How to exercise without injury...
(How to KEEP exercising without damaging yourself.)

Today's post: Friday, 5-29-2008

Today’s online health news had this story from Reuters.:

“Baby boomers' bodies hit by years of wear and tear

By Megan Rauscher

Fri May 30, 9:50 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Doctors who specialize in disorders of the skeletal system and associated muscles, joints and ligaments are being kept busy these days, as increasing numbers of baby boomer athletes and exercise enthusiasts hit middle age and beyond.

"We are seeing a number of overuse or 'wear and tear' injuries in the foot, ankle, knees, hip, shoulders and elbows, in baby boomers," Dr. Jeffrey A. Ross, a foot and ankle podiatrist from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, told Reuters Health. "Baby boomers suffer injuries over a period of time and a lot has to do with biomechanics, poor flexibility, wear and tear, and pounding on hard surfaces" that come with sports like running, tennis, step aerobics and basketball, Ross added.

As people age, Ross believes it's worth considering alternative activities that put less stress on joints. "It is really important that people continue to be physically active, but they need to think logically about how to remain active as they age," he said.

Ross spoke about overuse injuries in baby boomers at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine underway in Indianapolis. "We need to be rational and logical without hurting ourselves and developing overuse injuries that can really become debilitating as we get older," Ross told Reuters Health. ….”

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The authors knew how important regular exercise is for good health. And, some were baby boomer-aged exercisers themselves.

So they recommended changing & adapting your exercise program to avoid these kinds of injuries & allow you to continue exercising without either permanent damage or continuous minor injuries.

The examples they gave tend to be from running & competitive sports.

Both can be great for keeping off fat, raising HDL cholesterol, & aerobic fitness. But they tend to be the best fit for people under 30 or 40.

But anyone over 30 or 40 can run into injury problems with these kinds of exercises as they often have sudden high stress or pounding impact or overuse of joints.

There are several solutions. One is to do less of these kinds of exercises. (The article focused on that strategy. Its authors suggested running 5 kilometer races instead of Marathons or running every other day instead of 7 days a week.)

Other people have focused on minimizing the stresses of these exercises with such strategies as learning to run more smoothly, running on a soft track instead of concrete, getting excellent quality & impact absorbing running shoes or doing all 3.

For me, these strategies were not enough. Once I started getting a regular problem with my right Achilles tendon every time I got into decent shape & running even half way decent times nowhere close to competitive with real athletes, I’d have to stop running as it would become strained.

It became clear that if I wanted to become fit & keep exercising I’d have to do something else. Running no longer worked.

So, I switched to a Nordic Track. That worked until I developed knee strains. Mercifully, by doing an interval style shorter workout every other day instead of 7 days a week & adding ChoPat kneecap braces, I was able to stay very fit doing three 25 minute interval training style sessions each week.

Elliptical trainers, tai chi, walking, routines from other martial arts from Tae Bo to Karate to Kung Fu to Tae Kwan Do, swimming, & -- if you are careful, stationary bike riding or walking on an incline with a treadmill, & using a mini trampoline can also work.

In my case, I’m considering trading some of my sessions on my Nordic Track, which are now 10 minutes of interval training instead of 25 -- for some sessions with the UrbanRebounder mini trampoline. (It seems if I don’t, my hip sockets will give me fits from overuse.)

The bad news is that I really liked running & using my Nordic Track enough to be very fit.

But instead of messing my body up or being unable to exercise, I’ve made lower impact & slightly less frequent exercises fill in.

I’m still decently fit by my standards & even very fit compared to people my age. And, my Achilles tendons, knees, & hips still operate pain free & are un-replaced.

So, if you start getting injuries over & over from your exercise routine, the data reported today & my personal experience suggests that if you make similar adjustments, you’ll feel better, get to stay fit & continue exercising, & your medical bills will be a LOT less.

New way to prevent & overcome colds...

Today's post: Thursday, 2-14-2008

A news article today that I found online on in the Health section of Yahoo News reveals that taking probiotics may sharply reduce the number of colds you get & make the ones you do get about 40 % less severe. Not bad !!

And, after it, I’ll list another supplement that recently has been discovered to have a similar effect.

1. Here’s the article.:

"Friendly" bugs cut respiratory illness in runners Wed Feb 13, 7:12 PM ET

PARIS (AFP) - A type of probiotic -- the term for bacteria supplements deemed to be good for health -- boosted the immune system of long-distance runners, according to an Australian study published on Thursday.

Twenty elite male athletes, competing in events ranging from 800m to the marathon, were enrolled in an experiment that coincided with intensive winter training.

The volunteers were given the probiotic Lactobacillus fermentum, in the form of freeze-dried powder in gelatin capsules, or a dummy lookalike capsule called a placebo that contained harmless starch. Neither they nor the researchers knew what the individual capsules contained.

Each runner took the probiotics daily for a four-week stretch, followed by a four-week "washout period" in which they took nothing. They then followed this with the placebo for four weeks, followed by another "washout."

The bug did not change athletic performance but did reduce respiratory illness, according to the researchers, led by David Pyne of the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.

Seven of the runners reported having respiratory problems, such as a sore throat, a cough, runny nose, chest congestion and sneezing on days when they took the placebo.

These problems were recorded on a total of 72 days and rated on average 1.7 on a scale of severity, where three was the highest mark.

But when they took the probiotics, only three of the runners reported respiratory problems. The symptoms occurred on only 30 days and rated 1.0 for severity.

In addition, blood samples showed that levels of interferon gamma -- an immune-system molecule that is a key player in fighting viral infection -- doubled during the "probiotic" period.

Lactobacillus fermentum is a lactic acid bacterium that is well established as a treatment for (diarrhea) and other gut infections.

Probiotics are increasingly showing up in food products, led by Lactobacilli -- the germ that provides the sour taste in yoghurt and other fermented dairy foods.”

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(I added the bold emphasis of the good results myself.)

JarroDophilus from the Jarrow company, is the one I take. It has Lactobacillus acidophilus & two other of the lactobacillus family & two other probiotics. One a day is effective; & it’s not expensive to take that much.

(Probiotics are safe for almost everyone. However, there is a serious inflammatory condition called pancreatitis in which probiotics are harmful.)

2. It’s been known for some time that a daily multiple vitamin & mineral that includes vitamin C, zinc, & magnesium helps keep your immune system strong.

It’s main benefit is not so much that your immune system will be unusually powerful but that taking the daily multiple vitamin & mineral will prevent your immune system from being weak. That helps prevent pneumonia & other secondary infections when you do get a cold.

However, one of the vitamins that is in a daily multiple vitamin & mineral has been recently discovered to be at only about a fifth or a seventh the desirable dose.

It seems that our bodies need to use about 2,000 to 3,000 iu of vitamin D a day. And, with mostly inside jobs, particularly during the winter, few people get enough sun exposure to produce that much.

And, when people take 2,000 to 3,000 iu a day of vitamin D, it strongly boosts the immune system.

This not only helps prevent colds & help speed recovery from them, it appears to help prevent all cancers as well.

Even better, vitamin D is cheap. 100 caps of 1,000 iu of vitamin D3 (the biologically active version) cost only $5 or $6.

So, the JarroDophilus may help prevent or speed recovery from colds & flu based on the news story.

But vitamin D is proven to from what I’ve read.

(By the way, the reason I think the probiotics may be as strong as vitamin D or stronger is that I take both & my wife only takes the vitamin D.

She got a moderate case of the current really bad cold while I got an extremely mild one day bout.)

I hope these two supplements work as well for you as they seem to have been doing for me in escaping being sick this cold & flu season.

PS: If you do get a cold or flu, in addition to taking these two supplements, get as much extra rest as you possibly can AND, drink a LOT of extra water.

Doctors say to drink extra water. But very few explain how much it actually does for you. It helps keep you from fainting or getting pneumonia & other secondary infections.

But of greater short term value to you, it changes your feeling when you are sick from feeling debilitated, weak, nonfunctional & HORRIBLE to just feeling a bit sick.