Kinetics» Cell

Boosting Athletic Performance With Beetroot Juice, Nitrate and Spit

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 21:15:36 +0000

“Research reveals new secret weapon for Le Tour,” read the press release headline, referring to the Tour de France. “Now there could be a new, completely legal and rather surprising weapon for riders aiming to shave vital seconds off their time – beetroot juice.”

Beetroot juice? Within 24 hours my local bike club forum was buzzing about the news. The research, published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (June 2011), is the latest in a series of studies on beetroot juice and exercise conducted by Dr. Andy Jones and crew at the University of Exeter (the University put out the press release).

The study found that men who consumed 0.5 liters (~17 ounces) of beetroot juice improved simulated 4 km and 16.1 km cycling time trial performance by 2.8 percent (11 seconds) and 2.7 percent (45 seconds), respectively, as compared to when they completed the rides after drinking a placebo. Power output increased while oxygen consumption was not changed, indicating cycling economy was improved. The participants drank the juice 2.5 hours before completing the rides, which were conducted on stationary bikes.

The nine competitive male cyclists (average age 21 years) who participated in this study were asked to avoid strenuous activity and refrain from caffeine and alcohol consumption prior to coming to the lab to ride. This is standard. But a subsequent step in the protocol is not standard:

“The subjects also abstained from using antibacterial mouthwash and chewing gum during the supplementation periods because these are known to eradicate the oral bacteria that are necessary for the conversion of nitrate to nitrite.”

Huh? It turns out beetroot juice is just the tip of the iceberg for an exciting and rather amazing area of research that also involves bacteria and spit. You’ll be hearing a lot more about this work and its implications for sports performance and health, so it’s worth a closer look.

Why beetroot juice?
Beetroot juice is chock full of inorganic nitrate. The nitrate (NO₃^-) gets converted to nitrite (NO₂^-), which is then converted to nitrogen oxides, such as nitric oxide (NO). Nitric oxide is a powerful signaling molecule that is thought to be responsible for the majority of the physiological benefits. [Nitrate is not the same as nitrite. See the section on risks below.]

Beetroot juice contains lots of nutrients, including antioxidants and polyphenols. To make sure the effects were due to nitrate, the researchers selectively removed just the nitrate from the juice. When participants were given this altered juice, they exhibited no improvements in cycling performance. (Thus the nitrate-depleted juice served as the perfect placebo for comparison against the regular juice.)

What’s with the mouthwash?
Humans lack the necessary enzyme to convert nitrate to nitrite and get the whole chain of events going. But it turns out there are bacteria that lounge in the back of our mouths that are pros at this. The nitrate we eat goes through a rather strange and wonderful journey:

When we consume a source of nitrate, such as beetroot juice, the nitrate is rapidly absorbed by our small intestine. Nitrate levels subsequently rise in our blood stream and remain elevated for hours.
Our salivary glands suck up about 25 percent of this circulating nitrate, concentrating it in our saliva (the balance of the nitrate ends up in our urine). Saliva levels of nitrate become 10-20 fold higher than blood levels, and can peak 30 minutes after ingesting nitrate.
This salivary nitrate is then converted to nitrite by bacteria that hang out on the back of our tongues.
When we swallow, our saliva, now full of nitrite, goes to our stomach, where the nitrite is converted to nitric oxide and other nitrogen oxides. Some of the nitrite also makes its way from our stomach back into our circulation.

If we use an antiseptic mouthwash, we stop the bacteria from working. If we spit (or don’t swallow), we deny our gut the nitrite-enriched saliva.

Bacteria? Seriously?
Yes, bacteria. Communities of bacteria reside in our mouths, our nasal passages, on our skin, in our gastrointestinal tract, in our urogenital tract, and in many other places where light doesn’t shine. For each single human cell we have, we have ten (10!) microbial cells.

We have a symbiotic relationship with these microbes. As the beetroot juice research illustrates, bacteria possess enzymes we don’t have but that we need in order to digest certain foods.

We each possess a unique set of bacteria; the lint in our belly button, the dirt under our fingernails, and the bacteria in our gut help define who we are, and may affect our health. If you’ve ever consumed foods that contain probiotics, such as yogurt or tempeh, than you’ve influenced your microbial community. This is a very hot field of research and product development.

How big of a boost to athletic performance does beetroot juice/nitrate cause?
Surprisingly big. In this study average power output was increased by 5 percent during the 4 km time trial and 6 percent during the 16.1 km time trial. There were no changes in oxygen consumption, indicating cycling economy was improved.

Several studies have now shown that dietary nitrate supplementation causes an improvement in exercise efficiency and an improved tolerance for high-intensity exercise. In essence, your muscles are getting better gas mileage from oxygen.

Bear in mind this research was conducted on very small numbers (usually less than 12 participants in each study) of mostly male, college-age participants. All the research was carried out in laboratory settings. Whether the benefits extend to real-world settings has not been examined.

Geek speak:

To date, dietary nitrate supplementation has been shown to improve a number of exercise performance variables in several small studies:

reduce the oxygen cost of submaximal cycling

reduce the oxygen cost of low and high intensity knee extensor exercise

reduce the oxygen cost of treadmill walking and running

extend time-to-exhaustion during high intensity exercise

How does it work? Dietary nitrate supplementation appears to reduce the metabolic perturbation in contracting muscle cells (muscles at rest are not affected). There is a reduced rate of muscle ATP turnover at a given work rate. The mechanisms responsible for this reduced oxygen cost include increased mitochondrial efficiency (Larsen, 2011), and perhaps increased energetic efficiency of calcium transport by the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPases (SERCA) (Ferreira, 2011).

The effects of dietary nitrate are not limited to athletic performance. Nitric oxide can widen (dilate) blood vessels, reducing blood pressure and increasing blood flow. Much of the current research on dietary nitrate supplementation is focusing on the prevention and treatment of conditions such as heart attacks and peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Scientists are also starting to examine the effects of nitrate on brain health.

Beetroot juice? Yuck. What other foods have high levels of nitrate?
Beetroot juice was used for the experiments because it offers a quick and easy way for research participants to consume a substantial amount of nitrate. But beetroot juice is something of an acquired taste, and it can, ahem, result in red urine and red stools.

Luckily, beetroots are just one of many vegetables and herbs that are high in nitrate. Leafy green vegetables tend to be the top sources of nitrate:

Very high nitrate levels (> 250 mg/100 g*): arugula (rocket or rucola), bok choy, celery, chervil, collard greens, cress, lettuce, radish, red beetroot, rhubarb, spinach, Swiss chard.
High nitrate levels (~100-250 mg/100 g): basil, celeriac, Chinese cabbage, chard, coriander, endive, fennel, kohlrabi, leek, mustard greens, parsley.

*Numbers are nitrate content, expressed as milligrams per 100 grams fresh weight, and are compiled from a variety of U.S. and European sources. Nitrate levels in vegetables can vary considerably depending on many factors, such as growing conditions.

The amount of nitrate utilized in the research studies to reduce the oxygen cost of exercise ranges from about 300-500 mg. These are levels that are readily obtained by eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. Here’s how some of the numbers compare:

500 ml (~17 ounces) beetroot juice          500 mg nitrate*
1 cup raw spinach    926 mg nitrate**
1/2 cup cooked collard greens                    198 mg nitrate**
1 cup raw leaf lettuce 103 mg nitrate**

* The beetroot juice used in several of the experiments was supplied by James White Drinks Ltd (Ipswich, U.K.). According to the company website, approximately 2.5 beetroots are in each 250 ml serving and the juice contains 0.1 g of nitrate per 100 ml.

** These numbers are adapted from Hord, 2009. Remember that nitrate concentrations in vegetables can vary considerably.

Participants in almost all the research studies were asked to avoid foods high in nitrate, and/or performed the exercise tests after a 3 hour (or overnight) fast. Thus they started off with low levels of plasma nitrate in their systems.

What would happen if you conducted the research on participants who consumed a diet of nitrate-rich vegetables and thus would presumably have high plasma nitrate levels to begin with? Would you see improvements in athletic performance following additional dietary supplementation? It seems unlikely as there is no evidence that higher doses of dietary nitrate increase the beneficial effects (no dose-response studies have been published).

What about hot dogs?
Nitrate and nitrite are also present in very low levels (too low to impact athletic performance) in cured and processed meats such as hot dogs, bologna, corned beef, luncheon meats, sausages and ham. They are added to enhance flavor, stabilize color, and serve as antimicrobial and antioxidant agents.

Nitrate and nitrite are considered potentially harmful at high concentrations, and their levels are regulated in food and drinking water. This regulation is the source of much debate. Researchers note that the traditional Japanese diet, the heart-healthy Mediterranean diet, and the research-based Dietary Approaches to Stopping Hypertension (DASH) eating plan all emphasize fruits and vegetables, and thus are abundant in nitrate. This has led to speculation that these diets might help protect against heart disease, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes in part because of their high nitrate levels. For a good discussion of the dietary issues, as well as lists of nitrate levels in foods, see Hord, 2009.

What are the risks?
The nitrate-nitrite-nitric oxide pathways can be confusing. There is a big difference between the biological effects and toxicity of nitrate and nitrite. And there is a big difference between the biological effects of inorganic nitrate, found in dietary sources such as beetroot juice and vegetables, and organic nitrate, found in drugs such as nitroglycerin.

Nitrate supplementation to enhance sports performance has become a hot topic in online forums, but unfortunately there are some misconceptions. This has raised concern among leading researchers in the field, prompting them to address potential hazards (see the Journal of Applied Physiology, August 2011 ‘Letters to the Editor’ section). Recommendations include:

Don’t use nitrate salts and nitrite salts as dietary supplements to enhance sports performance.
Be aware that nitrite, used intentionally or unintentionally, can have harmful effects.
Nitrate-containing vegetable juice presents a potential risk if stored incorrectly. If the juice gets contaminated by bacteria that can convert nitrate to nitrite, high levels of nitrite could accumulate over time which could potentially be harmful.
Nitrate ingestion from dietary sources, such as vegetables, is safe.

In addition, several medications may adversely interact with a high nitrate diet. These include nitroglycerin or nitrate preparations used for angina, and PDE-5 inhibitors such as Viagra, Cialis and Levitra. Anyone with risk factors for or diagnosed with heart disease, or with low blood pressure (hypotension), may wish to consult their healthcare professional before starting a high nitrate diet. Individuals with kidney stones should bear in mind that several vegetables that are high in nitrate are also high in oxalate (rhubarb, beetroot, Swiss chard, spinach).

The bottom line: You are what you – and your microbes – eat
It’s tempting to interpret this exciting research as suggesting that a particular substance, such as beetroot juice, provides a “new secret weapon” akin to an ergogenic aid. But all the evidence points to the slightly less sexy conclusion that the true ‘secret weapon’ to sports performance resides in your vegetable crisper. (Popeye was right all along!)

Eating a diet abundant in nitrate-rich vegetables may improve your athletic performance (as well as your cardiovascular health). Conversely, consuming a diet low in nitrate-rich vegetables may adversely affect your athletic performance (and your cardiovascular health).

To improve your performance during day-to-day training and competition:

Aim for a serving of fruits and a serving of vegetables at each meal (If you don’t know where to start, take a look at ChooseMyPlate.gov, the DASH Eating Plan and the Mediterranean diet)
To up your odds of improving performance for a specific event, try consuming nitrate-rich foods approximately 3 hours before the event
Ditch the mouthwash (and don’t obsess over belly button lint or dirt under your fingernails – they probably harbor friendly, helpful microbes)
Don’t forget the big picture. Stay well hydrated and get plenty of sleep (see Twelve Everyday Health Rules from 1908)
Consider keeping a training log so you can look for patterns among these variables and determine what works best for you.

Recipes
See how easy it is to incorporate greens into your diet with these awesome recipes (and stunning photos) from around the food blogosphere:

From Smitten Kitchen: Spinach Quiche (freezer friendly) and Arugula, Potato and Green Bean Salad
From Kiss My Spatula: Wild Arugula-Quinoa Salad with Cherries and Thyme Roasted Baby Beets with Mint Vinaigrette
From Love & Olive Oil: Fig, Prosciutto, and Arugula Pizza and Pizza Bianca with Goat Cheese and Greens
From Food Blogga: Spinach and Apple Salad with Warm Cranberry-Maple Dressing and Arugula, Baby Spinach and Blueberry Summertime Salad
From 5 Second Rule: Creamy Spinach Cashew Spread and Roasted Beet Salad with Goat Cheese and Walnuts

Also try:

Start with Dr. Allen Lim’s Rice Cakes (a favorite snack of pro cyclists) and add in chopped spinach or other greens (fresh or frozen)
Do your own riff on the classic Joe’s Special (try rolling in tortillas and freezing) or add spinach to Freezer Breakfast Burritos (my standby is to omit the sausage, add frozen hash browns, make several dozen and freeze)

What’s your favorite recipe that uses leafy green vegetables?

Hungry for more information?

L F Ferreira, BJ Behnke. A toast to health and performance! Beetroot juice lowers blood pressure and the O2 cost of exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology, 110:585-586, 2011. doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.01457.2010
NG Hord, Y Tang, NS Bryan. Food sources of nitrates and nitrites: the physiologic context for potential health benefits. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 90 (1):1-10, July 2009. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2008.27131
KE Lansley, et al. Acute dietary nitrate supplementation improves cycling time trial performance. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 43(6):1125-1131, June 2011. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e31821597b4
FJ Larsen, et al., Dietary inorganic nitrate improves mitochondrial efficiency in humans, Cell Metabolism, 13(2):149-159, February 2011. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2011.01.004
JO Lundberg, et al. Roles of dietary inorganic nitrate in cardiovascular health and disease. Cardiovascular Research, 89 (3):525-532, 2011. doi: 10.1093/cvr/cvq325
A A Kenjale, et al. Dietary nitrate supplementation enhances exercise performance in peripheral arterial disease. Journal of Applied Physiology, 110(6):1582-1591, 2011. doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00071.2011

The Human Microbiome Project seeks to characterize the various microbes and their DNA that reside in and on our bodies. The project is examining the connections among these microbial communities, our health, and various conditions including psoriasis, Crohn’s Disease, acne, asthma, and obesity. Also check out Belly Button Biodiversity.

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Self-tracking, Sensors, and mHealth: Trends and Opportunities

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 22:15:07 +0000

Do you weigh yourself regularly? Do you make note of your blood pressure or menstrual cycle? Do you note when your waist size or dress size changes? If so, you’re a self-tracker.

Self-tracking is extremely widespread. In addition to all the organized tracking communities, there’s a growing number of organic self-tracking communities. For examples, take a look at the diabetes made visible community on Flickr, or the more than 20,000 videos on YouTube tagged weight loss journey.

At the same time, sensor technology is advancing at an astounding pace. New materials and fabrication techniques, many at the nanoscale level, are leading to a host of amazing sensors that can be woven into clothes or permanently implanted into our bodies.

Mobile health (mHealth) offers the perfect platform to merge the tracking communities and sensor technologies. Toss in the power of social networking capabilities, and you’ve put the trifecta of instant ‘track, share, and compare’ at people’s fingertips.

This presentation was given by invitation at the 2011 mHealth Networking Conference to review the current status of self-tracking and sensors, and to highlight just a few of the many exciting opportunities that lay ahead.

Resources cited in the presentation are listed below.

What do you track? What opportunities do you envision?

Communities, organizations

Tracking tools

MedHelp – Health tools
Personal Informatics – tools
iTunes app store, popular apps, Healthcare & Fitness, Medical

Sensors

Reports & publications

Miscellaneous

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7 Health 2.0 Trends for 2011

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 01:49:41 +0000

The world of Health 2.0 has so many moving parts that are spinning so fast, that it’s tempting to gaze into a crystal ball and predict what will collide and where it will land. As we move from Health 2.0 to Health Squared, here are 7 trends I see on the horizon.

1. Nutrigenomics & Nutrigenetics
We’re moving toward the $100 genome, and Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) genetic testing from companies such as 23andMe is on the rise. While we’re gradually learning more about the connection between our genes and our risk factors and our responses to drugs, there’s an intriguing area that has received little attention: the link between our genes and what we eat.

Nutrigenomics examines how what we eat affects our genes, proteins and metabolism. On the flip side, nutrigenetics looks at how our genetic sequence affects our responses to what we eat. Also to watch, nutraceuticals (nutrition + pharmaceuticals), which are foods and food products that provide health and medical benefits. It’s about linking the world of “-omics” with what we put in our mouths, and it will bring a whole new spin to “Eat this, not that!”

2. Ready-to-Wear Biosensors
Advances in biosensor technology will result in clothing that monitors our every move and mental state. The information will be automatically downloaded to our mobile devices. This advance will revolutionize health, as the ‘right place, right time’ biofeedback will lead a shift from reactive to proactive health care. Designers will compete to create self-tracking garments for pregnant women on Project Runway.

3. Groupon Health for Baby Boomers
On January 1, 2011, ten thousand baby boomers turned 65. Each day 10,000 more will turn 65. This will continue for the next 19 years.

Groupon, Living Social, and numerous other sites that harness collective buying power will offer deals based on age, and will target the more than 75 million baby-boomers. This “silver tsunami” is concerned with healthy living and longevity, and they love getting and sharing deals. They already routinely hop online to access email, research health information, buy products, and make travel reservations (Pew Generations report, Dec 2010).

Groupon Health for boomers will focus on anti-aging options (yoga retreats, vitamin packs, golf packages, cholesterol screenings, brain exercise gadgets, pilates classes), and skip unhealthy deals (tanning salons). Boomers will be hired to find the deals for their classmates.

4. Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
Given the exponential increase in biological data (take a spin around NCBI), we’ll need robust stats that help us separate the signal from the noise, tease out trends, and dissect potential cause and effect vs. random correlations.

Bioinformatics will become a trendy buzz word, number crunching will become a contact sport, and entirely new statistical models will be created.

5. Infographics :: Data Visualization
What was once the domain of a small corner of the USA Today newspaper has gone mainstream. Daily newspapers now feature word clouds, and Hans Rosling’s talks on visualizations of global health have become TED and YouTube phenomenona.

We’re inundated with data that beg to be made into visual stories. The data stem from self-tracking (Quantified Self) and crowd sourcing (Cure Together), and from gene mapping and global mapping.

We will see even more data artfully displayed. Utilizing graphics to convey health information will increase health literacy and will consistently prove a picture is worth several thousand words.

6. 3D mHealth
New technologies are enabling 3D displays on mobile devices that don’t require the use of glasses. These are created by altering our sense of depth, using auto-stereoscopic 3D technology. This imaging will greatly enhance mobile health applications; visualize the possibilities of 3D for everything from anatomy textbooks to yoga poses. How about a 3D Pillbox?

7. Transgenerational Social Networking
Many of our risks for diseases may be due to stretches of DNA that are not along our own chromosomes, but rather, are along the chromosomes of our parents or grandparents. This is the crux of the paradigm shifting field of “transgenerational” genetics.

Research is mounting that suggests the genes our ancestors carried, but that were not passed down to us, can influence the traits and diseases we get. In addition, the foods that our mother ate while she was pregnant with us, and our parents environmental exposures (e.g., pesticides), may influence the traits we have, and that our children and grandchildren will have.

This throws a monkey wrench in classical genetics and merits close watch. While you don’t have to Friend your mom on Facebook, you will want to ‘friend’ her PHR – and your grandmothers – and learn everything you can about your parents health and habits. And you’ll also want to closely track your own diet for the sake of your health (see #1), and for the health of your grandchildren.

When you look into your crystal ball, what trends do you see as we move from Health 2.0 to Health Squared?

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Photo credits

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Self-tracking: Checking under the hood

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 02:09:46 +0000

Der Mensch als Industriepalast (Man as Industrial Palace), Fritz Kahn, 1926. (See full description below.)

Our bodies are exquisite self-tracking machines. We’re artfully engineered with rheostats and feedback loops and switches. The number of times our heart beats in a minute, the temperature of our body, the pH of our blood, the sodium concentration inside our cells, and the turning on and off of our genes are all tightly regulated.

Unfortunately, we don’t come equipped with external tachometers. We don’t have a fuel gauge that points a needle to ‘full’ to signify when we should stop eating, or a temperature gauge to indicate when we are overheating. There is no factory-installed ‘check engine’ light.

In order to make sense of what’s going on under our hoods, we can turn to a variety of tracking tools. Sensors, probes and analyzers help us detect the electrical, chemical and mechanical signals emanating from within. We can measure, track and display with respect to time and space, episode and intervention. And best of all, we get to serve as our own control: N=1.

From lab bench to park bench
As a physiologist, my life has revolved around self-tracking. In grad school, we routinely used ourselves to calibrate equipment, develop techniques, and generally see ‘what would happen if….’ We documented our lives in lab notebooks and every day was ‘show and tell.’

Self-tracking is moving out of the lab and into living rooms and bedrooms, gyms and diners. There’s a rapidly growing community, Quantified Self, that is “a collaboration of users and tool makers who share an interest in self-knowledge through self-tracking.” The site originated with gurus Kevin Kelly and Gary Wolf, and an expanding community is overseen by them, along with Alexandra Carmichael, cofounder of CureTogether. There are more than a dozen meet-up groups around the world, as well as an active Twitter community (#quantifiedself).

Long the province of elite athletes and astronauts at one end of the spectrum, and individuals living with chronic diseases (and ICU patients) at the other end of the spectrum, tracking is moving from the fringes inward. Now the bright, shiny gadgets we ordered from scientific equipment catalogs (lactate analyzers, heart rate monitors, pulse oximeters) can be picked up on Amazon.

Should you check under your hood?
Suffering from insomnia? Want to get pregnant? Training for your first 10K? Measuring any number of parameters can reveal trends and provide clues as to what makes you tick. Self-tracking can help you make a connection between what you’re feeling or sensing and how your body is doing.

You can track physiological parameters such as heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and blood glucose. You can track mental health parameters such as mood and self-esteem. You can track behaviors such as foods eaten, hours spent sitting at a computer, songs listened to, minutes spent exercising, and hours spent sleeping. You can track environmental influences such as outside temperature and pollen count, commuting time, number of friends on Facebook, number of neighbors on your street you know by first name.

The data provide a glimpse of what’s going on under your hood. The measures are all exquisitely intertwined and although they might not represent true cause and effect, when grouped in combination they can reveal wonderful patterns. The patterns tell a story that can provide you with insights and awareness, which may in turn lead to behavior change, thus creating a feedback loop much like your internal circuits.

Self-tracking lets you build a personal dashboard to create a narrative of yourself. It can empower you to better understand how you are functioning, and thereby put you in better control of what’s going on under your hood. And as you self-track, at some point you will cross a threshold where you view your body not only as a machine full of data points, but as an engineered piece of living art.

Great self-tracking resources

Quantified Self
What if Self-Tracking Goes Mainstream?, Alexandra Carmichael, The Future Now Blog
The data-driven life, Gary Wolf, The New York Times
Know thyself: Tracking every facet of life, from sleep to mood to pain, 24/7/365, Gary Wolf, Wired

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The image
The image above is a cropped view of Der Mensch als Industriepalast (Man as Industrial Palace) by Fritz Kahn (1888-1968). It is a chromolithograph frpm 1926, and is courtesy of the National Library of Medicine, as part of their amazing Dream Anatomy exhibit. “Kahn’s modernist visualization of the digestive and respiratory system as ‘industrial palace,’ really a chemical plant, was conceived in a period when the German chemical industry was the world’s most advanced.”

Inspired by the art, Henning M. Lederer created this video in 2009:

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TEDx MidAtlantic 2010: What if?

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 04:25:23 +0000

This year’s stellar TEDx MidAtlantic was about our choices and roles relative to our true selves, and relative to the world around us. “What if?” was the theme, and the talks seemed to focus on what parts of our brain we consciously choose to use. In fact, images of brains cropped up repeatedly in presentations throughout the day.

“Amazingly, there are cells in our left hemisphere’s orientation association area that define the boundaries of our body – where we begin and where we end relative to the space around us. At the same time, there are cells in our right hemisphere’s orientation association area that orient our body in space. As a result, our left hemisphere teaches us where our body begins and ends, and our right hemisphere helps us place it where we want to it go.”
- Jill Bolte Taylor, TED speaker, from her book, My Stroke of Insight.

Here are some of the What If’s that the speakers left us to ponder:

What if…..

You strive to be a big picture thinker?

You strive to keep your love of learning?

You embrace failure?

You find and use your own voice?

You bring every aspect of your life’s passions to bear in your work?

You focus on the business of happiness?

You strive to keep your sense of wonder?

You look at the world around you with new eyes?

You inspire and reward those around you to think creatively?

You use collective consciousness to solve big problems?

You create and build something lasting?

You give yourself space to breathe?

TEDx Resources

TEDxMidAtlantic
TEDxMidAtlantic on Twitter, #tedxmid #tedx
TEDxMidAtlantic on Facebook
TEDx MidAtlantic on Flickr
TEDx site
Main TED site

TEDx MidAtlantic 2010 Buzz

Bmore Media, @BmoreMedia, Asking and Answering “What If?” at TEDx MidAtlantic
The City Fix, @TheCityFix, Live Blogging TEDxMidAtlantic
Roman Kudryashov, What are these ideas and why are they here? TEDx MidAtlantic, a brief summary
Think Tank Creative, @think_tank, Live Blog: TEDxMidAtlantic

Speakers/Performers: (Twitter, URLs)

Francis Béland, iprizecleanoceans.org
Jeffrey Brown, @JeffreyBrown, www.pbs.org/newshour
Steve Case, @SteveCase, http://revolution.com, www.casefoundation.org
Storm Cunningham, @restorm, www.revitaliz.com
Dickson Despommier, www.verticalfarm.com
Esther Dyson, @edyson, http://edventure.com
Nina Fefferman, www.rci.rutgers.edu/~feffermn
David Gallo, @gallotar, www.whoi.edu
Christoph Gielen, www.christophgielen.com
Yash Gupta, http://carey.jhu.edu
Cesar Harada, http://cesarharada.com
Bill James, www.jpods.com
Michael Kahn, www.shakespearetheatre.org
Paula Kerger, www.pbs.org
Diana Laufenberg, @dlaufenberg, www.scienceleadership.org
Ted Leonsis, @TedLeonsis, www.verizoncenter.com
Charles Limb, www.hopkinsmedicine.org
Albert Yu-Min Lin, http://exploration.nationalgeographic.com/mongolia
Tim McDonald, www.onionflats.com
Matt Mountain, www.stsci.edu/portal
Iyeoka Ive Okoawo, @iyeoka, www.iyeoka.com
Sandra Postel, www.globalwaterpolicy.org
Adam Pruden, www.mit.edu
Otis Rolley, @OtisRolley, www.updconsulting.com
Saras Sarasvathy, www.effectuation.org
Jackie Savitz, @JackieSavitz, http://na.oceana.org
Susan Shaw, www.meriresearch.org
Sam Shelton, www.designigniteschange.org
Roshini Thinakaran, http://roshinithinakaran.com
Time for Three, @tf3, http://tf3.com

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Image:
Composite image of brain MRIs
Using computer software programs, scientists combined brain MRIs from 20 normal people into this composite image, in which ellipsoids represent normal anatomical variations. Pink purple ellipsoids, signifying the greatest variation, occur in brain regions that are uniquely human for example, regions that control language and logical reasoning. Blue ellipsoids, representing slight variations, occur in brain regions that control sensation and movements. Ultimately, this baseline data on interpersonal variability will allow scientists to distinguish normal anatomical variation from abnormal brain loss, such as that seen in Alzheimer’s disease. Image courtesy of Dr. Paul Thompson, University of California, Los Angeles. Grant No. EB001561, from the picture gallery of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health.

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1960′s lab life with the Nobel Prize-winning decipherer of the genetic code

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:18:47 +0000

Norma Zabriskie Heaton, Marshall Warren Nirenberg, and Theresa Caryk, ~1964. Photo courtesy of Norma Zabriskie Heaton.

Note: Dr. Marshall Warren Nirenberg received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 for deciphering the genetic code. He was born in New York City on April 10, 1927, and died January 15th, 2010. Marshall spent over 50 years working at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). At a memorial service at NIH in his honor on October 8, 2010, friends and colleagues gathered to paid tribute to this titan of science. One of the speakers was Norma Zabriskie Heaton. She is shown above on the left, with a slide rule and lab notebook in her hands. Following are highlights of her tribute.

Guest post by Norma Zabriskie Heaton.

I was one of Marshall’s technicians, along with Theresa Caryk and Linda Greenhouse, when the genetic code was cracked and deciphered, and I continued to work for him for almost 40 years.

When Marshall interviewed me for the job in 1963 he told me he had an idea that would involve working with cockroach legs. I didn’t like bugs, but I took the job anyway and am glad I did. (We never did use cockroach legs.)

I would like to take you back to those early days and share with you what it was like working in the lab when the genetic code was deciphered. The lab work was intensive, exciting, and downright fun. But it could also be frustrating, stressful and tedious.

How many people have the opportunity to work on a project that is so significant and fulfilling? The challenge sometimes was to see beyond the repetition to the goal. Sometimes I thought that if I had to do one more binding assay protocol I’d scream. But the repetition was just Marshall’s obsession with accuracy and reproducibility.

Marshall was modest, soft-spoken and kind. He was a true gentleman and it was his nature to be generous with praise. He was very creative and had so many ideas – he liked to try them out with fast little experiments just to see where they might lead – he called them “quickies.”

Marshall was very focused and demanding. He had a meticulous and painstaking approach to data analysis and when you discussed your results with him, he expected you to know your experiments inside and out, backward and forward. No detail was overlooked or insignificant to him, and you had better know which solutions you used, who made them, when they were made, how they were made and the lot number of every reagent.

Marshall didn’t keep the same hours as the rest of the lab. He might arrive anywhere from mid-morning to early-afternoon and he would always work very late into the night. “How goes it?” was a typical greeting.

He wrote out the protocols to follow and left them on the lab bench. His handwriting could be challenging to decipher, but, like learning a foreign language, it became easier with time. He told me it was because he was a natural lefty, forced to learn to write with his right hand.

The labs were all crowded – we didn’t work side by side – it was elbow to elbow. It was so busy that Theresa labeled our TCA reagent in Ukrainian so that it didn’t wander off. Marshall had a tiny office in the back part of our single module lab just wide enough for his desk, two chairs and a file cabinet, and you usually had to clear off a chair in order to sit down.

Heinrich Matthaei and Marshall Nirenberg, 1962. Photo courtesy of Profiles in Science, National Library of Medicine.

Marshall and Phil Leder devised what became known as the binding assay. This was the assay that we went on to use to decipher the 64 triplets of the genetic code. Marshall was always pleased when we could end the week with a successful experiment, so when I ran the first binding assay just before the Thanksgiving holiday in 1963, it was a high note.

I will never forget hearing the shouts, especially from Ed Scolnick and Mert Bernfield, when the latest codon result would come off the Nuclear Chicago planchet counter tucked into a tiny alcove in the hallway. Marshall was always just as delighted but his reaction was more restrained – he might pump his fist and say “wonderful.”

Some of you will recall that back in the olden days, there were no calculators so we used slide rules to get our results. This was before the days of personal computers and spreadsheets so tabulating a summary of our results as each triplet codon was deciphered was challenging. I taped enough data paper together to create very large charts and drew the columns and rows with a ruler. Then, I painstakingly entered all the data from our experiments by hand. The resulting charts would become the “Rosetta Stone of the Genetic Code” and some of them are now in the Smithsonian and the Library of Medicine.

Manuscripts were written and rewritten, typed and retyped ……. often up until the last moment before the deadline. This was before the days of e-mail and fax machines, so when Marshall and the secretary finished his paper for the Lasker Foundation award at 3 a.m. the morning of its deadline, Marshall left me a plane ticket and I flew to New York and hand delivered his paper to the Lasker Foundation headquarters. The very next morning was Wednesday October 16th, 1968 and it was announced that Marshall had won the Nobel Prize.

Marshall had many interests, and one of them was archeology. He told me he had even once considered it as a field of study for himself. So I asked him, if he had the opportunity to go back in time to see and relive the past or to go forward in time to see into the future, which would he choose? And, without hesitation, he said he would want to go forward.

Marshall Nirenberg with test tubes, 1990s. Photo courtesy of Profiles in Science, National Library of Medicine.

By the time Marshall had won the Nobel Prize he was already looking forward to studying the brain and the nervous system.

Marshall had an inquisitive mind, the capability to ask the important scientific questions, and the discipline to seek the answers. He set high standards and recognized that ethical responsibility must go hand in hand with scientific discovery.

He knew that knowledge was what would last and endure for all eternity and that the knowledge we amassed was a legacy that would live on.

He emphasized to me that I should always be proud of my contribution to this knowledge.

I will always treasure the memory of this extraordinary man and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to know and work with him.

Norma Zabriskie Heaton is now retired and spends her days obsessed with genealogy. She and her husband live with their 2 dogs and cat in an old stone farmhouse which she and her husband have restored. She also enjoys gardening, needlework, reading and listening to music on her iPod.

Learn more about Dr. Marshall Nirenberg and his research

The Marshall W. Nirenberg Papers, Profiles in Science, The National Library of Medicine, NIH
Marshall Nirenberg: Deciphering the Genetic Code, Office of NIH History, NIH
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1968, The Nobel Foundation
2010 NIH Symposium in Neurobiology-A Tribute to Marshall W. Nirenberg (videocast)
Marshall Nirenberg Memorial Service (videocast)

Marshall Nirenberg was laboratory chief of the Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the NIH. I had the honor of training in the lab and would like to thank Norma Zabriskie Heaton and other members of the laboratory for their friendship, intellectual curiosity, and support over the years.

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New Year’s Resolutions: The Magnetic Poetry of TEDx MidAtlantic

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 01:45:08 +0000

This word cloud represents the essence of the messages of the inaugural TEDx MidAtlantic event as culled from my scribbled notes. The speakers were amazing role models, and their messages, which were so passionately delivered, words to live by.

In the true spirit of TED, the terms cut across numerous disciplines, including technology, arts, medicine, business, health, entertainment, and design. As I reviewed my notes, it struck me that the key messages represent a wonderful sort of magnetic poetry mosaic from which New Year’s resolutions can be crafted.

The theme of the TEDx MidAtlantic event was The Power of Stories. I’ve selected five words that spoke to me to build personal resolutions and craft my 2010 story. They are empower, execute, listen, acknowledge, evolve.

What 5 words would you choose to craft your 2010 story?

To start your new year with a dose of inspiration, check out videos of the talks, which are available at both TED and TEDx MidAtlantic. Some of my favorite TED talks include:

For more insight into the TEDx MidAtlantic event held in November 2009 in Baltimore at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), check out these reviews:

Duende: TEDx MidAtlantic. (A wonderful ‘visual recording’)
GrayMatter Minute: TEDx MidAtlantic, Eggs, Bones, Cows and Social Media.
Jim Doran: TEDx MidAtlantic. (The ‘top five favorite talks’ represents a perfect list of videos to watch and then craft 2010 resolutions)
Stellargirl: Inspired by TEDxMidAtlantic. (Key phrases that capture the event essence)
Christiana Aretta: Visual High Notes from TEDxMidAtlantic. (Stunning photos that convey the passion of the speakers)

Related posts:

Image generated by Wordle, http://www.wordle.net/.

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Choreographing Cells: Dance Dance Evolution

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:24:56 +0000

What do you get when choreographers interpret scientific papers that interpret our cells choreography? A Science Dance Match Up Challenge.

In a challenge recently held by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), four professional choreographers were paired with four scientists to create dances based on peer-reviewed scientific research. Individuals were invited to read the abstracts of the articles, watch the dances either live or online, and then try to match the science to the dance. The entire event was conducted as an informal research study to see if modern dance encodes science.

Those who watched the dances performed live, rather than online, were much better at matching the dance with the research, according to the results. “Being part of a live audience focuses your attention in a way that staring at a lonely computer screen never can. It’s equally true of art and science,” said John Bohannon, in his AAAS Gonzo Scientist column. (For science geeks, here’s the raw data).

The winning live audience was the University of Vermont, which beat out a global range of institutes that included McGill University in Montreal, CeMM in Vienna, The Science Gallery in Dublin, and Harvard. The New York Time’s Tierney Lab blog even took a turn, challenging readers to take the Dancing Science Quiz and tabulating results.

“Sun Starved,” shown below, is one of the dances from the Science Dance Challenge. The dance was choreographed by Chloe Jensen, working with researcher Dr. Sue Lynn Lau on the paper, Loss of ARNT/HIF1β Mediates Altered Gene Expression and Pancreatic-Islet Dysfunction in Human Type 2 Diabetes. Cell 122, 337 (2005).

Cell dance
While the choreographers created an amazing body of work, another type of choreographed dance – albeit one without an audience – simultaneously went on inside each of the cells within the dancers bodies.

“The Inner Life of the Cell,” the video above, illustrates the dance taking place inside a single white blood cell. It was created by XVIVO, a scientific animation company. Clearly the medical illustrators are also choreographers. They just sport high tech software rather than leg warmers.

Enjoy the dances.

So you think you can dance?

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Spot reduction: Your top 6 questions answered

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:37:53 +0000

Do you have a garage full of ThighMasters, Ab Flyers, Ab Circles, Ab Coasters and Ab Rockers? Are you concerned about thunder thighs, love handles, man boobs, saddlebags, potbellies or cankles?

Everyone has his or her problem area (or areas). Thanks to the concept of spot reduction, we’ve witnessed decades of fabulous (or should that be flabulous?) gizmos such as the Astro-Trimmer, Abflex and, of course, those classic vibrating belts.

What can you do about those flabby arms or muffin tops? Does spot reduction work? Here are answers to the top six most common questions.

1. What is spot reduction?
Spot reduction is the idea that you can lose fat from a specific part of your body, especially if you exercise the area. Some people think spot reduction means that when you exercise a particular area, the fat in that area will turn to muscle. Unfortunately this is not medically possible — it would be like turning oranges into apples.

The concept of spot reduction also implies that the muscle tissue and fat tissue in a particular part of your body engage in some sort of metabolic pillow talk with each other. For example, if you do sit-ups, then ideally, your abdominal muscles would selectively use the fat that blankets them for energy. Although many cells communicate with each other in numerous intimate ways, there’s still a language barrier in this regard.

2. Can you spot-reduce?
No. If spot reduction worked, there would be a lot of lopsided people walking around. Think of anyone who uses one side of his or her body or one limb much more than the other side. Pitchers, quarterbacks and trombone players come to mind. If spot reduction worked, a player’s dominant arm would have much less fat than his or her opposite arm.

Tennis players are a perfect example. In a classic study, researchers examined the arms of players. Although the dominant arm had a greater girth due to more muscle mass than the opposite arm, there was no difference in skinfold fat thickness between the arms. For further proof, researchers asked a group of individuals to do a total of 5,000 sit-ups over 27 days. (That’s about 185 sit-ups a day.) Fat biopsies were taken from the participants’ abs, buttocks and upper backs before and after the exercise program. The fat decreased the same amount in all three areas, demonstrating that no spot reduction occurred.

3. What is fat and what is it good for?
Fat is made up of individual fat cells called adipocytes. They are just one type of cell, along with muscle cells, nerve cells, bone cells, liver cells and numerous others. A person’s total number of fat cells is thought to be determined by puberty. After that, as you gain and lose weight, the size of these cells swells or shrinks.

Some fat is good. Odds are you are either sitting on fat (your tush) or standing on it (padding in your feet) as you read this. Fat protects your internal organs, serves as an energy warehouse, insulates and helps regulate body temperature. Fat cells secrete numerous proteins and hormones that can influence blood pressure, immune function and blood sugar (glucose) levels.

4. Can you control the location of your fat?
Fat is like real estate — we’re all concerned with location, location, location. And location is mainly determined by the two G’s: gender and genes. To verify this, take a good long look at your parents and siblings, and then take a good long look at yourself in the mirror. Scary, isn’t it?

5. Does location matter?
Ab-solutely. There’s a growing body of scientific evidence that links the location of your fat to your health. Fat tends to be located either around the middle or center of the body (the classic apple shape) or peripherally on the arms, hips, and thighs (pear shape). Studies continually show that people with apple shapes are at much greater risk than those with pear shapes for numerous conditions, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and liver disease.

6. Can anything be done about thunder thighs and beer bellies?
The great news is yes, you may be able to shore up an area. And if you can reduce belly fat, you may decrease your risk of associated health problems. But it’s not as simple as using products that you’ve ordered on late-night TV for eight minutes a day. It takes a little bit of sweat combined with good nutritional habits. Repeat after me this mantra we all know by heart (and need to take to heart): Move more, eat less.

The first step is to engage in regular physical activity, especially as outlined in the new Physical Activity Guidelines. Engage in some type of strength training two or more days a week. You’ll tone up your muscles, strengthen your bones and burn calories. Buffing up your muscles, however, won’t help if you still have a layer of fat providing a cloak of invisibility over them.

So the companion step is to divest yourself of your extra pounds by also engaging in regular moderate-to-vigorous endurance (aerobic) activity at least 60 to 75 minutes a week. Lastly, keep an eye on what you eat. You know the drill: Burn more calories than you consume.

Your muscles require fuel to work, and fat is a great source. When you exercise, chemicals are released in your bloodstream that travel to fat cells and trigger them to break down units of fat to be burned for energy. Unfortunately, we can’t control which fat cells respond to the chemical signals. However, a general rule of thumb seems to be “last in, first out.” That is, wherever you’ve most recently added the insulation is generally the first place it’s lost. Then eat in moderation so that you aren’t refilling your fat cells to overflow.

What gizmos do you have in your garage? What late-night infomercials made you pick up the phone? Did you use any of the gadgets more than once? Some of these items can legitimately be incorporated into your exercise routine, while others probably need to be sprung during spring cleaning, sold at a yard sale or put up for adoption on eBay.

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Can you hear me now? Gyms, iPods & hearing loss

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:12:14 +0000

The music blared as the spinning instructor yelled at us to dig deeper and give it 110 percent for the next two minutes. My heart was pounding, and my ears were ringing. When the class was over, my heart stopped pounding, but my ears were still ringing. I walked out of the gym, wondering whether I had just damaged my ears while strengthening my lungs and legs. Turns out not only could I have damaged my hearing, but that it could be permanent.

Our ability to hear lets us engage with the world. We converse with friends, pull over for an ambulance and attend to a crying baby. Noise is all around us. Stop and listen for a minute. What do you hear? A radio, cars honking, music from someone else’s headphones, street work, yelling children, the dishwasher?

Exposure to sounds that are too loud or loud sounds that last a long time can cause noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). This hearing loss can be permanent. That’s permanent as in FOREVER. The small sensory hair cells in our inner ears that convert sound energy into electrical signals can’t grow back once they become damaged, according to the public education campaign called “It’s a Noisy Planet” from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), a part of the National Institutes of Health.

When we are exposed to loud noises over a long period of time, symptoms of NIHL can gradually increase. Do you love rock concerts? Does the person sitting next to you on the subway sing along to the music on your iPod? If so, you might want to take this quiz: Ten Ways to Recognize Hearing Loss from NIDCD. One in five baby boomers has some degree of hearing loss, and exposure to loud noises is one of the biggest culprits, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

The good news is that noise-induced hearing loss is 100 percent preventable. A few steps we can take include:

Become familiar with the sounds and levels that can cause hearing damage. There’s a great online noise meter from the CDC, with noises that range from a buzzing mosquito to a rocket launch.
Wear earplugs or other hearing-protection devices when involved in a loud activity. Earplugs and earmuffs are available at hardware and sporting goods stores.
If you suspect hearing loss, have a medical examination by an otolaryngologist and a hearing test by an audiologist.

A rule of thumb is to avoid noises that are “too loud” and “too close” or that last “too long.”

Just as we put on sunscreen at the beach or wear a helmet when we bike, it should become second nature for us to use protective hearing techniques when we’re exposed to loud noises, according to James F. Battey Jr., M.D., Ph.D., the director of the NIDCD.

I love listening to chirping birds and rustling leaves, so now when I attend spinning classes, I choose a bike in the back row that is located behind the speakers … and I bring earplugs.

Related Posts

Photo courtesy of khaybe at Flickr

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