A new study conducted at the University of Nottingham Schools of Graduate Entry Medicine and Biomedical Sciences showed that it gets harder for people aged over 65 to suppress muscle wasting or breakdown.

When older people eat, their ability to build muscle with the protein they consume is hampered and the insulin in their bodies fail to prevent the muscle wasting that occurs overnight and between meals.

A follow-up study showed that poor blood flow may be an important factor because it prevents the optimal delivery of hormones and nutrients to the muscles.

Researchers discovered that regular weight training helps rejuvenate blood flow to the extremities of people in their late 60s, to the point that they were almost identical to those of 25-year-olds.

Osteopathic physician Dr. Joseph Mercola believes that exercise, including weight training, is a natural remedy for poor blood circulation. Many exercisers, however, give little or no time for weight training because they think it’s too strenuous and will cause them to “bulk up.”

But weight training isn’t about looking like an underwear model. Weight-bearing exercises can help produce beneficial changes in your body, on the chemical, enzymatic, hormonal and molecular levels. These changes will help prevent or slow down many diseases caused by a sedentary lifestyle, such as diabetes, heart disease, muscle wasting and osteoporosis, Dr. Mercola explains.

So unless you plan to be the next Arnold Schwarzenegger, there’s no need to worry about overly bulking up when you do weights.

When you gain more muscle, you’re also burning more calories, which are consumed even when you are at rest or asleep, and this helps you get rid of body fat.

Weight training does more than tone your muscles and induces weight loss. Weight-bearing exercises are among the most effective treatment strategies against osteoporosis. Taking drugs to improve your bone density is a big no-no for Dr. Mercola, because this is more likely to give you more harm in the long run.

Your bones become more brittle as you age, especially if you’re leading a sedentary lifestyle. Resistance training can help prevent this effect because putting more tension on your muscles also applies more pressure on your bones, which then react by creating fresh, new bone. Also, as you put on more muscle and strengthen your existing mass, you’re also applying constant pressure to your bones.

Weight lifting can also help reduce your risk of diabetes and heart disease by lowering inflammation in your body to help keep off visceral fat (commonly known as belly fat), which is deposited in your abdomen to surround your vital organs. Visceral fat has been linked to serious chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke, among many other chronic diseases.

Exercise can provide you with an assortment of health benefits but it is just one component of a healthy lifestyle. To fully experience the benefits of exercise, you should also start eating healthy and managing your stress levels.

However, eating is not something that should be rushed because it leads to stressful, unhealthy living.

Nutrition and fitness expert Marc David, founder and director of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, points out that Americans tend to eat under a state of stress and anxiety. You could be eating the healthiest food available but you won’t necessarily be digesting and assimilating it properly because eating under stress puts your body in the opposite condition of where it should be in order to digest and assimilate food.

Eating under stress causes dramatic changes in your body’s metabolism, including:

• Slower nutrient absorption
• Excretion of nutrients, particularly water soluble vitamins, macrominerals and microminerals
• Spike in blood cholesterol
• Increased food sensitivity
• Decreased gut flora population
• Heartburn
• Increase in cortisol and insulin

The hormones cortisol and insulin track each other. When cortisol increases, insulin decreases. The two hormones signal your body to store fat and stop building muscle, effectively causing weight gain.

The simple act of taking time to eat a meal can have a profound effect on your health. Here are the reasons why you should start eating slower:

1. Weight loss – It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to realize that your stomach is full. David explains that if you eat too fast, your brain will often interpret that missed experience of nuances and pleasure in taste and aroma as hunger, which will lead to you eating more. If you eat a big meal but don’t pay attention to it and just devour it, you’ll notice that your belly feels full but your mouth still feels hungry. Eating slowly will give you time to realize that you’re full and signal you to stop on time.
2. Relaxation – Ever wonder why Europeans, who consume more wine and fat in their diet, manage to stay slimmer than Americans? That’s because they take their time while eating and treat meals as a celebration. They shut down work and take two-hour lunches. Eating with friends and family helps lower stress and allows people to relax and enjoy food as a gastronomic pleasure.
3. Better digestion – Digestion starts in your mouth; the more work you do there, the less work your stomach has to put in to effectively digest your food. Eating slower means chewing your food properly, which helps you break down your food better.
4. Breaking free from the fast food culture and fast-paced lifestyle – Americans are crazy about all things fast – fast cars, fast computers, fast mobile phones, and fast food, which unfortunately, is a fast route towards obesity. Break free from the on-the-go lifestyle that is dehumanizing America, making people unhealthy, stressed out and unhappy. You deserve better.

Eating is not just something to do but something to experience. The simple act of eating slower will lead to a healthier and happier you.

But in Oprah, Wacky Cures and You, the cover story of the latest issue of Newsweek, Weston Kosova and Pat Wingert bashed (to say the least) the talk show queen’s promotion of “dubious” health cures and therapies.

If you’re a fan of the show, you’d remember that in January, Oprah invited 62-year-old actress Suzanne Somers to share her unusual secrets to staying young. Turns out, these tips involve bioidenticals, and include rubbing estrogen and progesterone cream into her skin, and using a syringe to inject estrogen directly into her vagina daily.

Somers believes that hormones can treat almost all conditions that affect women. Bioidentical hormones are used to help control the symptoms of menopause and are usually derived from soy and yarn extracts. They are so-named because they are structurally identical to the female hormones.

National Women’s Health Network executive director Cynthia Pearson, who’s an expert on hormone therapy, was flabbergasted. “It completely blew me away that Oprah would go to her (Sommers) for advice on this topic. I have to say, it diminished my respect,” she said.

But what Newsweek fails to mention in the story is that Wingert is the co-author of a pharmaceutically-biased book on hormones and menopause directly in conflict with biodentical hormones, and that the magazine is heavily funded by “Big Pharma.”

Thus, Kosova and Wingert don’t discuss the fact that conventional hormones are different from the 17-beta-estradiol made by your body, while the bioidentical hormones are 17-beat-estradiol itself.

So what’s the real reason for this attack on bioidentical hormones? Are pharmaceutical companies afraid that Somers and her anti-aging regimen of bioidenticals will challenge the sales of conventional hormones? Why did Wyeth ask the FDA to stop the sale of a bioidentical product in 2008?

Oprah’s Endorsements: Midas Touch or Fool’s Gold?

Besides bioidenticals, it’s no secret that Oprah is also fond of endorsing weight loss products. In the 1980s, Oprah promoted the Optifast diet, which she credits for helping her lose between 60 or 70 pounds. Her endorsement resulted in an explosion of business around Optifast but sometime after the boom, Oprah gained back the weight, and needless to say, spoke very little about the failure of the diet.

Millions of Americans watch Oprah to hear what she has to say, and she’s had her fair share of hits and misses when it comes to health information. She is bound to get some things right though. Oprah was criticized by many for joining Jenny McCarthy’s anti-vaccine crusade, when she actually made the right call. McCarthy’s appearance on the show helped open people’s eyes about the dangers of vaccines and their effects on children, particularly autism.

Now, vaccination has always been one of the most controversial issues in modern medicine. Most doctors find nothing harmful about giving children dozens of shots at a very young age, while other health professionals, like natural health experts like Dr. Joseph Mercola, are on the other side of the fence and are working hard to educate the public about vaccine dangers.

Oprah is a perfect example of “with great power and influence comes great responsibility.” Celebrities can positively or negatively influence the health of millions of people. As such, they should always put that influence to good use and be judicious in promoting health products, therapies and sharing health information.

Exercise benefits include weight loss, improving your brainpower, fighting depression, lowering your blood pressure, increasing your energy levels and slowing down the aging process.

But if exercise is so good for you, why isn’t everyone doing it?

Well, most people actually say they don’t have time; this is more of a psychological resistance rather than poor time management. For those who do manage to exercise, one of the main reasons why they quit exercising is because they don’t get the results that they want.

Your body has the remarkable ability to adapt and learn, so if you do the same types of exercises every day, you’ll be able to master them in no time.

When exercise becomes easy for you, it means your muscles are getting used to the same activity. These muscles need a level of muscle confusion for them to continue improving and growing stronger.

If you don’t raise your level a notch higher, work harder and give your body a new challenge, chances are you end up abandoning your workout regimen because of the monotony and lack of results.

Dr. Joseph Mercola believes that the key to good exercise is having variety in your program or routine. Dr. Mercola started exercising as a teenager and was inspired to work out after reading the fitness book Aerobics. He has never stopped ever since and has been regularly exercising for 40 years.

If you’re planning to start sweating it out or want to resume your workouts, here are Dr. Mercola’s …

Four Principles of Good Exercise

1. Aerobic – Examples of aerobic exercises include jogging, using an elliptical machine and fast walking. Aerobic exercise activates your immune system, helps increase your stamina and, gets your heart pumping more efficiently, increasing oxygen circulation and releases endorphins – natural ‘feel good’ chemicals in your body.
2. Interval Training (Anaerobic Exercise) – Studies show that the best way to condition your heart and burn fat is by doing alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods. Interval training, also called burst type training, can dramatically improve your cardiovascular fitness and ability to burn fat. It also greatly reduces the amount of time you spend on exercise while giving you more benefits. For example, when you sprint intermittently, your body produces high levels of chemical compounds called catecholamines, which allow more fat to be burned from under your skin within the exercising muscles, thereby increasing your weight loss.
3. Strength Training – Round out your exercise program with a 1-set strength training routine to optimize the possible health benefits. Do enough repetitions to exhaust your muscles. The weight should be heavy enough for a maximum of 12 repetitions but at the same time, light enough for a minimum of four repetitions. But remember: don’t exercise the same muscle groups every day because your muscles need at least two days of rest to recover, repair and rebuild.
4. Core Exercises – Your have 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles form the foundation for movement for your entire body, so strengthening them can help protect and support your back, reduce the risk of injury to your spine and body, and help enhance your balance and stability. Pilates and yoga are great exercises for your core muscles, as well as specific exercises you can learn from a personal trainer.

A common mistake is thinking that exercise alone can achieve weight loss and that there is no need to stick to a healthy diet. One of the most important factors in weight management is eating according to your Nutritional Type.

You can’t help but admire the clever marketing used by beverage companies which give people the impression that sports drinks are healthy and beneficial during or after a workout or a game.

But can sports drinks really give you that competitive edge?

What’s Inside that Sports Drink Bottle?

What the makers of Gatorade, Powerade and Vitwater don’t tell you is that sport drinks are harmful to your teeth and are almost 30 times more erosive than water. Sports drinks contain citric acid, which softens your tooth enamel to the extent that you could damage it by brushing.

Like soda, sports drinks contain high amounts of acids to extend their shelf life and can be more problematic than beneficial for a sweaty athlete with a dry mouth who can’t produce enough saliva to regulate and protect his mouth from the acidity.

Putting it bluntly, sports drinks are little more than sugar water with added salt.

Most sports drinks on the market contain as much as two-thirds the sugar of sodas and more sodium. You can also find high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors and food coloring, none of which can be considered healthy.

If you are exercising to achieve weight loss, drinking sports drinks defeats that purpose. It’s quite ironic once you realize that you’re working out hard to burn off those calories and shed excess pounds only to gulp down more calories and high fructose corn syrup, which is associated to obesity.

A study from the University of California at Berkeley’s Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Center for Weight and Health even found that students who drink one 20-ounce sports drink every day for a year could gain 13 pounds!

Sports drinks are also often referred to as “energy” drinks, but in the long run, the high sugar content does quite the opposite. You do get a quick burst of energy, which is quickly followed by a fall out, because your pancreas and other glands do all they can to balance out the toxic stimulation to your blood sugar.

Sugar- free and low calorie sports drinks don’t solve this problem because they are likely to contain an artificial sweetener, which is worse for your health than sugar or high fructose corn syrup.

Sports drinks also contain processed salt to help replenish the electrolytes you lose when you sweat. However, unless you’re sweating profusely for an extended period of time, the excess sodium is simply unnecessary, and potentially harmful.

Also, salt typically increases your thirst and will make you want to drink more.

Stick to Good Old Water

Pure water is still the best beverage to use to stay hydrated.

There is no danger of dehydration if you exercise for just 30 minutes a day at moderate intensity. It’s only when you’ve been exercising for an hour or more, at high intensity, that you may need something more than water to replenish the lost fluids.

Anything less than 45 minutes will not lead to enough fluid loss that will justify drinking these high-sodium, high-acid and sugar-laced sports drinks.

Even if you’ve been exercising for more than an hour, there are far better and healthier options for you to rehydrate.

Dr. Mercola recommends fresh coconut water, one of the highest sources of electrolytes known to man. Coconut water is used to prevent dehydration from strenuous exercise or even diarrhea. In remote areas, coconut juice is used intravenously, short-term, to help hydrate critically ill patients and in emergencies.

Don’t waste those hard-earned dollars on sports drinks. Stick to good old water. Nothing quenches your thirst better.