The Staley Seminar in AZ this past weekend was AWESOME! I will have a full update starting next week and I learned tons of new stuff. It was great to see old friends like Dr. Lonnie Lowery and Dave Barr--I got off the shuttle to the hotel and ran into them walking out the door for dinner on Friday night, so perfect timing. The Tilted Kilt in Scottdale is a great place for dinner! It was so good we went back there twice in one night (longer story).
It was great to meet new people also such as Cassandra Forsythe-New Last Name (I owe you some studies and follow up yet, great to meet ya in person), Rob "Fortress" Fortney who has the most hilarious stories ever and is a huge metal music fan, Anthony Almada, all the presenters on both days, Nick Nillson (nice to chat business and thanks for the rides around), Phil Stevens (last time I saw Phil was Test Fest in DC), Matt and Vick from CT (nice to chat and thanks for the coffee Vick), and everyone else there I met and special thanks to Charles and friends of course for putting it all together and Velocity sports for the use of their venue. Great times!
Exercise in a Pill?
Below is a great short article just published the other day in the Ne
w England Journal of Medicine about exercise in a pill. Great stuff.NEJM Vol 359:1842-1844 October 23, 2008 Number 17
The Exercise Pill — Too Good to Be True?
Laurie J. Goodyear, Ph.D.
PubMed Citation Regular physical exercise has undisputed health benefits in the prevention — and in some cases, the treatment — of many diseases. The problem is that for the great majority of Americans, probably as much as 70% of the population, there is an inability or unwillingness to meet the minimum physical activity guidelines established by the American College of Sports Medicine. The idea of taking a pill to gain the benefits of exercise is extremely attractive for the millions of "couch potatoes." A recent study by Narkar et al.1 suggests that a couple of molecules could mimic some effects of exercise training. Skeletal muscle is an extraordinary tissue that is critical not only in locomotion but also in controlling an organism's metabolic homeostasis. Skeletal muscles are composed of different types of elongated, multinucleated cells called myofibers. Type I myofibers have a slow-twitch speed of contraction, are exceedingly oxidative, and have a reddish appearance. Type II myofibers have a faster-twitch speed of contraction, can have both oxidative and glycolytic metabolic properties, and are fairly white in appearance. Skeletal muscle is highly adaptable, or plastic, in that exercise training effects a change in metabolic and contractile properties of the myofibers. For aerobic exercise training, such as running and swimming, myofibers take on a slow-twitch phenotype, with an increase in the levels of oxidative enzymes, glycogen, and glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4), the protein that transports glucose into the muscle. These changes are accompanied by an increase in insulin sensitivity of the muscle and an overall improvement in glucose homeostasis in the body. When a rodent or human becomes inactive, a number of myofibers may convert to the fast-twitch phenotype, making them less able to perform sustained aerobic work and contributing to an insulin-resistant state.
See the rest of the article by clicking HERE
