$10,000 a Year for "Metabolism Modulation"

NEARLY EVERY SUNDAY morning -- Easter and Mother's Day included -- John Bellizzi says goodbye to his wife, Francesca, grabs an equipment bag and slides into the front seat of his black BMW. He drives to a high-school soccer field about 10 miles from his home in the New York City suburb of Rye.

Bellizzi, who is 51, is a member of the Old Timers Soccer Club, a band of stubborn, aging athletes who refuse to fall under the spell of golf. Technically, these are just pickup games, but they have been happening weekly since the early 1980s. The players go to the trouble of hiring a referee and battle full tilt (think slide tackles and heels-over-head bicycle kicks) for an hour and a half. Many of them were high-school and collegiate stars, decades ago. ''One guy had a hip replacement,'' Bellizzi, a former soccer captain at Queens College, says. ''He was out for a year, then he came back.''

Resting Heart Beat: What's Normal?

Resting heart rate above 80 beats per minute, despite being considered within the normal range of 60-100 beats, may signal a higher risk of stroke or heart disease (S)


THE FACTS

The normal resting heart rate for an adult ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute. But some researchers believe it may be time to re-examine what's considered normal.

Researchers have found that a resting pulse at the upper end of ''normal'' may indicate a higher risk of stroke and heart disease. Some have linked it to a greater risk of diabetes and obesity. Instead of drawing the line at 100 beats per minute, some say, anything above 90 - and perhaps even 80 - may be considered cause for concern.

In one study published in The Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, scientists followed 50,000 healthy men and women over two decades, looking at whether a resting heart rate at the upper end of normal increased the risk of dying of a heart attack. Just more than 4,000 of the subjects died of heart disease, and the authors found that resting heart rate was a good predictor: For each rising increment of 10 heart beats per minute, the risk of dying of a heart attack increased 18 percent among women and about 10 percent in men.

Another study, published in The American Journal of Hypertension, found that a large group of adults who started out with resting heart rates above 80 beats a minute were more likely to become obese and develop diabetes after two decades.

To lower the heart rate, try stepping up your cardio exercise, particularly with interval training, which is known to increase the amount of blood the heart pumps with each beat.

THE BOTTOM LINE

A resting heart rate above 80 beats a minute may be a red flag.

Bill Rodgers

When Bill Rodgers ran his first marathon in a decade, it was nothing like before. This time, in 2009, the four-time Boston Marathon and New York Marathon champion had fun with friends.

There is nothing like running with a friend, Rodgers said while taking a few minutes away from a hectic day of signing books, posters and shirts during the Quintiles Wrightsville Beach Marathon expo Saturday at the Shell Island Resort.

Exercise & Parkinson's

Exercise for Parkinson's prevention?

Parkinson's disease is a nenrodegenerative brain disorder that most often progresses slowly--patients with the disease will usually be living with it for twenty years or more from the time of diagnosis. While Parkinson's disease itself is not fatal, the Center for Disease Control rates Parkinson's-related complications as the 14th cause of death in the U.S. There is currently no cure for Parkinson's, but recent studies reveal that vigorous exercise may both prevent and help treat it.

Taping an Injury -- Does it Work?

Every year I run many different races in cities all over the world. Over the past few years, I've noticed a growing trend--runners covered with tape. I've seen tape in every color of the rainbow, taped in every direction possible, but no matter what the color or style, usually by the end of the race the tape is hanging off and the runner is limping across the finish line. That is, if he or she even made it there. Taping represents one of the biggest problems when it comes to the management of running injuries: the quick fix. People want a fast cure with little to no work; hence, magical tape!

On Solitude

In a period of only a few months, Kathy Airoldi of West Hartford, Conn., bought a house, got bumped out of her teaching job of 10 years (into a less-desirable job) and separated from her husband.

The 43-year-old teacher and track coach dealt with the stress by being alone.

Who is Bob Brown, and Why Did he Run Across Europe?

A long distance endurance runner from West Cornwall has set a new world record for running across the European Union.

The Work-Life Balance

Jason Karp is a successful hedge-fund manager and restaurateur with a close-knit family and a deep respect for work-life balance. Today, his world is cruising along quite nicely. More than a decade ago, though, he was in near-constant overdrive — and dangerously close to crashing.

Pain from Exercise?

Pain from exercise is the body's messenger. So, ignoring the pain and just toughing it out could make the injury worse. "There are a lot of different ways to be injured. If there is pain but no swelling, you can continue to exercise but you should modify the activity to make it painless," says Dr. Richard Steadman, orthopedic surgeon in Vail and founder of the Steadman Hawkins Research Foundation. He suggests cross-training, so if you experienced some pain after running, switch to cycling or swimming for a while. "Don't continue with the activity that created the pain in the first place," he says.

Older runners

Running is an excellent sport for people as they get older.  As we shall see, it provides significant benefits which can offset the effects of ageing.  Some people take up running so that they can keep fit and trim when they no longer feel able to participate in contact sports such as football and rugby.  (More than half the runners in the New York City Marathon are over forty.)

Cortisol Harms Your Immune System

Hormones: they're the 3am phone call. The email marked urgent. They carry the messages demanding your body take action. But they do more than regulate your primal instincts; they also determine the improvements you make from the miles you run and the weights you lift. ‘How your hormones respond to your exercise regime is the single biggest success factor for building muscle, burning fat or boosting your running performance,’ says Joe Beer, a running coach and author of Need to Know Triathlon (£10, Collins). ‘Good workouts make the right hormonal shift to progress. Bad ones don't.’ Most runners give hormones very little thought, but they can make or break your results – so here's the buzz on how to improve your performance from the inside out.

Runner's Hormones 101

Meat, Dairy, and Athletes

A diet heaped full of meat and dairy grows the strongest, sturdiest athletes, right? Wrong. Michele Deppe introduces you to top- performing vegan athletes who achieve amazing feats by powering up with plants. Read on to learn their healthful, performance-enhancing tricks.

Fitness or Facebook?

Fitness equipment prince Jason Lo leans against a treadmill at his headquarters and lets a wonderful marketing opportunity slip through his fingers.

He never breathes a word at a news gathering about making the earth's citizens healthier.

Many of the journalists present would have expected Lo to claim to be on a mission to boost the earth's cardio mojo and muscle tone. After all, he runs Johnson Health Tech, the world's third-largest fitness equipment maker.

"Our holy calling is to use ellipticals and stationary bikes to make the peoples of the world healthier beings," Lo could have thundered. That might have been a bit over the top, but forgivable.

Instead, this affable Taiwanese, who in middle age is neither fat nor railthin, talks about the challenge posed by the widespread perception of exercise as one of the most boring forms of human activity.

"We're trying to make it much, much more fun," he says. "We have to help people to want to work out."

Johnson knows it will have a tough time making a treadmill more fun than Facebook, Angry Birds or Glee. That's why it has enlisted social and visual media to create an entertainment-exercise hybrid in which a console's electronics are almost as important as the gear that makes your heart beat faster.

Didn't Start Running Marathons Until Age 50

Tucsonans getting ready for Sunday's marathon

Marathons are not just for the young and agile.

Started at age 50

Beverly Schulz estimates that she has run 20 marathons - in addition to two 50-milers and a half-dozen triathlons - all in the last nine years.

"I started running when I was 50 years old and I got carried away," she said.

The Human Microbiome and Our Immune System

The yards of dank tubing in our midsections form a complex, amazing and absolutely pivotal foundation for human health. And the more that scientists come to appreciate this, the more they anticipate that future medical discoveries will come from the lowly gut.

Should you Work-Out Through a Cold?

If you do happen to catch a bug, how do you decide whether it’s best to get some activity or get some rest? I usually determine this based on my symptoms. If it’s a common cold with symptoms like runny nose, sore throat and minor aches and pains with no fever, it is probably safe to engage in some moderate exercise and it may even make you feel better. I

85 year old passes 50,000 mile marker

 

Paul Merriman's seven grown children have arrived from as far away as Vermont to celebrate their 85-year-old father's having run 50,000 miles.

Running too Far may Release a Stress Hormone

David Nieman surveyed 2,311 runners training for the Los Angeles marathon, including in his study both those who raced and those who dropped out for nonmedical reasons. He found that those who raced were six times more likely to get colds afterwards, a sign of how stressful the long race can be.