101 year old runner finally retires from racing.

     Fauja Singh, age 101, a British runner, retired from racing after running the 10K in Hong Kong last Sunday.  He will continue to run for fun.  His first marathon was run in the year 2000 at the age of 89.  He went on to run 8 more.  His is an amazing story.  He credits his physical fitness and longevity to abstaining from alcohol and smoking, and to following a simple vegetarian diet.
    

                                Photo from ESPN

     You can read more of his inspiring story at CBSnews.com.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57571057/fauja-singh-101-finally-retires-from-marathon-running/
Also, there is a biography available called "The Turbaned Tornado."

Good news for all of us.

This is from Dr. Andrew Weil's health blog, Dr. Weil's Daily Health Tips. http://www.drweilblog.com/

GOOD NEWS: IMMUNE SYSTEM DOESN’T FAIL WITH AGE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 AT 6:28AM | POST A COMMENT | SHARE ARTICLE

Here’s one less thing to worry about as you get older: your immune system will still be as capable of shaking off bugs as that of a much younger person. A study at Canada’s McMaster University assessed the resistance of individuals under 40, between 41 and 59 and older than 60 when infected with three different viruses, including West Nile, and found that the study’s seniors demonstrated perfectly normal immune responses. Their T cells, an important class of immune cells, responded to the virus with the same vigor as T cells from the study’s younger participants, the researchers reported. Jonathan Bramson, Ph.D., the study’s principal investigator said that it had been thought that seniors were at higher risk of infections because they had fewer numbers of these immune cells or that they weren't as active, but that the study demonstrated that “the elderly are certainly capable of developing immunity to viruses.” The researchers reported that the number of virus-fighting T cells and the function of those cells “were equivalent in all three groups.” The study was published in PLOS Pathogens on December 13, 2012.

***********************************************

     We had 14" of snow on Sunday and were snowbound.  Yesterday was sunny, but this morning it is snowing hard again.  I am so ready for spring. It isn't the snow so much as the lack of sunshine that bothers me.  It is just gloomy.

      When it is snowy like this, many small clusters of deer come down from the hills and eat my trees and shrubs.  Charleigh-dog goes nuts when they are just outside the window....so close yet so unreachable.

Beauty and getting a better mirror.

A wonderful and well-done video confronting bullying.

(e-mail subscribers will need to go to my blog to view)

Some of both

     I am still recovering from my running injury.  I am doing no running for now, and am stretching every day. Proximal tendinitis/tendinosis is not a thing to trifle with.
     wwww.Runnersworld.com had a recent article by Dr. Metzl which helps the runner with pain in the butt to differentiate between piriformis syndrome and proximal hamstring strain. I think I have some of both.  It is very informative and has a suggested exercise program in the succeeding videos. The ironstrength workouts he demonstrates are something I will need to work toward over a long period of time as they sound quite challenging.

http://www.runnersworld.com/injury-prevention-recovery/inside-doctors-office-kick-pain-your-butt

The real paleo diet eaten by our ancestors

Here is a great article from NutritionFacts.org regarding the real paleo diet.  Don't be taken in by the current paleo-diet hype.

The Real Paleo Diet

February 21, 2013 by Michael Greger M.D. in News with 4 Comments

We evolved eating huge amounts of plants. It’s estimated that 200,000 years ago we got 600mg of vitamin C a day. That’s the amount of vitamin C found in 10 oranges. Every day we appear to have consumed the amount of vitamin E found in 2 cups of nuts, the amount of fiber found in 12 bowls of oatmeal, and the amount of calcium found in 5 cups of collard greens. They weren’t milking mammoths–that came in part from all the wild greens they foraged.

As I note in my 2-min. video Paleolithic Lessons, we were exposed to such a quantity of whole healthy plant foods that we, as a species, lost our ability to make vitamin C. We still actually have the vitamin C gene in our DNA, but our bodies presumably just junked it because we were getting such massive daily doses that it wasn’t worth maintaining it. The problems occur when you take our evolutionary heritage, fine-tuned over the millennia, and plop it down into meat and potato chip country.

Advocates of the so-called Paleo diet are certainly right in railing against refined and processed junk, but may just use it as an excuse to eat loads of meat that bears little resemblance to flesh of prehistoric wild animals. The contaminant issue alone is compelling reason to eat as low as possible on the food chain. As I show in thevideo, the journal of the American Meat Science Association recently published a review cataloging the laundry list: arsenic, mercury, lead, cadmium, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, preservatives, and veterinary drugs such as antibiotic residues. Given what’s now in fish, for example, “it would be impossible to follow the Paleolithic diet while avoiding the risks associated with consuming mercury in amounts in excess of the suggested EPA threshold.”

The “paleo” diet patients I saw in my practice weren’t consuming weeds and eating in excess of 100 grams of fiber a day. They were eating burgers, not bugs. As concluded in a review I profile in the video, “Sufficient scientific evidence exists for public health policy to promote a plant-rich diet for health promotion.”

For those interested in digging deeper, there was an interesting Scientific American blog this summer entitled “Human Ancestors Were Nearly All Vegetarians” and there’s an in-depth video series on YouTube debunking the paleo diet fad. I wrote a whole book on the Atkins incarnation, Carbophobia, now available free online. I also have two videos on low carb diets: Atkins Diet: Trouble Keeping It Up and Plant-Based Atkins Diet.

-Michael Greger, M.D.

Extreme exhaustion

 
     This video exemplifies extreme exhaustion, but continuing on in whatever way possible. I find it inspirational.  (e-mail subscribers will have to go to my blog to view the video)

I run for Dean

     I made it home from Austin safely. The days are getting noticably longer, so rush hour on I70 during daylight went okay, and  Charleigh Brown was ecstatic to see me.

     At mile 8 with my family there to cheer me.

                       After finishing, with my finisher's medal

                                  Sydney's spectator sign for me!

                                  Alex's spectator sign for me!

     I run for Dean because he would run if he could, because he was my running partner, my partner in all things, and my biggest fan.

Every step of the way
I will walk with you and never leave you stranded.

                                     Rumi

More pictures from the start, a little blurry, but nice.

"Life is not a spectator sport." Jackie Robinson

     I ran the 2013 Austin Livestrong half marathon on 2-17-13.  It was a well-organized, fun, but hilly event with 20,000 marathon and half-marathon participants.  It started and finished at the Texas State Capitol Building.  It was a gorgeous morning, sunny and cool at the 7 AM start.  Many thanks to my Austin family, including grandkids, who all got up at 4 AM to get me to the start on time and to cheer me on.  Alex gave high fives to all the passing runners.


     HIGHLIGHTS:
          A spectator in a gorilla suit handing out bananas

          A group of college-age spectators all costumed as hot dogs

          A juggling runner (running juggler?) who was much faster than me

          At mile 9, the Livestrong cheering section with at least 100 yellow-shirted college aged kids waving signs, filling both sides of the road, vociferously cheering on the runners. It is wonderful to have crowds of people cheering for you.  I was wearing my Colorado Runner shirt, and got lots of "Go Colorado", so knew they were cheering for me. It was a big boost at a much-needed moment.

          It always makes me smile when I pass runners wearing "Fueled by Beef" t-shirts  (why do I smile?  the irony of a vegan passing meat-eaters)



     FAVORITE SIGNS ALONG THE COURSE:

          Sydney's and Alex's  "Go Grandma" signs

          "Worst parade ever"

          "Free hugs"

          "Your feet hurt because you are kicking so much butt."

          "FU Cancer"

     TIMES
          I finished in 2 hours 58 minutes, not as fast as I had hoped prior to getting injured 2 weeks ago, but I am very happy with it.  I came in 49th out of 82 women from 60-64 years of age.  I came in 4663 out of 5351 women of all ages.  I came in 8416 out of 9326 half marathoners of all ages and both sexes.  However you look at it, I was not last, and beat everyone who stayed home on the couch.

     I am really sore afterwards and am going to take time off from running to heal.  It was fun and I have a real sense of accomplishment.  The bling (finisher's medal) is beautiful.  I am definitely considering doing it again next year.  Anyone want to join me?

     Pics to come later.

"Go on failing. Go on. Only next time, try to fail better." ---Samuel Beckett

     I'm still injured and poorly prepared, but I paid my entry fee so will give the "Livestrong Half Marathon" a go, even if I end up walking it all.  The worst that can happen is that I will time out and they will escort me off of the course.  At least I will have tried.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.  Next time I will do better, after taking some serious time off to heal.









     Here is a well written entry from Kristen Armstrong's "Mile Markers" blog.  Perspective is everything.

luxury

Pain can be a luxury, not a punishment.

By

Kristin Armstrong;

Image by

Gregg Segal

Published

February 14, 2013

My friend’s son’s funeral was last week, and several of his friends got up and spoke at the service. One of them said something I will never forget:

Pain is a luxury.

I have thought a lot of about pain before - that it’s horrible, or gut wrenching, or necessary for the harvest of growth, maturity, or endurance. I even love the quote, “Pain is weakness leaving your body.” I have thought about pain as something to get through, break through, and get over with. I have never in 41 years truly considered it a luxury. Until last week.

The young man stood up at the podium on the altar, with his collegiate blue sport coat, tie, and curly dark hair that swooped forward into his eyes. He leaned on a crutch, from a recent motorcycle accident, and steadied himself at the microphone. He said that sentence, pain is a luxury, and he paused. I’m not sure if the pause was for emphasis, or an attempt to corral his emotions so he could proceed. Either way, it leveled me. Something about a 21-year-old boy, trying to grapple with something so big and so hard, and in the same moment being able to fast forward and picture my own son, teetering on the precipice of manhood. All those emotions swirled and I looked off to the side instead of right at him as he spoke, knowing that if I looked for one more second I would break down. Instead I blinked and bit my lip.

Pain is a luxury. It’s a luxury, this young man described, to suffer the pain of heartbreak. Because, he said, it’s a luxury to love so deeply that you are able to hurt that bad. I wish I had known about this luxury concept years ago. Back in my sophomore year of high school when my boyfriend and I broke up (I did the breaking up and then the pining and wanting him back – after he started dating the prettiest senior in my entire school. Oh, the pain). Or when I said goodbye to my college boyfriend when life took us in different directions. Or at the end of my marriage when my heart was in splinters and shrapnel, and I bent in the dust to collect whatever I could salvage from the wreckage of our home. In those moments my pain felt more like a penalty than a luxury. But when that 21-year-old boy spoke, something yawned open in my heart and mind and I started to understand. Someone who has never loved or been loved, or wanted children and never had them, would likely suffer anything for the experience. That pain is indeed a luxury.

Childbirth, heartbreak, loss, letting go, empty nest, the physical pain of training or racing – all this pain is luxurious when you succumb to this mindset. Like pushing our bodies so hard that they later ache from the effort… people on the sidelines (ill, injured or unable), would probably love that luxury, at least once. That one sentence changed my thinking this week, infused my sense of gratitude, informed my beginning of Lent, gave my training fresh legs and renewed vigor, and cranked open my creaking, skittish heart to the new love in my life.

We cannot live without the luxury of pain. We cannot avoid it or live in the shadow created by fearing it. We cannot minimize our existence by numbing it, or marginalize our experience by living around it.

We must learn to welcome it, even embrace it, as a sure sign of a life well loved.

Happy Valentines Day.

http://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/luxury

Beautiful.

Teach every child about food.

Here is Jamie Oliver's TED award talk about teaching every child about food.  It is well done and everyone should watch.

 

(email subscribers, please go to my blog to watch)

Two hearts beat as one.

     Here is a UC Davis study showing that two hearts do beat as one, if the two hearts belong to lovers.  This is appropriate news for Valentine's Day, although it may not be news to lovers. (http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10494)
(http://sportsgeezer.com/2013/two-hearts-in-love-really-do-beat-together/)

Lovers' hearts beat in sync, UC Davis study says

February 8, 2013

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UC Davis Psychologist Jonathan Helm and a student set up machinery to study heart rates and respiration in romantic couples. (Emilio Ferrer/UC Davis photo)

When modern-day crooner Trey Songz sings, “Cause girl, my heart beats for you,” in his romantic ballad, “Flatline,” his lyrics could be telling a tale that’s as much physiological as it is emotional, according to a University of California, Davis, study that found lovers’ hearts indeed beat for each other, or at least at the same rate.

Emilio Ferrer, a UC Davis psychology professor who has conducted a series of studies on couples in romantic relationships, found that couples connected to monitors measuring heart rates and respiration get their heart rate in sync, and they breathe in and out at the same intervals.

To collect the data, the researchers conducted a series of exercises, sitting 32 heterosexual couples a few feet away from each other in a quiet, calm room. The couples did not speak or touch.

“We’ve seen a lot of research that one person in a relationship can experience what the other person is experiencing emotionally, but this study shows they also share experiences at a physiological level,” Ferrer said.

The couples, in one of the exercises, were asked to sit across from each other and mimic each other, but still not speak, and researchers collected very similar results.

The researchers also mixed up the data from the couples. When the two individuals were not from the same couple, their hearts did not show synchrony, nor did their breathing closely match.

Additionally, both partners showed similar patterns of heart rate and respiration, but women tended to adjust theirs to their partners more. This was true not only for physiological but for day-to-day emotional experiences as well.

"In other words, we found that women adjust in relationship to their partners,” said Jonathan Helm, a UC Davis psychology doctoral student and primary author of the study. “Her heart rate is linked to her partner’s. I think it means women have a strong link to their partners — perhaps more empathy.”

The research was published in two recent papers by the American Psychological Association, available at:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21910541 and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23107993.

Co-author: David Sbarra, University of Arizona Department of Psychology.

The National Science Foundation supported the research.

About UC Davis

For more than 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has more than 33,000 students, more than 2,500 faculty and more than 21,000 staff, an annual research budget of nearly $750 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges — Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science. It also houses six professional schools — Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.

Media contact(s):

• Karen Nikos, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-6101, kmnikos@ucdavis.edu

Drug-resistant bacteria for dinner

Here is a great article I read today in the greatist.com blog  ( http://greatist.com/). Currently the livestock industry administers almost four fifths of all antibiotics used in the United States.

Your Steak Is Getting More Antibiotics Than You Are

by Laura Newcomer , Greatist.com

We might have bigger problems than fighting that cough. A new report reveals that the same antibiotics prescribed to cure sick people are also being fed to healthy animals destined for human consumption. But pumping livestock full of antibiotics isn’t doing any of us any favors. The practice is contributing to the development of “superbugs,” or bacteria that are immune to treatment, that are making infections harder and more expensive to treat.

What’s the Deal?

The Pew Charitable Trusts, a nonprofit dedicated to improving public policy, has created an infographiccomparing human use of antibiotics to treat illness with the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) latest data on antibiotics sold or distributed for use in animals. The graphic reveals that human antibiotic use has leveled off at below eight billion pounds a year. Meanwhile, meat and poultry farms have been using up record numbers of the stuff each year — reaching a new high of almost 29.9 billion pounds in 2011.

In fact, the use of antibiotics in livestock may be expanding at a greater rate than the meat industry itself. While the American Meat Institute reported a 0.2 percent increase in meat and poultry production in 2011 compared to 2010, antibiotic consumption jumped 2 percent over the same time period — suggesting meat production might be relying more heavily on antibiotics. All told, the livestock industry now uses nearly four-fifths of the antibiotics administered in the U.S.

Why It Matters

Antibiotics are typically administered to livestock in attempts to make them grow faster and to compensate for the overcrowded, unsanitary conditions typical of factory farms. But here’s the rub: When animals are crammed together and regularly dosed with antibiotics, the bacteria living on and in the animals can gradually begin to develop resistance to the drugs. These resistant strains can easily pass to humans when we consume animal products.

To look more closely at the issue of drug resistance, Pew analyzed the FDA’s latest results from itsNational Antimocrobial Resistance Monitoring System. The sobering stats, as reported by Mother Jones,include the fact that nearly three-quarters of the salmonella found on retail chicken breasts were resistant to at least one antibiotic (about 12 percent of retail chicken breast and ground turkey samples were contaminated with salmonella). Of the salmonella bacteria discovered on ground turkey, about 78 percent were resistant to at least one antibiotic and — perhaps most strikingly — half the bacteria were resistant to three or more. These figures represent an increase in bacterial resistance compared to 2010.

Last year, the FDA proposed a set of voluntary guidelines encouraging the meat industry to cut back on antibiotics. But Pew’s research reveals the industry has been slow to take heed. It’s clear that more stringent requirements are necessary, lest “drug-resistant bacteria” become a new dinner staple.

PITB

     I am suffering with probable piriformis syndrome....I have a pain in the butt.  The piriformis muscle, when inflamed, compresses the sciatic nerve causing glute soreness, and pain down the hamstring in my leg.  I stopped running a week ago and am stretching like crazy.  I am still icing it and taking nsaids to decrease inflammation.  There is no improvement so far, but I don't want to start running again until the pain is gone.  I really don't want this to become a chronic problem.
     This is bad timing.  I had been increasing my mileage and was supposed to run a race this week.  I don't think that is going to happen.

The Seven Wonders of the World: a test for a wise little girl

(email subscribers, go to the blog to view)

Have a fun weekend.

     Have a chuckle to start your weekend.  (e-mail subscribers, head to the blog to view)

Another interesting study...

Which came first, the vitamin D loss or the obesity?  That is the question.  Good to know they are linked, however.  I have wondered why the sudden epidemic of low vitamin D levels in this country.

Vitamin D Loss Attributed to Obesity

TUESDAY, Feb. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Obesity can lead to vitamin D deficiency, a new study indicates.

British researchers looked at data from about 165,000 people, and found that a 10 percent rise in body-mass index (BMI) was linked with a 4 percent drop in concentrations of vitamin D in the body. BMI is a measurement of body fat based on height and weight.

The link between BMI and vitamin D levels was found in men and women, as well as in younger and older people, the investigators noted.

The findings suggest that a higher BMI leads to lower levels of vitamin D circulating in the body, while a lack of vitamin D has only a small effect on BMI, according to the authors of the study, published Feb. 5 in the journal PLoS Medicine.

Efforts to tackle obesity may also help reduce levels of vitamin D deficiency, said lead investigator Dr. Elina Hypponen, of University College London's Institute of Child Health.

Previous studies have linked vitamin D deficiency with obesity, but it wasn't clear whether a lack of vitamin D triggered weight gain or whether obesity led to vitamin D deficiency, the study authors noted in a university news release.

Vitamin D, which is essential for healthy bones and other functions, is produced by the skin when exposed to sunlight. It can also be obtained through foods and supplements.

"Vitamin D deficiency is an active health concern around the world. While many health messages have focused on a lack of sun exposure or excessive use of suncreams, we should not forget that vitamin D deficiency is also caused by obesity," Hypponen said.

"Our study highlights the importance of monitoring and treating vitamin D deficiency in people who are overweight or obese, in order to alleviate adverse health effects caused by a lack of vitamin D," she added.

Although the study reported that higher BMI leads to lower levels of vitamin D circulating in the body, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements, has more about vitamin D.

SOURCE: University College London, news release, Feb. 5, 2013

     This is from MSN Healthy Living, 2-6-2013

Good news! Running linked to less osteoarthritis than walking.

This is straight from www.runnersworld.com.

Running Linked To Lower Arthritis Rates Than Walking

Massive study defies common logic and anti-runner bias.

By

Amby Burfoot

Published

February 05, 2013

Running epidemiologist Paul Williams, Ph.D., often doesn’t get the respect he deserves. That’s because Williams doesn’t conduct randomized, controlled, double-blind studies. Those “gold standard” studies are the ones that usually make the headlines.

Instead, Williams collects and analyzes self-reported data from runners. Lots of it. He was a “big data” guy long before the term gained its present currency due to folks like Nate Silver and the “quants” on Wall Street. Indeed, Williams launched the National Runners Health Study in the pages of Runner’s World in 1991, and he’s been happily amassing runner data ever since. (He also collects data for a smaller National Walkers Health Study.)

Every year, Williams runs several of his impressive data sets through a strict statistical analysis, and tells us more about ourselves than we could possibly learn anywhere else. Today the journal Medicine & Science In Sports & Exercise has released his latest effort, a look into osteoarthritis (OA) and hip replacement (HR) rates among 74,752 runners (after 7.1 years of follow-up) and 14,625 walkers (after 5.7 years of follow-up).

The first major result is that the runners have roughly half the risk of osteoarthritis and hip replacement as the walkers. This is the opposite of what much common-logic and anti-runner bias would predict. Williams says that running lowers body mass index(BMI) more than walking, and that the lower body weight probably prevents arthritis. See the first table below for details.

Second, he looked at the OA and HR rates of runners logging different amounts of weekly mileage, and divided them into four groups: under 7; 7-14; 14-21; 21+. He set the first group as his standard, and found that the other groups (doing more mileage) had 15% to 18 % lower rates of OA, and 35% to 50% lower rates of HR. In other words, more running reduced the rates of OA and HR, again likely through lower BMI, but contrary to common belief. See the second table below.

Third, Williams found another surprising result: Extra hours of non-running exercises increased the rates of OA and HR where running had reduced them. This seems to support the hypothesis that humans are well-designed for the straight-ahead motion of running and walking compared to the twisting and torquing of many other sports activities.

Conclusion: “Whereas other exercise increased OA and hip replacement risk, running significantly reduced their risk due, in part, to running’s association with lower BMI.”

RUNNERS VS WALKERS: ARTHRITIS AND HIP REPLACEMENT RATES

Respondents	Osteoarthritis	Hip Replacement
74,752 runners*	2,004 (2.7%)	259 (.35%)
14,625 walkers#	696 (4.8%)	114 (.78%)

* 7.1 years of follow-up
# 5.7 years of follow-up

RUNNERS ONLY: OA AND HR RATES BY MILES/WEEK

	<7 miles/wk	7-14 miles/week	14-21 miles/week	21+ miles/week
Osteoarthritis	1.0*	-18.1%	-16.1%	-15.6%
Hip Replacement	1.0*	-35.1%	-50.4%	-38.5%

*set as 1.0 for a comparison standard with the other groups

Note: Williams reported his exercise data as MET hours/day. We have converted to miles/week of running using the best-available tool. See here for more.

World Cancer Day

     Yesterday was World Cancer Day.  You can go to their website, wwwworldcancerday.org, to learn more.


     Here is a light-hearted video from Rethink Breast Cancer.  It will make you laugh.  (Email subscribers, head to my blog to view.)

A much needed recovery week.

     I have been super-tired and sore for a week now, so need to do an extreme cut back in exercise to recover.  I am going to cut my mileage by half, plus switch back to only run/walks at a 30sec/30sec ratio. Hopefully that will help and by next week I will feel re-energized once more.  Plus my right hamstring is really sore and I don't want it to become chronic, so am cutting back on the hills. Wish me well.
     Charleigh will be perfectly happy to walk more.  As long as she is outside, life is good.

Happy blogiversary and runiversary to me!

     I've been blogging and jogging for two years today!  It has been a tumultuous two years, as you know if you have been following my blog. I'm sure I would not and will not survive without healthy eating, exercise, daily sunshine, and my dog Charleigh. (Who rescued who?)
     A synonym for survival is endurance.  Maybe that is why I run, to develop endurance. I obviously don't do it for speed.
     I think we all have an innate sense of what we need to do to endure; or maybe it is fate guiding us.  For the short term, I need these small routines to get me up and going every day, and to quell stress.  I am not looking at the long term yet.  Those questions are too big to be answered easily, if at all.  What is my purpose in life?  What am I going to do with the next 40 years of it?  What do I want to do?  Who am I anymore?
     I will take it day by day with baby steps and small goals.  It is the only way for me.

 We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth.   Satir, Virginia
(doggy kisses will have to suffice)