As people age, they begin to complain more of pains in their muscles and joints. They seem to stiffen up with age, and such commonplace activities as bending over for the morning paper can make them wince.

Such pain can grip so fiercely that they are sure it begins deep in their bones. But the real cause of stiffness and soreness lies not in the joints or bones, according to research at the Johns Hopkins Medical School, but in the muscles and connective tissues that move the joints.

The frictional resistance generated by the two rubbing surfaces of bones in the joints is negligible, even in joints damaged by arthritis.

Flexibility is the medical term used to describe the range of a joint motion from full movement in one direction to full movement in the other. The greater the range of movement, the more flexible the joint.

If you bend forward at the hips and touch your toes with your fingertips, you have good flexibility, or range of motion of the hip joints. But can you bend over easily with a minimal expenditure of energy and force? The exertion required to flex a joint is just as important as its range of possible motion.

Different factors limit the flexibility and ease of movement in different joints and muscles. In the elbow and knee, the bony structure itself sets a definite limit. In other joints, such as the ankle, hip, and back, the soft tissueuscle and connective tissueimit the motion range.

The problem of inflexible joints and muscles is similar to the difficulty of opening and closing a gate because of a rarely used and rusty hinge that has become balky.

Hence, if people do not regularly move their muscles and joints through their full ranges of motion, they lose some of their potential. That is why when these people will try to move a joint after a long period of inactivity, they feel pain, and that discourages further use

What happens next is that the muscles become shortened with prolonged disuse and produces spasms and cramps that can be irritating and extremely painful. The immobilization of muscles, as researchers have demonstrated with laboratory animals, brings about biochemical changes in the tissue.

However, other factors trigger sore muscles. Here are some of them:

1. Too much exercise

Have you always believed on the saying, o pain, no gain??If you do, then, it is not so surprising if you have already experienced sore muscles.

The problem with most people is that they exercise too much thinking that it is the fastest and the surest way to lose weight. Until they ache, they tend to ignore their muscles and connective tissue, even though they are what quite literally holds the body together.

2. Aging and inactivity

Connective tissue binds muscle to bone by tendons, binds bone to bone by ligaments, and covers and unites muscles with sheaths called fasciae. With age, the tendons, ligaments, and fasciae become less extensible. The tendons, with their densely packed fibers, are the most difficult to stretch. The easiest are the fasciae. But if they are not stretched to improve joint mobility, the fasciae shorten, placing undue pressure on the nerve pathways in the muscle fasciae. Many aches and pains are the result of nerve impulses traveling along these pressured pathways.

3. Immobility

Sore muscles or muscle pain can be excruciating, owing to the body reaction to a cramp or ache. In this reaction, called the splinting reflex, the body automatically immobilizes a sore muscle by making it contract. Thus, a sore muscle can set off a vicious cycle pain.

First, an unused muscle becomes sore from exercise or being held in an unusual position. The body then responds with the splinting reflex, shortening the connective tissue around the muscle. This cause more pain, and eventually the whole area is aching. One of the most common sites for this problem is the lower back.

4. Spasm theory

In the physiology laboratory at the University of Southern California, some people have set out to learn more about this cycle of pain.

Using some device, they measured electrical activity in the muscles. The researchers knew that normal, well-relaxed muscles produce no electrical activity, whereas, muscles that are not fully relaxed show considerable activity.

In one experiment, the researchers measured these electrical signals in the muscles of persons with athletic injuries, first with the muscle immobilized, and then, after the muscle had been stretched.

In almost every case, exercises that stretched or lengthened the muscle diminished electrical activity and relieved pain, either totally or partially.

These experiments led to the pasm theory,?an explanation of the development and persistence of muscle pain in the absence of any obvious cause, such as traumatic injury.

According to this theory, a muscle that is overworked or used in a strange position becomes fatigued and as a result, sore muscles.

Hence, it is extremely important to know the limitations and capacity of the muscles in order to avoid sore muscles. This goes to show that there is no truth in the saying, o pain, no gain.?What matters most is on how people stay fit by exercising regularly at a normal range than once rarely but on a rigid routine.

Something you need to keep in mind and never forget is that when you exercise, you are training for life. You still may spend an hour a day in the gym, although that will still leave another 23 hours or so for your muscles to function without using any fancy equipment.

Whenever you do any type of exercise, the movement of your body during the exercise is known as the range of motion. The more difficult the range of motion is, the more effective the exercise will be, because your body has to work twice as hard to perform the movement.

Take for the instance the classic dumbbell bicep curl. If you aren’t familiar with the exercise, it is performed by standing up straight with your palms facing forward, and a pair of dumbbells held down by your sides. You’ll contract your biceps to bring the dumbbells up to your shoulder height, then repeat the exercise as many times as you wish.

Using that same movement for exercise on a bicep curl machine, you should sit down, brace your upper arms on a pad, grasp 2 handles that are in front of you, then perform the same movement as above to move the handles in an upward motion.

Now, looking at the muscle contractions in this exercise, you are contracting essentially your biceps if you are using the curl machine, and that is pretty much all you are doing. When you use the machine you are sitting down, which will limit just how much your shoulders give. The machine has several muscles used in this exercise limited to the biceps, as well as the muscles in your forearms and fingers.

Most of the time, when using machine weights, you will always be limited as to what type of exercise you can perform. You must always follow a strict procedure, which is pretty much the same with free weights. Unlike free weights, machine weights offer a certain degree of resistance.

One of the best thing about free weights is the fact that you move a little chuck around to select the weight you want to use. Instead of dragging it over to your exercise area, you simply select it on the machine. When you are tired during a workout, this can be a blessing.

A lot of people argue in the fact that free weights are the best for your body. While this is normally true, many people out there feel that machine weights are the best. There are pros and cons with both machines, although free weights have been around a lot longer and have been proven time after time to achieve dramatic results.

Body builders for example, have used free weights over the years to build very impressive bodies. If you ask most of them about machine weights, they would probably laugh at you and tell you that you need to quit joking around.

In a nutshell, free weights will use more of your muscles than the machines do, which makes them more effective overall. This doesn’t mean that the machines are a waste of use, as they offer some great advantages. In some cases, it is best to stabilize the muscles that are being used in a movement, which is where machines are the best to use.

The decision on which to use for you should be based on what you hope to achieve with lifting weights and where you plan to use the equipment, such as home or at a gym. Both systems are great for your body, although the free weights are best to use if you want the best possible workout, and always ensure that your muscles are getting the right workouts they need.

Alcohol And Exercise

On Friday afternoon after you leave work, you probably think about going out and having a few drinks with friends to relax and wind down.  Even though you
may think you deserve to go out and have a few drinks, there are some things that you should certainly keep  in mind.

Like any other day, tomorrow is going to be a day for exercise, and since you are exercising on a regular basis, a few drinks of alcohol won’t really
hurt anything, right?  Before you decide to rush out to the local bar, there are a few things below that you should think about before you make your choice about going out to drink some alcohol.

Research has proven that even small amounts of alcohol with increase muscular endurance and the output of strength, although these types of benefits are very short lived.  After 20 minutes or so, the problems will begin to surface.  All of the negative side effects associated with alcohol will easily outweigh any possible benefits that it can have. No matter how you look at it, alcohol is a poison that can really harm your body if you aren’t careful.

The negative side of alcohol can reduce your strength, endurance, aerobic capability, recovery time, ability to metabolize fat, and even your muscle growth as well.  Alcohol will also have an effect on your nervous system and brain.  If you use it long term, you can cause severe deterioration of your central nervous system.   Even with short term use, nerve muscle interaction can be reduced which will result in a loss of strength.

Once alcohol reaches the blood cells, it can and probably will damage them.  With alcohol users, inflammation of the muscle cells is a very common thing.  Over periods of time, some of these cells that have been damaged can die which will result in less functional muscle contractions.  Drinking alcohol will also leave you with more soreness of your muscles after you exercise, which means that it will take you a lot longer to recuperate.

Alcohol will also have many different effects on your heart and circulatory system as well.  When you drink any type of alcohol, you may begin to
see a reduction in your endurance capabilities. Anytime you drink, your heat loss will increase, due to the alcohol simulating your blood vessels
to dilate.  The loss in heat can cause your muscles to become quite cold, therefore become slower and weaker during your muscle contractions.

Drinking alcohol can also lead to digestive and nutrition problems as well.  Alcohol cause a  release of insulin that will increase the metabolism of glycogen, which spares fat and makes the loss of fat very hard.  Due to alcohol interfering with the absorption of several key nutrients, you
can also become anemic and deficient with B type vitamins.

Because your liver is the organ that detoxifies alcohol, the more you drink, the harder your liver has to work.  The extra stress alcohol places on your liver can cause serious damage and even destroy some of your liver cells.

Since alcohol is diuretic, drinking large amounts can put a lot of stress on your kidneys as well. During diuretic action, the hormones are secreted. This can lead to heightened water retention and no one who exercises will want this to happen.

If you must drink alcohol, you should do it in moderation and never drink before you exercise, as this will impair your balance, coordination, and also your judgement.  Think about your health and ow you exercise - and you may begin to look at things from a whole new prospective.

Overpromoted Cholesterol Drugs

The New York Time

Published: April 2, 2008

The news keeps getting worse for two heavily promoted cholesterol drugs, Vytorin and Zetia. These drugs were supposed to offer a valuable alternative to the older cholesterol- lowering agents known as statins, a class that includes Lipitor, Zocor and other drugs that not only reduce cholesterol but also reduce the risk of heart attacks. In clinical trial results released this week, the newer drugs failed to reach their main goal: slowing the growth of artery-clogging plaques ? a suggestion that they might not help ward off heart attacks.

It is distressingly late to be learning that these drugs may provide little or no benefit. They were approved on the basis of evidence that they reduce the level of so-called bad cholesterol in the blood. That data was taken as presumptive evidence that the drugs would reduce heart-attack risks. Despite this slim supporting data, vigorous promotion propelled them to combined sales of more than $5 billion last year, placing them among the world抯 top-selling drugs.

An analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the drugs captured 15.2 percent of the cholesterol- lowering market in this country, driven by an advertising campaign aimed at consumers and aggressive marketing to doctors. But they claimed only 3.4 percent of the market in Canada, where advertising to consumers is prohibited, Vytorin is unavailable and public programs restrict usage. These are drugs that became blockbusters thanks to marketing muscle, not scientific proof of effectiveness.

There are also justifiable concerns that Merck and Schering-Plough, the companies that make the drugs, may have sat on adverse data for more than a year lest their sales be undermined. In e-mail messages unearthed by Senate investigators, the lead scientist on the study warned that repeated delays in releasing the results made it look as if the company was trying to hide something.

In the clinical trial, 720 European patients with genes that cause abnormally high cholesterol levels were given either Vytorin, a combination pill that contains both Zetia and Zocor, or simply Zocor alone. As expected, the combination pill proved better than the statin alone at reducing the level of bad cholesterol. But to everyone’s surprise, Vytorin failed to slow the growth of fatty plaques in the arteries, and it may have even allowed greater growth than the statin did.

Vytorin and Zetia are clearly down, but not necessarily out. It remains possible, for example, that the reason Vytorin had little effect in reducing plaque was that most of these patients had been taking statins for years and their plaque had already been depleted to the point that Vytorin had little room to improve the situation. It is also possible, however, that Vytorin and Zetia are simply less effective than the statins. Other trials now under way may clarify Vytorin’s value in coming years. Meanwhile, heart experts are surely right that Vytorin and Zetia should be a last resort for patients who can’t get their cholesterol down any other way.

On the O’Reilly show on April 1^st  night, Barbara Walters was promoting “staying young and living to 100+”. Resveratrol was the first thing she suggest among her list of things to  do to attain the goal.

What is this Resveratrol?

Poor cellular and cardiovascular health is becoming a worldwide epidemic. An unhealthy diet of processed, high-calorie, high-fat foods, pollution, smoking and sedentary lifestyles all contribute to poor cell and heart health. Scientists revealed The French Paradox, which states that even though the French drink, smoke and eat high-fat foods they have some of the lowest incidences of poor cardiovascular and cellular health. Scientists attribute this to the large amounts of red wine that the French consume, or more importantly, an extract found in red wine, resveratrol. Resveratrol is an ingredient with incredible clinical research revealing that it supports cardiovascular and normal cell health. Because wine is so highly processed, the actual amount of resveratrol is quite low. One would have to drink at least three bottles of red wine a day to experience the effects of resveratrol extract. Additionally, the content of resveratrol in red wine is inconsistent and varies by type of wine, region and processing techniques. Resveratrol extract or more specifically, Resveravine®, which is a more concentrated form of resveratrol, ensures that the body reaps all of the benefits of resveratrol, without the ill effects from three bottles of wine.*

Where to get and how is this product unique?

Isotonix® Resveratrol is an isotonic-capable supplement, made from three patented ingredients, Resveravine® with 20% resveratrol extract, BioVin® Advanced with 5% resveratrol extract, and VitaBlue® (wild blueberry extract), designed to promote normal cell health. Isotonix Resveratrol works to maintain cell health, promote normal cell cycle activity, promote apoptosis (programmed cell death) in unhealthy cells, support the normal activity of the SIRT-1 gene, and promote cardiovascular health, by promoting healthy platelet activity, promoting vasorelaxation, and providing antioxidant protection of LDL particles. Resveravine® is a combination of trans-resveratrol (20% purity) and ?-viniferin extracted from vine stems, which work synergistically to enhance the effectiveness of resveratrol extract. Trans-resveratrol is the predominate isomer found in red wine grapes and juice, and Resveravine is 100 to 300 times more concentrated in trans-resveratrol than other products from grape skin. According to the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, trans-resveratrol may have a higher bioavailability than other isomers of resveratrol. Resveravine provides a higher level of free radical defense against oxidative stress, stronger promotion of normal cellular activity, and higher antioxidant protection of LDL particles than pure resveratrol extract.*

Studies of numerous species have shown that a reduction in calories has been linked to a longer lifespan. The SIRT-1 gene activates a critical component of calorie restriction in mammals and promotes fat metabolization. There is evidence that resveratrol may be a calorie restriction mimetic, a compound that mimics the effects of calorie restriction by targeting metabolic and stress response pathways affected by calorie restriction, but without restricting caloric intake, which may be helpful in promoting a longer lifespan. By promoting healthy SIRT-1 activity, resveratrol promotes healthy mitochondrial function and supports energy expenditure, thereby promoting a healthy weight.*

Isotonic, which means “same pressure,” bears the same chemical resemblance of the body’s blood, plasma and tears. All fluids in the body have a certain concentration, referred to as osmotic pressure. The body’s common osmotic pressure, which is isotonic, allows a consistent maintenance of body tissues. In order for a substance to be absorbed and used in the body’s metabolism, it must be in an isotonic state.

Isotonix® dietary supplements are delivered in an isotonic solution. This means that the body has less work to do to obtain maximum absorption of the nutrients. The isotonic state of the suspension allows nutrients to pass directly into the small intestine and rapidly absorb into the bloodstream. With Isotonix products, little nutritive value is lost, making the absorption of nutrients highly efficient while delivering maximum results.

Primary Benefits:

·         Maintains cell health

·         Promotes normal cell cycle activity

·         Promotes apoptosis (programmed cell death) in unhealthy cells

·         Promotes normal nuclear factor kappa B (NF-Kappa B – protein) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2 - enzyme) activity

·         Promotes normal activity of the SIRT-1 gene (involved in calorie restriction, fat mobilization, mitochondrial function)

·         Promotes cardiovascular health (promotes normal platelet activity, helps maintain normal vasorelaxation, provides antioxidant protection of LDL particles).

·         Superior antioxidant and high ORAC value