When Life Give You Lemons...

By Crabby McSlacker

Yes, it's time for another petulant post! This one is about an evil product I buy sometimes, one that totally pisses me off.

So why is it an incredibly stupid and annoying product?  And if it is indeed an abomination, why am I such a dumbass that I'd buy it in the first place?

Weird Study: Antioxidant Vitamins Mess With Exercise?

This is just quick research note without even an attempt at any humor.

But don't worry, there is also a "100% research-free" item just below, with no useful information in it at all!

So for your recommended daily allowance of Cranky Fitness silliness, simply take both these together with a large glass of water, and you should get all the benefits of a "normal" post! Warning: do not attempt to drive your car or operate heavy machinery while under the influence of Cranky Fitness. May cause extreme drowsiness, skepticism, stomach irritation, and/or high blood pressure.

Anyway, so did anyone see the WTF headline in the New York Times health section yesterday: Vitamins Found to Curb Exercise Benefits?

More specifically, taking antioxidants (in this case vitamins C and E) seemed to interfere with the benefits you get from exercise. These pills apparently eliminate the improved insulin sensitivity you're supposed to get from doing the huffy-puff stuffy. And the supplements also seemed to mess with the body’s natural defenses to oxidative damage.

“If you exercise to promote health, you shouldn’t take large amounts of antioxidants,” one of the study's authors, Michael Ristow, said. The effect of vitamins on exercise and glucose metabolism “is really quite significant.”

Fortunately, the study author said this is just the case with antioxidant supplements, and does not mean you have to choose between your cauliflower and your cardio. You can still get antioxidants from fruits and vegetables because "the many other substances they contain presumably outweigh any negative effect."

A write-up of the vitamin and exercise study over at WebMd offers a bit more helpful detail: half of the men took 500 milligrams of vitamin C twice daily and 400 international units of vitamin E daily. The other guys got placebo pills.

Of course a spokesman for the supplement industry cautioned that one shouldn't take any one study too seriously!

Which is true, but also kinda funny, because they never seem to emphasize that point when it's a study saying that some supplement does some fantastic thing for your health.

While I don't take specific C or E supplements, this does make me wonder about my daily low-dose, cover-all-the-bases multi-vitamin. I still haven't decided what to do. Give it up? Just take it less often? Wait for another study to clarify if this effect is even real?

What about you folks, would this study result change anything you're doing or have you already ditched the pills?

Beyond the ABCs of vitamin lore

[By Merry]

For some reason this flickr photo makes me want to sing "Let the sunshine in!" ...

This is a rant.
It is only a rant.
If this had been a real, informative post, it would have been written by Crabby.
It is only a rant. Please remain calm.

Okay, yes, I get it that vitamin D is important. Hell, it's a vitamin. They're all important from a basic building-block-of-life point of view; that's why they get named after letters of the alphabet. Fine. No problem.

What makes me cranky is the sudden onrush of articles about how essential it is to get outdoors in the sunshine, stop and smell the roses (check first to be sure there's no bee visiting the rose first), and soak up some rays. SOME rays.

Two Points:

1 - Every which way you look, someone is warning about the evils of too much sun.

2 - You need vitamin D, which you can only get from sunshine or supplements, i.e. from putting some effort into ingesting the stuff. You really can't get all the vitamin D you should have just from regular (un-fortified) food. "Vitamin D is found naturally in very few foods."

But...

On one hand, the argument against supplements is that you can overdo. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, so, like overdoing the vitamin A, it's possible to get too much of a good thing.

And on the other hand, we've all been warned for years that if you venture out in the daytime hours, you'd better be slathered in the greasy stuff. The problem with sunscreen is that if you wear the stuff, it almost invariably blocks the synthesis of vitamin D on your skin.

Technically, to make vitamin D you have to sweat. As the sun's rays hit the sweaty skin, vitamin D is synthesized in the sweat and then absorbed into the skin. Then the liver and the kidneys get into the act and finally you have the vitamin D that helps build bones and do a whole lot of other good things too.

To keep all the experts happy, you'll need to make sure you either a) get just the right amount of vitamin D through supplements or b)get outside for 20 minutes or so in the early morning or late afternoon without sunscreen, but to make sure you don't get skin cancer, you have to remember to use the greasy stuff if you're going to be out during the main part of the day.

It's a lot to remember. Complicated. In reality, I'll probably guard against the sun most of the time, but occasionally I know I'll forget and go out with unprotected skin, which will then allow me to get some vitamin D into my system. And of course supplement with vitamin pills. Since I forget to take them on a regular basis as well, this means I won't have to worry about overloading my system with the D stuff.

Sigh. One more thing to keep track of when I'd rather be off having fun in the sun or becoming a slug in a hammock.

Okay. Rant done.

Do you make a point of taking vitamin supplements or making sure you get juuuuust the right amount of non-sunscreened exposure? I would think for people in the more northern climes *cough* Canada *cough*, it would be really challenging to get all the vitamin D the experts say you should have without resorting to hitting the vitamin bottle or taking the odd vacation to Cancun in December. And January. February, too.

What do you do?

Really, Really, Random Friday

nataliedee.com

What's that thing flying around up there? No idea! Crabby just liked it, so what the hell.

And in that "what the hell" spirit, lets get going with another Random Friday!

Pain Relief--But Hide The Ben & Jerry's
So marijuana is apparently an effective pain reliever, but dosage is important. A little doesn't do much, but a moderate amount worked to ease pain after about 45 minutes. But whoa, dude, not too much! 'High' dosages of the drug actually increased the amount of pain felt by stoned volunteers. (And Crabby was pleased to discover that the pot/pain study took place at the Center for Medical Cannabis Research at her very own Alma Mater, UCSD).

Stop Messing With Us: To D or Not to D?
There have been several recent studies suggesting that vitamin D levels can influence one's risk of getting cancer. As a result, experts have been suggesting we get more of the vitamin whether from a little bit of sunshine, eating the right foods, or taking a supplement. So it's something of a disappointment to read that in a large cancer study (following 17,000 volunteers for a decade) there didn't seem to be any relationship between vitamin D blood levels and cancer occurrence at all--except for colon cancer. Is this the last word? Well, perhaps not, as Vitamin D levels were only taken once for each person, and are known to fluctuate a great deal.

Phytochemical Supplements: What's the Deal?
And file this next pair of studies, too, in the "C'mon Scientists, Make Up Your Freakin' Minds Already" folder: the two following articles were sitting right next to each other over at Science Daily. The first one, entitled "High Doses Of Phytochemicals, Including Flavanoids, In Teas And Supplements Could Be Unhealthy" warns about the dangers of supplementing with phytochemicals. Apparently high doses can be toxic. The second article, "Chemical In Red Wine, Fruits And Vegetables May Stop Cancer, Heart Disease, Depending On The Dose," suggests that the best way to prevent cancer might be to supplement with high doses of phytochemicals, since the amounts naturally found in foods are okay but More would be Way Better. (To be fair, they were talking about Future Not-Yet Invented Supplements, which would of course be safe).

Of course Crabby realizes that (1) these two conclusions are not mutually exclusive and (2) nutrition and disease prevention are complicated matters, and it takes a long time and a lot of studies to sort it out.

But darn it, all these apparent inconsistencies make it hard for lazy bloggers like Crabby! How can she sum up her nutritional recommendations into Simple Snappy Headlines if the data just doesn't play along? She hates to mess around with detail and nuance and uncertainty. Perhaps she will just say Screw it and recommend Cupcake Supplementation instead.

Good News for Nappers!
"A nap today may be beneficial for mental processing tomorrow." And according to this study, not only might you get cognitive improvements from your midday snooze lasting clear into the next day, a nap apparently won't keep you from conking out at night either. However the study involved "normal sleepers" sixty years of age or older. Which is somewhat confusing in that the article starts off by saying that "people over age 60 sleep two hours less per night than their younger counterparts."

Red Wine Headaches? Here's An Easy Sol... Oh Hell, Never Mind.
Some folks react strongly to "biogenic amines" which can hide in red wine and other fermented, aged, or pickled foods (like chocolate, cheese, olives, nuts and cured meats). These nasty amines can cause unpleasant symptoms like headaches, high blood pressure, heart palpitations and elevated adrenaline levels. However, there's help on the way! A new gadget invented by U. C. Berkeley researchers can detect nasty amines so you can stay well away from foods that contain them. This all sounded quite handy until Crabby got to this part of the article: "The prototype — the size of a small briefcase — uses a drop of wine to determine amine levels in five minutes..."

Yeah, make sure you bring that with you on your next dinner date.

So Enough About Health Already, it's Friday!

Kid Sex Change?
Visit this blog for an amusing compilation of Unfortunate Company Logos, Names, Signs, and Slogans, most of which are at least vaguely obscene.

And Healthbolt ran this picture a while ago, but it cracked Crabby up so she'll go ahead and swipe it herself:




But What About Animals That Exercise?

Funny you should ask... Sure, we got 'em! Try these photos or this video if you need your weekly fix. And have a great weekend!

Guest Post: Norabarnacle Takes on UV rays!

So Crabby has on several occasions left her accustomed post at Cranky Fitness in order to go Guest Blogging elsewhere. Today, she is doing the opposite--making up for the pretend post below by bringing you some Actual Science by one of our favorite Commenters, NoraBarnacle! She is the host of Crunchy 'Nanas, and she is braving the confusing research around Sunshine and Breast Cancer and making some actual sense of it. She even takes on the Cranky Fitness' bizarre Third Person Format in solidarity with the Crab--not for the blogger who is Faint of Heart!

Now here's her post!

In the height of the summer sunshine, a recent study suggests that UV rays may actually do one some good in the fight against breast cancer. Or, at least the headline writers and journalists want us to think so.

The results from a study by a team at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska show that in a group of women who’ve passed menopause, the lower the level of vitamin D in their bloodstreams, the higher their risk of developing breast cancer. Sun exposure is important in the mechanism for incorporating vitamin D into our bodies, so let’s head out into the sun and fight our risk for breast cancer! Right?

Careful! Don’t go stripping down to your undie-roos and streaking into the burning noonday sun yet. The study examined the effect of calcium and vitamin D supplements. The women who were given both supplements had less than half the chance of developing breast cancer than those offered the placebo. The researchers went one step further and said their findings were consistent with data showing that “cancer risk, cancer mortality, or both are inversely associated with solar exposure, vitamin D status, or both”.

All this seems to be telling Norabarnacle the best of the skin cancer/breast cancer trade-off might actually be vitamin D and calcium supplements and remaining responsible (sunscreen, hats, and not laying out for hours on end, as deliciously tempting as that sounds!) when jaunting out of doors.

Also, if you enjoy playing in the sun, you might consider a cup of joe before you exercise. Another UK study shows that caffeine and exercise working together increases apoptosis (a scary sounding word that usually makes Norabarnacle think of snapping air-filled bubble wrap pockets, but actually means “cell death”) of damaged or cancerous cells. This could be good news for coffee and cola junkies, or at least active coffee and cola junkie mice, who saw a whooping 400% increase in apoptosis. Alas, the theory still needs to be tested out in humans. Still, it seems prevention is better than treatment: caffeine shouldn’t be substituted for sunscreen and responsible sun practices to prevent skin cancer to begin with.

Norabarnacle’s an avid sun-worshiper. Like a shivering lizard to a sun-soaked rock, she basks in it. But, until there is more evidence, you won’t see her swapping sunscreen and shady breaks for sunbathing au natural for hours on end in hopes of preventing breast cancer. And being neither a coffee nor a cola drinker, she won’t be jumping to get her morning fix before she strides out into the sunny sunshine. However in Belgium, they do have some dark chocolate napolitains with tea... she’s not sure how much caffeine is actually in those, but they might be worth a shot!


And Crabby would just like to step back into the blog for a moment and say Thank You, NoraBarnacle!

Saturday Grab Bag

It's a random research day here at Cranky Fitness--where weekends mean sloppy laid-back blogging! Featuring: no transitions, weird stuff Crabby has collected but doesn't have anything sensible to say about, and assorted observations about things that have nothing to do with health and fitness.

Will Sunday's entry be any better? Is there any chance tomorrow will have carefully researched health news and nuanced discussion of Important Health Issues?

Not at all! Tomorrow is all about Adsense and Amazon and other bloggy things. Serious health and fitness readers are advised, as usual, to hit the archives or go explore other fine health and fitness blogs. Like, for instance, Diet King or Blogging While Fat. Both feature thoughtful, witty posts about weight loss.

Or you could always go look at cool offbeat architecture. Whenever Crabby goes there she lusts after dwellings that are not her own. It's house porn!

Another fine diversion, especially if you have a blog: go visit our good friend Geosomin at The Supposed Golden Path, and find out what your blog is rated! (Cranky Fitness is rated PG, for mentioning both Drugs (2) and Death (1)!)

On a more humanitarian note, you could help Deb Shed Pounds for Primates!

But if you're stubborn and would still like a few random health and fitness tidbits, Cranky Fitness style, here they are.

From a study of 92 patients over three years at an Irish hospital, here are some interesting observations about human bite wounds:

1. Men are 12 times more likely than women to sustain severe human bite injuries;

2. Alcohol was involved in 86% of the injuries; illicit drugs in 12%.

3. Seventy per cent of incidents occurred during the weekend or on a public holiday.

4. Seven out of ten bites were to the face.

And so remember how Crabby said no transitions? She meant it! Next up, a depressing survey of 3500 eleven year olds on the use of doping agents. The results:

More than one percent of them admitted to using performance enhancing drugs to do better in sports. The proportion increased from 1.2 to 3 percent by the age of 15. "While 62% of eleven years olds used doping agents less than once per month, at 15 the same proportion were using them at least every week and 24 per cent daily."

Yikes.

And here's some information on the health status of college students, based on a survey of more than 800 undergraduates:

1. At least one-third were overweight or obese;

3. Sixty percent of men had high blood pressure;

4. More than two-thirds of women were not meeting their nutritional needs for iron, calcium or folate; and,

5. Eight percent of men had "metabolic syndrome." This means a combination of high blood pressure, excess abdominal fat, high blood glucose, high triglycerides, and low “good” cholesterol. Sixty-six percent of men had at least one risk factor, as did fifty percent of the women. Metabolic syndrome often predicts future development of heart disease and diabetes.

Oh yes, and remember that discussion we had about Vitamin D and Cancer Prevention, and how you could take supplements but maybe you didn't have to worry if you got plenty of sunshine?

Well, sorry! New info just in: You can live in Hawaii, foolishly go out without sunscreen for hours a day, and yet still be deficient in Vitamin D!

Depressed yet? Research is fun! Maybe next time, Crabby will find a more uplifting group of random studies. Enjoy your weekend!

Vitamin D and Cancer Prevention; Also, Important Instructions!

So another study is out suggesting that Vitamin D may reduce the risk of cancer. New research found that "vitamin D cut the risk of several types of cancer by 60 percent overall for older women."

The study was small and was really supposed to be more about bone health. And one Skeptical Guy said: "I don't think it's the last word." (Okay, so Skeptical Guy was a nutrition and cancer researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health. Whatever.)

But apparently there were some cool methodological aspects of the research which managed to get Other Less Skeptical Scientists pretty excited. (Crabby won't go into these here, because she doesn't want to start getting a reputation for scientific rigor or thoroughness. But go ahead and click on the link if you want to know more).

If fact, Cedric Garland got so excited he declared the findings "a breakthrough of great medical and public health importance!" Who is Cedric Garland? "A prominent vitamin D researcher at the University of California San Diego."

Crabby must pause for a moment at this juncture to note that this would be a great answer to that tiresome cocktail party inquiry: "And so what is it you do?"

"I'm a prominent Vitamin D researcher at the University of California San Diego!" Cedric might exclaim, turning down a proffered martini in favor of a big glass of milk.

(Or perhaps not. Crabby feels especially entitled to tease UCSD researchers because UCSD is her alma mater. Or one of them, anyway. And she wants to know: is there still a fountain in the plaza of Revelle College into which undergraduates are thrown on their birthdays?)

Anyway.

Vitamin D is the one you get from the sun, but watch out for skin cancer. It's also found in foods, like salmon, tuna and fortified milk. But apparently many people in the U.S. don't get enough from diet and sun exposure.

How about supplementation? As usual, the experts can't seem to agree on whether to take supplements or how much to take. Some support raising the guideline from the 200-600 range it is now to 1000 units a day. On the other hand, a guy at the American Cancer Society warns that more than 2,000 units may be dangerous.

You scientists duke it out. Crabby, having heard rumors of Vitamin D's anti-cancer potential, takes a pill with an extra 400 units. She's also heard there may be some association between vitamin D deficiency and MS, but she'll save that for a future post because she doesn't feel like looking it up at the moment.

And now for the promised Important Instructions.

Have any of you wandered here from some other site, thought there was something you might want to say, (like Hi Crabby, luv ur blog! or whatever) but couldn't quite figure out how to do it? It's not all that obvious.

Fortunately, our good friend Katieo at Sister Skinny has carefully explained the whole process. Go there, read this post, notice that the Sisters have a great blog going on, bookmark the commenting instructions, (and this is the important part) race back here to practice your new-found commenting skill! And then go back to Sister Skinny, of course, and practice a whole bunch more.

Thanks Katie!