It has been in the Headlines for the last year - Athlete dies due to Ephedra and Creatine

There has been reports that football and now baseball player death are link to Ephedra and Creatine Products.   I like to comment on this every important issue

Do I believe these two products may cause these death? NO Do I believe they could of contributed in these death? YES

Ephedra , Caffeine, and Creatine can play an important part in dehydration. Dehydration can in many ways contributed in death, specially, athletes. 

In is page I would love to add some facts that some of the News should also headlines in the death of many athletes besides just focusing on just supplements alone.

Heart rate increases at high temperatures. Your heart rate is higher when running on a hot day. As the temperature increases from 60 degrees to 75 degrees, a athlete’s heart rate at a given speed increases by about two to four beats per minute. When the temperature increases from 75 degrees to 90 degrees, you can expect your heart rate running at a given speed to increase by approximately ten beats per minute. High humidity magnifies the effect of high temperatures on heart rate.

To gain the same benefits as on a cool day, you should increase your heart rate zones by two to four beats per minute when the temperature is in the 70s and the humidity is low. On a high humidity day in the 70s or a low humidity day in the 80s, you should increase your zones by approximately five to eight beats per minute to correct for the heat factor. In more extreme conditions, such as a high humidity day over 80 degrees, you cannot accurately adjust your heart rate zones for the conditions. On the most brutal summer days, it is wise to adjust your training schedule to avoid high intensity training.

Dehydration causes an increase in heart rate. When you become dehydrated, your blood volume decreases and less blood is pumped with each heart beat. Your heart rate at a given running speed, therefore, increases. A 1992 study by S.J. Montain and Ed Coyle, Ph.D., found that heart rate increases approximately seven beats per minute for each 1% loss in body weight due to dehydration. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, when you lose 1.5 pounds due to dehydration your heart rate at a given running speed would increase by about seven beats per minute. Water loss of this magnitude occurs after an hour of running on a mildly warm day. On a hot day, runners typically lose over two pounds of water per hour. If you set heart rate training zones when properly hydrated and then become dehydrated during training, your pace will decrease as you become progressively more dehydrated.

Heart rate during running varies by a few beats from day-to-day. Several studies have found that heart rate during running at a given pace varies by a few beats per minute from day-to-day. It is not clear why this occurs, but most physiological variables exhibit similar amounts of day-to-day variation. This means that if you monitor your heart rate religiously, you will find that some days it appears you are getting slightly fitter and other days it appears you are getting out of shape, when in fact, your fitness level may not be changing. You should be cautious, therefore, in interpreting the results of any one session of heart rate monitoring. Do not put too much emphasis on small changes of two to three beats per minute in heart rate found during one run. When you find a systematic reduction in heart rate at a given pace, however, you can be confident that your fitness has improved. Similarly, if you find that your heart rate is consistently higher than expected, you can confidently conclude that something is wrong; i.e. you may be losing fitness or—more likely for most runners—over-trained.

Training heart rate does not predict racing heart rate. During competition, your heart rate does not increase logically with your running speed. So many other factors affect your heart rate while racing, that it is not a good indication of how fast or hard you are running. If you measure your heart rate at your desired race pace during training, and use that heart rate to determine how fast to run during a race, then you will run quite a bit slower than planned, because with the excitement of the race, your heart rate will be elevated. You could account for the increase and still use your heart rate to accurately select your race pace if the increase in heart rate due to racing was consistent. Unfortunately, how much higher heart rates are at a given pace during racing compared to training has been found to vary greatly from person to person and from race to race.

In conclusion, while a heart rate monitor provides nice, hard data, interpreting that data requires paying attention to both external and internal conditions that affect your level of effort.

Also see the following articles: Thermo, Caffeine, Water

So next time you think about the danger of supplements such as  Ephedra and Creatine, think about the danger of drinking soft drinks instead of water. 

Water or Coke?
We all know that water is important, but so many Americans seem to prefer to drink other things, like coke and other soft drinks.

I wonder why??

1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (Likely applies to half world population).

2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.

3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.

4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a U-Washington study.

5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

Are you drinking the amount of water you should every day?

COKE
1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.
2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.
3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.
4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.
5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.
8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

For Your Info:
1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its Ph is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis.
2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.
3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!
Now the question is, would you like a glass of water or coke?

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