High Body Mass Index Doesn't Always Spell Obesity, Researchers Show

"For years doctors have used the body mass index (BMI), a ratio of height and weight, to characterize the clinical weight status of their patients. The lower the number, the presumption goes, the leaner the person, and anyone with a BMI above 30 is characterized as obese and at high risk for the associated complications.

But the BMI has come under scrutiny lately, and other techniques that measure how the weight is distributed on the body are thought to provide a better way to assess risk. Now a study in mice by scientists at The Jackson Laboratory indicates that the usefulness of the BMI is suspect even at the genetic level.

In research published in PLoS Genetics, the investigators from Jackson and the J.L. Pettis VA Medical Center and led by Dr. Gary Churchill of Jackson used a combination of computational, molecular and genetic tools to identify locations on the mouse genome that influence adiposity (amount of body fat), overall body size and bone structure. Applying an analytical technique called "structural equation modeling" to the genetic and physical characteristics of mouse inbred crosses, the scientists went beyond the one-gene, one-trait approach to reveal the networks of effects created by the influence of multiple genes.

"We found that the genetic network affecting adiposity is separate from that affecting overall body size," Churchill says, "providing strong evidence that a high weight is not necessarily directly associated with a high percentage of fat."

Finally a research to help send the Body Mass Index (BMI) in history. We, athletes, have long known how inaccurate and unreliable this index is. Why do physicians and fitness professionals still use it then??

Cinnamon lowers blood sugar levels?

Well, it does. If you missed to read about that the news has been out there for quite some time now.

The active substance that does the trick is a polyphenol called MHCP. It lowers blood sugar levels by mimicking the action of insulin. It’s been shown to lower the blood sugar levels with 20% on average. It works in both – diabetics and non-diabetics.

So, make sure you use cinnamon in your meals. The powder form works just as well as cinnamon in sticks and in capsule form. The doses used in the trials were 1 to 6 grams.

Cinnamon use offers additional benefits. It lowers the “bad” cholesterol levels and it fights free radicals.

What inhibits calcium absorption in the body

The main things that inhibit calcium absorption are oxalic and phytic acids and alcohol. You can find the first one in foods like rhubarb, beet leaves, chard and spinach. Phytate containing foods are the germs and bran of the grains as well as in legumes.

Caffeine and sodium increase the calcium excretion through the kidneys.

Which fish species are low in mercury and which are high

Almost all the fish in the world is contaminated with mercury. Some fish species contain more and some less. It depends on where the fish lived and how long it lived for.

In general larger and older fish are more heavily contaminated with mercury. Those include: shark, swordfish, king mackerel, tilefish, striped bass, largemouth bass and catfish.

Low in mercury are: shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish. Note that albacore ("white") canned tuna has more mercury than canned light tuna.

Recommendation: eat fish not more then two times a week (about 12 oz.) and choose from the list of less contaminated with mercury fish.

What is Anaerobic Threshold

Muscles burn glucose in two ways aerobic and anaerobic (with or without the presence of oxygen). The anaerobic way (without the presence of oxygen) delivers energy faster but the byproduct from it is lactic acid.

When during anaerobic exercise lactic acid starts builds up faster then it is removed, a person reaches his anaerobic threshold. At that point we get the well-known feeling of fatigue and pain.

An athlete can increase his/her anaerobic threshold through exercise. HIIT cardio is one of the physical activities, which contributes to this process.

Fatigue from Isotonic and Isometric Training

Hi everybody. Sorry I haven’t posted here for several days. I was out of town and didn’t have Internet connection but now that I’m back everything is back to normal.

On the topic. Isotonic means you contract the muscle and the muscle fiber shortens like in regular workouts, isometric means you contract the muscle but the muscle fiber remains the same in length (ex. you do biceps curls, you curl half way, stop and hold it there).

It became apparent in a new study that doing isotonic contractions (concentric training) causes your muscle fibers to fail, while doing isometric (static, eccentric) training causes your central nervous system to fail.

This is important to remember as this way now you can train for either muscle or nervous system failure, or you can reconsider your workout to train for both types of failure during a single workout.

Fast Reps or Slow Reps

Scientists found that fast rep training increases the muscle strength while slow rep training increase muscle size. The effects were most noticeable with three sets of each exercise.

The reps the control groups were doing ranged between 6 and 8-rep max on one arm biceps curls.

The conclusion is: cycle your rep speed so that you can benefit from both types of exercising. This way you will be working on both the strength and the muscle size.

Take around 3-4 sec. for the positive and the negative part of the slow reps and do 1 sec both parts for the fast reps.