For Boston

Benefits Achieved from Running in Excess of 40 Miles Per Week

Health experts have long urged Americans to get up and get moving. But what kind of exercise should they do? And how lengthy and vigorous must it be for them to receive the greatest benefit?

Despite the apparent consensus of a number of health groups that have, in recent years, recommended that Americans engage in exercise of moderate intensity, scientists remain sharply divided over those questions.

Running and Spirituality

“Running is just such a monestary-- a retreat, a place to commune with God and yourself, a place for psychological and spiritual renewal.”

― George Sheehan, George Sheehan on Running to Win: How to Achieve the Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Victories

Study Sees Multiple Benefits in Certain Fats

Mono-unsaturated fats like olive oil may benefit the heart not only by lowering cholesterol but also by reducing blood pressure and blood sugar, a study in Italy has suggested.

National Runner's Health Study: What Kind of Exercise is Best?

Two exercisers - one a runner, the other a walker - pass each other on their morning loops.  "Good morning," says the walker, thinking to herself, "Injury magnet. " "Morning," replies the runner, thinking to herself, "Wimp. "

Meanwhile, both spend the next block wondering who has the better exercise regimen.

Nutrition and Immunity

RESEARCHERS studying the often-surprising effects of nutrition on immunity report that dietary manipulation can become a promising new tool to foster recovery or prevent disease in millions of people.

Vitamins and Muscle Damage

ALONG with their training regimen and carbohydrate loading, participants in the forthcoming New York City Marathon might consider taking vitamin E, a new study suggests.

The Revolution Within

People are not just people. They are an awful lot of microbes, too

POLITICAL revolutionaries turn the world upside down. Scientific ones more often turn it inside out. And that, almost literally, is happening to the idea of what, biologically speaking, a human being is.

The traditional view is that a human body is a collection of 10 trillion cells which are themselves the products of 23,000 genes. If the revolutionaries are correct, these numbers radically underestimate the truth. For in the nooks and crannies of every human being, and especially in his or her guts, dwells the microbiome: 100 trillion bacteria of several hundred species bearing 3m non-human genes. The biological Robespierres believe these should count, too; that humans are not single organisms, but superorganisms made up of lots of smaller organisms working together.

Coconut Water: A Healthy and Natural Source of Electrolytes?

Not long ago, few athletes had heard of coconut water, but sales have skyrocketed, largely because of its reputation as a healthy and natural source of electrolytes.

Pure coconut water contains many electrolytes, like sodium, the critical one lost during sweating. But many commercial varieties have less sodium than is found in juice straight from a coconut or in traditional sports drinks. An 8.5 ounce serving of Vita Coco 100% Pure Coconut Water, for example, contains 30 milligrams of sodium and 15 grams of carbohydrates. An eight-ounce serving of Gatorade Pro 02 Perform is equal in carbs (14 grams) but has more sodium (200 milligrams).

Revisiting the Relationship between Exercise, Calorie Intake, Fat Burning, and Weight Loss

A common misconception is that increased fat use during exercise will equate to increased fat loss from the body. Unfortunately, this assumption is not supported by research and is contrary to the basic components of the energy-balance equation.

It is the combination of exercise, the number of calories ingested and the amount of protein ingested that determines whether you gain or lose body fat or muscle mass.

What is Energy Flux?

Men and women normally think of reduced calorie eating or fat burning cardio when they want to shed ugly fat, they don't think of Energy Flux. After looking in the mirror and seeing the love handles bulging over their belt, they say things like, "I need to go on a diet" or "I need to get into shape". That is their first mistake when looking to eliminate ugly fat.

Struggle -- It is an Essential Part of Life

It is clear that we must embrace struggle. Every living thing conforms to it. Everything in nature grows and struggles in its own way, establishing its own identity, insisting on it at all cost, against all resistance.

—Rainer Maria Rilke

Boost Your Metabolism

IN ANY 24hour period, we burn a certain number of calories, known as the total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) and is made up from a number of different types of energy use.

For a start, there is the energy used by the Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), the amount of calories you burn just to keep alive. This accounts for a big chunk, between 60 and 75 per cent of total daily energy expenditure.