Richard G. Petty, MD

T’ai Ch Ch’uan and Your Feet

One of the worries about getting older is that aging can adversely affect our balance and increases the chance that we can slip and fall. This is even more of a problem in people with loss of sensation in the soles of the feet due to diabetic peripheral neuropathy and other diseases. T’ai Chi Ch’uan has previously been shown to improve balance in healthy elderly adults.

A new study from the Biomedical Engineering Program, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee, Wisconsin was just published in the journal Diabetes Technology and Therapeutics. 

The aim of the study was to see if T’ai Chi improved both balance and sensory perception in the soles of the feet in healthy elderly adults and elderly adults with diabetes and sensory loss in the feet. Eighteen elderly people with a mean age of 73.1 years were tested for sensation and balance before t’ai chi training and again after 6 months of weekly sessions. Participants were grouped by their initial scores on tests of sensory perception, in order to calculate the effects of t’ai chi on sensory perception.

Plantar (soles of feet) sensation results showed that all the participants showed significant improvement in sensory ability with the 6 months of t’ai chi training. All groups also had a general improvement in all balance measures, with the greatest improvement seen in those subjects with large sensory losses. Hemoglobin A1c measurements – a standard way of estimating control of blood glucose - also decreased as a result of the intervention.

The study was small, but the effectiveness of t’ai chi training as a method of improving plantar sensation and balance in elderly adults with sensory loss, with and without diabetes, was impressive.

Another one of those things that is supposed to be impossible!

Your Brain's Inertial Navigation System

There are many mysteries about the human brain. One is the role of the cerebellum that lies at the back of your head right underneath the cerebral hemispheres. Most students believe that it is only involved in balance and motor coordination, but that does not make much sense: relative to the rest of the brain, humans have the largest cerebellum of any species apart form the dolphin. And there are good reasons for believing that it is involved in the coordination of emotional and social processes, as well as language.

We now learn that it may have yet another function. Colleagues from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report that there is a sophisticated neural computer that is buried deep in the cerebellum, that performs inertial navigation calculations to calculate our precise movement through space.

These calculations are incredibly complex and involve the vestibular system in the inner ear that provides the primary source of input to the brain about the body's movement and orientation in space. However, the vestibular sensors in the inner ear only give us information about the position of our head position. In addition the vestibular system's detection of head acceleration cannot distinguish between the effect of movement and that of gravitational force.

Dora Angelaki and her team based their brain studies on the predictions of a theoretical mathematical model. The model proposed that the brain could calculate inertial motion by combining two things:
1. Rotational signals from the semicircular canal in the inner ear with
2. Gravity

Based on previous research, they concentrated their search for the brain's inertial navigation system on particular types of neurons called Purkinje cells, in a region of the cerebellum known to receive signals from the vestibular system. This region is known as the posterior cerebellar vermis, a narrow, worm-like structure between the brain's hemispheres. It has been known for two centuries that damage to the cerebellar vermis can produce bizarre neurological problems.

In their experiments, the researchers measured the electrical activity of these Purkinje cells in monkeys as the animals' heads were maneuvered through a precise series of rotations and accelerations. After analyzing the electrical signals measured from the Purkinje cells during these movements, the researchers concluded that the specialized Purkinje cells were, as predicted, computing earth-referenced motion from head-centered vestibular information.

This is a remarkable finding: the cells are able to make complex deductions based on very little information.

Cells in the brain, particularly cells of the Purkinje type are designed to adapt and learn. So the finding gives yet more credence to the idea that balance, coordination and orientation in space are learnable skills. That will be the topic of another research project.

But for now, the evidence suggests that anything that helps you to practice these skills will likely pay dividends as you get older.

Blueberries and Colon Cancer

I have been delighted to see how many people have read and downloaded my Twelve Tips to Reduce Your Risk of Colon Cancer.

There is some new research that was just presented at the shows tha there is a compound in blueberries called pterostilbene that may help protect against the development of colon cancer.

Researchers from Rutgers University and the US Department of Agriculture presented their findings at the meeting of the American Chemical Society in Chicago.

Pterostilbene is a natural antioxidant that mops up free radicals that may, in excess, trigger the growth of some cancers. Similar antioxidants have already been identified in grapes and red wine. Work in mice suggests that pterostilbene may also lower cholesterol levels. The compound also reduced inflammation and the rate of cell division in the bowel both of which are considered to be cancer risk factors.

Pterostilbene is also found in cranberries, sparkleberries, lingonberries and grapes.

It is an extremely good idea to add blueberries to your diet. Do not overdo it! I worry when people extol the virtues of some super-food or super-drink that is supposed to abolish all of your free radicals. Despite the claims of at least one medical correspondent on Fox New, there is usually no evidence that they do so. And in any case, you do not want to abolish all your free radicals: they are key cancer killers.

You want to balance and modulate the free radicals in your body, and blueberries, together with four other portions of fruit and vegetables a day are one excellent way of doing so.

Free Radicals, Aging and Small Hairless Creatures

I’m accused of many things.

Apart from the oft-repeated falsehood that I was the inspiration for Hugh Laurie’s brilliant characterization of the cranky Dr. Gregory House (I definitely was not!), I have been accused of having a fixation with mole rats. Well, that one is partly true: they are fascinating little creatures.

But let me start at the beginning. Over the last three decades, free radicals have entered the national vocabulary. In the 1983 James Bond movie, Never Say Never Again Edward Fox orders Sean Connery to enroll in a health clinic in order to "eliminate all those free radicals."

Free radicals are found in nature: they can be derived from combustion and some other chemical reactions and they are generated in the atmosphere by the action of ultraviolet radiation with chlorofluorocarbons. But most found in the human body don’t come from the environment: they are generated by biological processes. The majority are extremely short lived, but a few special types can hang around for hours.

An excess of free radicals has been linked to an array of illnesses, including:
Some cancers
Diabetic vascular disease
Parkinson’s disease
Schizophrenia
Alzheimer’s disease
Emphysema
Age-related changes in the skin
Macular degeneration

This list just names a few: many other illnesses have been laid at the door of free radicals. You will often see people talking about “oxidative stress,” to describe the damage done by an excess of free radicals. There is a theory that normal aging may be a result of the gradual increase in the production of free radicals in the body

There is something to all this: I did some research on the role of free radicals in diabetic vascular disease in the 1980s, and made some interesting discoveries. It has recently been shown that an excess of free radicals in the wrong place can play a part in generating insulin resistance.

The trouble - as with so many apparently simple ideas - is that many of the popular concepts about free radicals are over-stated or even wrong.

We first have to ask ourselves, “If free radicals are so bad, then why does the body produce them at all?”

The answer is that free radicals play a crucial role in a number of important biological processes, including the killing of bacteria by a group of white cells known as granulocytes. They are also thought to be key cancer killers and prime mediators of normal communication between cells.

Yet they have been pilloried: thought to be the key to so many illnesses when, in fact, they are intimately involved in normal biological processes: if you had no free radicals you would probably die quickly and unpleasantly. We know that because there is a group of rare, fatal illnesses in which children cannot generate free radicals.

Rather than focusing on ways to eliminate free radicals, we should be dealing with ways to balance them.

Our bodies are loaded with sets of enzymes whose task is to mop up excessive numbers of free radicals. The most important of these are superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and catalase.

When you see an advert or article extolling the virtues of some product because it abolishes free radicals or “reactive oxygen,” you know that you are dealing with some nonsensical marketing. Not science.

Fortunately, despite the marketing hype, it’s virtually impossible to obliterate all the free radicals in your body: Some must remain in your system or you will run into all kinds of medical problems.

Let me give you two examples of research that has shown first the good side of a producer of free radicals and second, one of the reasons why we know that there is more to aging than free radicals.

A study from France looked at a dye called mangafodipir that is used in MRI scanning. It was found to increase the cancer-killing ability of some chemotherapy drugs, while at the same time protecting normal cells. Mangafodipir was found to help promote the production of hydrogen peroxide while at the same time, through different biological mechanisms, protecting healthy cells from damage.

The second piece of research concerns my mole rats. I’ve talked about them before. They are extremely long lived: most reach the age of 25-30. And they seem never to get cancer. There are very few species that are spared from cancer: sharks rarely get the disease and there are some simpler organisms that also seem to be spared. So these mole rats have attracted the attention of researchers. What is more, they have very high levels of DNA damaged by oxidation so by rights they should get cancer and age prematurely. The fact that they don’t is leading to a whole new line of thinking about aging and illness.

So the message should be this: oxidative stress may be a factor in illness and aging, but your aim should be to modulate the free radical systems in your body, not to obliterate a key cancer killer.

Eat a diet that is rich in antioxidants
Don’t try and avoid stress: you can't. Learn to manage it
Take regular physical exercise
Avoid environmental toxins such as smoke, excess sunlight, pesticides and radiation

Airport Security and That Liquid Explosive

Well, your humble reporter was in New York on Thursday and became a statistic: one of the people held up for hours after the arrests in the United Kingdom and Pakistan. I mused that it was not aiport security that foiled the plot, but some very good detective work.

I’m not usually the most patient of people, but I grew up in Europe during the years that multiple groups of terrorists considered us to be fair game, so I’m used to this kind of thing.  On 9/11/01, I happened to be lecturing in New Jersey, got trapped after the airline system was closed down, and ultimately took one of the very first commercial flights in the country once the airports were re-opened.

It was not machismo, but an understanding that if we give in to terror, we have lost.  Turned out to be a good thing that I was on the flight: three people had panic attacks outside the departure gate, and some of the tapping therapies did them the world of good.

As I spent hours waiting, my thoughts turned to one of my first loves: chemistry. I had some terrific teachers who taught me to really understand science.

Since several had been in the military, we used to have all kinds of discussions about how to make things go bang. An unusual way to learn chemistry. But now I had several hours to see what I could remember: I began to wonder what explosives these could have been?

From the little described in the media, I came up with a short list. A few minutes ago I saw an article on the Scientific American website that seems to have come up with many of the same thoughts that I did. The one that I had not thought of was Astrolite.

This whole thing is such a sad development, but it just shows the importance of understanding some of the roots of our current global crisis and what we may each be able to do help.

Living in Balance

“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together . . .”
--William Shakespeare (English Poet and Dramatist, 1564-1616)

I have a favorite scene in one of my all time favorite movies, Chariots of Fire, in which the China-born Scottish missionary Eric Liddell is told that the world may be ready for a “muscular Christian.”

I’ve spent more than three decades in the company of holistic practitioners, ecologists and other people working toward a better future. But over the years I’ve had many friendly debates with people about the way in which so much of their activities are all about love and peace, turning the other cheek, and activities that I can only describe as “Really, really Yin.”

On one level this is all fine: we live in a world that has spent at least six thousand years extolling the virtues of Yang energy: Action, fight, conquest, domination of women. The list is a long one. And it has got us into a mess. But does that mean that becoming totally Yin is the answer? Yin, the “female energy” that grounds, takes in and stabilizes can really only act in the presence of Yang energy. Whether we are looking at individuals or at the relationships and society that we create, we need to balance the two forces. I worry that the anodyne approach to personal development, that insists that we should all be quiet, passive and yielding, may not be the best approach to balance out our lives to help us help the planet.

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
--Dante Alighieri (Italian Poet and Philosopher, 1265-1321)

“Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”
--Paulo Freire (Brazilian Educator, 1921-1997)

To use the terminology of spiral dynamics, if we get stuck in the Green Meme, with no spark of the creative, strong Red Meme that gives us the strength to fight to defend ourselves, how will we get
things done? What will propel us to setting out to perform heroic acts, rather than just staying at home doing the laundry?

In no way am I suggesting that you need to become a violent or aggressive individual. But if you have been moving toward your calm center, the Yin aspect of life, or the Green Meme, how will you be able to help the world in time of crisis? How will you be able to form dynamic relationships based on partnering rather than domination?

Are you living in balance, or have you allowed yourself to be sucked into mawkish New Age sentimentality that may not serve you in times to come?

One of the essential principles of integrated (a.k.a. integrative) medicine, is to re-establish balance in a person's life. Could any problems that you are facing be a result of having your Yin and Yang out of balance? Or your center of gravity being totally located in the Green Meme? Could you have no motivation or energy because you've got out of balance?

I urge you to use intuition and introspection, to seek inner guidance to see if you are missing out on something very important in your life and in your relationships.

“The sage grasps the universe by the arm. He blends everything into a harmonious whole.”
--Chuang Tzu (Chinese Philosopher, c.369-286 B.C.E.)

“Unless the wisdom of the East and the energy of the West can be harnessed and used harmoniously, the world will be destroyed.”
-- George Gurdjieff (Armenian-born Adept, Teacher and Writer, c.1873-1949)

Technorati tags: Balance Yin and Yang George Gurdjieff Spiral dynamics Green meme Integrated medicine Integrative medicine

More on Chess and the Mind

After my last article about some of the things that one can learn from chess, a blogger in Australia added “patience” to my list. And he is quite right. Except that I have, sad to say, never mastered the art of patience. It's a character flaw. Maybe I would have had more success at the Royal Game if I had been just a bit more patient. I suppose a few extra IQ points might have helped too...

There is a nice article on Susan Polgar’s blog : Susan is the oldest of three remarkable Hungarian sisters who were trained to be geniuses from early childhood by their father László Polgár. She now lives in New York, and she is an International Chess Grandmaster who also happens to be fluent in seven languages. She is doing a great deal to promote the enormous benefits of chess, particularly in the United States. Clearly the sisters had “good genes,” but it is inspiring to see what can be done for youngsters if they are exposed to a highly enriched environment early in life. But there is something else to the Polgar story. Despite the stereotype that over-education might lead people to be unbalanced eggheads, all three have turned out to be remarkably normal and charming young women with children of their own. One sister – Judit – is the highest rated female chess player of all time, and the third sister – Sofia – is an International Master living in Israel.

The normalcy of the sisters is in stark contrast to the situation of many children that I have seen in Japan, who are already having extra tuition in Kindergarten. Scholastic failure is a recognized cause of suicide in Japan, and the Japanese actually have a word for death from overwork: Karoshi.

I wish Susan well in her efforts to promote chess, but I would also love her to share with the world how she and her sisters managed the balancing act of marrying extreme intellectual development with normal emotional and interpersonal relationships. That is in many ways even more remarkable than the sisters’ extraordinary accomplishments.

Technorati tags:  chess, balance, Susan Polgar,