fitnessROCKS.org

New Website

admin — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:07:24 +0000

I have a new website and podcast.

Science2Health.org

Please click the link and check it out.

Monte

New Beginnings

admin — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 02:05:37 +0000

Play Podcast 152

FitnessRocks will be changing to a new podcast – www.science2health.org. Please visit the new website and subscribe to the new RSS feed.

The new podcast will be much the same as Fitness Rocks, with the addition of a bigger range of topics. Most of the podcasts will be exactly like those you are familiar with from Fitness Rocks.

The first Science2Health podcast (001) has already been posted. I have submitted Science2Health to the “Science and Medicine” category at iTunes, but it will take a few days to appear.

There is a full transcript of the first Science2Health podcast available at the Science2Health website in the shownotes.

I look forward to connecting with you in the new year.

Monte

Is the FDA Protecting Our Food and Drugs?

admin — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:09:26 +0000

You may not know it, but most of the medications you might take, either prescribed, or over-the-counter, are made in other countries by factories that submitted the lowest bid. This makes higher profits for the drug companies doing the “outsourcing,” but is it good for you? I interviewed William Hubbard, a retired FDA associate commissioner, about whether the FDA is able to adequately inspect drugs manufactured in overseas factories.

Play Podcast 151

Mr. Hubbard wrote an article for the October 12, 2009 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine outlining some of the problems he sees with the FDA and the practice of outsourcing drug manufacturing to developing countries where regulation is often poor.

References:

Can the FDA Ensure the Safety of Our Pharmaceuticals?

Bacterial Contamination of Heparin and Saline

Evolutionary Biology and Health – Part Two: an Interview With James Evans, M.D., Ph.D.

admin — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:23:29 +0000

In this episode of Fitness Rocks I talk to Dr. James Evans from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Dr. Evans is a molecular biologist and one of the few people involved with teaching evolutionary biology to medical students.

Play Podcast 150

It is my contention that we will not be able to solve the epidemics of obesity and obesity-related chronic diseases until we recognize the central role of evolution in our modern health problems. Our biology is unsuited for the modern environment that we have created. An over-abundance of unhealthy food and a lifestyle in which physical activity is optional are the root causes of chronic diseases. In addition to pursuing new “miracle drugs” to “cure” lifestyle-related illnesses, we should also be addressing the elements of our modern environment and our modern lifestyles that are out of sync with our evolution and are causing these chronic illnesses in the first place.

More than half of the United States population refuses to accept the science of evolution, which leaves me wondering if we will ever be able to stop the steady increase in the percentage of Americans who are becoming obese and developing chronic diseases? The very fact that people of normal weight today are statistically abnormal should be a huge signal that something is fundamentally wrong with our modern lifestyle. It appears to me that our society is accepting the fate of escalating medical disabilities from chronic diseases as if these diseases are inevitable. They aren’t.

People will counter me by claiming their right to a different opinion. I respect that, but an opinion is what you have when you decide whether you think you look better in a blue shirt or a white shirt. Evolution is science. Science is the field of human endeavor that brought you cell phone technology, the internet, coronary artery bypass grafting, antibiotics, the small pox vaccination, space flight, satellites, air planes, automobiles, etc. Evolution is a concept that you either understand or you don’t. Understanding our biology, our evolution, is the key to solving our epidemic of chronic diseases.

Monte Ladner, M.D.

References:

The Voyage Continues: Darwin and Medicine at 200 Years

Dr. Evans’ Power Point Slide Show on Evolutionary Medicine

Video Lecture on Evolution at FORA.TV by Dr. Kenneth Miller

Evolutionary Biology and Health – Part One: an Interview with Neil Shubin, Ph.D.

admin — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:42:32 +0000

This week we start a series on evolution and health. We’ll begin with an interview with Dr. Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish. Dr. Shubin is a Paleontologist and a Professor of Anatomy at the University of Chicago.

Play Podcast 149

Understanding evolution helps us understand the biology behind the obesity epidemic, and the epidemics of obesity-related diseases.

Before you conclude that evolution has nothing to teach us about why we’re getting fatter think about the role evolutionary biology is already playing in medicine. Antibiotic resistance, like MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphlococcus Aureus), is an evolutionary phenomenon. Dr. Shubin and I discuss this in the interview. When you get a live attenuated vaccine, you are getting a vaccine made using the principles of evolutionary biology.

References:

Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body (Vintage)

Will Exercise Make You Live Longer?

admin — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:22:47 +0000

This week on Fitness Rocks I review two studies about exercise in “older” people. This podcast is relevant to “young” people as well as “old” people because it turns out that exercise provides you with a much better chance of getting to be old.

Play Podcast 148

The first study, which is also covered in Fitness Rocks Vodcast 002 (see the post directly below this one), looked at the effect of exercise in people age 70 – 88. Specifically, the researchers wanted to know if regular exercise in this older population of people would have an impact on longevity and functional status. The results of the study are impressive.

The second study looks at the easily measured physical parameter of maximal walking speed in people between ages 65 – 85 and how it relates to the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. Is the ability to walk relatively fast related to your risk of dying from a heart attack or a stroke? Check out the podcast to find out.

I also spend a few minutes at the beginning of this podcast talking about future podcast topics for Fitness Rocks. I will always cover studies about exercise and diet, but I’m interested in other issues that impact our health and I want to start talking about them. I’ve largely avoided these subjects in the past because I didn’t want to get into areas of “controversy.” But, there are lots of important topics for us to think about when we think about our health, and I want to cover some of them in this podcast. If you disagree with me on some of these issues then write a comment and tell me where I got it wrong. Avoiding controversy probably isn’t the best way to solve problems, so let’s have some intelligent conversations about big issues and agree to disagree about some of them.

Monte

References:

Physical Activity, Function, and Longevity Among the Very Old

Walking Speed and Risk of Cardiovascular Death

Fitness Rocks Vodcast 002

admin — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:50:18 +0000

References:

Physical Activity, Function, and Longevity Among the Very Old

Corn and Your Health: an Interview with Filmmaker Ian Cheney

admin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:18:32 +0000

Ian Cheney and his colleagues made two excellent documentary movies about the business of growing corn in America. You will be astonished to learn how corn has become so pervasive in our diet and in our economy. The two movies are filled with commentaries from leading nutritional researchers, environmental scientists, and the farmers who grow corn.

Play Podcast 147

This interview with Ian Cheney, and the two movies he made, will give you a lot to think about the next time you go grocery shopping or pull up to the drive-through window at a fast-food restaurant. It will also give you a lot of insight into the discussion about using ethanol as an alternative fuel – which probably won’t help us conquer our dependence on fossil fuels.

References:

King Corn

Big River

Another Attempt at Making Videos

admin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:01:47 +0000

So, I keep trying to make fitness videos.

I really don’t know why I’m so intrigued by the idea of making videos, but I am. The ultimate goal is to connect with people and deliver the message of healthy lifestyles.

Leave me your comments on this video. My thought is to make a second Fitness Rocks podcast that is video (a “vodcast”). I will continue making the audio podcasts.

References:

Healthy Living is the Best Revenge

Guest Commentary by Dr. David Katz

The Environment and Your Health: an Interview with Paul Auerbach, M.D.

admin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:04:28 +0000

Environmental issues like global warming, air pollution, water pollution, deforestation, and others have direct implications for your health and well-being. Dr. Paul Auerbach of Stanford University Medical School addressed some of these issues in an editorial for the Journal of the American Medical Association. I asked Dr. Auerbach to share some of his thoughts with us in this episode of Fitness Rocks.

Play Podcast 146

At the end of the podcast I present a wonderful piece of piano music composed and played by listener David Ianni from Luxembourg. The piece is entitled “Morning.”

This podcast is one of a series of interviews I’ve done in the past few weeks about the issue of human evolution and health. We evolved to thrive in a starkly different environment from the one we have created and this has had a measurable effect on our health and our planet.

You may think our biggest problem is the economy, or health care reform, or some other hot political issue, but if we can’t breathe the air or drink the water – what else matters after that?

References:

Physicians and the Environment

Monte