RESISTANCE EXERCISE AND BONE DENSITY

Bone is a microscopic matrix of hard mineral struts much like the zigzag connections of the truss of a metal bridge.  Unlike the bridge, however, the metal of which can only decay and weaken with time, bone is living and constantly re- growing itself throughout life in exact response to the nutrient materials available and the stresses placed upon it by activity.  Each day tens of millions of old, worn out bone cells are broken down by the osteoclasts.

In order to replace the old cells, the bone requires weight-bearing pressure.  This pressure triggers the growth hormone, insulin like growth factor, to convert bone precursor cells in the bone marrow into osteoblasts to create new molecules of bone.  Simply put, no pressure, no bone growth. 

You can eat the most careful and supplemented diet, but without weight-bearing exercises, bone cannot grow.  Controlled studies show that simple bed rest destroys bone, but few people appreciate how serious it is.  A patient confined to long bed rest of 10 weeks, will lose between 20% and 30% of their bone.  If they are over 40, they are unlikely to ever recover full bone strength again.

This is not only the case with sick people as the first astronauts taught us that even the healthiest young adults lose bone.  Even with exercise bikes and yoga on their first missions, they all came back showing massive losses.  Now astronauts have well-structured resistance exercise programs, in order to protect their bones.

 For the rest of us, recent metal-analysis of clinical trials shows clearly that resistance exercise training programs prevent or reverse about 1% of bone loss per year in the lumbar spine and femoral neck, for both pre-menopausal and postmenopausal women.  In 30 years that is a saving of one-third of your bone.  If we all did it, and also ate reasonably, osteoporosis would be a rare disease!  If has to be the right resistance exercises, however.

  Most authorities now agree that jogging, which may seem very weight-bearing when you are running up a hill, is actually detrimental to bone because the regular pounding of hips and knees destroys more bone tissue than many people can rebuild in the off time.  Jogging on a treadmill is worse because most of the force goes downward into the joints, instead of into forward motion.  Walking, hiking, and dancing do contribute to the long bones of the legs and to the pelvis, because they bear the body weight while being generally low-impact activities.  Research shows that the best form of resistance exercise is undoubtedly a well thought out and structured resistance training programme.

Posted by Rick Warren

God has made us accepted in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:6 (NKJV)
“God loves you unconditionally and accepts you for who you are. ”

Many of us base our self confidence on what other people think, so we work hard at being accepted. We buy things, we wear things, we join things — all just for the benefit of trying to be accepted by our friends, family, co-workers and peers.

But our verse today says God has already accepted us in Jesus Christ.

Does God say you have to earn the acceptance? That you could ever deserve it? No. The Bible just says, God has accepted you.

If you’re a believer, then you’ve accepted Jesus into your life. But do you understand that God accepts you? He loves you unconditionally and accepts you for who you are.

Psalm 27:10 says, “Even if my mother and father forsake me, the Lord will receive me.”

Some of you grew up with unpleasable parents. They were perfectionists. No matter how much you tried, you couldn’t get their approval. If you got B’s, they wanted A’s. If you got A’s, they wanted A+’s. No matter what you did it was never, ever good enough. Even today you’re still trying to earn their love and approval.

If that’s the case — with your parents or with anyone else in your life you’ve been seeking to please — there are two things you need to know:

In all likelihood, you’re never going to get that approval or acceptance. Not because of who you are but because of who they are.

You don’t need their approval because you are acceptable to God. You don’t need their approval to be happy.
What a relief that is to understand. You only need the love and approval of one person, and you already have it: God says you are acceptable!

Monday July 26 2010 12:00 AM
Posted by Rick Warren

I receive a ton of questions about all of these new “energy” drinks that have hit the market over the last few years. They seem to be all the rage, especially with the youth, and they promise you the world with outrageous claims of all of the super energy that you are going to have, and how you’ll become the best athlete in the world, start lifting cars over your head, and get a perfect body.

So a couple questions arise:

Are these “energy” drinks really any good for you?
Do they actually increase your energy?
Do they really have some sort of magical energy formula?
Will they help you lose weight?

First of all, let’s look at what most of these energy drinks are usually made of. Most of them are simply carbonated water loaded with gut-fattening high fructose corn syrup (or other added sugars), caffeine, the amino acid taurine, and some crappy vitamins added for show to trick you into thinking there’s something healthy about these concoctions.

Let’s start with the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Well, here we’ve got empty calories that will go straight to your belly fat, and that are possibly even WORSE for you than plain old refined sugar (although that’s up for debate, but semantics in the big picture).  Some energy drinks use other added sugars instead of HFCS, but it doesn’t really matter, because they are all gut-fattening empty calories with no nutritional benefit.

Ok, so you say that they have low-sugar or sugar-free varieties as an alternative to the HFCS-laden energy drinks. Yes, but now you have the problem of the harmful chemicals in the artificial sweeteners which have their own set of health dangers.

Another problem with artificial sweeteners is that there are some researchers that believe artificial sweetener use leads people to inadvertently consume more calories and gain more weight in the long run. I won’t go into the details on that because that would fill up an entire discussion by itself. Just trust me that artificial sweeteners and artificial chemicals in food in general, are all bad news for your body!  It’s never a good idea to try to “trick” your body with artificial tastes.

What about the caffeine?

Well, first of all, caffeine doesn’t in itself provide “energy”. Technically, the only substance that actually provides energy is calories (from carbs, protein, and fat).

However, caffeine can be an aid for livening or waking some people up, by means of stimulating the central nervous system.

Instead of caffeine added to some carbonated “energy” drink, I’d rather get my caffeine from a natural source like green, white, or oolong teas (or my new favorite – yerba mate teas), which actually provide powerful healthy antioxidants too!

Keep in mind though, if you’re a regular coffee drinker, you probably have some level of addiction to caffeine and probably wouldn’t receive too much benefit from the caffeine in an energy drink anyway.

Tip: try to drink more tea and reduce your coffee intake to only a couple days per week max to reduce your dependency on caffeine.  Most teas contain much less caffeine than coffee, and some teas (such as green, white, and oolong) contain synergistic phytochemicals that work to slow the response of the caffeine that they do contain.  This means you get a milder response from the caffeine in green, oolong, or white teas compared to the harsher jittery response that some people get from coffee.

Now what about that so called magical blend of taurine and B-vitamins that they load into these energy drinks?

Well, big deal…you get taurine in almost any protein source. And the vast majority of those artificially added B-vitamins are simply coming right out into the toilet in your pee. Vitamins are best obtained naturally from a REAL food source, not artificially added to some carbonated drink. Your body just doesn’t use fake sources of vitamins as readily as natural sources from real food.

So as you can see, in my opinion, I give all of these energy drinks a big time THUMBS DOWN!  Don’t fall for the ridiculous marketing of all of these so-called “energy drinks”.

Instead, here’s my recipe for my own home-made energy drink:

1. Make a big iced tea mixture using green tea, white tea, and yerba mate tea.  I like to add a little fruit flavor, so I’ll use 1 tea bag of a raspberry or blueberry hibiscus tea, and then use 2-3 green and/or white tea bags, and 2-3 yerba mate tea bags, and make a gallon container of iced tea.  I just use a small amount of stevia to lightly sweeten the batch of tea.

2. I buy a container of organic coconut water from a health food store, or buy fresh coconuts to obtain the coconut water from the inside.

3. For my healthy energy drink, I mix a half of a glass of the white/green/yerba mate iced tea mixture and fill the rest of the glass with the coconut water.

This is actually a delicious and truly healthy energy drink instead of the chemical-laden energy drinks that everybody is getting suckered into buying these days.

The green, white, and yerba mate teas contain a small dose of caffeine along with a diverse mixture of powerful antioxidants and synergistic phytochemicals.  Plus, the coconut water is a rich source of electrolytes and a diversity of vitamins and minerals.  Coconut water is known to provide a good instant energy source, and also contains some medium chain triglycerides, which are healthy fats that are readily used for energy and also aid your immune system.

So enjoy this natural healthy energy drink, knowing that you’re doing your body good instead of filling it with chemicals with normal store-bought energy drinks.

by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author – The Truth About Six Pack Abs

Do you know how to get 100 times the cancer protection of broccoli.

And, a new study shows it can cut your chances of skin cancer in half.1

What is this new miracle product?

Broccoli sprouts.

Broccoli sprouts are bursting with an anti-cancer substance called sulforaphane. Sprouts give you up to 100 times the cancer-fighting protection of the broccoli sitting on your plate.2

Just a pinch or two of broccoli sprouts magnifies your antioxidant protection. You cancel out the harmful effects of chemicals found in things like smoke, exhaust fumes, and even bad food choices.3

Chemicals like these cause damage to your organs and wreak havoc on your skin.

Maybe you’ve never heard of broccoli sprouts. Or maybe you saw them on your sandwich, but removed them before you took your first bite.

Broccoli sprouts come from broccoli seeds that are soaked and kept damp until they begin to grow into plants. After about 2 or 3 days, young shoots appear. This is when you should eat them for the best protection. They taste fresh, crunchy, and peppery.

Maybe you find eating 7 to 9 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables a day is a chore. Or maybe you simply want to help protect your vital organs and your skin against cancer. Either way, I suggest you try broccoli sprouts.

Add them to your salad, sandwich, or wrap. Use them for a garnish on your soups. Blend a pinch into your protein shake or smoothie.

Look for broccoli sprouts at any grocery store, near the vegetable or herb section.

You can also sprout them yourself. Health food markets like Whole Foods carry broccoli seeds and the container to sprout them in. Or you can use a glass jar. Just soak them, drain, and keep them damp, rinsing them daily. You’ll have sprouts in about 3 days. Three-day-old sprouts contain the highest degree of protection.

Al Sears, MD