Dental Prism

This comprehensive Newsweek article is a must read.  It clearly documents the increasingly held scientific view that there is a direct link between exercise and improved cognition.

Please read the whole article, but here are some of the main points:

1. In a study involving 259 Illinois grade school children, “kids with the fittest bodies were the ones with the fittest brains even when factors such as socioeconomic status were taken into account.”
2. “Last week, in a landmark paper, researchers announced that they had coaxed the human brain into growing new nerve cells, a process that for decades had been thought impossible, simply by putting subjects on a three-month aerobic-workout regimen.”
3. “Researchers are realizing that the mental effects of exercise are far more profound and complex than they once thought.    Exercise ramps up bodily production of certain chemicals, including brain-derived neurotrophic factor or “BDNF.”  “BDNF fuels almost all the activities that lead to higher thought… and… “brains with more of it have a greater capacity for knowledge.”
4.  Exercise may not only slow the aging process in the brain, it may actually reverse it.
5. “Dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine—all of these are elevated after a bout of exercise, so having a workout will help with focus, calming down, impulsivity…”
6. To keep the beneficial effects of exercise on the brain, you have to keep working out.  The benefits fade if you quit.
7. “Early studies suggest that people who exercise at least a few times a week tend to develop Alzheimer's less often and later than their more sedentary counterparts.”
8. Weight training seems to be less effective than aerobic exercise.  More studies are needed here.
9. The ability to replicate the beneficial effects of exercise on cognition in a pill is a long way off, but scientists are studying this kind of synthesis.

This summary doesn’t do the article justice.  Please read it all.  If you were lacking motivation to gear up your exercise program, this article will provide it.

This globeandmail.com article by Leslie Beck summarizes recent studies that show the Atkins diet is quite effective in helping dieters lose weight.  The article describes the Atkins diet thusly:

“What is it: Followers drastically cut carbohydrates by shunning breads, cereals, pasta, rice, fruit and milk and emphasizing protein-rich foods such as cheese, meat, poultry and fish.

Author: Dr. Robert Atkins first published his diet approach in 1972 in a book called Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution.”

In the study, the average weight loss over 12 months was 10.3 pounds, compared to 3.5 pounds for the “Zone” diet and 4.8 pounds for the “Ornish” diet.

“Based on a comparison of four weight-loss diets, the low-carbohydrate diet was deemed most effective at helping overweight women shed pounds.’

Somewhat surprisingly to many people, even the though the Atkins diet is the antithesis of a “low fat” diet, the study “demonstrated the low-carb diet was not only the most successful at promoting weight loss, it also did not raise blood pressure or significantly boost cholesterol.   Other recent studies comparing weight-loss diets also reported that triglycerides, HDL cholesterol and blood pressure were not significantly different or were more favourable among low-carbohydrate-diet followers.”

 This is certainly counter intuitive given the “red meat” reputation of the Atkins diet.

 At getftitsource.com our take-away on this report is as follows;

1.      Losing weight is more important to your overall health than trying to maintain a healthful “low fat” regimen which doesn’t reduce your weight. 

2.      The Atkins diet is quite effective.  However, it is almost impossible to stay on this diet long term and many participants gain back the weight they lost as soon as they stop the diet. The Atkins diet is not a sustainable source of weight loss

3.      Some of the weight loss in the Atkins diet is illusory as carbs make your body retain water at a greater rate than do proteins.  Hence, some of the weight loss is “water loss” which immediately reverses when you start eating carbs again.

4.      The best way to lose weight is to reduce overall calories and eat a wide variety of foods.  Avoid “refined carbs” but not other carbs.