Creemore Vertical Challenge 2011

Photo's courtesy of Judy Wilson

The race you love to hate, Creemore Vertical Challenge.

After about 4 km of rolling roads and trails that has you sweating profusely, you come to a sign that says "Hill #1" Ha ha ha, very funny, until you notice that it is a two km gravel road that stops short of flight paths of airplanes.

As you trudge along cursing the race director, you come to other amusing signs,

"Hill #2, O2 hill"but should have said lack of oxygen hill.

The humidity started to kick in about this point so every breath seemed short of needed oxygen.

On the plus side, there was some beautiful homes and farms along the way that made you think that somebody out there has some money.

The views from the vistas, when you finally got to the top of the hills were spectacular, but soon reminded you that you will have to come down from these lofty places to only climb to another.

Temperatures were in the +30's with a humidex closer to +40, and it did take a toll on runners.

Smart ones pulled the pin and called it quites while others were whisked away for medical attention by ambulance.

By focusing on my heart rate monitor I managed to keep myself on a steady pace to ensure I would be able to sit in the Mad River at the finish line sipping my Creemore Pilsner as my finish line award.

Bill Wheeler pulled out a fantastic race winning age group and 4th overall. And I was not to far behind, if you use a calendar rather than a stop watch.

Next OUS race is Limberlost in Huntsville, will have to see if they have a beer sponsor before I sign up.

Sejarah Infrared

Karena sumber utama dari radiasi inframerah yang dipancarkan oleh panas dan radiasi termal, semua benda dan semua yang memiliki suhu, memiliki suhu tertentu memancarkan tingkat yang dapat dideteksi oleh teknologi deteksi panjang gelombang inframerah . Bahkan sangat dingin suhu, seperti es kering, radiasi di inframerah. Sebuah contoh yang baik dari radiasi termal akan menjadi hot plate. Meskipun hot plate tidak memancarkan cahaya, masih memancarkan radiasi infra merah dalam bentuk panas. Umumnya, semakin panas suatu benda, semakin inframerah memancarkan sebagai panas. Jadi di mana kita melihat inframerah?

Planet Bumi

Sepotong kecil dari sejarah. Ketika para ilmuwan dan filsuf percaya bahwa dunia ini datar, tidak ada yang memiliki kesempatan untuk menanyai mereka. Anda melihat di cakrawala, dan itu hanya tampak seperti dunia telah kelebihan dan Anda jatuh tepat di Bumi. Selama usia Tentara Salib, mereka membuat misi mereka untuk membuktikan teori-teori ini salah dan untuk menemukan tanah baru.

Pada tahun 1966, Neil Armstrong di bulan. Dia berbalik untuk melihat bagaimana dunia kita ini bulat. Dia mencatat bahwa tidak semua orang memiliki bangunan yang keluar seperti peta topografi. Bumi muncul sebagai sebuah bola biru, dengan bercak awan putih dan bumi hijau. Kemudian pada tahun 1986, ilmuwan menggunakan gambar bumi yang diambil oleh satelit, dan mengubah citra menggunakan teknologi inframerah. Dia menggunakan sistem 256 warna untuk memberikan Bumi tampilan yang lebih dramatis.

Hasil gambar sangat mengagumkan. Tidak hanya gambar tampilan lebih rinci dari sebelumnya, memiliki ilmu untuk lebih mempelajari hubungan berbagai pola angin dan struktur awan dekat air atau daratan di dekatnya. Awan bisa dilihat sebagai fotografi putih, tetapi dengan teknologi inframerah, kedalaman dan gerakan awan menjadi tersedia. Badai dan tornado lebih baik diprediksi dengan menggunakan pencitraan inframerah untuk menentukan tekanan atas dan bawah. Kondisi cuaca telah menjadi lebih mudah diakses ahli meteorologi, dan bagian terbaik dari semua ini, kita dapat mengambil foto besar benda sehari-hari menggunakan kamera inframerah.

Manusia

Manusia memiliki suhu tubuh yang tetap konstan untuk beberapa, kecuali seseorang mengalami demam atau pilek. Umumnya, kita memancarkan panjang gelombang yang kuat pada suhu tubuh normal. Sebuah kamera infra merah dapat menunjukkan tanda tangan dari panas yang dipancarkan dari berbagai bagian tubuh kita. Apa yang membuat ini mungkin adalah sebuah sensor inframerah di dalam perangkat. Namun, kebanyakan kamera memiliki filter infra merah yang mencegah deteksi gelombang. Tanpa filter ini, banyak kamera tidak akan mampu mengambil gambar tanpa mendeteksi tanda tangan termal yang berbeda dari setiap objek. Anda juga dapat menyesuaikan penggunaan warna palsu, yang merupakan fitur luar biasa yang memungkinkan Anda untuk melihat gambar dalam suatu cara yang unik. Jadi, bukannya melihat dengan jelas "terlihat" energi gambar cahaya dengan warna biasa, seperti rumput hijau dan langit biru, yang akan ditampilkan adalah gambar dengan gelap dan lampu merah, kuning, biru di tanah, oranye dan hitam, untuk beberapa nama.

Food Reward: a Dominant Factor in Obesity, Part VIII

Further reading

I didn't come up with the idea that excessive food reward increases calorie intake and can lead to obesity, far from it.  The idea has been floating around the scientific literature for decades.  In 1976, after conducting an interesting diet study in humans, Dr. Michel Cabanac stated that the "palatability of the diet influences the set point of the ponderostat [system that regulates body fatness]" (1).  

Currently there is a growing consensus that food reward/palatability is a major contributor to obesity. This is reflected by the proliferation of review articles appearing in high-profile journals.  For the scientists in the audience who want more detail than I provide on my blog, here are some of the reviews I've read and enjoyed.  These were written by some of the leading scientists in the study of food reward and hedonics:

Palatability of food and the ponderostat.  Michel Cabanac, 1989.
Food reward, hyperphagia and obesity.  Hans-Rudolf Berthoud et al., 2011.
Reward mechanisms in obesity: new insights and future directions.  Paul J. Kenny, 2011.
Relation of obesity to consummatory and anticipatory food reward.  Eric Stice, 2009.
Hedonic and incentive signals for body weight control.  Emil Egecioglu et al., 2011.
Homeostatic and hedonic signals interact in the control of food intake.  Michael Lutter and Eric J. Nestler, 2009.
Opioids as agents of reward-related feeding: a consideration of the evidence.  Allen S. Levine and Charles J. Billington, 2004.
Central opioids and consumption of sweet tastants: when reward outweighs homeostasis.  Pawel K. Olszewski and Allen S. Levine, 2007.
Oral and postoral determinants of food reward.  Anthony Sclafani, 2004.
Reduced dopaminergic tone in hypothalamic neural circuits: expression of a "thrifty" genotype underlying the metabolic syndrome?  Hanno Pijl, 2003.

If you can read all these papers and still not believe in the food reward hypothesis... you deserve some kind of award.

State Bans on Municipal Obesity Prevention Measures?

As states make hard decisions about budgets, some lawmakers are eying up public health initiatives to cut costs. Under pressure from the restaurant industry and business owners to reduce burdensome restrictions, some legislators concerned that government intervention in private industry will harm economic growth, feel emboldened to pass measures that effectively tie the hands of municipalities to regulate harmful business practices that affect their local residents. Many of these legislators justify such measures further because they believe that consumers are to blame for their “choices”. For example, on the topic of labeling requirements and restrictions on trans fats, Ken Johnson, a member of the Alabama House of Representatives, recently stated in a New York Times article that “It’s a lack of self-discipline many times, and even if we, say, limited a hamburger to being no more than 200 calories, it doesn’t mean I won’t choose to eat four of them.” He supported legislation in Alabama to prohibit municipalities from passing regulation on restaurants even though no municipality in that state had adopted regulations around nutritional labeling or nutritional standards for to date. Ironically, as a measure to reduce obesity, these types of regulations are aimed at helping consumers make better choices by giving them knowledge about what they are consuming. 

If economic austerity is the concern, then nothing provides a better return on investment then prevention. The US Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ) estimates the potentially preventable costs of diabetes to Medicare was $1.3 billion in diabetes-related hospital costs and $386 million in potentially preventable hospital stays costs to Medicaid(Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2005). The American Dietetic Association’s Diabetes Care and Education group’s cost-effectiveness review of preventive programs found that lifestyle interventions were cost effective and in their findings state that “prevention is more cost-effective than intensive treatment of diabetes”(Patti Urbanski, Wolf, & Herman, 2007).

Obesity and obesity related diabetes are multifaceted health problems that are much more complicated then saying people need to make better decisions. For example, the American Academy of Pediatrics just issued a policy statement based on new research calling for a reduction in screen time for children and a ban on junk food advertising because it encourages sedentary behaviors, mindless eating and targets children as consumers for poor quality foods (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2011).  In that statement, Victor Strasburger, MD, FAAP, a member of the AAP Council on Communications and Media, stated that “Thirty years ago, the federal government ruled that young children are psychologically defenseless against advertising.  Now, kids see 5,000 to 10,000 food ads per year, most of them for junk food and fast food,”. Clearly, the problem of obesity and obesity related diabetes can’t be reduced to a moral argument about “self-control”. 

Municipalities need to be able to implement disease prevention programs and initiatives. Without the legal authority to do so, the Santa Clara County supervisors would not have been able to adopt a policy that forbids fast food restaurants from selling meals with toys in an attempt to reduce the influence of marketing on children’s eating habits. The AAP clearly thinks that this type of advertising affects children. While the jury is still out on the effectiveness of these types of regulations, state level prohibitions on a municipality’s ability to control harmful business practices will eventually end up costing rather than saving money.  These types of bans make it harder for cities and towns to implement effective policies aimed at reducing public health concerns specific to the conditions and drivers of that community.

Many communities are introducing interesting and potentially fruitful policies to encourage healthy eating and increased activity. (Check out the links below) Should State legislators be able to prohibit these measures?

Boston’s Mayor Menino Issues Order to End Sugary Drink Sales on City Property http://www.bphc.org/Newsroom/Pages/TopStoriesView.aspx?ID=217

Santa Clara’s Fast Food Toy Ban

http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-04-28/news/20877374_1_toys-santa-clara-county-california-restaurant-association

Sugary beverages bans see earlier post -

http://hkhcbuffalo.blogspot.com/2011/06/cities-battling-sweetened-beverages.html

Sources:

               Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2005). Economic and Health Costs of Diabetes: HCUP Highlight 1. . Retrieved from http://www.ahrq.gov/data/hcup/highlight1/high1.htm.

              

               American Academy of Pediatrics. (2011). MEDIA, KIDS AND OBESITY: IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT COUCH POTATOES.

              

               Patti Urbanski, et. al.  (2007). Cost-effectiveness Issues of Diabetes Prevention and Treatment. Retrieved from http://www.dce.org/pub_resources/files/cost_effective.pdf

              

               Strom, S. (2011). Local Laws Fighting Fat Under Siege. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/business/01obese.html

hope you have a happy 4th!!  see y'all next week.....

*images courtesy of bippity boppity boo, sunday in bed