Tendinitis is often used incorrectly as a generic term for overuse tendon injuries. The term that should be used is tendinopathy. Tendinitis and tendinosis both refer to microscopic changes that are seen on biopsy. Even spelled as “tendonitis”, it is still incorrect. The current view is that long term overuse tendon injuries display little to no inflammation. While the original meaning of the word inflamation refers to something feeling like it is “on fire”, the medical term refers to histopathology and microscopic examination. While it may still hurt and in a sense feel as bad as if it were on fire, we need to start calling the injury tendinopathy. Of course the biggest problem is that when a doctor tells you that your problem is “tendinopathy” it will take a 20 minutes of discussion to define what is meant by that.

The running injuries website has been updated to include an overview on the science of tendinopathy. We’ll update this page as new information and research appears.

Many people have played the facebook game “What’s Your Real Age”. My guess that those who played it wanted to feel they were younger than their biological age. Telomere length seems to be the real way to determine actual “biological age”. These are the real “biological clocks”. Telomeres are repetitive sequences at the ends of chromosomes that shorten with age and also shorten in certain metabolic and disease states. They are sometimes called the protective “caps” on the ends of chromosomes. Because of the manner in which chromosomes are replicated during cellular division, a bit of the telomere is not copied with each subsequent cellular generation resulting in a gradual shortening of the telomere restriction fragment (TRF) length.

Telomeres Shorten With Age

A recent study showed that people who perform more leisure time physical activity have longer telomeres. Another recent study, with an admitted low subject number, demonstrated that eating processed meat  such as sliced bologna would also slice down the size of your telomeres. This study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition did not find other expected dietary associations.

The Cardiovascular Health Study (2007) found inverse correlations (shortened telomeres) between TRF length and fasting glucose level, fasting insulin level, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, carotid intima-media thickness, interleukin-6, high BMI, overweight (in men).

Some studies including one with “voluntary running” in mice showed the production of telomere protective compounds with the “voluntary” running. On a side note,  I’ll have to look closer at this study. If we can can get mice to  voluntarily participate in a “fitness” program, maybe we can figure out the secret to get more people to do so. Perhaps cheese is the answer.

Aubert and Lansdorp (2008) published an excellent review of  the biology of telomeres and aging. They noted that Barbara McClintock, in her 1983 Nobel acceptance speech pointed out the significance of cellular response to stress and dangers. “In the future attention undoubtedly will be centered on the genome, and with greater appreciation of its significance as a highly sensitive organ of the cell, monitoring genomic activities and correcting common errors, sensing the unusual and unexpected events, and responding to them, often by restructuring the genome. We know about the components of genomes that could be made available for such restructuring. We know nothing, however, about how the cell senses danger and instigates responses to it that often are truly remarkable.”

Short Telomeres Trigger Cellular Defences

The shortened telomeres are likely sending more “damage” signals to the cells which lead to a number of biochemical pathways which degrade the contents of the cell. Studies on cellular senescence, apoptosis, and research on genomics is leading us to a better understanding, but we have a long ways to go. The complexity never ends, but it continues to unwind. And you can almost hear the tick tock of the biological clock. Your best means of slowing up the ticking are life habit changes: exercise regularly, maintain healthy body weight, don’t smoke and eat a healthy diet.
What’s my age again? – Blink 182

What's My Age Again?

References:

Lynn F. Cherkas, PhD; Janice L. Hunkin, BSc; Bernet S. Kato, PhD; J. Brent Richards, MD; Jeffrey P. Gardner, PhD; Gabriela L. Surdulescu, MSc; Masayuki Kimura, MD, PhD; Xiaobin Lu, MD; Tim D. Spector, MD, FRCP; Abraham Aviv, MD. Arch Intern Med. 2008;168(2):154-158.

Annette L. Fitzpatrick1, Richard A. Kronmal2, Jeffrey P. Gardner3, Bruce M. Psaty1,4, Nancy S. Jenny5, Russell P. Tracy5,6, Jeremy Walston7, Masyuki Kimura3 and Abraham Aviv . Leukocyte Telomere Length and Cardiovascular Disease in the Cardiovascular Health Study. American Journal of Epidemiology 2007 165(1):14-21; doi:10.1093/aje/kwj346.

J. A Nettleton, A. Diez-Roux, N. S Jenny, A. L Fitzpatrick, and D. R Jacobs Jr. Dietary patterns, food groups, and telomere length in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Am. J. Clinical Nutrition, November 1, 2008; 88(5): 1405 – 1412

Liza S.M. Wong, Hisko Oeseburg, Rudolf A. de Boer, Wiek H. van Gilst, Dirk J. van Veldhuisen and Pim van der Harst.. Telomere biology in cardiovascular disease: the TERC–/– mouse as a model for heart failure and ageing. Cardiovascular Research 2009 81(2):244-252; doi:10.1093/cvr/cvn337

Aubert, G. and P. M. Lansdorp (2008). “Telomeres and Aging.” Physiol. Rev. 88(2): 557-579.

I enjoy listening to a variety of podcasts from science and exercise to arts and current issues. While listening to podcasts transfers information a bit slower than a quick read of a book chapter or a web page, the discussions and often interviews can be very enlightening.

Selected Favorite Podcasts

Fitness Rocks – Evidence Based Medicine. Discussions and interviews with medical authors on current literature and issues. Great and through discussions. Monte Ladner, M.D. has amassed over 130 podcasts in the past 3 years, but has recently stopped producing them. I recommend listening to his old ones while waiting for Dr. Monte’s next step. Visit his website and drop him an email after listening to a few of his podcasts.

The Fitcast – Discussion of fitness, focusing on strength training and wise diet. Main host: Kevin Larrabee. Also features Leigh Peele, Jonathan Fass among others. Makes a bit of fun of cardio, but you can ignore that. Even Kevin has come around to realizing that low level cardio can be helpful in a mix. (Of course low level, steady state cardio is not what many, if not most runners feel is something to be done day in and day out, despite the “urban legend” that it is all runners do.)

Science Friday - Ira Flatow from NPR is the regular host. Touches on a variety of science issues and topics.

Ask Leigh – Leigh Peele – Leigh is a certified trainer. She is an expert in athletic nutrition and fat loss. One of her maxims is the short secret on how to lose body fat and unwanted weight. “Eat less, Move More”. But Leigh is much more than the sum of any simple description. Visit her new website at leighpeele.com and try out her new podcast.

Selected Miscellaneous Podcasts:

Beach Walks With Rox – Roxanne Darling. Video Podcast. 3 minutes to chill to. Rox walks with Lexi along a beach, Shane films,  and they all provide mellow wisdom on life from Hawaii.

Diane Rehm – Book reviews and discussions by Diane Rehm on a wide variety of topics. Good listening while traveling or commuting. If people enjoy being interviewed by Larry King, I believe they would enjoy being interviewed even more by Diane Rehm. Informative and gently probing and personal interviews.

There are other podcasts I often listen to and enjoy including 360, Fresh Air, Science Magazine’s weekly podcast  and “The Instance” and  “World of Warcast”.  Some of these go on for a considerably long time and listening to all of them would keep you in your chair and away from exercise for far too long a time.  But give them a try if the topics interest you.

For many people, long trips disturb the natural rhythms so much that normal functioning on both the physical and intellectual planes is impaired. Clearly, there is a need for some method to improve the travel experience and the race results for those on a tight schedule. First class? Sounds great, but isn’t practical and probably won’t get the job done.

Circadian rhythms may affect racing performance. Most world records have been set in the afternoon or evening rather than in the morning. It may be a matter of when the races are run, but it also may follow along with optimal body rhythms. Workouts seem easier in the afternoon, joints are stiffer in the morning, and some old lecture notes I have indicate that muscles are weakest at 8 AM & 8 PM and strongest at 5 PM. Body temperature reaches a peak around 5PM. (Spiking fevers when you are ill, do not spike in the morning, but late afternoon or evening.) Measured VO2 MAX is greater in the afternoon.

Adapting:

Suggestions

• Start sleeping on the schedule of where you will be racing (or working).
• If you can, train on the schedule of where you will be headed.
• Get there early if you can, for optimal performance one day for every hour time difference. Otherwise follow all the other suggestions.
• Melatonin
• Bright lights for wake up time on new schedule and wake up also.
• Eat lightly 2 days before travel, then start eating on the arrival schedule

The suggested eating change, of eating on the new arrival schedule comes as a result of a new study on circadian rhythms published in this weeks Science Magazine. The article notes that when food is readily available, circadian rhythms are greatly impacted by the light-dark cycle. If food is only available at night, the animal will shift its circadian rhythms to match the time when food is available. This led to studies of the gene clock Bmal1 and found that the dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus seemed to impact the role of food and feeding on the circadian timing system (CTS). Light has previously been found to play a role via retinal ganglion cells containing melanopsin which generates signals to the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the hypothalamus. The SCN then effects a tuning of the circadian rhythms via synaptic and humoral mechanisms. The studies described here were done on mice.

The authors conclusions were:

Our data indicate that there is an inducible clock in the DMH that can override the SCN and drive circadian rhythms when the animal is faced with limited food availability. Thus, under restricted feeding conditions, the DMH clock can assume an executive role in the temporal regulation of behavioral state. For a small mammal, finding food on a daily basis is a critical mission. Even a few days of starvation, a common threat in natural environments, may result in death. Hence, it is adaptive for animals to have a secondary “master clock” that can allow the animal to switch its behavioral patterns rapidly after a period of starvation to maximize the opportunity of finding food sources at the same time on following days.

The biological clock for mammals, clearly resides in the hypothalamus. In some insects and snails, the clocks seem to be located in the retina. In birds, the pineal gland has been thought to come into play, along with the hypothalamus. Photoreceptors are usually linked into the timing system, to synchronize the clock with the 24 hour day. Old studies showed light to be able to assist in resetting the clock by impacting genes, sleep patterns, alertness, and body temperature.

As we noted above, exercising on the new schedule, can also help. Recent research agrees with this as per the study “Scheduled exposures to a novel environment with a running-wheel differentially accelerate re-entrainment of mice peripheral clocks to new light–dark cycles (Yujiro Yamanaka, Sato Honma and Ken-ichi Honma Genes to Cells (2008) 13, 497-507)

A study from 2001 demonstrated the liver enzyme production could be shifted 10 hours within 2 days by altering feeding. (Science 19 January 2001: Vol. 291. no. 5503, pp. 490 – 493 Entrainment of the Circadian Clock in the Liver by Feeding. Karl-Arne Stokkan, Shin Yamazaki, Hajime Tei, Yoshiyuki Sakaki, Michael Menaker)

Larks and Owls
While we don’t have studies to cite here, others have noted that some people are better at staying up late than others, while others are happy to wake up at 5 or 6am, but can’t stay up to party, play MMORPGs, or text their buddies in the middle of the night.

Some feel that it is easier for Larks to travel west to east and for owls to travel from east to west. The larks have little trouble staying up late, and have probably already shifted in part to the western time zone.

This is a letter published in Nature, so you can see how some international researchers view using others sentences within their journal article. Sort of an imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and copying means we just don’t really know your language, but we want to sound good.

Plagiarism? No, we’re just borrowing better English

Ihsan Yilmaz¹

 

1. Physics Department, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Turkey

 

Sir

The accusations made by arXiv that my colleagues and I have plagiarized the works of others, reported in your News story ‘Turkish physicists face accusations of plagiarism’ (Nature 449, 8; doi:10.1038/449008b 2007) are upsetting and unfair.

It’s inappropriate to single out my colleagues and myself on this issue. For those of us whose mother tongue is not English, using beautiful sentences from other studies on the same subject in our introductions is not unusual. I imagine that if all articles from specialist fields of research were checked, similarities with other texts and papers would easily be found. In my case, I aimed to cite all the references from which I had sourced information, although I may have missed some of them.

Borrowing sentences in the part of a paper that simply helps to better introduce the problem should not be seen as plagiarism. Even if our introductions are not entirely original, our results are — and these are the most important part of any scientific paper.

In the current climate of ‘publish or perish’, we are under pressure to publish our findings along with an introduction that reads well enough for the paper to be published and read, so that our research will be noticed and inspire further work.