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Reducing overall calorie intake may rejuvenate your muscles and activate biological pathways important for good health. Decreasing calories without depriving the body of essential vitamins and minerals, known as calorie restriction, has long been known to delay the progression of age-related diseases in animal models. This study suggests the same biological mechanisms may also apply to humans. Researchers analyzed data from participants in the Comprehensive Assessment of Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy (CALERIE), a study that examined whether moderate calorie restriction conveys the same health benefits seen in animal studies. During a two-year span, the goal for participants...

Vitamin D plays an important role in the regulation of calcium and phosphorus absorption by an organism. It also helps keep the brain and immune system working. Researchers have now shown that vitamin D supplementation reduces the risk of dynapenia in older people by 78%. Dynapenia is an age-associated loss of muscle strength. "Vitamin D is known to participate in various functions of the organism. It’s a hormone and roles include helping to repair muscles and releasing calcium for muscle contraction kinetics," said Tiago da Silva Alexandre. Bone and muscle tissue are interconnected not just mechanically and physically, but also...

Grizzly bears spend many months in hibernation, but their muscles do not suffer from the lack of movement. The bear's metabolism and heart rate drop rapidly. It excretes neither urine nor feces. The amount of nitrogen in the blood increases drastically and the bear becomes resistant to the hormone insulin. A person could hardly survive this four-month phase in a healthy state. Afterwards, he or she would most likely have to cope with thromboses or psychological changes. Above all, the muscles would suffer from this prolonged period of disuse. The scientists from Berlin, Greifswald and the United States were particularly...

Patients with the rare muscle disease, idiopathic inflammatory myositis, are nearly twice as likely to have been on statin therapy than matched population controls, an Australian study shows. Using data from 1990-2014 from the SA myositis database, 221 patients older than 40 and diagnosed with histologically confirmed idiopathic inflammatory myositis were compared with 662 matched controls from a general population state database. Compared with controls, patients with myositis had a 79% increased likelihood of exposure to statins, reported the authors, led by Dr Vidya Limaye, a rheumatology staff specialist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Food Chemistry: The amino acid L-citrulline found in the fruit could help athletes avoid muscle soreness after a hard workoutBefore taking a long bike ride on a hot summer day, have some watermelon: The juicy fruit may ward off muscle pains. Researchers report that people who drank watermelon juice before exercising felt less sore the next day than those who drank a pink placebo beverage (J. Agric. Food Chem. 2013, DOI: 10.1021/jf400964r). They also found that cells absorb the presumed active ingredient, L-citrulline, more readily from unpasteurized watermelon juice than from plain water spiked with the compound, suggesting the natural...

Many feared the worst when they heard Meryl Streep was to play Margaret Thatcher in a new film. Not only was Baroness Thatcher to be cast as a rather befuddled, elderly woman looking back on the triumphs and disappointments of her life, but Streep is also of a very different political hue from Maggie. It was commonly agreed that our greatest Prime Minister since Churchill would be vilified. Such fears are misplaced. Having just seen the film in a London preview before its release in January, and then having spoken at length to Meryl Streep about her role in The...

New research suggests a higher-protein, lower-carbohydrate energy-restricted diet has a major positive impact on body composition, trimming belly fat and increasing lean muscle, particularly when the proteins come from dairy products. The study, published in the September issue of the Journal of Nutrition, compared three groups of overweight and obese, but otherwise healthy, premenopausal women. Each consumed either low, medium or high amounts of dairy foods coupled with higher or lower amounts of protein and carbohydrates. The women exercised seven days per week for four months, a routine that included five days of aerobic exercise and two days of circuit...

LONDON (Reuters) - Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 meters record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions. Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 meters during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood. Any Neanderthal woman could have beaten former bodybuilder and current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle.

BERKELEY – Old muscle got a shot of youthful vigor in a stem cell experiment by bioengineers at the University of California, Berkeley, setting the path for research on new treatments for age-related degenerative conditions such as muscle atrophy or Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Old muscles renewedIrina Conboy and Morgan Carlson have learned how to trigger the rejuvenation of old, damaged muscles. View full-size videoIn a new study published June 15 in an advanced online issue of the journal Nature, researchers identified two key regulatory pathways that control how well adult stem cells repair and replace damaged tissue. They then...

Learning From The Dead: What Facial Muscles Can Tell Us About Emotion ScienceDaily (Jun. 17, 2008) — Laugh and the world laughs with you, but wrinkle your nose and you could find yourself on your own. A new study by a scientist at the University of Portsmouth who examined the facial muscles in cadavers, has revealed that the muscles which control our facial expressions are not common to everyone. The Risorius muscle, which experts believe controls our ability to create an expression of extreme fear, is found in only two thirds of the population. Dr Bridget Waller has published a...

ARNOLD COMMITS TO FIGHTING STEROID USE LATEST: California Governor ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER has pledged to combat the over use of steroids in sport after causing outrage by admitting he took the drugs at the beginning of his bodybuilding career. The action man shocked TV viewers a week ago (27FEB05) when he told a US news show that he had no regrets about taking doctor-supervised steroids in the 1970s. Speaking at his annual ARNOLD FITNESS WEEKEND in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday (05MAR05) the actor-turned-politician conceded he has done little to rid sports of illegal drugs. And he has committed to convene a...

07/26/04 -- Researchers have found a delivery method for gene therapy that reaches all the voluntary muscles of a mouse - including heart, diaphragm and limbs ? and reverses the process of muscle-wasting found in muscular dystrophy. "We have a clear 'proof of principle' that it is possible to deliver new genes body-wide to all the striated muscles of an adult animal. Finding a delivery method for the whole body has been a major obstacle limiting the development of gene therapy for the muscular dystrophies. Our new work identifies for the first time a method where a new dystrophin gene...

Sometimes party loyalty asks too much, John F. Kennedy once said. California Republicans could have adopted this line when Kennedy in-law Arnold Schwarzenegger presented himself as a standard-bearer to them. Instead, they shelved their conservatism and championed the Kennedy liberal for the sake of party loyalty and advancement. "The benefit of having this kind of change in the governor's office is worth swallowing hard and putting some of your old positions behind you," says GOP consultant Ken Khachigian to the Los Angeles Times. Putting some of your old positions behind you. What's the point of winning again? So you can...

Japan flexes its muscles, thinking the unthinkable By Colin Joyce in Tokyo (Filed: 09/08/2003) Japan is moving away from decades of pacifism to strengthen its armed forces with an elite commando unit, aircraft carriers and spy satellites. The wide-ranging rethink has been spurred by a series of declarations from its Stalinist neighbour, North Korea, which has made plain its determination to acquire nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them. The escalating crisis has already caused Japan to promise pre-emptive air raids if it feels threatened, and analysts have begun publicly to discuss the ultimate taboo, the acquisition of atomic...

Dr. Paul Ekman, the professor of psychology who has become the world's most famous face reader, is much in demand these days. The Dalai Lama and Dr. Ekman, who have met twice, found such synergy in their understanding of human emotions that the Dalai Lama gave Dr. Ekman $50,000 in seed money to learn how to improve emotional balance in schoolteachers and other people in high pressure jobs. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency and state and local police forces have turned to Dr. Ekman for help learning to read subtle emotional cues from the faces, voices...

<p>For many who toil away in gyms to keep their weight down and muscles toned, exercise is more work than fun. But some day, those who identify more with Homer Simpson than Arnold Schwarzenegger may finally be able to lose the sneakers and turn on the tube — and not feel guilty about it.</p>

Public release date: 10-Apr-2002 Contact: Amy ShieldsAmy.Shields@UTSouthwestern.edu 214-648-3404University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas UT Southwestern researchers find protein transforms sedentary muscles to resemble exercised muscles The original embargo on this release, (April 11 at 14:00 ET) has been lifted. DALLAS – April 12, 2002 – A calcium-signaling protein transforms sedentary, easily fatigued muscles into energy-producing, fatigue-resistant muscles, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas researchers report. In a study published in today’s issue of Science, the researchers found that by genetically expressing the protein in skeletal muscles of laboratory mice, easily fatigued, or type II, muscle fibers were...