Common Ground: Body Talk

February 2007 | Whole Health

Body Talk

By Elizabeth Barker

Pump it Up, Live Forever

Sticking to a long-term weight-training program could deliver more than stronger muscles. In a recent study from the American Journal of Physiology—Endocrinology and Metabolism, researchers found that women who pumped iron for about six months produced more biologically active growth hormone. In addition to aiding bone and muscle development, growth hormone helps to enhance metabolic function, fight tissue breakdown and protect against stress fractures.

For the study, 74 women who had not worked out regularly for at least a year took on one of four training programs: upper- or total-body training with heavy weights and eight or less repetitions, or upper- or total-body training with lighter weights and up to 12 repetitions. Researchers detected an overall increase in the participants’ growth hormone levels, leading study author William J. Kraemer, Ph.D., to conclude that “women need to have heavy-loading cycle workouts in their resistance training routines, as it helps to build muscle and bone.”

Burnout’s Fallout

When it comes to risk factors for diabetes, job burnout may be on par with weighing too much, not getting enough exercise and smoking. In studying a group of 677 Israelis, Tel Aviv University researchers discovered that burnt-out workers were 1.84 times more likely to become diabetic. Known to disrupt the body’s ability to process glucose, stress may have factored into the diabetes diagnoses reported by 17 participants over the study’s five-year period. “It is possible that these people are prone to diabetes because they can’t handle stress very well,” observes study author Samuel Melamed, Ph.D. “Their coping resources may have been depleted not only due to job stress but also life stresses, such as stressful life events and daily hassles.”

Unclouding Chemo-brain

Chemotherapy can trigger harmful changes in the brain that may last for up to ten years after treatment, according to recent research from the University of California at Los Angeles. In an effort to uncover why people often experience post-chemo impairment in memory, concentration and multitasking abilities—a condition known as “chemo-brain”—researchers examined brain scans from 21 breast cancer patients who had undergone chemo about five to 10 years earlier. The scans revealed “a link between chemo-brain symptoms and lower metabolism in a key region of the frontal cortex,” explains study author Daniel Silverman, M.D.

In another new study, researchers from Japan’s National Cancer Center Hospital East determined that chemotherapy may be associated with temporary shrinkage in regions of the brain that control cognitive function. Analyzing three years of brain scans from 130 breast cancer patients, the study authors found that those who had received chemo had smaller brain volumes in areas involved in planning, problem-solving and focusing one year after treatment. However, scans from three years after chemo showed no volume differences.

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