Many of you might think that the most intriguing things to come out of Dallas are cheerleaders, but, among medical people at least, Dallas is much more intriguing as home to the Dallas Bed Rest and Training Study (although, to be honest, for some medical people, the Dallas Cowboys' Cheerleaders probably still come first too).
The Dallas Bed Rest Study was launched in 1966 when 5 healthy young guys were paid to stay in bed for 20 days - a particular skill that young guys have anyway - after which the researchers found, not surprisingly, that these young men's cardiovascular fitness had deteriorated badly. In fact, they were in worse shape than men 30 years older. After 6 months of endurance training, however, these guys not only managed to regain all their fitness, some of them were also, the man who led the study told me in an interview, even able to achieve "elite athlete" status.
Thirty years later, the researchers found these guys and re-tested them, and again not surprisingly, their fitness had faded badly. They were, after all, average Texan guys, meaning that their average workouts probably consisted of lifting as much chili, barbeque, and chicken-friend steak to their lips as they could get hold of.
But here's the thing: within 6 months of endurance training, they not only became fit again, but amazingly, they were able to regain the same level of fitness they had had as 21-year-old bucks 30 years before.
In other words, despite the plethora of anti-aging concoctions and potions widely available from your local snake oil salesman and on the Internet, getting lots of exercise is probably still the best formula we have for keeping young.
This study also leads to one other conclusion: namely, that it's never too late to start an exercise program, which is a mixed finding, alas!
You see, when I asked my son recently if he was ever going to get off his ass again, he said "Sure, dad. It's never too late, you said, so I think I'll wait till I'm 60. Pass the nachos, man."
He must have picked up his sarcastic manner from his mom.
And still with intriguing news about exercise, in what this typical male believes may be the most important finding of the last century, Alberta researchers have discovered that preventing breast cancer could literally be in the hands of every woman on earth, if, that is, she owns a broom or mop.
You see, although we've long known that a lifetime of exercise lowers the risk of breast cancer, in this study, the researchers, whom I'm nominating for a Nobel Prize, by the way, found that a lifetime of routine housework beats exercise and sports in preventing breast cancer.
Why?
Well, it's not that sweeping and doing the wash are magical, but rather that, over their lives, women just do so much more housework than, say, Tae-Bo.
Anyway, being a considerate husband, I immediately rushed out and bought my wife a huge broom, although I think I should have bought a dust-rag instead because one suffers far fewer injuries, I'm sure, when attacked with a dust-rag.