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Show J Li By DALE NELSON Utah State Univ. A few stops along the fitness trail seem appropriate at this time. REMEMBER Linus Pauling, Paul-ing, the Nobel Laureate, and the controversy he has stirred up relative to vitamin C? One of Pauling's claims is that vitamin vita-min C will benefit cancer patients, pa-tients, but his views are not well-accepted among the medical "establishment," because be-cause of too little experimental evidence to support it. "Medical Update and Health Digest," volume IV, number 1, mentions some new experimental evidence in support sup-port of the claims. UNIVERSITY of Colorado researchers are now preparing date showing that small doses of vitamins C and E applied to tumors in test tubes enhance the effect of drug therapy and greatly slow tumor growth. A Texas study showed that animals treated with vitamins A and C along with these drugs, survived three times longer than untreated animals. Researchers believe that the vitamins act by stimulating the body's immunities to fight growth. A NATIONAL Cancer Institute Insti-tute trial showed that increasing increas-ing the amount of vitamin C dose from 5 grams to 18 grams (that's a big dose) over two days guadruples young patients' pa-tients' ability to fight the disease. dis-ease. Pauling found that cancer patients given vitamin C lived an average of four times longer than cancer patients who did not receive vitamin supplements. AT ANY rate, an open mind seems to be more appropriate than non-acceptance of these so-called "far out" vitamin claims. Obviously, much more research is needed, but his data should not be ignored, since cancer is the second leading cause of death in this country. Thirty percent of middle-aged middle-aged women and 15 percent of middle-aged men are obese. They weigh more than 120 percent per-cent of desired weight. What's more, they eat less than active people (runners). Since most people enjoy eating, that's got to be an advantage for the runners. AT STANFORD University, male runners aged 35 to 59 were found to ingest 2,960 calories per day, compared to 2,360 for randomly selected "average" males; the corresponding corres-ponding figure for middle-aged women runners was 2,392 calories per day, compared to 1 ,820 for average women of the same age. The lesson we are learning from runners is that large food intakes are often associated with leanness, and small food intakes with obesity. Could more food intake give more needed nutrients, such as vitamins, vita-mins, minerals, bulk, etc., to make one more healthy without with-out increasing weight? AT ANY rate, runners make good fat burners and it is obvious ob-vious that cardiovascular exercise ex-ercise is the key factor. Not only do runners burn calories at a higher rate while running their resting metabolic meta-bolic rate is increased above that of sedentary people for many hours after running. THE APPESTAT mechanism mechan-ism probably functions better at high energy expenditures, enabling runners to more easily easi-ly maintain an ideal weight. A final subtle point may have something to do with fat tissue acting as a heat insulator. insula-tor. Since runners are skinny, they lose heat rapidly. This helps keep runners slim by burning extra calories, especially espe-cially when it's cold. WHATEVER THE reason, the "proof of the pudding" is that you just don't see fat runners run-ners once they get conditioned and stay with a good running program. |