Heartwarming News for Low Body Heat?
Women who always feel cold--distressing family members by turning up the heat and closing windows--may have an iron deficiency, researchers say.
John L. Beard, an assistant professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University, and his graduate student, Myfanwy Borel, came to that conclusion after submerging eight iron-deficient women and 10 women with normal iron levels in water slightly cooler than body temperature. Body temperatures in the iron-deficient women dropped an average of .7 degrees Celsius while the control group’s dropped only .4 degrees.
After taking iron tablets for 12 weeks, the iron-deficient group was retested. The results? Normal iron levels and normal thyroid hormone response to the cold. Their bodies regulated temperature better than in the original test, said Beard, who presented his findings last week at a meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.
Based on his research and animal studies, Beard proposes that iron deficiency can be one cause of low thyroid function, which in turn can lead to reduced body heat production. The results of a U.S. Department of Agriculture study on iron deficiency, reported at the same meeting, were similar.
Animal studies have also shown that iron deficiency can cause difficulty in maintaining body temperature, said Dr. William G. Figueroa, a professor of medicine in the division of hematology/oncology at the UCLA School of Medicine.
Beard isn’t suggesting that women who shiver excessively self-dose with iron supplements. But he does recommend they be tested for iron deficiency, a condition much more common in women than men.
Childhood Dieting
There’s good news and bad from a new childhood dieting study.
In a survey of 2,030 girls, grades 6 to 12, only seven were termed anorexic, a condition characterized by self-starvation, said University of Michigan researcher Adam Drewnowski, an assistant professor of human nutrition in the School of Public Health and an assistant professor of psychiatry at the medical school.
Because of bingeing and fasting, 44 girls were designated probable bulimics, added Drewnowski, who will present his findings Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Assn. in Montreal, Canada.
But dieting is widespread among children, the study also found. One of every three girls surveyed was dieting to lose weight. “And 50% of the dieters were doing so under the influence of their mothers,” Drewnowski said. “The girls who dieted the most had mothers who were on the average 20 pounds heavier than other mothers.”
Daughters of wealthy mothers were more likely than others to diet, as were those girls who matured early. Among the dietary strategies: cutting down on certain foods and occasional 24-hour fasting.
His advice to parents? Curb well-meaning comments (such as “Aren’t you getting a bit heavy, dear?”) likely to be taken very seriously by young girls. And don’t mistake early maturation and associated normal weight gain as sure signs of future obesity.
Quick Fitness?
Faster muscle-building is one promise behind the Gravitron, a new computerized exercise device for upper-body toning that’s showing up at Southland health clubs.
But the unit does have limitations and won’t have universal appeal, according to some who have used it. “Serious body-builders will never completely replace free weights with electronic equipment,” said one industry expert who added that some initially may find the machine difficult to program. To use the Gravitron, an exerciser steps onto the platform of the eight-foot-high machine, inputs body weight and selects a level of difficulty. By using two different sets of bars, the exerciser can do “chin-ups” to strengthen the upper back, shoulders, biceps, forearms and abdomen or “dip” exercises to strengthen the chest, shoulders and triceps.
With 17 intensity levels, says Rich Hanson, spokesman for StairMaster, the Gravitron’s manufacturer, the machine offers something for every fitness level. Exercisers can work out at 10%-90% of their body weight, enabling even those who aren’t strong enough to do traditional exercises such as chin-ups to succeed on the new machine, said Hanson.
