OCR Text |
Show Fitness Tips By Dr. Dale Nelson Professor of Health, Physical Education and Recreation Utah State University What effects do steam baths, saunas, and hot tubs have on your body? In simple terms, your heart pumps more blood to your skin, for cooling pur-' poses, and less to your internal organs. This, by itself, boils down to the fact that these "hot baths" should be used only by the sound of heart. David I. Abramson, M.D., writing in the Journal of American Medical Association Associa-tion says, "In the presence of any serious organic disability, such as generalized general-ized arteriosclerosis, chronic pulmonary disorders, cardiac difficulties and hyperthyroidism, hyperthyroid-ism, the sauna and steam bath are definitely contra-indicated." contra-indicated." So be sure you are healthy if you use them. Since you sweat profusely, there is considerable depletion deple-tion of salt from the body through perspiration, which also accounts for your temporary weight loss. Both will return when you eat and drink. However, the news is not ' ' all bad. The act of sweating by itself does burn calories about 0.6 per gram of water loss, calculates Ward Dean, M.D. That's enough to cost you about 272 calories per pound of water lost. By the same token, this is why you burn more calories running in the heat as opposed to running in the cold. How About Relaxation? According to Finnish researchers, re-searchers, you shouldn't feel relaxed after a thorough baking because the process elevates concentrations of catecholamines (nervous system sys-tem stimulants) in the blood. They theorize that our well-being centers in the brain may be stimulated, which gives a feeling of relief. 1 . There is good evidence that these "hot" environments environ-ments should be avoided by women during pregnancy. And finally, leave the job of "leaching your body of toxins," to your kidneys rather than your sweat glands. They do a much better job. Better still, spend your time in a good cardiovascular activity workout work-out followed by a warm shower. The pay-off is far 1 superior. Strength Training Note Aerobic exercise, such as jogging, swimmings Jiikiagi- and cross-c6untry skiing; Ti'as V htr' the known capability of giving the participant favorable favor-able HDL to LDL cholesterol rations, which helps to reduce the risk of heart disease. Now, a Louisiana State University study suggests that weight training will also modify serum lipids in middle-aged sedentary men (those studied) in a similar manner to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Although no significant change in triglyceride levels occurred, the men recorded appreciable improvement in their all-important HDL to LDL cholesterol rations: HDL cholesterol (the good kind) went up by an average of from 245 to 296 miligrams precent, and the LDL (the bad kind) went down from 268 to 231 milligrams percent. per-cent. The men's overall body weight did not change, but their ratios of muscle to fat did. In effect, they got stronger as a result. The mechanism for change is unknown, but it is postulated that even though the act of lifting a weight may not in itself be aerobic, the act of recovery after each lift is. Serum lipids may be affected through the aerobic mechanism during recovery periods. At any rate, this is another plug for some strength training above and beyond the needed strength involvement. |