I heard something utterly ridiculous on the radio the other week. It seems that scientists have found a correlation between the gum disease in people who brush their teeth only once a day or even less frequently and heart disease. The researchers have apparently said that “more work is needed to confirm if poor oral health directly causes heart disease or is a marker of risk”.
A link between gum disease and heart disease I can see – it’s disease. Gum disease can be caused by a whole host of nutritional deficiencies including vitamin and mineral deficiencies which can easily be caused by a poor diet with insufficient levels of them and also from leaky gut (probably also caused by poor diet) preventing the body from properly absorbing any vitamins and minerals that we do ingest. If you’ve got those sorts of problems then heart disease is probably also on the danger list.
However, my objection is to linking it with how often you brush your teeth. Aside from the potential laziness link (if you can’t be bothered to brush your teeth at all then there’s a chance that you can’t be bothered to cook yourself a wholesome meal either) there could be all sorts of other reasons for gum disease. How many people who only brush once are now going to start brushing twice a day (without making any other lifestyle or dietary changes) in the belief that it will stop them getting heart disease? How can they ever establish if there is a direct link without allowing for these other potential links?
Now that I’ve finished that rant (a weekly rant seems to be becoming a feature, sorry), I’ll move onto this week’s links:
- I’m going to kick off with a very important article which is a must-read for all cyclists, though especially for female cyclists who seem to suffer the most lorry-related accidents. The article is showcasing a video done recently by the Police in the UK highlighting how poor the visibility is for lorry drivers and the best positioning for a cyclist to minimise the risk of accidents.
- You’re probably aware that I am a big fan of omega-3. That said, it oughtn’t be a surprise since anyone who wants to keep super-healthy, maintain their body and/or who does plenty of active stuff that may stress their joints should ensure they take their fish oils (or at least get their omega-3s. So I was interested (and amused) to read a technical article on Nephropal (all the articles on Nephropal are technical) explaining the correlation between the waist-to-hip ratio and omega-3 levels. Another step on the way to a perfect figure!
- Another super story from a woman who isn’t giving up her “sport” for the sake of her pregnancy and is feeling really good as a result. At seven months pregnant she’s still cycling around although she’s acknowledged that she will need to swap to a more upright Dutch-style bike. Good for her for ignoring the naysayers and continuing to cycle!
- I love cooking with fresh ginger root, although it tends to be a special luxury treat. I knew it had lots of beneficial properties, but it’s always good to be reminded of that sort of thing. Now it seems that they’ve found that daily ginger consumption reduces muscle pain caused by exercise. Perhaps I should take ginger root off the luxuries list and move it to the staples list instead.
- I’m a few weeks behind in this news, but a South Korean has become the first woman to scale all 14 of the world’s 8,000 metre peaks. Jealousy is, of course, rife in the mountaineering world and Oh Eun-Sun’s rival, Edurne Pasaban from Spain, has speculated that Oh hasn’t actually achieved all the summits. Sometimes the world of mountaineering can be filled with these little intrigues and rivalries. I hope the ladies manage to sort it out amicably between themselves.
- For those diet-gurus out there, I was interested to learn about Scott Jurek. I must confess I’d never heard of him before, but now understand that he is incredibly well-known on the ultra-marathon circuit, is incredibly good and yet he is a vegan. I’m not big on the idea of marathon running anyway and the idea of veganism doesn’t really compute for me since I love my meat and fish, but it certainly seems to be working for Scott. If you’re interested in these things it’s well worth checking out his story so that you’re getting a balanced set of views.
- I live for my “outdoors” time. It’s one of the best bits of my weeks when I get to spend time existing in the outdoors, whether that’s our local ride, a walk on the nearby hillside, or something bigger. I was therefore unsurprised to read that 5 minutes of exercise in an outdoors setting significantly improves mental health when compared to the same amount of exercise in a gym setting. Anyone who spends time in the outdoors could have told them that, but now we have some research to back it up.
- Keeping the outdoors and running theme going for one more link, I have previously linked to articles by the Science of Sport guys about barefoot running. They’ve done an important follow-up article to emphasise that barefoot running is not for everyone. I think this, like most dietary advice and, in fact, most specific exercise advice (eg. “everyone should squat”), is true – there is no “this works for everyone” rule for anything. We are all individuals (to misquote the Monty Python crew) and as such you should always do what works best for you, whatever anyone else tries to tell you. If that means you become a lean, mean, fighting machine female then even better!
- Anyone who has met me in person will know that I’m not too good at dressing to flatter my figure. In fact, if it weren’t for Chris (who has a very good eye for flattering outfits for me, and also has the power of veto over some of my choices before I ever leave the house), I would probably look like a tramp (not wanting to do a disservice to tramps). For some entertaining advice on dressing to flatter your figure, That’s Fit have provide a step by step guide. My first problem is where on earth I’m meant to find a big enough sheet of paper to get someone to draw an outline round my whole body!
- Finally, to round it off with a return to the pregnancy theme, Cassandra Forsythe recently did a Fitcast Interview about pregnancy nutrition and exercise. If you are pregnant, know someone who is (and would take your advice) or are thinking about getting pregnant then I recommend it as good quality listening.
A couple of video links this week. The first is important but much delayed (sorry, but somehow I missed it the first time I was going through my latest posts on Google Reader). Andy Bolton was in Birmingham, UK, at the end of May and lifted an amazing 432.5kg. Not only does he lift it, but he hardly seems to need to put any effort in. There’s plenty more still to come from this amazing deadlifter.
The next video is definitely entertainment. An old friend brought this to my attention (thanks, Hannah). Get a drink and settle down to watch the extended motion picture trailer for The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon, and prepare to get a few laughs in at the same time. Just what I needed to see with my fear of horror movies.
If you enjoyed that, try the follow up “Ask Jack” shortie.
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