Let the sun shine

A new study has linked vitamin D deficiency with an increased risk of death, especially from cardiovascular disease, in the latest evidence of the important role the vitamin plays in human health.

Researchers, led by Harald Dobnig of the Medical University of Graz, Austria, measured the vitamin D levels in 3,258 patients, average age 62, who visited a medical center in Austria between 1997 and 2000, then followed their cases for 7.7 years.

Almost twice as many of the patients with vitamin D deficiency died during the course of the study, according to results published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a publication of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). . . .

The link between Vitamin D deficiency and mortality due to cardiovascular causes was particularly striking. More than half of the deaths -- 463, of 62.8 percent -- were attributed to cardiovascular causes.

Scientists do not know how low levels of vitamin D contribute to cardiovascular problems or other causes of death.

But study after study has shown that vitamin D plays an key role in human immunity.

A Harvard University study of 18,225 published in early June in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed a link between the frequency of heart attacks and low blood levels of Vitamin D.

Earlier research had shown a link between vitamin D deficiency and diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure.

Vitamin D deficiency has also been associated with several types of cancer.

At least 50 percent of older individuals worldwide have insufficient vitamin D in their blood, and the situation is similar for younger people, according to the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Possible causes are a decline in outdoor activity, aging and atmospheric pollution.

The chief source for vitamin D is sun exposure, since the ultraviolet rays of the sun trigger vitamin D synthesis within the human body. Ten to fifteen minutes a day in the sun is sufficient.

AFP

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A little red wine goes a long way

. . . a mere four, five-ounce glasses of wine “starts getting close” to the amount of resveratrol they found effective . . . (NY Times)

This is good news. Previous studies had suggested that the amount of resveratrol needed to turn an ordinary old mouse into a champion athlete amounted to the equivelent of some 40 glasses of red wine per day for a human. But the new study takes other ingredients in wine into account. Apparently there is some kind of synergy between the small amount of pure resveratrol in wine and the other similar chemicals in the natural grapes.

Resveratrol can be obtained from capsules (see here and here).

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What foods do your muscles need you to eat after exercise?

During exercise, muscles stop the biochemical reactions used to maintain themselves such as replacing and resynthesizing the proteins needed for day to day activities. It’s not that exercise is damaging your muscles; it’s that they halt the maintenance process until exercise is over.

To do this maintenance, muscles must make protein, and to do so they need to absorb amino acids, the constituent parts of proteins, from the blood. Just after exercise, perhaps for a period no longer than a couple of hours, the protein-building processes of muscle cells are especially receptive to amino acids. That means that if you consume protein, your muscles will use it to quickly replenish proteins that were not made during exercise.

But muscles don’t need much protein, researchers say. Twenty grams is as much as a 176-pound man’s muscles can take. Women, who are smaller and have smaller muscles even compared to their body sizes, need less.

Dr. Rennie said that 10 to 15 grams of protein is probably adequate for any adult. And you don’t need a special drink or energy bar to get it. One egg has 6 grams of protein. Two ounces of chicken has more than 12 grams.

Muscles also need to replenish glycogen, their fuel supply, after a long exercise session — two hours of running, for example. For that they need carbohydrates. Muscle cells are especially efficient in absorbing carbohydrates from the blood just after exercise.

Once again, muscles don’t need much; about one gram of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight is plenty, Dr. Tarnopolsky said. He weighs 70 kilograms, or 154 pounds, which means he would need 70 grams of carbohydrates, or say, 27 ounces of fruit juice, he said.

New York Times

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