Study: The Link between Body Temperature and Physical Activity

I used to offer extended commentary on new research in a weekly series called "Monday Musings." I'd cover and summarize a study or two or three, give some commentary, and open it up for questions from the readers. It was a fun and informative way to spend a Monday. Well, with more and more research being published than ever before, and more and more people being interested in health than ever before, I figured I'd resurrect the practice and begin analyzing new research in brief, digestible chunks. First study is "Historical body temperature records as a population-level 'thermometer' of physical activity in the United States." I'm not a cold weather guy anymore. Years of living in Malibu and now Miami Beach have softened me. I'll admit that readily. But back when I was a kid in Maine, I used to brave those cold blustery (even snowy) days without much in the way of cold weather clothing. My friends and I would stay out all day long and never stop moving, never really feeling the cold. We weren't out there shirtless or anything, but we also weren't wearing four layers. We weren't bundled up. And even now, when I go snowboarding, I can't bundle up too heavily. If I'm really staying in motion, I'll be in short sleeves or else I get too hot. The key is moving. All you have to do is move and the cold just bounces right off you. That's the basis of this new study, which uses body temperature data to gauge the level of physical activity in the United States over the last hundred years or so. The authors propose that higher body temperatures mean greater physical activity. And that's a fairly sound conclusion, but I don't think it's the entire story. There are other factors that can lower body temperature. The one that leaps out at me is our linoleic acid intake from seed oils. Over the past 50 years or so, we have eaten more seed oils than ever before and the linoleic acid content of human body fat has increased by 136%. Why does this matter? Hibernating animals tend to massively increase their linoleic acid intake in order to deposit tons of it in their body fat in the weeks leading up to hibernation. This induces torpor, a state of low body temperature, body fat gain, and extremely low physical activity׳o low that they don't move at all. Does that sound familiar? Brad Marshall, the "croissant diet guy," has been focusing on how linoleic acid intake regulates torpor and thus body temperature and metabolic rate for the past couple years. It happens to all mammals, not just squirrels, bears, and mice. Humans are not exempt from the metabolism-depressing effects of excessive linoleic acid intake. The second study is called "The effect of vitamin D and magnesium supplementation on the mental health status of attention-deficit hyperactive children: a randomized controlled trial." These were Iranian kids aged 6-12 with diagnosed ADHD who also had ŠContinue reading "Study: The Link between Body Temperature and Physical Activity"The post Study: The Link between Body Temperature and Physical Activity appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple