Tag Archives: Exercise

Carvings August 15, 2025

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Pickle juice to relieve muscle cramps? Really?

            Muscle cramps are a universal annoyance but their cause and cure are largely mysteries. They are more common among athletes, pregnant women and older persons. Electrolyte solutions like Pedialyte have been recommended to prevent them but few medications or measures such as stretching provide quick relief. Pickle juice is a recent entry, and it has some scientific backing.

          I was a sceptic when one of my sons urged me to try it when I developed a severe leg cramp during a visit to his home. “Baloney” was my first response but I took two swallows – the stuff is awful – and about three seconds – yes, seconds — later the pain was entirely gone. “Coincidence” was my second response.

          A few nights later I had another cramp, this one deep-to-the-bone painful. I ignored the container of pickle juice in my refrigerator that was foisted on me by my son. “Baloney” I muttered during the ten or so minutes of agonizing walking that it took to resolve most – not all – of the pain.

          The next time a similar, severe cramp hit me I thought “What can I lose? But it probably won’t work.” But it did, within a few seconds – and all the pain was gone this time.

          It didn’t take long to find a couple of dozen articles at the National Library of Medicine site (PubMed) that discussed the merits of pickle juice and the mechanism by which it works. It’s not the electrolytes; it’s the stimulation of the lining of the throat by acetic acid (vinegar) that causes a reflex to inhibit the firing of nerve cells that are causing the muscle fibers to contract.

          Thank you, Steven.

Carvings   August 1, 2025

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In the news

Walking is great – but it’s not enough.

            I commend all those who walk several times a week. Besides improving heart and lung fitness, it strengthens the core muscles (back and abdomen) and adds to the bone strength of the legs, which includes the hips. But if you fall while walking (!) and land on your outstretched hands, it could result in a fracture of one or both wrists or elbows or collarbones. We need resistance-type exercises that provide numerous health benefits, including stronger bones for the upper body.

            When you exercise your biceps, for example, it puts stress on the bones of the arm where the muscle is attached. The bone reacts by becoming thicker and stronger, thus resistant to breakage. But there’s more.  A beneficial by-product of using barbells, dumbbells, elastic bands and exercise machines is maintaining the health of specialized nerve endings attached to each muscle cell that help us to retain balance. One reason why seniors are prone to falls is that when they lose muscle cells because of inactivity they also lose those nerve structures that maintain balance.

            Although a fitness center is ideal, a home exercise program is a good start. Any household item that fits comfortably in your hand, e.g., a can or jug that holds food or juice, will do. Gym memberships are often available for less than $25 a month and some senior insurance programs will cover the cost.

            For persons with a chronic illness such as arthritis or heart disease, a physical therapist can provide a suitable, safe program. Four or five hours a week of regular, moderately intense physical activity, at any age, results in greater energy and a feeling of well-being. You’ll never go back to being a couch potato!

Lifestyle

“Don’t be a spectator, don’t let life pass you by.” Lou Holtz

            Lou Holtz, the famous Notre Dame football coach, is an outstanding motivational speaker. I have modified one of the elements of his repertoire as follows:

            For a meaningful life, have:

                        Someone to love

                        Something to believe in

                        Something to hope for

                        Something to give

                        Something that brings you daily joy

Carvings July 1, 2024

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Too old? Not!

            My fitness center is a busy place. That’s good. I’m delighted to see scores of people working out regularly, most of whom appear to be in their twenties or thirties. The bad news: most of them appear to be in their twenties or thirties. It shouldn’t be that way. Considering that a) the chronic non-infectious diseases that lead to roughly 90 percent of deaths in the U.S. mostly affect persons of retirement age, b) regular exercise can postpone, modify or even eliminate the ten leading causes of death and c) that retired folks by definition have lots of time on their hands, they should vastly outnumber the kids.

            Since moving to an old folks’ home, euphemistically called a senior facility, I am dismayed that the fitness center here, literally across the hall from my apartment, stands empty almost all the time. I do not exaggerate when I note that in the past eight months since my arrival, I have not seen it in use more than ten times. (Disclosure: I never use it either because I prefer the fitness center about a mile away, where the equipment and the scenery are much better.)

            The average American gains about one pound a year between graduation from college and enrolling in Medicare. A pound isn’t much but that comes to about 30 pounds by age 65, and that’s where most Americans are; more than 80 percent of us are either overweight or obese.

            Exercise, of course, is only half the story. Most of us just eat more than we need to. But regular exercise offers more benefits than simply keeping our weight in the normal range. The immune system gets a boost not only from exercise itself, but as body weight increases, immune function decreases. Nowhere was this more clearly shown than in the recent pandemic, where the vast majority of deaths occurred in persons who were obese, diabetic, hypertensive and afflicted with coronary artery disease. Age is clearly not the problem. More than a score of centenarians survived COVID-19.

            Age is no excuse to avoid exercise and being physically active, and the Senior Olympics offer us wonderful examples. For instance, in recent years, an 85-year-old took first place in the pole vault. An 86-year-old won the triple jump and the long jump and took third in the 100- and 200-meter dash. A 97-year-old with osteoporosis won the 1500-meter run. My hero is Ruth Frith, whose shot put went 13 feet, 4 inches when she was 100 years old!

            One of my personal heroes is a friend who celebrated his 81st  birthday by doing 81 push-ups!

            The bottom line: no one is too old to exercise.

Carvings May 1, 2024

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In the news

Walk, don’t run!

          “Running is not exercise; running is a sport.” I have repeated that comment over the years and I have taken a bit of flak as a result. No matter. I have thick skin and I can back up my statement. My follow-up: You can get hurt in a sport. You can’t hurt yourself exercising as long as you do it right.

            Runner’s knee is a common medical term. Walker’s knee not so much. Stress fractures and shin splints are much more common among runners.

            Several studies over the years have indicated that walking confers nearly the same health and longevity benefits as running does. Running is more efficient for humans than walking, since evolution has made humans excellent runners, but that’s where an advantage lies for walking as an exercise. Although it seems counterintuitive, walking, being less efficient than running, requires a greater expenditure of calories per mile. (Note: this is a much-argued issue and involves several factors that make comparisons difficult.)

             Not all studies account for the fact that runners usually have a different lifestyle than walkers. The former are more likely to have other good habits such as engaging in resistance exercise, i.e.., lifting weights and eating a better diet. Runners are less likely to be overweight and thus avoid its consequences, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

            Although walking is an excellent exercise for the heart and lungs, it’s not enough. We need resistance exercises, especially for the upper body, in order to maintain strong bones.

            A caveat: do not carry hand weights while walking. That was a common practice in the 70s but it has been shown to lead to problems involving the elbow and shoulder joints, and the spine. Swinging hand weights also can throw you off balance, leading to falls.

            If you enjoy running, by all means do so. The endorphin rush adds a great deal to that enjoyment. But if your goal is to attain overall good health, walking about 2 ½ hours per week, the current recommendation, it means only 30 minutes a day, and it doesn’t have be done all at once.

Lifestyle

The return of the Saturday night bath?

            Stone Agers never bathed, except maybe by accident, just as animals don’t. (Ever try bathing a cat?) As the trend to bathe seldom or never picks up speed, especially among Californians (!) some serious research is being done to determine the advantages and disadvantages of bathing every day.

            I must admit that this question has been of interest to me since I began researching the lifestyles of Stone Agers, who were considerably healthier than those of us who live in the 21st century. (I can already visualize the raised eyebrows among you.) Consider that humans who lived 30,000 years or so ago had no coronary artery disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes or osteoporosis, nor were their lives shortened by alcohol, tobacco or drugs. We know that from studying modern hunter-gatherers who live as their Stone Age ancestors did, and who are entirely free of these diseases. It seems extremely unlikely that those ancient people bathed any more frequently than the animals that they ate – or who ate them.

            I didn’t take my first shower until I was seven years old when my parents moved to a house that had one. Until then my parents, my sister and I had a bath on Saturday night. (Yes, we did change the water!) I can’t recall that any of us had skin problems, nor do I recall that we smelled bad.

            Bathing every day does have some adverse effects but it isn’t clear that this is significantly detrimental to our health. No-bath proponents point out that nature coats our skin with natural oils and a layer of beneficial bacteria, both of which we remove with soap and hot water. The oils protect our skin from drying out and forming micro-cracks that allow harmful germs to enter. Those “good” bacteria ward off harmful ones and stimulate our immune system. Dermatologists have speculated for decades that harmful chemicals and heavy metals enter our bodies during a bath or shower.

            My personal opinion is that daily bathing is not necessary, that going shower-free two or three days a week might be of some benefit, and that a little deodorant on those days will eliminate the phew factor. Of course, showering is obviously needed after a sweaty workout or a busy day in the garden.

            A caveat: In contrast to a body wash, handwashing should be done several times a day, especially before eating anything and after elimination.