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6A Daily News – Tuesday, September 11, 2012 Vitalityfitness health Keeping up with Ryan & Gut bacteria linked to obesity- related health problems BALTIMORE (MCT) — The answer to why some obese people develop dia- betes and other health prob- lems may be found not in just a love for junk food, but in the bacteria that thrive deep in the human gut. Scientists at the Univer- sity of Maryland School of Medicine have identified 26 species of intestinal bacteria linked to insulin resistance and the high blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar levels suffered by the obese. These preventable condi- tions often lead to potential- ly fatal health problems including stroke, heart dis- ease and diabetes. MCT photo Republican vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin campaigns in Colorado Springs, Colo. interview Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan in a "one question, and one question only" scenario, I'd ask him: "Do you do P90X Yoga?" Perhaps this explains By RENE LYNCH Los Angeles Times (MCT) If I were assigned to why I've never been assigned to cover the race for the White House. But I already know where Ryan stands on issues such as Medicare _ that's been covered ad nauseam. I'd actually like more cover- age, please, on how Ryan manages to stick to his diet-and-fitness regimen while campaigning for the White House. Granted, I'm a proud member of the P90X cult. But I'm, um, also a P90X dropout. For those who have been living under a rock, P90X is a grueling, bare-knuckled retort to the Jane Fonda home workout VHS tapes ('member those?) of the 1980s. P90X-ers embark on a rig- orous regimen packed with push-ups, pull-ups, squats, leaps, sit-ups and pumps. Every day brings a different routine, so there's no time to get bored. The roughly hourlong work- outs are delivered via DVD, designed to be done in the privacy of one's liv- ing room, or hotel room, with very little equipment. Since Ryan was picked for veep early last month, he has been on my mind when I consider punking out of my P90X2 work- outs. That's because the media throng has been reporting his daily pil- grimages to the gym where he uses a P90X iPad redbluff.mercy.org www.redbluff.mercy.org Community Basic Life Support 6:00pm-10:00pm 9/11 Columba 529-8026 Waterbirth Class Diabetic Education Grief Support Group Books Are Fun 6:30pm-8:30pm 9/12 Columba 529-8026 5:30pm-9:30pm 9/19 Columba 529-8026 3:00pm-5:00pm Thursdays Coyne Center 528-4207 10:00am-5:00pm 9/20 7:00am-2:00pm 9/21 Main hallway of the hospital www.redbluff.mercy.org 736-1326 app to follow the day's workout regimen. Warriors try to do the whole program in 90 or so days. Mere mortals take longer — if they finish at all. A cycle takes roughly 12 weeks. I've taken sever- al runs at P90X, and each time I get as far as Week 7 or Week 8 before giving in to the pain. It tells you how difficult the workout pro- gram is that many people (like me) lose momentum because of a punishing 90- minute P90X Yoga work- out intended to be done once a week. Yes, you read that right. The yoga work- out can make a grown woman cry. As a result, many P90X-ers conveniently skip that part of the pro- gram. But as P90X front- man Tony Horton will tell you, you're not really doing P90X if you cut cor- ners. So you see? My yoga question for Ryan is not so silly after all. I don't think it's coinci- dental that the second gen- eration of P90X (P90X2) has a far easier yoga work- out that clocks in at 66 minutes. I'm just starting Week 9 of P90X2, and I'll have no problem finishing. That's partly because the yoga is not nearly as tor- There's always one person on screen modify- ing the exercises — either to make them slightly easier or do them with less equipment. I follow that person. Results show that modification works just fine, thank you. I don't need a cane, I can easily give you 20 push- ups, and I've lost about 7 pounds so far. (Would be more, no doubt, if I faith- fully followed the P90X diet.) I've also taken another piece of advice parroted by the P90X faithful: "Keep pressing 'play.'" That is, slap in that DVD even though you're so sore that it hurts to scratch the back of your head. turous and also because I've finally set my ego aside and taken Horton's well-worn advice to heart: "Do your best and forget the rest." For each workout, Hor- ton leads his "kids" through never-before-seen exercises dreamed up by Horton & Co., such as push-ups while hands and feet are balanced on medi- cine balls or biceps curls performed in a one-legged chair pose. The researchers don't understand yet how the bac- teria in the gut, or intestines, interact with the human body to manifest into ill- ness. But they say identify- ing the harmful microor- ganisms from among the trillions that coexist harmo- niously in the human body is a major step toward one day developing new treat- ments for one of the coun- try's most pressing medical issues. "We can't infer cause or dren, the digestive disorder Crohn's disease and the skin disorder psoriasis, among others. A recent study also found a link to cancer. Humans pick up these microbes from the environ- ment, with the first coming from the mother's birth canal during delivery. Over time newborns start to develop their own microbes. effect, but now that we have results from step one and we can now look at what the bacteria are doing, it can give us more information to go about getting an inter- vention," said Dr. Brandi Cantarel, a research associ- ate at the University of Maryland Institute of Genome Sciences who worked on the study. The study is one in a "People have known for a long time the body is full of microorganisms and now the tools have become available to study them," said Lita Proctor, coordina- tor of the NIH Human Microbiome Project. Researching microbes has become easier with sequencing of the microbial DNA, much like the sequencing of the human genome, enabling scientists to study the organisms by their genetic signature. Before scientists grew microbes in the lab, a much more time intensive and complicated process. Early studies were done in mice, but those results aren't always directly applicable to humans. The University of Mary- land scientists analyzed microbes taken from stool of the Amish in Pennsylva- nia. The population is easy to study because it is very homogenous, creating fewer variables, such as diet and lifestyle, that may affect results. They descend from a few founding fami- lies and have growing field of research looking at how the bacteria, fungi and viruses that live on every inch of the body — known collectively as microbiome — play a role in human sickness. They outnumber human cells 10 to one. The P90X system is sold by the Santa Monica company Beachbody, www.beachbody.com. If Ryan can manage to "press play" each day, so can I. And if the election were based on fitness alone, Ryan would get my vote in November. The National Institutes of Health Human Micro- biome Project, launched in 2008 with a $115 million budget, gave birth to dozens of studies around the coun- try including the University of Maryland's obesity research to try to find the answer. The study was pub- lished this month in PLOS ONE, a journal of the Pub- lic Library of Science. "The big question is how these microorganisms affect health and disease in humans," said Dr. Alan R. Shuldiner, an associate dean of the program in per- sonalized and genomic medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Since the project's launch, studies have found links between microorgan- isms and flu in young chil- RANDAL S. ELLOWAY DDS IMPLANT DENTISTRY 2426 SO. MAIN ST., RED BLUFF 530-527-6777 FACT SHEET ON DENTAL IMPLANTS DENTAL IMPLANTS: * are the most advanced tooth replacement system ever devised *help preserve jawbone to prevent the appearance of premature aging lifestyles. "You won't find people who are widely different, like vegans and meat eaters," Cantarel said. "You're not going to find people who smoke two packs a day and who don't." Participants in the study similar varied in age, weight and size. Gene markers were used to distinguish between the different bacteria found in the stool taken from 310 Amish. Researchers found everyone in the study had one of three different com- munities of bacteria. The guts of people with high blood pressure, insulin resistance and other so- called metabolic syndrome diseases related to obesity also had 26 other rare bacte- ria. The study also used the data to see if a person's occupation was associated with microbes in the gut. They found farmers and others who had regular con- tact with animals had bacte- rial communities also com- mon in the livestock. The Maryland researchers now hope to find funding to take the next step and explore the differ- ent ways the microbes may be interacting in the body. 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We would be pleased to evaluate your oral health and discuss treatment options with you. "We think the answer to that question is probably complicated and multifac- eted," Shuldiner said. "It may have something to do with genes, or various lifestyle factors and the environment. We just don't know." For instance, do the microorganisms produce some byproduct that causes metabolic syndrome? The University of Mary- land study also found a link between obesity and inflammation, which is believed to be a factor in obesity and other chronic conditions. They found that people with metabolic syn- drome with serum markers associated with inflamma- tion had low levels of good bacteria known to have anti-inflammatory proper- ties.