Golf: Injuries and Performance Conference

Expedition Photography

Here's an article on Photo News about our recent expedition to Bolivia and the key photographs that we took on the expedition.

Expedition Photography

In PHOTONews on January 11, 2012 11:20 am

Article by Greg Wells.

Teaching on the run: Life lessons from a 100-mile expedition in the Indian desert

By Rebecca Byerly, Contributor / January 3, 2012

Rajasthan, India

Over the past five days, 18-year-old Canadian Emma Cook-Clarke and three other young people from India and the United States have run more than 100 miles through the Thar Desert, a seemingly endless, sweltering stretch in northwest India.

Except for the occasional passing camel herd, grazing water buffalo, groups of surprised children, and huge horn-squelching trucks, the route is monotonous.

To do a more thorough job reporting on the feat, this reporter decided to join the run. It's my first day and I lag a quarter mile behind. Only 10 miles in, I already want to quit. Though I'm an experienced ultramarathon runner, this is one of the most difficult terrains I have ever traversed. It's hot, flat, and seems to go on forever.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Report from India 4 - The Future of Health Care

Education Theme #6 - The Future of Health Care from GOi2P on Vimeo.

Report from India 3 - Nutrition and Health

The issue of nutrition is a critical factor for world health. This applies to both malnutrition, which can be not getting enough calories or nutrients, as well as over nutrition which means getting too many calories. Health is closely related to nutrition, and people can become extremely ill at both extremes - for example people can develop type 2 diabetes with high sugar intakes and obesity as a result of consuming too many calories. Let's consider Type 2 diabetes as an example.

In Type II diabetes, insulin production is relatively normal, but the receptor cells become desensitized to insulin. As a result the target cells such as muscle or liver do not absorb glucose from the blood. This type of diabetes is associated with obesity, and closely related to lifestyle factors such as poor nutrition and lack of exercise. As for so many other chronic diseases exercise can be used as therapy for both types of diabetes, which can be done under the supervision of a physician. Because exercise mimics the effects of insulin on blood glucose levels, and facilitates glucose uptake into the cells, it can help reduce the amount of insulin needed by Type I diabetics. For type II diabetics, exercise can increase insulin sensitivity of the muscle tissue, thereby to some extent reversing the effects of the disease.

On one of our runs I tested blood lactate levels of the runners. Lactate is produced when our body burns sugars to provide muscles with energy very quickly. When the runners were moving at a comfortable pace - their heart rates were about 125-130 - their blood lactates were between 1.6 -3.0 mmol/L. That suggests that they were not working hard enough to burn any sugars, relying mostly on their fat stores and just a bit of sugar to fuel their muscles. Although the Youth Ambassadors were doing a long 30+ km run in the heat and sun I asked them to do a short sprint up a hill. Because the energy demands were so much higher on the short sprint and they had to also move uphill their muscles needed fuel more quickly. When the energy demands increase inside our bodies we burn sugars to temporarily meet those demands, and the byproduct of anaerobic sugar metabolism is lactic acid. The blood lactate levels at the end of the sprint were 4.9-12.2 mmol/L. Levels that high make your muscles feel like they are on fire and also makes you breathe very hard.

In addition to exercise, nutrition is a key factor in developing and maintaining health. However, there are tremendous challenges with regard to having people eat foods that are high in nutrients and lower in calories. For example, we visited a small town in northern India yesterday. In this town we found a few stores, and in one stall a vendor was selling vegetables - foods that are key to the prevention of chronic disease and for improving health. But in the next store highly processed foods were readily available. These included chips and candy bars - foods that are very high in calories and have minimal nutrients. Here are pictures of each store.

Before setting out on day 2, I posed a challenge to the Youth Ambassadors. I asked them to consider that given many people in developed countries such as Canada and the US are aware of what foods are healthier options, why so many individuals make poor decisions related to nutrition and health. We had a heated discussion over dinner, but we came to the conclusion that cost and convenience were major factors. If you have other ideas please send them to us on twitter @Goi2P or on the Q&A tab on the india2011.com site.

For the schools that are following, an interesting activity is to take a look at the number of calories in different foods like fruits such as bananas or oranges, vegetables such as carrots or broccoli, or more refined foods like a slice of bread or a soft drink. When we measured youth Ambassador Harshveer's caloric expenditure on the run recently we we found out that he burned over 2000 calories during the time we tested him. How many vegetables would he have to eat to replace those calories? How many chocolate bars would it take?

Ultimately the challenge for each of us around the world is to find the right balance between the foods that we eat to fuel our activities or that provide us with the nutrients we need to be healthy and staying physically active. Can you think of some barriers for you related to how well you eat on a daily basis? How can you increase your nutrient intake for example fruits and vegetables?  What does it mean to have the right balance between exercise and nutrition for you?

Report from India 2 - Physical Activity and Health

The cardiovascular system (the heart and blood vessels) responds to exercise like walking or running and habitual physical activities like housework or gardening. One only has to read the many stories of people who have come back from severe heart attacks and poor health to be marathon runners (like Ray Zahab!), century cyclists or triathletes to realize how much the body can change in response to consistent exercise.

Performing cardiovascular training has powerful effects on many systems in the body. From the lungs to the blood to the heart and right out to the muscles, the body adapts and improves itself to be able to handle the demands of exercise. The amazing thing is that not only does the body build itself up to handle exercise, but all the adaptations and changes help the body resist disease, and research has clearly shown that cardiovascular exercise reduces the incidence of diabetes, heart disease, cancers and many other diseases.

The Youth Ambassadors have been running for hours every day across the Thar desert. On day 2 we measured Harshveer's heart rate as he ran. You can see the wide range of heart rates that we measured in the GPS / heart rate graphic below.

The heart contracts in a constant rhythm that may speed up or slow down depending on the need for blood (and oxygen) in the body. For example, if you start running, your leg muscles will need more oxygen to do the work of running. Therefore your heart will have to pump more oxygen-carrying blood to those working muscles and will have to beat more rapidly in order to supply that blood.

Heart rate is the term used to describe the number of times that the heart beats in one minute and is measured in beats per minute (b/m). At rest, the normal heart rate of an adult can range from 40 b/m in a highly trained athlete to 70 b/m in a normal person. Recent research has shown that your resting heart rate is associated with your lifespan - so if you have a high resting heart rate you are more likely to be affected by a chronic disease and have a shorter life. People with low resting heart rates have healthy cardiovascular systems, and lower nervous system stress, and are more likely to live longer. Check out your resting heart rate first thing in the morning when you wake up, or even when you are sitting relaxing.

Increasing physical activity is a key factor for helping to reduce the rick of non-communicable diseases like type 2 diabetes, obesity and cancer. Our bodies are designed to move, and even as little as 10 minutes of physical activity and exercise can burn a significant number of calories if you add that to your life on a daily basis. Check this interview with  Youth Ambassador Emma Cook-Clark on her experiences working with a school in Northern India to facilitate the incorporation of physical activity into their school day.

The key message that I took away from this video is how willing children here in India are to do physical activity if they have the right information and help to get started. That is the challenge that I'll pose to everyone who is following the expedition online. How can you increase your physical activity during your day? If you have ideas send them to us on the Q & A tab on the india2011.com website or via twitter @Goi2P.