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Grizzly Diet Has Several Surprises, Bear Hair Chemistry Shows – Scientific American
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Chemical content of bears hair reveals surprising eating habits
Researchers from Canada and the US have revealed new insights into the eating habits and hair-growth patterns of a wild grizzly bear population, by analysing the chemical content of their fur.
The team led by Garth Mowat, the head of the Canadian governments Natural Resource Science Section in the Kootenay region of British Columbia, was studying the dietary patterns of grizzlies around the provinces Stikine river. By examining the ratios of different isotopes of carbon, nitrogen and sulfur in the samples, the researchers could determine what proportion of vegetation, fish, or land mammals like moose and mountain goats made-up the bears diet.
While researchers sometimes look at animals droppings to learn about their eating habits, Mowat explains that this method is not always accurate. What you have in the scat is what they didnt absorb, and so theres a strong bias against foods that are highly digestible, he says. So for example salmon was regularly underestimated in the diet because it almost doesnt appear in the scats. To overcome this issue, scientists regularly turn to laboratory-based methods, such as isotope analysis, for more precise measurements
The team set up traps that could snag a few hairs from a grizzly bears back as it scratched itself on a tree trunk, or made its way down a trail to a feeding ground. Back in the lab, the isotopic analyses brought some unexpected results.
Surprisingly, even during the peak of the salmon season many bears shun the river, choosing instead to continue foraging for vegetation. That was the most intriguing result to us. We thought that any bear that lives within walking distance of the salmon stream would go down and eat some salmon, says Mowat.
While some female bears with cubs, and smaller males, might avoid the salmon streams to duck confrontation with aggressive larger males, Mowat points out that in other coastal regions, smaller bears still manage to eat salmon from very young ages.
Throughout the year, bears diets shift from protein-rich to fattier foodstuffs, as they build up their fat reserves for the winter. Because carbon-13 is often depleted in fatty tissues, this complicated the researchers task, as they would observe significant variation in isotope patterns among hairs from individual bears.
Once they have satisfied their protein needs, they will start focusing on the parts of the animal that are high in fat, because transferring fat to fat fish fat to bear fat is the most efficient chemical pathway, says Mowat. [A salmons] brain is mostly fat, so they break the skull open and eat the brain. The roe is high in fat, and then the skin, even though it doesnt seem very good to eat to us, is largely fat. These selective eating habits meant that Mowats team would often come across gruesome scenes of skinned and decapitated salmon carcasses strewn across the banks of the river.
They also found that the wild bears hair grew later in the year than previously thought. Previously, it was believed that the regions grizzly bears started growing their thicker winter coats from May or June. However, the presence of the isotopic signature of salmon consumption in longer hair samples showed that in fact the bears started to grow their thicker coats later in the summer, as it would not be possible for this signature to appear before the salmon had returned to the Stikine. This finding has important implications for other researchers who want to study bear behaviour by analysing their hair.
One of their more important observations is that some bears dont start growing hair until late in the summer. Weve done a lot of the basic research regarding stable isotopes and their use on bears by doing feeding studies with captive bears, says Charles Robbins, an expert on grizzly bears from Washington State University, US. While we can initiate new hair growth in May if we feed plenty of food, we can also delay it into August and September by feeding at levels where the bears either just maintain their weight or slightly lose weight. Many field researchers have wanted to section hair to look at diets throughout the hair growing season, but Ive warned them that they need to fully understand the temporal aspects of hair growth and not assume when hair starts growing.
Jeff Curtis, an environmental scientist from the University of British Colombia, whose lab ran much of the isotopic analyses, explains that his team are now using these techniques to track the habits of other animals. In particular, they have been tracking European starlings an invasive species in North America that cause severe damage to food crops. Weve been using a multi-element approach to identify where young starlings immigrate from to damage crops, and they are what they eat weve been able to basically determine where to concentrate those efforts to try to control them, says Curtis.
This article is reproduced with permission fromChemistry World. The article wasfirst publishedon May 10, 2017.
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Grizzly Diet Has Several Surprises, Bear Hair Chemistry Shows - Scientific American
7 tips for reducing hunger if you’re on a diet – Fox News
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When youre looking to shed a few extra pounds, do you really need to fight through hunger pains to know youre losing weight?
Not necessarily, Angel Planells, a Seattle-based dietitian and spokesman for the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, told Fox News. If we are methodical about our weight loss approach, we dont have to be hungry, he said.
7 WEIGHT LOSS ROADBLOCKS IN YOUR OFFICE
Lauren Blake, a dietitian at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, agreed, and told Fox News that people shouldnt restrict to the point that theyre always hungry. Theres evidence that says when we restrict too much, it can be harmful to our metabolism, and it supports the loss of lean muscle mass, she said.
Planells and Blake both gave Fox News some tips on warding off hunger pains when on a diet:
1. Dont skip breakfast. To regulate your hunger throughout the day, eat breakfast, whether thats a bowl of cereal, some eggs, or even dinner leftovers, Planells said.
8 LITTLE CHANGES THAT CAN LEAD TO WEIGHT LOSS
2. Keep healthy snacks on hand. To keep your blood sugar stable, avoid going four hours or more without eating, Planells said. Try snacks like yogurt, a handful of nuts, or even peanut butter and fruit to keep you full, he said.
3. Dont drink your calories. Drinks deliver calories a lot faster than solids, Blake said. And since our guts sense fullness based on volume, not calories, drinks wont leave us as satiated as solid foods, she explained.
WHY YOU'RE ALWAYS BLOATED, PLUS 7 FOODS FOR A FLATTER TUMMY
4. Reach for whole, fiber-rich foods. Whole foods like fruits and vegetables are naturally lower in calories, and also have more water content and fiber that will keep you full longer, Blake said. Planells agreed: He noted that while the general American consumes about 10 grams of fiber per day, dietitians generally recommend Americans consume 25 to 30 grams per day.
5. Feature protein in your meals. Protein helps with satiety, Planells said. Try animal-based sources such as beef, chicken, pork, or fish, or plant-based sources like soy and quinoa, which have the added benefit of extra fiber, Planells said.
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6. If youre hungry late at night, drink a glass of water. Sometimes, we can mistake hunger for thirst. If youre hungry late at night, try drinking a glass of water, Planells said.
7. Do order an appetizer if youre dining out. It might seem counterintuitive, but dont skip the appetizer section of the menu if youre dining out. Opt for a bone-based soup or a salad to help fill you up and reduce the risk of overeating during the main course, Blake said.
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7 tips for reducing hunger if you're on a diet - Fox News
Tom Brady’s Training Program Features a ‘Grit Room’ and His Diet Is … – Newsweek
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Ah, the NFL offseasonthe time we take a brief respite from setting our fantasy lineups as pro football players vacation in luxurious destinations likeSaint-Tropez or other such places this reporter can neither afford nor pronounce. That is, unless said football player is five-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, who is most likely grinding away at some ridiculous workout in "The Grit Room."
What's that? You don't know what a Grit Room is? Clearly, you don't work at your craft at elite levels.
A piece in Men's Journal this week profiled Brady's longtime trainerand business partner Alex Guerrero. Or, as writer Mike Chambersdescribed Guerrero in the article, he's the quarterback's "trainer, nutritionist, counselor, spiritual guide, massage therapist, and godfather to Brady's youngest son."
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For the story, Chambers rehabbed hisshattered heel with Guerrero at the TB12(Tom Brady's number with the New England Patriotsis 12) Sports Therapy Centerin Foxborough, Massachusetts, which hasthemed rooms, including the aforementioned Grit Room,the Determination Room, the Perseverance Roomand the We Got This Room. Chambers' rehab process withGuerrerocomplete with casualrun-ins with Brady's supermodel wife Gisele Bndchen and Patriots tight-end Rob Gronkowskisounded suspiciously like readjusting his life to mirror Brady's. The writer was pushed physically and put on a diet that eliminated coffee and nightshadevegetables such as mushrooms and tomatoes that apparently lead todastardly inflammation. That theory haslong been a driving force inBrady's diet, which purportedly also featureswhole grains, lean meats andabsolutely nowhite sugar, white flour or MSG. And don't you dare approach Brady with a strawberry.
"I've never eaten a strawberry in my life. I have no desire to do that," the quarterback told New York Magazine in September without expanding much further on, why, exactly he has a crusade against the sweet, red berries.
Guerrero's methods have long been controversial, Boston Magazine publishinga 2015 piece titled, "Tom Bradys Personal Guru Is a Glorified Snake-Oil Salesman." He had apparentlyfalsely called himself a doctor in an infomercial that pitched super greens that prevented cancer, AIDSand diabetes, as well as helping folks lose massive amounts of weight. The Federal Trade Commission came down on him for that and later for purportedly pitching a drink he claimed could prevent concussions, according to the Boston Magazine article.
Guerrero, meanwhile, put writer Chambers through hard training despitehis foot being "crushed like a soda can." The trainer saidhe was retraining the brain to not think of the foot as injured. Ten weeks after starting rehab, Chambers said he was rock-climbing, returning to the activity that injured his heel in the first place. When it came to the injury'sprogress his doctor, Chambers wrote, was in disbelief.
Guess anything is possible with enough Grit (and, of course, no nightshade vegetables).
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Tom Brady's Training Program Features a 'Grit Room' and His Diet Is ... - Newsweek
Benefits of the Mediterranean diet – Cleveland Jewish News
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About 20 years ago, I came across a fascinating research article in a prominent medical journal called the Lancet that highlighted the cardiovascular benefits of a newly described diet. What caught my attention was the very significant improvement in heart outcomes for people who followed this diet.
Lets go through some of the details. This research was done in France, and enrolled 600 people who had had a previous heart attack. The 600 people were divided into two groups, one of which was trained to follow a Mediterranean diet, and the second group was asked to follow a conventional heart healthy diet. The patients were monitored for five years and at the end of five years the two groups were compared.
The Mediterranean diet group was considered as the experimental group and the heart healthy diet group was the control group. At the end of the study period, it was found that there were 16 cardiac deaths in the control group and three in the experimental group. In addition, there were 17 subsequent heart attacks in the control group and five in the experimental group. As you can see from these statistics, there was very significant improvement in cardiac outcomes in the Mediterranean diet cohort. The magnitude of the benefit of the Mediterranean diet was to such a degree that it exceeded the benefit of certain medications that are used to treat heart disease.
What caught my attention was that after the publication of this study, there was very little publicity generated in the lay newspapers and magazines about such dramatic findings. I was so intrigued by the beneficial results of this study that I reached out via email to the lead author, Dr. Michel de Lorgeril from France, inquiring as to the details of this Mediterranean diet. He graciously responded to me and provided me with some information about the Mediterranean diet.
Fast forward to 2017 and many of us have heard about the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. It has been described in some circles as an anti-inflammation diet. This is important because according to our current understanding, inflammation contributes to many chronic health conditions, including coronary heart disease, arthritis, colitis and other conditions. The Mediterranean diet is also associated with a reduced risk of cancer, Parkinsons disease and Alzheimers disease. For these reasons many health care organizations have recommended adoption of the Mediterranean diet in order to prevent many major chronic diseases.
You may be wondering at this time what the Mediterranean diet consists of? The emphasis is on eating primarily plant-based foods such as fruits and vegetables, as well as whole grains, legumes and nuts. For example, residents of Greece are said to consume about nine servings a day of antioxidant rich fruits and vegetables.
There is also an emphasis on eating healthy fats such as olive oil and canola oil to replace butter and margarine. Olive oil provides monounsaturated fat, which is a type of fat that can help to reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol. In addition, eating nuts, like almonds, cashews, pistachios and walnuts also provide beneficial fats. Using olive oil and vinegar as a salad dressing is a healthy choice, as well. Using herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor our foods is also recommended. Red meat should be limited to only a few times a month. Fish and chicken can be eaten about twice a week. Drinking red wine in moderation is also common in European countries where the Mediterranean diet is followed. And last but not least, getting plenty of exercise helps to promote the heart healthy features of the diet.
Dr. Mark Roth is an internal medicine physician with University Hospitals.
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Benefits of the Mediterranean diet - Cleveland Jewish News
The Best Way to Diet For Your Personality Type – Men’s Health
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Men's Health | The Best Way to Diet For Your Personality Type Men's Health In this latest episode of The Men's Health Podcast, we interview Jen Widerstrom, a former American Gladiator and the current star trainer on NBC's The Biggest Loser. Jen is also the author of the new book Diet Right for Your Personality Type. |
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The Best Way to Diet For Your Personality Type - Men's Health
Fitness challenge kicks off with aim of better health – Poughkeepsie Journal
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Journal staff 6:00 a.m. ET May 10, 2017
Health Quest's outdoor fitness expo will feature workouts and information booth along the river and on the Walkway Saturday, May 13.(Photo: Health Quest/Courtesy photo)
If you need a little motivation to get in shape, a six-week fitness challenge kicks off Saturday at the Hudson River.
Health Quest's Get Fit Hudson Valley returns to thebanks of the Hudson River Saturday, May 13, where you can take a fitness class or borrow a bike for a ride on the Walkway Over the Hudson, The kickoff event will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Upper Landing Park, 83 N. Water St., Poughkeepsie.
The six-week fitness challenge awards community members for being active with the chance to win prizes. Participants are invited to enter their workouts at GetFitHV.com. The free website offers fitness tips, healthfulrecipes and a fitness contest. Each entry at one of more than 80 check-in Get Fit workout locations counts toward raffles for prizes, such as an Apple Watch, according to a written release.
The Get Fit challenge gives people of all fitness levels an extra incentive to get their exercise in each week and discover new ways to make the valley their gym,M. Zubair Jafar, a physician who leads the sports cardiology program for The Heart Center, a division of Hudson Valley Cardiovascular Practice, PC, said in the release.
The kickoff event willfeature a Get Fit activation table with complimentary The Hudson Valley is my gym T-shirts and water bottles for the first 50 participants to sign up for the challenge. All fitness levels are welcome.
The schedule for Saturday's instructional fitness classes isas follows:
Other activities will include:
This event is free. Upper Landing Park is at the bottom of the Walkway elevator. For information about parking, visit upperlanding.org/parking
Visit http://www.getfithv.com for more information.
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Fitness challenge kicks off with aim of better health - Poughkeepsie Journal
Why Fitness (Not Just How Much You Exercise) Matters in Cancer Risk – Live Science
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CHICAGO A person's overall cardiorespiratory fitness is linked to his or her risk of developing precancerous polyps in the colon, which can grow into colon cancer, a new study from Singapore found.
In the study, the researchers found that people with lower levels of cardiorespiratory fitness had a higher risk of developing these polyps, which are also called adenomas.
Doctors have long known that failing to get enough physical activity is linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer, said lead study author Dr. Vikneswaran Namasivayam, a gastroenterologist at Singapore General Hospital. Namasivayam presented his findings here Monday (May 8) at Digestive Disease Week, a scientific meeting focused on digestive diseases. [7 Cancers You Can Ward Off with Exercise]
In the new study, the researchers focused on precancerous polyps instead of cancer. They wanted to look for a link between fitness and these polyps, because discovering such a link would "lend further credence to the idea" that fitness plays a role in the development of colorectal cancer, Namasivayam said.
The researchers also took things a step further, measuring people's cardiorespiratory fitness and not just asking them how much they exercised, he said.
Cardiorespiratory fitness is a very different concept from physical activity, Namasivayam told Live Science. When people talk about physical activity, the term refers more to a behavior than a biological measurement, Namasivayam said. But cardiorespiratory fitness can be objectively measured, he said.
Another way of looking at the difference between physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness is that while physical activity influences cardiorespiratory fitness, other factors influence it too, Namasivayam said. A person's age, sex and genetics also affect his or her cardiorespiratory fitness level, he said.
In the study, the researchers measured the cardiorespiratory fitness of 36 adults between ages 45 and 70. Of these participants, 20 people had precancerous polyps and 16 people, the controls, had no polyps.
To determine each person's level of cardiorespiratory fitness, the researchers focused on VO2 max, which is a measure of aerobic fitness that looks at how much oxygen the body is able to use in a given time period to power its cells. The higher an individual's VO2 max is, the more fit that person is. To measure VO2 max, the people in the study were asked to ride stationary bikes to the point of exhaustion, Namasivayam said. [Everything you Need to Know About Aerobic Exercise]
The researchers found that the higher a person's VO2 max was, the less likely it was that a person had a precancerous polyp. In other words, people in the study with precancerous polyps "were more likely to have a lower level of [cardiorespiratory fitness] compared with those who" did not have polyps, Namasivayam said.
The study was small, and more research is needed to help scientists fully understand the link between cardiorespiratory fitness and the risk of precancerous polyps, Namasivayam noted. In addition to replicating the findings of this study, researchers also need to look into the biological mechanisms that could explain the link, he said.
The findings have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Originally published on Live Science.
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Action Taken Against Several Kentucky Fitness Centers – LEX18 Lexington KY News
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FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) Attorney General Andy Beshear announced today that his office is better protecting Kentuckians by holding several fitness centers in Kentucky accountable for failing to properly register with his office.
By law, fitness centers or gyms, spelled out in statute as health spas, are required to file an annual registration statement with the Office of the Attorney General, and post a bond, if they charge an initiation fee or have pre-paid memberships.Each bond amount is based on the number of memberships.
Our regulatory oversight of fitness centers is important because they are located in almost every community across the state and often operate off of long-term membership fees, Beshear said. While the majority of fitness centers follow the law, there are those my office must seek civil penalties against for violating regulations.
Beshear said the requirement for fitness centers to register with his office is critical to ensure that they do not just collect money for long-term memberships and then close shop.
In an effort to obtain better compliance with the majority of their Kentucky locations, Beshear said his office corresponds with all of the corporate headquarters of the fitness club franchises.
Beshears office has recently taken action against fitness center in the following cities:
Frankfort:Beshears office filed a complaint in February 2016 against Active Fitness 24/7 for failure to register and post a bond for one year. Summary judgment was entered in Franklin Circuit Court (16-CI-221) for a $2,000 civil penalty and $2,281 in litigation costs. Beshears office is attempting to collect on the judgment.
Hodgenville:Beshears office filed a complaint in February 2016 against Life Unlimited Investments d/b/a SNAP Fitness for failure to register and post a bond for registration for three years. A consent judgment has been entered for $3,000 in Franklin Circuit Court (16-CI-218).
Louisville:Beshears office filed a complaint in November 2016 against No Limit Fitness for the failure to register for two years. Civil penalties are being sought in the case in Franklin Circuit Court (16-CI-1250).
Versailles: Beshears office filed a complaint in July 2016 against Central Kentucky Fitness, operating as SNAP Fitness for failure to register and post bond for three years. Civil penalties are being sought in the case in Franklin Circuit Court (16-CI-809).
The Office of the Attorney General anticipates taking legal action against five more fitness centers before July 1.
Kentuckians may call Beshears office at 502-696-5300 to inquire if their fitness center is registered, or complete a complaint formonlineif they are having problems with their fitness center.
Besides fitness centers, Beshears office oversees cemeteries, funeral homes, crematories, professional solicitors, debt adjusters, fundraising consultants and charitable organizations.
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Action Taken Against Several Kentucky Fitness Centers - LEX18 Lexington KY News
Why Fitness Inspires Creativity – Fstoppers
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Fstoppers | Why Fitness Inspires Creativity Fstoppers Now in terms of actual physical fitness there is way more to it than just looking good in the mirror, it's about being functional. While I understand that not everyone is interested in scaling mountains to get photos, even as a professional working in ... |
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Why Fitness Inspires Creativity - Fstoppers
Space Travel Can Cut Astronauts’ Fitness Levels by 50 Percent – Space.com
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Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (such as Luca Parmitano, shown here in 2013) usually exercise about two hours per day to maintain physical health. Despite such efforts, long-duration spaceflight can cause fitness levels to drop by up to 50 percent, a recent study suggests.
Long-duration spaceflight saps astronauts' exercise capacity by 30 to 50 percent, a recent study suggests.
This big reduction likely occurs because both the heart and tiny blood vessels called capillaries fail to deliver oxygen to working muscles as effectively in microgravity as they do on Earth, researchers said.
"It is a dramatic decrease," study lead author Carl Ade, an assistant professor of exercise physiology at Kansas State University, said in a statement. [The Human Body in Space: 6 Weird Facts]
"When your cardiovascular function decreases, your aerobic exercise capacity goes down," Ade added. "You can't perform physically challenging activities anymore. While earlier studies suggest that this happens because of changes in heart function, our data suggests that there are some things happening at the level of the heart, but also at the level of the microcirculation within capillaries."
Ade and his colleagues studied the exercise performance of nine NASA astronauts who stayed aboard the International Space Station (ISS), each for roughly six-month stints. The researchers compared the spaceflyers' oxygen uptake, heart output and other measurements taken during stationary-bicycle tests both before the astronauts launched and right after they landed.
Results showed that maximum oxygen uptake, a key indicator of cardiovascular health, was 30 to 50 percent lower after the astronauts came back from the ISS than before they left.
"This decrease is related to not only health, but [also] performance," Ade said. "If we can understand why maximal oxygen uptake is going down, that allows us to come up with targeted interventions, whether that be exercise or pharmacological interventions. This important new information can help these astronauts and prevent any adverse performance changes in their job."
Such interventions could be key for crewed missions to deep-space destinations such as Mars, study team members said. After all, Red Planet pioneers may be pressed into high-exertion exercise on occasion when getting an injured or sick crewmember back to base, for example.
The team's research could also have applications here on Earth, potentially helping people with weak or failing hearts, Ade added.
The study, which was published in February in the Journal of Applied Physiology, adds to researchers' understanding that spaceflight takes a toll on the human body. Scientists and doctors already know, for example, that exposure to microgravity conditions can cause bone loss, muscle wasting and long-lasting vision problems.
Astronauts aboard the ISS engage in vigorous exercise to mitigate the first two effects, and researchers are working to better understand the vision issue so they can come up with effective interventions.
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
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Space Travel Can Cut Astronauts' Fitness Levels by 50 Percent - Space.com