Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Phys Ed: Can Vitamin D Improve Your Athletic Performance?

Interesting article in the New York Times:

Although few studies have looked closely at the issue of Vitamin D and athletic performance, those that have are suggestive. A series of strange but evocative studies undertaken decades ago in Russia and Germany, for instance, hint that the Eastern Bloc nations may have depended in part on sunlamps and Vitamin D to produce their preternaturally well-muscled and world-beating athletes. In one of the studies, four Russian sprinters were doused with artificial, ultraviolet light. Another group wasn’t. Both trained identically for the 100-meter dash. The control group lowered their sprint times by 1.7 percent. The radiated runners, in comparison, improved by an impressive 7.4 percent.

More recently, when researchers tested the vertical jumping ability of a small group of adolescent athletes, Larson-Meyer says, “they found that those who had the lowest levels of Vitamin D tended not to jump as high,” intimating that too little of the nutrient may impair muscle power. Low levels might also contribute to sports injuries, in part because Vitamin D is so important for bone and muscle health. In a Creighton University study of female naval recruits, stress fractures were reduced significantly after the women started taking supplements of Vitamin D and calcium.

A number of recent studies also have shown that, among athletes who train outside year-round, maximal oxygen intake tends to be highest in late summer, Johnson says. The athletes, in other words, are fittest in August, when ultraviolet radiation from the sun is at its zenith. They often then experience an abrupt drop in maximal oxygen intake, beginning as early as September, even thought they continue to train just as hard. This decline coincides with the autumnal lengthening of the angle of sunlight. Less ultraviolet radiation reaches the earth and, apparently, sports performance suffers.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

First Round NFL Draft Picks


#1st Round = 0.48xUVI - 1.17
R2 = 0.60

From the 2000 draft to the 2009 draft there's a pretty good correlation between a state's Ultra Violet Index (UVI) and #1 Round NFL Picks Per Million (PPM) population in that state:

UVI PPM STATE
7.15 2.95 Louisiana
7.70 2.56 Florida
5.80 1.65 Georgia
4.47 1.73 NEW JERSEY
5.19 1.54 Virginia
5.49 1.37 Oklahoma
5.89 1.23 Texas
4.46 1.24 Maryland
4.07 1.13 Ohio
5.23 1.30 North Carolina
6.45 0.84 California
4.02 0.70 Michigan
3.95 0.53 Wisconsin
4.08 0.48 Pennsylvania
4.06 0.23 Illinois

A reason for the correlation may be that Vitamin D enhances athletic performance.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

If I Was a Horseman - by E. Abraham Ola

Animals need sunshine too:

If I was a horseman, I would know that a horse (or human) standing unnaturally still and stiff in a tight space like a racetrack stall for 23 hours per day is susceptible to arthritic conditions. I would know that horses need an hour afternoon walk in the sun to keep their limbs mobile and to receive some of the vital natural vitamin D that helps keep horses sound and healthy. I would provide small sun-yards for my racehorses so that weather permitting, they could spend a second hour in the sun each day, rather than spending 23 hours locked in far too small a stall while breathing virus- and bacteria-laden air.

Vitamin D Linked to Muscle Power

More on the sunshine vitamin and physical performance:

MANCHESTER, England, Feb. 5 -- Vitamin D may play a key role in muscle function in adolescent girls, researchers here said.

Serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and parathyroid hormone (PTH) were significantly associated with muscle force and power in girls ages 12 to 14, Kate Ward, Ph.D., of the University of Manchester, and colleagues reported in the February issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

"We know vitamin D deficiency can weaken the muscular and skeletal systems, but until now, little was known about the relationship of vitamin D with muscle power and force," Dr. Ward said.