Our ten year old son absolutely loves football. While our other kids have gravitated toward other sports, this one has always been drawn to football. While he enjoys the physical aspects, he’s also attracted to the mental aspects of the game.

The degree to which he analyzes games is really remarkable, and it’s a blast to watch them with him. He’s quick to recognize offensive formations, the subtleties of various defensive schemes, etc.

He plays pickup games every day during recess, carries a football wherever he goes, and spends hours in the backyard honing his throws. Given his passion, we relented last summer and let him sign up for the local rec football league.

Truth be told, he’d already been working on us for several years. Having played high school football myself, I was generally okay with letting him play, but my wife took more convincing. She was worried about injuries, but eventually relented.

In light of recent events, however, we’re re-thinking our stance. Whereas we once worried about physical injuries — the bumps, bruises, sprains, and strains that are part of the game — it’s become clear that the real risk is something far more insidious. Brain trauma.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re aware that such trauma has resulted in an epidemic of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in former football players. The end result has been Alzheimer’s-like dementia at a much higher than expected rate, and at a shockingly young age.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not assuming that by letting our son play Pop Warner football that we’re charting a course for NFL stardom. But it’s become increasingly clear that the affects of such trauma begin to accrue quite early, even in the absence of concussion-inducing hits.

In fact, there is mounting evidence that sub-concussive impacts — the sort that occur on nearly every play at all levels — can contribute to substantively to the sort of damage associated with CTE.

So while the worst cases are in former NFL players who suffered years and years of concussions, there’s reason to believe that even those that played for less time and at lower levels are increasing their risk of developing brain-related maladies.

Yes, I loved playing high school football myself, but… Having now witnessed the devastation of the early stages of dementia firsthand in an elderly parent, I can honestly say that no sport is worth increasing the risk of that fate later in life.

If you’re interested in reading more about the issue, here are some good articles from the popular press:

• Offensive Play (The New Yorker)
• The National Brain Damage League (Slate Magazine)
• The People V. Football (GQ)
• The Big Idea: Brain Trauma (National Geographic)

You can, of course, also find plenty of scholarly literature on the subject by searching PubMed. Click this link for a sample of what’s out there.

Food for thought.

I recently ran across an interesting article on the high cost of obesity. In it, they detailed all the unanticipated costs that society faces due to the growing obesity epidemic. It was pretty eye-opening — and a little depressing.

The costs that they highlighted included having to replace wall-mounted toilets with floor-mounted toilets in hospitals to support obese patients, increased fuel consumption (to the tune of nearly a billion gallons of gas per year), etc.

They also touched on medical costs, and compared obesity to smoking.

As it turns out, smoking doesn’t influence overall medical expenses as much as you might think. According to a Mayo clinic study, smoking adds 20% a year to healthcare costs, but smokers die young, which mitigates the overall effect.

As for obesity… Not only does morbid obesity increase healthcare costs 50% per year, but the mortality rate isn’t that much higher amongst the obese. Thus, they live to incur astronomical medical bills in old age.

On the bright side, “an obese man is 64 percent less likely to be arrested for a crime than a healthy man.” Hmmm, obesity as an anti-crime tool… Just think of the potential savings in the context of our criminal justice system.

Source: Reuters.com

My dad was recently diagnosed with something called Lewy body disease (a.k.a., Lewy body dementia, or dementia with Lewy bodies). It’s sort of like a cross between Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Not a good combination.

Given the above, I’ve been reading a lot about dementia and related maladies. In doing so, I recently ran across an interesting study in the Archives of Neurology on the connection between exercise and Alzheimer’s disease.

Before you freak out, I should say that it’s a positive connection… As it turns out, a regular exercise program may actually counteract genetic factors that predispose you to Alzheimer’s disease.

For background, there is a known connection between a mutation in a particular gene (apolipoprotein E; APOE) that dramatically increases your likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease as you age. Individuals with this mutation, known as APOE e4, are 15x more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those without it.

In short, this study looked at 201 adults between the ages of 45 and 88, some of whom had a family history of Alzheimer’s disease while others did not. Of these individuals, 56 carried the APOE e4 variant and the rest did not.

The researchers analyzed cerebrospinal fluid samples and also used brain scans to quantify the level of amyloid plaque formation in participant’s brains. In case you weren’t aware, amyloid plaques (i.e., protein deposits) in the brain are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

They also asked study participants to answer a series of questions regarding their exercise habits over the past year. While people may stretch the truth when asked to self-report, it seems reasonable to assume that the questionnaire results are correlated with real-world activity levels.

Exercise did little to mitigate plaque formation in the group as a whole. However, when looking specifically at those who carried the APOE e4 variant, those that reported walking or jogging for at least 30 minutes at least 5x/week had much the same low level of plaque buildup as non-carriers.

Said another way, sedentary individuals that carried the APOE e4 variant exhibited elevated plaque formation whereas active individuals did not. This result suggests that regular exercise may offset the negative effects of the APOE e4 mutation, at least as it relates to amyloid plaque formation and Alzheimer’s disease.

It is, of course, possible that other factors that are correlated with exercise (e.g., better diet) are actually responsible. But if you’re looking for more reasons to start running, the possibility of offsetting a genetic defect that could doom you to dementia in your golden years is a good one.

And yes, I realize that not everyone actually carries this APOE variant, but there are so many other good reasons to exercise that it’s not like you’re wasting the effort if your lucky enough not to have this mutation.

Source: Archives of Neurology

As a followup to my review of “Zombies, Run!”… I just wanted to answer the question “Does Zombies, Run! work with RunKeeper?” After a bit of testing it appears that answer is “yes.” Here’s how.

As a reminder, my iPhone crashed the first time I tried to use Zombies, Run! and RunKeeper together. To be fair, however, my iPhone is running the Absinthe jailbreak and a ton of tweaks, and I think one of the last tweaks I had installed made it a bit unstable.

So… I uninstalled that tweak and tried again. This time, it worked beautifully. I started by launching both apps and getting everything set up. I selected my preferred playlist in Zombies, Run! and I shut off all of the audio cues in RunKeeper. I then started the next episode (mission) in Zombies, Run! and then quickly toggled over to start my run in RunKeeper.

From there, it was just a matter of just enjoying a Zombie-filled run while still keeping track of my run with RunKeeper. Nice. And yes, I had the GPS enabled in Zombies, Run! so I had full functionality.

Yes, the voiceovers are still annoyingly quiet and hard to understand, but I have it on good authority that they’ll be releasing an update with increased volume on the voiceovers and that they’ll also be rolling out new (easier to understand) voices.

Hmmm. It’s been awhile, huh? Well, this afternoon I found something worth writing about, so I thought I’d plunk down on the couch and do just that. That “something” is the “Zombies, Run!” app for iOS.

In case you’re not aware, this is a new (and somewhat pricey @ $7.99) app for the iPhone and iPod. And possibly the iPad, too, if you’re willing to run with a 10 inch tablet.

Anyhoo… Zombies, Run! is sort of an interactive audiobook game-type thingy that mixes (yep, you guessed it) zombies and running. You’re the star of the story, and you’re running through the zombie-infested countryside collecting items to build up your base.

The storyline is inter-mixed with your own custom playlist, with the main storyline occurring between songs, and voiceovers during songs alerting you to items collected and/or zombies chasing you.

If you get a horde of zombies on your tail (this requires a GPS-enabled device) then you have to speed up to outrun them. If they catch up, you’ll be forced to drop some (all?) of the items that you’ve collected to slow them down.

When you return from your run, you can drag and drop the items into various parts of your base to level them up and increase the size of your settlement.

All in all, this is a fun little app, but it’s not without its glitches. The biggest issue (for me, at least) was that the voiceovers were very quiet and somewhat garbled, so I couldn’t understand what I was being told.

Beyond being a bit disappointing (and annoying, especially given the price tag) the audio problems actually caused me to get caught by zombies at one point because I couldn’t understand what the app was telling me. I’m not sure if this was a hardware problem (maybe my headphones?) or a software glitch, but it was frustrating.

Update: Nope, not a hardware problem. Just poor implementation of the voiceovers, which will apparently be fixed in a forthcoming release.

In terms of data tracking, the app will keep track of your distance (assuming you have a GPS-enabled device) along with the time and your pace, but it won’t save maps of your run, nor will it archive your data.

I tried using Zombies, Run! alongside RunKeeper (with the RunKeeper audio turned off) to get better analytics but my iPhone crashed, so that was a no go. Oh well, I can still manually enter my run since the app tracks distance and time.

In retrospect, it may have been a GPS conflict, as I had it turned on in both apps. Maybe I should’ve turned of the GPS in Zombies, Run! and left it on in RunKeeper — but that would prevent me from enabling the zombie chases, which (if I could here them) are half the fun. Or maybe it was just a coincidence. Time will tell.

So… Who’s the target audience? I admittedly had fun running with the app, and it’s nice motivation for periodic intervals (whenever the zombies come calling) but I actually bought it (mostly) for my kids, including our (now) fourteen year old, and our (now) ten and twelve year olds.

Truth be told, they’re already pretty motivated, with our oldest running cross country and track and the other two being Presidential Physical Fitness Award winners, but… A little added motivation never hurts. And guess what? They loved it, glitches and all.

There once was a time when I was a Coke addict. I couldn’t make it through a day without sucking down copious amounts of the brown stuff. But over time, it began to wear on me, so I kicked the habit. It’s been four months – so far, so good.

I’ve actually had a love/hate relationship with Diet Coke for years. I’d stop by the gas station on the way to work to grab a fountain drink. I’d often have one sitting alongside me at my desk. And I’d have it with lunch. Unfortunately, what started as a enjoyable habit quickly turned into an addiction.

I was drinking tons of the stuff, and I wasn’t sleeping well thanks to all the stimulants (and who knows what else) coursing through my veins. It made me snore something fierce. I had a horrible time waking up in the morning. And if I didn’t get my fix during the day, I’d feel run down, impatient, and irritable. Oh, and don’t forget that nasty headache…

But the solution was easy. Just have another Diet Coke.

Unfortunately, it got to a point where my Coke fix didn’t always work. In fact, it was somewhat cyclical. I’d start out fine. I’d slurp down a Diet Coke, and I’d feel like I was on top of the world, and it would continue like this for awhile. But over time, it would get to the point where I’d feel like crap no matter what. So I’d quit. Then I’d have some a week later and feel great. Lather, rinse, repeat.

My addiction was also contributing to poor eating habits, as I’d often go out and grab a quick lunch just so I could have a few glasses of fresh, fountain-y goodness. A couple slices of pizza here, a burger there… My nutrition was suffering.

So one day I woke up and decided to quit. For good. And it sucked. It took me about a week to detox, but I was still craving the the good stuff. After another week or two, the cravings gradually subsided.

This was back at the beginning of April, and I’ve had Diet Coke exactly twice since then. Once in mid-summer while on vacation, and again this week when my wife and I went out for lunch to celebrate our wedding anniversary. And guess what? I don’t really miss the stuff.

Instead of hitting the fountain on the way to work, I fill up a 32 oz stadium cup with ice water and drink it in the car. I still go out for lunch on a regular basis, but I’m eating much healthier. The key here is that pretty much any “unhealthy” restaurant serves combos at lunch that include a soft drink. If I go and drink water, I feel like I’m getting ripped off, so I just don’t go.

Instead, I hit a local deli that’s about a five minute walk from my office. My standard order is turkey on wheat with lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, black olives, and a bit of honey mustard. Mmm, mmm, good. And I have a glass of ice water on the side.

Since quitting Diet Coke, I sleep better, I no longer snore, I wake up refreshed, and I’m way less grumpy and irritable. What’s not to love?

It’s mid-August, which means that I’ve been suffering through the heat and humidity down here in the Deep South for far too long. And guess what? We have at least another month of this before things will improve. With that in mind…

Here are eight tips for running when it’s hot:

• Run early or late. The best way to deal with the heat is to avoid it entirely – thus, you should try to run early in the morning or later in the evening.
• Stick to the shadows. If you can’t manage a morning or evening run (and even if you can) you should make every effort to stay in the shadows.
• Protect yourself from the sun. The summer heat is frequently accompanied by intense sun. Do yourself a favor and protect yourself from skin cancer while you’re working out.
• Wear the proper running gear. Nothing beats a good running shirt when it comes to staying cool – or at least as cool as possible.
• Slow down. The hotter it gets, the harder it is to run. If you’re struggling to make it through your runs, consider reducing your pace.
• Shorten your runs. Another possibility is to simply shorten your runs when the mercury starts rising.
• Stay hydrated. You’ll be sweating a lot. Be sure to drink enough fluids before, during, and after your run. And consider taking in some electrolytes if you’re going for a longer run.
• Cross-train. Finally, if the heat is unbearable, consider cross-training. Work out in an air-conditioned space, or start swimming.

If you have any tips of your own, I’d love to hear them.

Earlier today, while knocking out an 8k rowing session, I saw a bit on CNN talking about people running a marathon inside Yankee stadium to raise money for cancer research. An entire marathon being run in such a small space? Fascinating.

The only problem was that they weren’t actually running a marathon. They were running a 5k. Hmmm. Apparently the good folks at CNN think that the term marathon means “running a distance longer than the talking head on TV is capable of running.”

Believe it or not, a marathon is a race of a specific length – 26 miles and 385 yards (26.2 miles), to be exact. The modern marathon was inspired by the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, who ran from the Battle of Marathon (the namesake of the race) to Athens to announce that that Persians had been defeated.

As the story goes, Pheidippides ran the entire distance without stopping, delivered his message, and then collapsed and died. And that, my friends, is why I’ve never run a marathon… Because the first guy to do so died as a result.

I ran across some scary stats today… In 1995, not a single state had an obesity rate over 20%. As of today, all but one has an obesity rate over 20%. And guess what? The lone holdout (Colorado) is almost there with a 19.8% obesity rate.

Just five years ago, only one state (Mississippi) topped 30%. Today, a dozen states have obesity rates over 30%. Mississippi is still tops – for the 7th consecutive year – but Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Louisiana are close behind.

This ever-increasing obesity rate is attributed to ever-increasing portion sizes, the ready availability of unhealthy foods, the loss of physical education programs in schools, and less healthy school lunches.

The good news, if you can call it that, is that the rate of increase is slowing. In other words, we’re still getting fatter (on average) but not quite as quickly as we were in the recent past. Yay?

For the record, obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of at least 30. That corresponds to weighing 221 (or more) pounds if you’re six feet tall.

Here’s a bit of Monday morning inspiration for you:

Life’s about picking yourself up after you fall down.