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March 2007 Vol. 12 No. 3

“There are no great people in this world, only great challenges which ordinary people rise to meet”.
William “Bull” Halsey, Admiral 1882-1595


Table of Contents:

AFPA Fitness Conferences for Spring 2007
AFPA announces Pilates Fitness Instructor Level II Certification
Depression Promotes Heart Problems
Why Doctors Miss Colon Cancer
Why Exercising as You Age Becomes More Important and Challenging
Fruits and Vegetables Improve Male Fertility
Take advantage of AFPA’s Resources
Use Folic Acid to Cut Heart Disease, Say Experts
Editor’s Pick for Best New Factual Guide to “Global Warming”

AFPA Fitness Conferences for Spring 2007April 27-29 Beach Jam XIII Fitness, Trainer, Sports & Mind Body Conference, Ocean City,MD http://www.afpafitness.com/BeachJamLocationInfo2007.htm

May 10-12 Myrtle Beach Fitness, Trainer, Sports & Mind Body Conference,Kingston Plantation, Myrtle Beach,SC
http://www.afpafitness.com/MyrtleBeachLocationInfo2007.htm

AFPA announces Pilates Fitness Instructor Level II CertificationThis Certification Program is designed for instructors who have previous experience with classical Pilates Mat exercises. It is strongly recommended that participants have prior knowledge of anatomy, experience in teaching a related form of movement and/or exercise.

For more information on the course content and ordering visit this page: http://www.afpafitness.com/PilatesFitnessInstructorLevelII.htm

Depression Promotes Heart Problems Depression appears to increase the development of blood vessel plaques, known as atherosclerosis, a condition that can lead to heart attack, stroke, and a host of other cardiovascular problems, according to a report in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Patients’ psychological status influence quality of life, and may also have a “significant impact” on their physical status, including cardiovascular health, Dr. Jesse C. Stewart, from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, told Reuters Health.

Stewart and colleagues evaluated the contribution of depression, anxiety, and anger to atherosclerosis among 324 men and women between 50 and 70 years old.

Symptom scoring tests evaluated the presence of depression, anxiety and anger, while the extent of atherosclerosis was accessed using an imaging test, which measured the thickness of the walls of the carotid arteries, major blood vessels in the neck that carry oxygen to the brain.

Why Doctors Miss Colon CancerAn interesting study underscored one more reason, among a seemingly, never-ending number of them, why patients may die from the errors their doctors make: Your physician may be missing signs of colon cancer right in front of him.

Among more than 12,000 colon cancer patients, 430 patients had a new or missed tumor that was diagnosed anywhere from six months to three years after having a colonoscopy. What’s more, family physicians and internists who did their own colonoscopies were generally far more prone to miss colon cancer, with women (85 percent) edging men (77 percent).

The other troublesome variable, Canadian researchers discovered, was where a colonoscopy was performed. An office setting tripled the risk of new or missed cancers among men and doubled it among women. Fortunately, there are many natural measures you can take — none of which have anything to do with a drug, doctor or procedure — to prevent or fight colon cancer. A few to get you started:

  • Have your C-reactive protein levels checked and reduce them, if necessary.
  • Get the right amount of exercise.
  • Rebalance the ratio of omega-3 fats you consume by taking a high quality fish oil or krill oil.
  • Eat plenty of vegetables, ideally based on your body’s unique metabolic type.

Gastroenterology, Vol. 132, No. 1, January 2007: 96-102
Yahoo News February 23, 2007

Why Exercising as You Age Becomes More Important and ChallengingA biological process called AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which boosts muscles, begins to fail with advancing age. This leads to a need for increased effort to achieve the same effects from exercise, and could help explain the link between aging and type 2 diabetes.

AMPK stimulates the body to burn off fat by producing mitochondria, the power sources of cells. The skeletal muscles of athletes have been found to contain a much higher number of mitochondria, which is likely linked to AMPK activity.

When scientists compared the skeletal muscle of 3-month-old rats and 2-year-olds, they found that AMPK was significantly slowed down in older animals. In addition, the muscle of young rats who did more exercise had double the normal AMPK activity, but this effect was not nearly as strong in older rats. Older people have more fat in their muscles and livers than younger people do. These fat cells have been linked to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

Cell Metabolism February 7, 2007; 5(2): 151-156
BBC News February 10, 2007
Science Daily February 7, 2007

Fruits and Vegetables Improve Male FertilityA new study shows that eating fruits and vegetables can improve fertility in men. Researchers from the University of Rochester compared the dietary intake of antioxidants of 10 fertile and 48 infertile men and correlated the findings with sperm motility. Infertile men were twice as likely to have a low intake of fruits and vegetables (fewer than five servings per day) compared with fertile men. Also, men with the lowest overall intake of dietary antioxidants had lower sperm motility than men with higher intakes.

Lewis V, Kochman L, Herko R, Brewer K, Andolina E, Song G. Dietary antioxidants and sperm quality in infertile men.Paper presented at: Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine; October 2006; New Orleans.

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Use Folic Acid to Cut Heart Disease, Say ExpertsThe scientific evidence is strong enough to justify using folic acid as a cheap and simple way of reducing heart disease and strokes.

Debate continues over whether raised homocysteine levels in the blood (an amino acid implicated in the development of arterial disease) causes heart disease and stroke, and whether folic acid, which lowers homocysteine, will help reduce the risk of these disorders. So heart expert, Dr David Wald and colleagues set out to clarify the issue. They examined all the evidence from different studies to see whether raised homocysteine is a cause of cardiovascular disease.

Some studies looked at homocysteine and the occurrence of heart attacks and strokes in large numbers of people (cohort studies), some focused on people with a common genetic variant which increases homocysteine levels to a small extent (genetic studies), while others tested the effects of lowering homocysteine levels (randomised controlled trials).

The conclusion that homocysteine is a cause of cardiovascular disease explains the observations from all the different types of study, even if the results from one type of study are, on their own, insufficient to reach that conclusion, say the authors.

Since folic acid reduces homocysteine concentrations, it follows that increasing folic acid consumption will reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.

They therefore take the view that the evidence is now sufficient to justify action on lowering homocysteine concentrations, although the position should be reviewed as evidence from ongoing clinical trials emerges.

BMJ Volume 333 pp 1114-7 Click here to view paper: http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/november/ac1114.pdf
Source: Diabetes In Control

Editor’s Pick for Best New Factual Guide to “Global Warming”The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming (and Environmentalism) by Christopher C. Horner
(Paperback - Feb 12, 2007)

Selected segments are reproduced from Dr. Mercola’s excellent website:
http://www.mercola.com/index.htmPhysicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
http://www.pcrm.org