Namaste

Last night we finally had some friends over! (Unpacking has reached near completion - we just need to get this boxspring out of the living room.)

Greg and his girlfriend Ellyn came over for Steak with Swiss Chard followed by Molten Chocolate Cake. It was nice to catch up with Greg and get to know Ellyn better - they are definitely a cute couple.

After they left we relaxed with some chamomile tea and Stewart/Colbert and then I got myself to bed early (Nick stayed up working on an important presentation this Friday), and got up at 5:30 for 6AM yoga.

I think I could really get behind morning yoga. I've usually only done yoga in the afternoon, but it is really nice to be so aware of your body first thing in the morning. This class was "Alignment Yoga" and was a nice pace, adjustments by the instructor, and a nice variety of poses. I ran 6K last night before dinner, so it was just the right activity for stretching out those muscles without overdoing it. I'll be climbing tonight too :)

OK - time to get dressed - I have a dissertating date with Clark!

Science Tuesday - Weight Loss, Hearing, Marriage, and a new disease!

Why Even Resolute Dieters Often Fail
By JANE E. BRODY, September 19, 2011, The New York Times

If you’ve been trying for years to lose unwanted pounds and keep them off, unrealistic goals may be the reason you’ve failed. It turns out that a long-used rule of weight loss — reduce 3,500 calories (or burn an extra 3,500) to lose one pound of body fat — is incorrect and can ultimately doom determined dieters.

That is the conclusion reached by Dr. Kevin D. Hall and his colleagues at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Recently they created a more realistic model of how the body responds to changes in caloric intake and expenditure, basing their calculations on how people of different weights responded to caloric changes in a controlled setting like a metabolic unit.

Their work, spelled out in a new study published in The Lancet, explains how body weight can slowly rise even when people have not changed their eating and exercise habits.

Their research also helps to explain why some people can lose weight faster than others, even when all are eating the same foods and doing the same exercise, and why achieving permanent weight loss is so challenging for so many.

( Read more... )

Really? The Claim: Musicians Have a Greater Risk of Hearing Loss
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR, September 19, The New York Times

THE FACTS

To many musicians, hearing loss is just an unfortunate — and inevitable — consequence of pursuing a passion.

But a lifelong dedication to playing an instrument or being in a band may not be quite as hard on the ears as many assume. Some recent research suggests it may even benefit hearing.

( Read more... )

In a Married World, Singles Struggle for Attention
By TARA PARKER-POPE, September 19, The New York Times

Here’s a September celebration you probably didn’t know about: It’s National Single and Unmarried Americans Week.

But maybe celebration isn’t the right word. Social scientists and researchers say the plight of the American single person is cause for growing concern.

About 100 million Americans, nearly half of all adults, are unmarried, according to the Census Bureau — yet they tend to be overlooked by policies that favor married couples, from family-leave laws to lower insurance rates.

That national bias is one reason gay people fight for the right to marry, but now some researchers are concerned that the marriage equality movement is leaving single people behind.

( Read more... )

New Tick-Borne Disease Is Discovered
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr., September 19, 2011, The New York Times

A new tick-borne disease that may be stealthily infecting some Americans has been discovered by Yale researchers working with Russian scientists.

The disease is caused by a spirochete bacterium called Borrelia miyamotoi, which is distantly related to Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete that causes Lyme disease.

B. miyamotoi has been found — albeit relatively rarely — in the same deer tick species that transmit Lyme, and the Yale researchers estimate that perhaps 3,000 Americans a year pick it up from tick bites, compared with about 25,000 who get Lyme disease.

But there is no diagnostic test for it in this country, so it is not yet known whether it has actually made any Americans sick.

The same short course of antibiotics that normally cures Lyme also seems to cure it.

( Read more... )