SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Figure 1: Number [in millions!] of prediabetics and diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetics in the USA according to data from the American Diabetic Association from January 2011 ( ADA. 2011 ) You probably remember Wednesday's news-item on high-intensity interval training (HIIT) for cardiac patients - as it turned out, even 2 weeks after myocardial infarction our central pump needs real exercise to get back in, or to get into even better shape. Today, I do yet want to go beyond infarction patients and address another, ever-growing sub-group of the self-perceived "victims" of the obesity pandemic, the type II diabetics. About a month ago, J.P. Little and his colleagues from the University of British Columbia Okanagan published a study in the Journal of Applied Physiology ( Little. 2011a ), the results of which confirm (once again) the unpopular hypothesis that getting your ass off the couch in order to work it off in ...

Image 1: If this is how you feel, than it is about time you take one week off from whatever routine you are on. It's only Thursday and I feel like I could use an extended weekend (luckily this will be one, with Monday being a holiday, here in Germany ;-), already. Some feel like it's life or work that is getting in their ways, for others its their hobbies, like blogging and training (that's me ;-), but, after all, if we are honest with ourselves, in almost all cases there is "no one" or "nothing" that really stands in our way, other than we, ourselves . I mean, oftentimes we are so busy with our everyday routines that we begin to feel to be externally controlled, although, in almost all cases, we are the ones who decide / believe that we must follow the exact same routine day in and day out. The results of this practice, in the best case, are boredom and discontent - in the worst case, however, our routines will burn us out and make us sick . Ade...

Image 1: Right in the starting block is where heart health begins... and on the finish line of a marathon race probably is where heart health ends (if not much earlier) I think it is unnecessary to pose this question again, but in case you missed the innumerable blogposts, where I asked you whether you would rather like to look like an ultra-endurance runner or like a sprinter - here you go: Whose physique would you rather want to have? The sinewy physique of Haile Gebrsellasie or the muscled physique of Usain Bolt and co? I assume in most cases this question is unnecessary... but what if you are sick, obese or even have a heart failure? Obviously you cannot train like a sprinter, then... can you? Yes, you can - at least within your personal physiological limitations! In view of the results of a recent study from the KG Jebsen Center of Exercise Medicine at the Norwegian University in Trondheim, Norway, aerobic interval training would even be the healthier choice (Moholdt. 2011 )...

Image 1: Gluttony or a victim of bacterial translocation from an unrecognized gluten-sensitive leaky gut (img from COPD Lighthouse ) "Leaky gut", for decades one of those concepts, the belief in which divided self-proclaimed "real scientists" from their "hippie" counterparts, has eventually found its way to mainstream science. What began with a few tentative studies into the role of a pathologically increased gut permeability in Crohn's disease and co., is about to become a recognized research area with about 150 related publications within the first 9 month of 2011 , alone. Out of these 150 publications, a study by Professor Pierre Desreumaux, and his colleagues from the Universitè Lille Nord de France ( Desreumaux. 2011 ) is unquestionably among those, which could have a major impact on the established image of the gut and its biota as an isolated system that sustains the rest of the body with nutrients and has - due to the insulating epithelia...

Image 1: Potato roasting caveman-style - probably not the best way to "cook" your potatoes As a non-native-speaker, I must admit that the first time I heard someone talk about "tubers" was on Robb Wolf's famous podcast, back in the day, when I was "listener #6" (or seven ;-). Contrary to common (foreign) belief, not all Germans subsist on potatoes and sauerkraut and, what's more, even those who do, don't really care that a potato is a "tuber", i.e. a "Knolle" in German - I suppose the idea that it grows in the dirt is not too appealing to some, while the large majority probably just doesn't care as long as those "tubers" make a good addition to their Schweinebraten... yet, whatever the reasons may be, my first encounter with "tubers" has ingrained the link of these "underground structure[s] consisting of a solid thickened portion or outgrowth of a stem or rhizome, of a more or less rounde...

Figure 1: The mTOR - AMPK "cycle" can become a vicious one, as soon as its natural balance becomes disturbed by external, mostly nutritional and/or exercise related factors. Intermittent fasting could help you restore the balance. Before we prematurely(?) break the fast and get to the nitty gritty of the feeding window, I want to briefly recapitulate the results of the last installment , which - as it will turn out - are of particular importance in view of today's discussion, as well. It were the thoughts on the health and possibly life-extending effects of intermittent fasting in the last installment of this series that brought up the involvement of 5'-adenosine monophospate (AMP)-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in both the weight, or we should say, fat loss and possible life-extending and anti-cancer effects of (intermittent) fasting . Now, before we even delve into a more detailed discussion of its relation to its "...

Image 1: Walter Breuning died in April 2011at the biblical age of 114! And you bet that a man who has seen two world wars has had his share of mitohormetic stress in his life. As a diligent reader of the SuppVersity you will be familiar with the work of S. Schmeisser and M. Ristow from the Department of Human Nutrition at the University of Jena , here in good old Germany (where not everyone eats Sauerkraut und Weisswurst, even now that the Oktoberfest is in full swing). In previous publications, the scientists have (at least in my mind conclusively) argued against the publicly accepted free-radical hypothesis of aging, which implies that the presence of free radicals is one of the fundamental mechanisms of aging. Now, a few month after the publication of their last review back in May 2011, they are presenting the latest results from their own lab in a paper that is going to be published in the October issue of Hormone and Metabolic Research ( Schmeisser. 2011 ) . Want to liv...

Image 1: Still my creatine supplement of choice: plain creatine monohydrate You've been taking CreaMegaSuperBol (or whatever the name of the next "improved" creatine product may be), the fanciest new creatine product on the market, and despite spending 50 bucks still do not look like Phil Heath (not even like Jay Cutler ;-)? Well, you must be a creatine non-responder , then - no... Actually not! If there is someone to blame for the misery, it's certainly not your parents, who would be responsible for your "genetic disadvantage", you cannot even blame the supplement producer, because those guys also have to make a living. The one person you probably do not want, but have to blame is YOU! Take some responsibility for your gains! Now that I got your attention, let me give you a simple explanation of why you did not gain despite taking truckloads of creatine: you did not train hard enough! Although even the earliest studies on creatine back in the 1990s...