BUILD MUSCLES TO BEAT DIABETES
I
ncreasing lean muscle mass—known to be a key in fighting frailty associated with aging (a condition called sarco- penia)—may also help protect against diabetes. A new study reports that every additional 10 percent of skeletal muscle mass is associated with reductions of 11 percent in insulin resistance and 12 percent in prediabetes or diabetes. Dr. Preethi Srikanthan, of the University of California, Los Angeles, and her colleagues recently evalu- ated the data on 13,644 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III, from 1988 to 1994, and discovered the connection. After adjusting for other contributing factors for diabetes, including gener- alized and abdominal obesity, they found that individuals with the great- est muscle mass were 63 percent less prone to the disease.
“Our findings suggest that beyond focusing on losing weight to improve metabolic health, there may be a role for maintaining fitness and building muscle mass,” says Srikan- than. “This is a welcome message for overweight patients that experience difficulty in achieving weight loss, as any effort to get moving and keep fit should be seen as contributing to metabolic change.”
Source: Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter
JUGGLING BUMPS UP BRAINPOWER C
an rhythmically tossing and catching balls in the air help grow the brain? Researchers from the Universität Regensburg, in Germany, after studying two dozen people using brain scans, say yes. Half were asked to learn to juggle; the others were given no special instructions. After three months, the brains of the jugglers had grown by 3 to 4 percent in the areas that process visual and motor information; the more skilled the jugglers became, the greater the brain growth. No change occurred in the non-juggling group. The research team says the study proves that new stimuli can alter the brain’s structure, not just its function.
Source:
Nature.com
natural awakenings June 2012
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