Prediabetes, which affects over 86 million adults in the United States, is established by achieving a fasting blood sugar in the range of 100-125 mg/dl and / or an impaired glucose tolerance test.The good news is that prediabetes can be, in many cases, returned to a normal blood sugar status, with appropriate, positive lifestyle changes, that involve a combination of dietary restriction and exercise.There is also evidence that type 2 diabetes may be reversed with more invasive strategies – su...

In the February 2020 online issue of the Journal of Urology, a study – "The Association Between Popular Diets and Serum Testosterone Among Men in the United States" – concluded that, “men adhering to low fat diets had lower serum testosterone levels, even when controlling for comorbidities, age, body mass index, and activity levels.” It was further noted that, “as differences in serum testosterone between the diets were modest, the avoidance of fat restrictive diets should be weighed aga...

In today’s world of high sports participation and recreation, much less the effects of normal human aging, and irrespective of the contact and non-contact trauma that the physical games we play can yield, pain, injury, and skeletal diseases are common occurrences.Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) sprains and tears, many of the non-contact type, are at epidemic proportions in female athletes participating in sports like basketball, soccer, and volleyball. Research points to the increased f...

Cardiovascular exercise (CV), and other such classifications of fitness endeavors, has extensive research to support the American College of Sports Medicine’s broad definition as “exercise medicine.” Current, established activity guidelines include recommending a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, or 75 minutes of high-intensity weekly exercise to maintain or improve cardiorespiratory fitness and health, while reducing the risk to non-communicable diseases – typ...

Since the advent and spread of the SARS-CoV-2 acute respiratory syndrome in 2019, classified as Coronary Virus Disease-19 (Covid-19) in February 2020, then transcending to pandemic status in Match 2020 by the World Health Organization, scientists have been searching for efficacious medical treatments and environmental guidelines to halt the spread, treat the symptoms, and reduce the risk to contraction. As of this writing, there is no cure. However, with three vaccines in the inoculation...

Building muscle, nine essential amino acids (EAA) at a time, is the driving force behind muscle protein synthesis (MPS) – overcoming the normal effects of muscle protein breakdown (MPB) - resulting from a host of situations like, exercise training, rehabilitation sessions, surgery, trauma, and the advanced age-related loss of muscle (sarcopenia), with the associated loss of strength (dynapenia). A net balance between MPS and MPB – where synthesis is higher than breakdown – equates to an...

Based on epidemiology data, as to the higher incidence of risk to complications related to Covid-19 exposure in African Americans, science has been exploring a number of possible reasons. New research – “Does the High Prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in African Americans Contribute to Health Disparities” – which appeared in the online, peer-reviewed journal Nutrients in February of 2021 – says there is a higher prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in many African Americans – the result o...

Stress is no stranger to human existence. It’s a normal part of living and functioning in a gravitational state on this planet. But, as Buddha said, “be moderate in all things.” Too much of anything, on a chronic basis, can eventually be deleterious to one’s health.Hungarian-born Hans Selye MD, Ph.D, the “so-called” father of stress research, developed and implemented his famous concept, “General Adaptive Syndrome (GAS),” a response of the body based on the demands placed on it. The body’s th...

An individual, who is overweight or obese, with a dysfunctional lipid pattern, especially triglycerides, a blood fat elevated from excessive consumption of simple carbohydrates and saturated fats (fast food), may be at greater risk to postprandial (after a meal) hypertriglyceridemia (elevated triglycerides). According to "Clinical Relevance of Non-Fasting and Postprandial Hypertriglyceridemia and Remnant Cholesterol," which appeared in 2011 on PubMed.gov, “non-fasting triglycerides are measur...

Research has documented that within the first 6 to 8 hours post exercise, competition, or training – the window of recovery – the combined intake of protein (PRO) and carbohydrate (CHO) per hour – based on body weight (kilograms), is the appropriate mode to accelerate glycogen repletion in the liver, muscles, and circulatory system.The reasoning is the sum of the parts – carbohydrate and protein ingestion – may be greater than either component in isolation. However, research is somewhat incon...