The main problem with alcohol is not the number of calories it contains but rather the effect is has on fat metabolism. A recent study, for example, has shown that even small amounts of alcohol has a large impact on fat metabolism.

In this study eight men were given two drinks of vodka and lemonade separated by 30 minutes. Each drink contained just under 90 calories. Fat metabolism was measured before and after consumption of the drink. For several hours after drinking the vodka, whole body lipid oxidation (a measure of how much fat your body is burning) dropped by 73%.

The reason why alcohol has this dramatic effect on fat metabolism has to do with the way alcohol is handled in the body. When alcohol is consumed, it readily passes from the stomach and intestines into the blood and goes to the liver. In the liver, an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase mediates the conversion of alcohol to acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is rapidly converted to acetate by other enzymes. So rather than getting stored as fat, the main fate of alcohol is conversion into acetate, the amount of acetate formed is dose dependant on the amount of alcohol consumed. For example, blood levels of acetate after drinking the vodka were 2.5 times higher than normal. And it appears this sharp rise in acetate puts the brakes on fat loss.

By: Dr. David Ryan

Whether you are the weekend athlete, soccer mom or a professional physique athlete your overall appearance is based on the same factor of a tiny little gland called the thyroid. This tiny little gland in your neck controls your hair, skin, eyes and every cell in the body.

In your quest to become ultra lean or just shed a few pounds, your success is controlled by the tiny little organ. Several factors can go wrong and leave you bloated or just stuck on a treadmill confused about how you can drop those simple first four pounds. Making sure that your body is ready to get lean is one of the first steps of losing excess body fat.

If you are having trouble losing body fat or you have hit that body weight plateau and cannot get your last few pounds off, then it is time to learn more about the ultimate factor controlling your bodyweight. Many other health conditions are closely associated with thyroid conditions.

Thyroid problems often lead to hormonal problems, which can be very difficult to correct if left undetected. Several of our own habits can lead to a dysfunctional thyroid.

By: Marie Spano

Article Summary: Many of us have some form of cardiovascular disease.
Keep your heart healthy by eating right outside of the gym.
Many dietary factors affect one's risk of developing CVD.

You suck in your stomach, stand tall with your chest out and slyly grimace as you walk by the large department store window. It's only natural to appreciate the results of one's hard work in the gym. And while we may get a bit of satisfaction by examining our physique, it's even more important for us to spend a bit of time also focusing on what's inside our bodies.

All of us are walking around with some plaque in our arteries. That's reality. And, many of us are also walking around with some form of cardiovascular disease (CVD; diseases of the heart and blood vessels).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four adults has CVD. And if you are a man, your risk for both CVD and death from CVD is greater1. Those are the grim statistics. But, the good news is, many dietary factors affect one's risk of developing this disease2. Why is that good news?

The more diet is involved the more you have wiggle room to decrease your risk. Instead of telling you what you can't eat, I am going to outline 15 physique-friendly foods you that should be included in your diet (in no particular order though fatty fish does stand out as the top food to eat).

by The Endocrine Society

Men may not live as long if they have low testosterone, regardless of their age, according to a new study. The results will be presented at The Endocrine Society's 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

The new study, from Germany, adds to the scientific evidence linking deficiency of this sex hormone with increased death from all causes over time-so-called "all-cause mortality."

The results should serve as a warning for men with low testosterone to have a healthier lifestyle, including weight control, regular exercise and a healthy diet, said lead author Robin Haring, a PhD student from Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald, Institute for Community Medicine.

"It is very possible that lifestyle determines levels of testosterone," he said.

In the study, Haring and co-workers looked at death from any cause in nearly 2,000 men aged 20 to 79 years who were living in northeast Germany and who participated in the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP). Follow-up averaged 7 years. At the beginning of the study, 5 percent of these men had low blood testosterone levels, defined as the lower end of the normal range for young adult men. The men with low testosterone were older, more obese, and had a greater prevalence of diabetes and high blood pressure, compared with men who had higher testosterone levels, Haring said.

Men with low testosterone levels had more than 2.5 times greater risk of dying during the next 10 years compared to men with higher testosterone, the study found. This difference was not explained by age, smoking, alcohol intake, level of physical activity, or increased waist circumference (a risk factor for diabetes and heart disease), Haring said.

In cause-specific death analyses, low testosterone predicted increased risk of death due to cardiovascular disease and cancer but not death of any other single cause.

Written by The Endocrine Society
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
In older men with low testosterone levels, testosterone replacement therapy improves their risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, according to two new studies. The results will be presented at The Endocrine Society's 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

In older men with low testosterone levels, testosterone replacement therapy improves their risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, according to two new studies. The results will be presented at The Endocrine Society's 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Testosterone deficiency becomes more common with age, occurring in 18 percent of 70-year-olds, said a coauthor of both studies, Farid Saad, PhD, of Berlin-headquartered Bayer Schering Pharma. Low testosterone levels are linked to the metabolic syndrome-a cluster of metabolic risk factors that increase the chances of developing heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes-and other health problems, including loss of bone and muscle mass, depression, and decreased libido.

Yet the risks and benefits of hormone replacement therapy are unclear in older men, he said.

The majority of men with androgen deficiency may not be receiving treatment despite having sufficient access to care, according to a report in the May 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Androgen deficiency in men means the body has lower than normal amounts of male hormones, including testosterone, according to background information in the article. Although prescriptions for testosterone therapy for aging men have increased in recent years, treatment patterns for androgen deficiency are not clearly understood in community-dwelling U.S. males.

Susan A. Hall, Ph.D., of New England Research Institutes, Watertown, Mass., and colleagues examined data collected from 1,486 Boston-area men (average age 46.4) from April 2002 to June 2005 to estimate the number of men receiving treatment for androgen deficiency, to explain how treated and untreated men varied in seeking care and to understand potential barriers to health care. Specific symptoms of androgen deficiency include low libido, erectile dysfunction and osteoporosis and less-specific symptoms include sleep disturbance, depressed mood and tiredness.