among the Hadza hunter-gatherers was indistinguishable from that of Westerners. The study was the first to measure energy expenditure in hunter-gatherers directly; previous studies had relied entirely on estimates.

However, this does not mean you shouldn’t exercise:

The authors emphasize that physical exercise is nonetheless important for maintaining good health. In fact, the Hadza spend a greater percentage of their daily energy budget on physical activity than Westerners do, which may contribute to the health and vitality evident among older Hadza. Still, the similarity in daily energy expenditure between Hadza hunter-gatherers and Westerners suggests that we have more to learn about human physiology and health, particularly in non-Western settings.

Bottom line: The type of food consumed matters tremendously! The key factor in loosing weight is what you select at the grocery store or restaurant! Low-grade chronic inflammation resulting from the modern diet and the impact of modern foods on the brain's regulation of eating behavior are the prime suspects in the obesity epidemic. Returning to the ancestral human diet is the most powerful tool for reclaiming a normal weight.

Related Links

• An "Insight of the Decade": Chronic inflammation kills
• Inflammation impairs frontal lobe brain function 
• Paleolithic Nutrition: Chronic Inflammation
• Getting fatter on the typical Western diet
• New hypothesis: Acellular carbohydrates promote obesity
• “Fascinating insight”: Inflamed cells circulating in bloodstream
• Paleolithic Nutrition: Diabetes and the Modern Diet
• Success Stories 

Quote: Exercise and the brain

The implication is that exercising during development, as your brain is growing, is changing the brain in concert with normal developmental changes, resulting in your having more permanent wiring of the brain in support of things like learning and memory. It seems important to [exercise] early in life.

David Bucci 
How Exercise Affects the Brain: Age and Genetics Play a Role

SUNDAY PALEO / April 1, 2012

First EV Charging Station in Barcelona. Image: RudolfSimon

ELECTRIC CARS & HIGHWAYS

Thinking about your next car, even if it's 5 or more years away? Well, you should. Your next car may not accommodate hydrocarbons and run solely on electricity; although some of the electricity used to charge the batteries may be derived hydrocarbon, at least initially.

Worried about the range of electric cars? Advanced car design will extend the vehicles range per charge and new charging networks, such as Oregon's  "Electric Highway," will allow you to travel even further. In California, NRG Energy is investing $100 million to will “build a 200 charging station network."

The fee-based charging network will add 50 miles of range for an EV in less than 15 minutes of charging.
 NRG will also wire a minimum of 10,000 individual parking spaces at homes, offices, multifamily communities, schools and hospitals.

Among the cars that will use "electric highways" is the Nissan Leaf EV. By the end of the year, the Leaf will be upgraded with a “much, much more efficient” heating system that will increase the cars 73 miles per charge range by 20 to 25 miles. And Nissan is not stopping there. At the upcoming New York Auto Show, the company will announce a new Infinity EV model (seen in illustrations here) using the powertrain of the Nissan Leaf EV.

ENVIRONMENT

An innovative and sustainable skyscraper will be world’s second tallest when completed in 2014. The Shanghai Tower, currently under construction in Shanghai, China, is decribed by Inhabit.com as an “elegant structure" that "spirals up to the sky.” The skyscraper will “include a rainwater recycling system and a series of wind turbines able to generate up to 350,000 kWh of electricity per year.” Inhabit.com continues:

The tower will take the form of nine cylindrical buildings stacked atop each other, enclosed by layers of glass, and hosting public space for visitors including atriums, gardens, cafes, restaurants, retail space, a hotel, and 360-degree views of the city.

(Striking images of the structure are included.)

Electric bicycle sales are on the rise. Clean Technica reports that annual sales "are expected to go over 30 million in 2012 and over 47 million by 2018.” While most of the growth occurring in China, sales of electric bicycles in the North America are expected grow by 22%. Maybe they will look like this prototype by Ford.

FITNESS

Reviewing a recent study published in International Journal of Epidemiology, MyHealthNewsDaily reports:

A short, intense exercise session may be healthier than a longer, more moderate session that burns the same number of calories …

… people who engaged in the most vigorous exercise reduced their risk of developing metabolic syndrome by two-thirds …”

NUTRITION

Olive oil
Mark Sisson, in one of his previous posts, has a great defense of olive oil. Just in case you have set olive oil aside, consider Mark’s take on the subject: 

Olive oil's reputation has been besmirched. It isn’t the magic life elixir fueling the teeming hordes of Mediterranean-dieting, crusty bread-eating, moderate wine-drinking centenarians, but it doesn’t deserve to be tossed in the trash heap with soybean, grapeseed, corn, and canola oils.

Chocolate
Possible good news for the chocolate eaters. According to USA Today, a new study published in Archives of Internal Medicine, found that people eating  “moderate amounts” of chocolate where “thinner than those who eat chocolate less often.”

The new research involved 1,018 healthy men and women, who exercised on average 3.6 times a week and had a balanced, nutritious diet. The body mass index of those who ate chocolate five times a week was 1 point lower than people who did not eat it regularly. Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on height and weight.

Although lead investigator Beatrice Golomb described the 1 point increase in BMI as “not insignificant”, if your BMI is more than a few points above normal, just adding chocolate without making other dietary changes will not do the job. Also keep in mind a major limitation of the study: it was observational in nature and dependent on self reports on how much chocolate was eaten.

Brain Health: Stay smart with exercise

By Dr. John

The authors of a new report published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings reviewed 1,600 articles on the role exercise in cognitive function and found 130 studies pertinent to the issue. According to Medscape Neurology, the lead author, neurologist J. Eric Ahlskog, MD, PhD, notes:

Normal aging is associated with brain shrinkage, and this appears to be primarily mediated by progressive loss of synapses and related neuronal connections (the 'neuropil').

Dr. Ahlskog summarized the findings: 

We concluded that you can make a very compelling argument for [aerobic] exercise as a disease-modifying strategy to prevent dementia and mild cognitive impairment, and for favorably modifying these processes once they have developed.

While the type and amount of exercise varied among the studies, to Dr. Ahlskog, the studies suggests increasing "the heart rate to about 60% of maximum" in several sessions for a total about 150 minutes each a week. Even though the literature on resistance training was "less extensive", Dr. Ahlskog noted it was also beneficial. Cyrus Raji, MD, PhD of the University of Pittsburgh, not a participant in the study, concurred: 

While the majority of the evidence shows that aerobic physical activity is the best type of physical activity for this purpose, resistance training with weights may also be helpful.

Dr. Raji's impression of the study:

This paper nicely summarizes all of the latest evidence showing how regular physical activity can promote better brain health with aging and reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease.