Can Probiotics Help Your Riding?

Gut Check: Should You Take Probiotics?

• By Susan Lacke

 

This good form of bacteria can help endurance athletes recover from workouts and boost their immunity.

Probiotics, the “good bacteria,” have been marketed as a cure-all for many ailments, from the upset stomach to the common cold. These tiny microorganisms, whose name originates from the Greek words “for life,” maintain the health of the body.

More than 500 different types of bacteria reside in the digestive system, working together to aid in digestion, nutrient absorption, and immunity. In recent years, health and wellness claims have spilled over into the sports performance realm, with studies showing promising effects of probiotics on training, racing, and recovery.

“There is no direct link between probiotic use and performance that can be quantified to date, but the secondary health benefits of probiotics, which include enhanced recovery from fatigue, improved immune function and the maintenance of a healthy gut, can improve general well being,” says Kim Schwabenbauer, a Registered Dietician, USAT coach, and professional triathlete, “This, in turn, could improve performance in training and therefore, on race day.”

Immunity Boost

Though exercise can boost immunity, particularly long or strenuous efforts can deplete the body’s ability to fight off illness. A daily dose of “good” bacteria could help to fight off “bad” bacteria.

“There’s some evidence that the incidence of upper respiratory tract infections, or the common cold, can be reduced in athletes with probiotic supplementation,” says Dr. Mike Gleeson, Professor of Exercise Biochemistry at Loughborough University, “as well as influence some aspects of immunity in athletes.”

In a study published by the British Journal of Sports medicine, high-mileage runners given a capsule containing Lactobacillus fermentum experienced only 30 days of respiratory illness symptoms during a four-month testing period, compared with 72 days for those who took a placebo. A 2012 study identified two specific strains, Bifidobacterium animalis and Lactobacillus paracasei, which improved immune function in healthy adults by an average of 50 percent.

Relief From Runner’s Trots

If you experience gastrointestinal issues (nausea, bloating, diarrhea) while training or racing, probiotics may help lessen the severity of your symptoms. In a study of marathon runners, the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG was found to shorten the duration of GI symptom episodes.

Heat Help

Training for a hot-weather race? Probiotics may help you go the distance. Australian researchers recently discovered that supplementation with a multi-strain probiotic allowed runners to endure hot and humid conditions for longer than those who took a placebo. During a four-week study, athletes who supplemented with Lactobacillus, Bifdobacterium, and Streptoccus strains increased the amount of time they could run in the heat before feeling fatigued.

Probiotic … Chocolate?

Thanks to clever marketing, most consumers can identify yogurt as a source of probiotics. However, probiotics have begun making appearances in a rapidly growing list of fortified products such as chocolates, juices, and cereals.

Despite claims made on brightly colored packaging, the simple presence of probiotics in a product does not guarantee its usefulness. Strains can often be destroyed by heat and processing of food products, rendering them ineffective. Further, most probiotics have a limited shelf life, even with ideal conditions such as refrigeration.

Increase your confidence in the probiotic contents of your food by looking for fresh, perishable products with “live and active cultures.” Natural sources include yogurt, Kefir, sauerkraut, miso, and buttermilk.

Visit the Qivana link on this website for info on one of the best probiotics available.

It Ain't Moto but It Helps!

How Exercise Keeps Us Young

By Gretchen Reynolds, New York Times

January 7, 2015 12:01 am January 7, 2015 12:01 am

Photo

Credit Getty Images

Gretchen Reynolds on the science of fitness.

Active older people resemble much younger people physiologically, according to a new study of the effects of exercise on aging. The findings suggest that many of our expectations about the inevitability of physical decline with advancing years may be incorrect and that how we age is, to a large degree, up to us.

Aging remains a surprisingly mysterious process. A wealth of past scientific research has shown that many bodily and cellular processes change in undesirable ways as we grow older. But science has not been able to establish definitively whether such changes result primarily from the passage of time — in which case they are inevitable for anyone with birthdays — or result at least in part from lifestyle, meaning that they are mutable.

This conundrum is particularly true in terms of inactivity. Older people tend to be quite sedentary nowadays, and being sedentary affects health, making it difficult to separate the effects of not moving from those of getting older.

In the new study, which was published this week in The Journal of Physiology, scientists at King’s College London and the University of Birmingham in England decided to use a different approach.

They removed inactivity as a factor in their study of aging by looking at the health of older people who move quite a bit.

“We wanted to understand what happens to the functioning of our bodies as we get older if we take the best-case scenario,” said Stephen Harridge, senior author of the study and director of the Centre of Human and Aerospace Physiological Sciences at King’s College London.

To accomplish that goal, the scientists recruited 85 men and 41 women aged between 55 and 79 who bicycle regularly. The volunteers were all serious recreational riders but not competitive athletes. The men had to be able to ride at least 62 miles in six and a half hours and the women 37 miles in five and a half hours, benchmarks typical of a high degree of fitness in older people.

The scientists then ran each volunteer through a large array of physical and cognitive tests. The scientists determined each cyclist’s endurance capacity, muscular mass and strength, pedaling power, metabolic health, balance, memory function, bone density and reflexes. They also had the volunteers complete the so-called Timed Up and Go test, during which someone stands up from a chair without using his or her arms, briskly walks about 10 feet, turns, walks back and sits down again.

The researchers compared the results of cyclists in the study against each other and also against standard benchmarks of supposedly normal aging. If a particular test’s numbers were similar among the cyclists of all ages, the researchers considered, then that measure would seem to be more dependent on activity than on age.

As it turned out, the cyclists did not show their age. On almost all measures, their physical functioning remained fairly stable across the decades and was much closer to that of young adults than of people their age. As a group, even the oldest cyclists had younger people’s levels of balance, reflexes, metabolic health and memory ability.

And their Timed Up and Go results were exemplary. Many older people require at least 7 seconds to complete the task, with those requiring 9 or 10 seconds considered to be on the cusp of frailty, Dr. Harridge said. But even the oldest cyclists in this study averaged barely 5 seconds for the walk, which is “well within the norm reported for healthy young adults,” the study authors write.

Some aspects of aging did, however, prove to be ineluctable. The oldest cyclists had less muscular power and mass than those in their 50s and early 60s and considerably lower overall aerobic capacities. Age does seem to reduce our endurance and strength to some extent, Dr. Harridge said, even if we exercise.

But even so, both of those measures were higher among the oldest cyclists than would be considered average among people aged 70 or above.

All in all, the numbers suggest that aging is simply different in the active.

“If you gave this dataset to a clinician and asked him to predict the age” of one of the cyclists based on his or her test results, Dr. Harridge said, “it would be impossible.” On paper, they all look young.

Of course, this study is based on a single snapshot of an unusual group of older adults, Dr. Harridge said. He and his colleagues plan to retest their volunteers in five and 10 years, which will provide better information about the ongoing effects of exercise on aging.

But even in advance of those results, said Dr. Harridge, himself almost 50 and an avid cyclist, this study shows that “being physically active makes your body function on the inside more like a young person’s.”

What’s causing your lower back pain?

The top three causes are sprains and strains, herniated discs, and stenosis.

Lower back pain is among the most common complaints of older age. The lumbar or lower area of the spine can suffer from many different ailments. “You do most of your bending in the lower back, and that’s probably why the lower back tends to be affected more,” explains Dr. Jeffrey Katz, a Harvard Medical School professor and editor of the Harvard Special Health Report Low Back Pain: Healing Your Aching Back.

      The key to finding relief starts with understanding the cause of your pain. See if any of these symptoms sound familiar, and address pain as soon as possible to keep it from getting worse.

Sprains and strains

Together, sprains and strains are the most common cause of lower back pain. A sprain is an injury to a back ligament, which helps hold the bones in your spine together. A strain is an injury to a muscle or a tendon, which connects muscle to back bones.

► Symptoms: Forward or sideways bent-trunk posture, limited motion, and spasms in your back muscles.

► What you should do: “Try to maintain everyday activities and stay physically active while avoiding activities and postures that make it worse, such as lifting and twisting,” says Dr. Katz. “That alone should do the trick.” Healing can last days to weeks, Icing the injured area right after the injury, and applying wet heat thereafter, can help. So can stretching exercises and over-the-counter painkillers such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin). However, long-term NSAID use can cause stomach ulcers and bleeding, liver and kidney damage, and increased risk for heart attacks, so be sure to get your doctor’s approval before using them. If your pain gets worse, not better, you may have a more serious condition that warrants a doctor visit.

Disc problems

The bones in your spine are separated by cushions called discs. Aging dries out the gelatinous inside of a disc and thins the outer layer, which may cause the entire cushion to deflate and bulge out of place. That rarely causes pain. However, if the soft inside protrudes through a crack in the outer layer, it can inflame the spinal nerves and cause pain. That’s called a herniated disc, sometimes referred to as a “slipped” disc.

► Symptoms: Sudden lower back pain or numbness that often travels into the buttock and down the leg, sometimes all the way to the foot (a condition known as sciatica).

►What you should do: “Don’t panic; this condition usually gets better on its own, but it may take a few months,” says Dr. Katz. He advises that you stay as active as you comfortably can. Over-the-counter painkillers can help relieve backache and leg pain. If pain persists for weeks, see your doctor for imaging tests. You may need a prescription painkiller and a course of physical therapy. An epidural steroid injection has been shown to relieve leg pain from sciatica.

Spinal stenosis

Sometimes the spinal canal, the channel down the spine that holds the spinal cord and nerve roots, can be squeezed or narrowed by bulging discs, thickened ligaments, or small growths called bone spurs. The narrowing is called stenosis. Stenosis puts pressure on the nerves and spinal cord.

►Symptoms: The pressure causes lower backache that’s especially painful when standing up straight, bending backward, or walking. The pain often goes away when you lean forward or sit. Stenosis may also cause pain in the buttocks and legs.

►What you should do: Over-the-counter painkillers and physical therapy can help back pain, and an epidural steroid injection can relieve leg pain. “However, this pain is not likely to go away on its own,” says Dr. Katz. “You may need prescription medication for pain and surgery to decompress the nerve roots.”♣

Harvard Health Letter

Surprising new ways to build healthy knees

Improving balance, losing weight, and strengthening muscles help prevent injury and reduce pain.

One of the most common reasons people visit their doctor is because of knee pain or injury. Arthritis, ligament and meniscal tears, fractures, dislocations, and sprains can limit your mobility and take away your independence. “Difficulty walking, climbing stairs, squatting, and getting up and down from chairs are common complaints from people with knee pain,” says Michael Orpin, a doctor of physical therapy at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

Keeping the knees healthy helps prevent injuries and reduce pain. Work with a physical therapist to develop a strengthening plan, which will likely include the following.

Exercise above the knee

There are many muscles in the hip and thigh that play an important role in knee health. Some of the major muscle groups include the quadriceps in the front of the thigh, which extends your knee and holds your body weight on a bent knee; the hamstring muscles, which bend the knee; and the gluteal muscles located in the hips. “Weakness of the hip muscles can create excessive inward twisting of the leg during normal weight-bearing activities, such as going down stairs, and can lead to higher levels of stress across the knee joint,” says Orpin. He recommends exercises that work many muscle groups at once, such as moving from a sitting to a standing position repeatedly. That’s called a sit-to-stand. “If it’s painful to do this from a chair, try it from a higher surface like the edge of a bed,” says Orpin. He suggests doing three sets of 10 sit-to-stands. 

Exercise below the knee

The gastrocnemius muscle, the largest muscle in your calf, crosses over the back of the knee and plays an important role in assisting with knee control. This muscle, inaddition to the soleus muscle, helps propel the body during walking, stair climbing, and running. Weakness in this muscle group could contribute to more stress through the knee joint. Orpin recommends heel raises to strengthen the calf muscles. Hold on to a counter for balance. Slowly rise up on tiptoes, then lower heels to the floor. That’s one repetition. “Try three sets of 15 repetitions,” he says.

A focus on balance

Part of maintaining balance requires your knees to work with other joints that enable you to stand−the hips and ankles. But the coordination takes practice.  A physical therapist will help you improve your balance by training your muscles to work together with simple exercises. For example, you may stand with one foot right in front of the other, as if you were standing on a tightrope, and eventually stand on one leg for up to 30 seconds.

Weight loss

The focus of each pound you carry is magnified by the time it reaches your knees. If you’re walking across a flat surface, the force on your knees is equal to one-and-a-helf times your body weight; going up a hill, the force is equal to two to three times your body weight.  Shedding extra weight reduces the force on your knees, which can help prevent arthritis and injury, and also reduce existing knee pain. “When patients lose weight, they describe feeling lighter on their feet, having more energy, with less knee pain and intensity of symptoms,” says Michael Orpin.

To aid weight loss Orpin suggests aerobic activity that won’t overload the knee, such as riding a stationary bike. “It’’s easy on the knee, and it promotes a good range of motion of the joint,” he says. Light to moderate walking is also beneficial if  it’s not painful. “If a pool is accessible, this is a great place to exercise. The water reduces weight on your joints and can make it easier to move. Try walking in the water forward, backward, and sideways to challenge different muscles,” says Orpin.

Harvard Health Newsletter

WAKE UP, DRINK WATER

Unless you're hooked to an IV drip all night, you're more dehydrated in the morning than at any other time of day. Yet most people chug coffee and wait until afternoon to uncork their water bottles, which can result in a sluggish midday ride. (Coffee's high water content delivers some hydration, but it's not as potent as straight-up H₂O). "Water helps carry nutrients and oxygen to working muscles," says Jennifer McDaniel, CSSD, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.