Seeing Red Works Well in Workouts
If you want to maximize your workout, exercise in red surroundings, a University of Texas researcher suggests.
Working out under red light increases the electrical activity of muscles, according to Scott Hasson, an assistant professor of physical therapy at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He asked 14 subjects to squeeze a hand grip under red light, white light, blue light and darkness, and measured the electrical activity of the muscles each time.
“We found an increase in muscle strength--the ability to squeeze the hand grip--in red light compared to darkness and other lights,” he said. Shorter-wave length light, such as blue, decreased the electrical activity and performance slightly, he added.
Why? “In nature, red spells danger and causes central nervous system excitation resulting in greater muscle contractions,” Hasson speculates. Red surroundings may be especially energizing for weight-lifting and other activities requiring short bursts of energy, he adds.
“I don’t think I would get the paintbrush out quite yet,” says John Duncan, associate director of exercise physiology for the Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas. “Indeed, different colors may cause you to become stronger, (but) a larger study is needed.”
Aiding Addicted
As they often do in January, admissions to alcohol and drug dependency treatment programs will peak this week, administrators of Los Angeles-area programs say.
“Those with chemical dependency problems often consider the (December) holidays the ‘last binge’ ” before admitting themselves, said Dr. Edward J. Castner, medical director of Las Encinas Hospital, which administers a chemical dependency program.
Those who vowed to stop alcohol or drug use in November or December often realize after the New Year that they need help to do so, added Patti Steen, director of another treatment program at Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale.
Once a patient enters a recovery program, family members and friends tend to breathe a sigh of relief. But what they should do, Castner and Steen say, is begin their own recovery program. Often they are “on the same downward spiral” as the drug or alcohol abuser, Steen finds.
Here is Steen and Castner’s advice for those close to recovering addicts:
--Participate in the program with the patient or obtain other help. “We try to tie them into Al-Anon meetings immediately,” Steen said.
--Learn to communicate again. “The first thing that goes is communication,” she said.
--Realize that some dependencies are more difficult to admit and conquer than others. “The most difficult (patient) to get into treatment, and the hardest to rehabilitate, is the cocaine addict,” Caster believes. “The coke habit is so self-reinforcing addicts become driven by it. They cut off social relationships and may not be as responsive to human intervention.”
Late-Night Snacking
Will the calories consumed late at night turn instantly to fat when you fall asleep?
No, a Washington physician says; if you’re not overweight, you probably don’t need to worry about late-night snacking. “It’s not the time (we eat) so much as the amount of calories we ingest compared with what we spend,” said Dr. Artemis Simopoulos, director of Washington’s Center for Genetics, Nutrition and Health of the American Assn. for World Health and author of a report on late-night snacking in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. “I don’t think it matters when you eat. If you keep the expenditure and intake in balance, you’re not going to gain weight.”
Dr. Grant Gwinup, professor of endocrinology and metabolism at UC Irvine’s California College of Medicine agrees: “For normal-weight people, late-night eating is not a problem. But for obese people, it’s bad to eat late at night.” If you’re trying to lose weight, “Have five or six very small meals during the day,” he advises. “And schedule the last meal so you’re mildly hungry before bedtime.”
Long in the Toothpaste
Postscript: How long does toothpaste really last? In a recent Your Body column, Oklahoma dentist Tom Glass recommended replacing toothbrushes and toothpaste after an illness to reduce the chance of recurring infection and to buy small tubes of toothpaste. “If you buy the large economy size tube,” he noted, “much of the fluoride is lost within two weeks anyway, because fluoride is a volatile gas.”
But not everyone agrees. Said Clifford Whall, assistant secretary of the American Dental Assn. Council on Dental Therapeutics: “Fluorine is a volatile gas but fluoride is not. As it exists in toothpaste, the fluoride is in the form of a salt, not a gas. The toothpastes evaluated and accepted by the ADA’s Council on Dental Therapeutics retain 85% of their fluoride activity over a three-year shelf life.” Even after they’re opened, Whall added, there’s “little degradation” of the fluoride. “Once opened, a tube of toothpaste will last many months.”
Said Teri Glover, spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble, the Cincinnati, Ohio, manufacturer of Crest toothpaste: “Shelf-life tests with unopened toothpaste show it lasts more than two years.”
