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2011年9月7日星期三

Freezing Athletes to Speed Recovery

Last week, the American sprinter Justin Gatlin showed up at the World Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Daegu, South Korea, with frostbite on his feet. This condition was painful — he told reporters that he had blisters on both heels — but it was also improbable, given that he'd developed the frostbite in Florida in August. But Mr. Gatlin had been sampling one of the newest, trendiest innovations in elite athlete training. He'd gone into a whole-body cryotherapy chamber, and his feet had frozen there.

Whole-body cryotherapy is,Do not use cleaners with high risk merchant account , steel wool or thinners. essentially, ice baths taken to a new and otherworldly level, and it is drawing considerable attention among athletes, both elite and recreational. In the cryotherapy chambers, the ambient temperature is lowered to a numbing minus 110 Celsius or minus 166 Fahrenheit. The chambers were originally intended to treat certain medical conditions, but athletes soon adopted the technology in hopes that supra-subzero temperatures would help them to recover from strenuous workouts more rapidly.

That they would place faith in cold therapy is surprising, given that studies examining the effects of simple ice baths have been,Whilst magic cube are not deadly, at best, "inconclusive," said Joseph Costello, a doctoral student in the physical education and sports sciences department at the University of Limerick in Ireland, who is studying the effects of whole-body cryotherapy.

A 2007 study of ice baths found that young men who completed a punishing 90-minute shuttle run and then eased themselves into a frigid bathtub (with the water cooled to 50 degrees Fahrenheit) for 10 minutes reported feeling markedly less sore a few days later than a control group who did not soak. But ice baths did not lower the runners' levels of creatine kinase, often considered a hallmark of muscle damage. They felt better, but their muscles were almost as damaged as if they hadn't soaked.

Despite such findings,ceramic zentai suits for the medical, a growing number of elite soccer players, rugby teams, professional cyclists and track and field athletes in the United States and Europe have eagerly turned to whole-body cryotherapy.When the stone sits in the polished tiles, Because no agency in the United States or Europe regulates it, it's impossible to say with any precision how many athletes are currently using the treatment, but researchers like Mr. Costello say the numbers are growing rapidly.

Before entering a cryochamber, users must strip to shorts or a bathing suit, remove all jewelry and don several pairs of gloves, a face mask, a woolly headband and dry socks.Graphene is not a semiconductor, not an oil paintings for sale , and not a metal, Mr. Gatlin neglected that last precaution; his socks were sweaty from a previous workout and froze instantly to his feet. The athletes then move through an acclimatization chamber set to about minus 76 Fahrenheit and from there into the surface-of-the-moon-chilly cryotherapy chamber.

2011年5月22日星期日

There's too much at stake.

In New York City, people have different ways of connecting. It's a pre-Twitter version of Tribes. There are individuals you know from the building, office mates, dog friends, politicos, even store owners. One guy I regularly talk to fits into the latter two categories. I'm not sure how our relationship got started -- probably with a random comment. Now whenever I go into his establishment, we do a brief rundown on national and international events. After a full review of this week's topics (which featured a few doozies), we settled back into our familiar positions.

He is a self-avowed cynic who believes the world is going to hell in a hand basket. Best description -- shades of Bogart as Richard Blaine in Casablanca -- before he decides to rejoin the fight. A middle-age man with a seven-year-old daughter, he likes to boast that he is raising her as a "skeptic."

I am in the mold of the Streisand character, Katie Morosky, from The Way We Were -- constantly insisting that people have to speak up about what is wrong.

The powers that be thrive on a defeatist populace giving up. "You didn't send Obama to the presidency," he told me flatly. "The money people did. You just voted for him." Great, I thought as I walked out of his place. Not exactly what I wanted to hear early in the morning, on the first sunny day after ninety-six hours of continuous rain.

The bottom line is, I don't' agree with him.

Yes, there are all kinds of things that go on in the world that I don't understand -- about decisions people make at the highest levels --for economic gain or to benefit themselves. However, I don't want to cede to the '70s version of paranoia that the game is rigged, so we all might as well pack up our bags and go home quietly.

This week I took part in a Mom's Clean Air Force webinar on Clean Air. What I learned from the presenting speakers on the call was information about how mercury is poisoning both our air and our water -- big time. Even if you don't live right near a coal plant (the safest state is Idaho), the wind drifts. I've already alerted readers to how they can get the story on their air quality. For those of us in urban areas, it's not good news.
An EPA graph that was presented during the call showed how in other sectors, specifically Hospital Incineration and Municipal Waste Combustors, there have been huge strides in reducing mercury emissions. Why have coal-powered plants lagged behind when there are facilities that have made changes through the use of a technology called Activated Carbon Injection (ACI)? Stats from these power plants show that on the average, tested boilers were able to reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the EPA is trying to move forward to Reduce Toxic Air Emissions From Power Plants. Members of Congress (I won't tell you what color their hats are) are pushing back, trying to strip the EPA of its powers. A favorite strategy is to pull the "fiscal card," as in "It's bad for the economy."
During the webinar, many people got into my Twitter stream through the Green hash tag. They wanted additional information and asked, "What can we do? How can we learn more?" The EPA website is an excellent source for current information on their activities. There are PDF downloads of rulings, as well as facts sheets.

I'm not leaving the fight for clean air, safe water, and a non-toxic environment to the cynics. Cue the Frank Capra script, even if his films were often dismissed as "Capracorn." I think "the small people" can make a difference.

As Yogi Berra said, "It ain't over 'til it's over."