Health and Tips:What Is Zumba?

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HEALTH TIP: What Is Zumba?

Perhaps we’ve been inspired by television shows like Dancing
with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance? Or could it be
we’ve been aspiring dancers all along? Either way, dancing
hasn’t been this popular since the days of disco. The American
Council on Exercise has deemed dance-based classes as one of
the hottest trends in fitness programming for 2009. So it’s
no surprise Zumba classes are popping up around the nation,
inspiring people to shimmy and shake their way to a healthier
mind and body.

Created by Miami-based choreographer Alberto “Beto” Perez,
Zumba began as an exciting fusion of aerobics and Latin salsa
dancing. Over time, the program has expanded to incorporate a
variety of dance styles in its routines, including cumbia,
merengue, reggaeton, mambo, rumba, flamenco, African, and Middle
Eastern dance techniques. Classes are designed so that the
students can easily master the choreography. The philosophy is
that students will get the best workout by being swept away by
the exotic rhythms and the thrill of moving like a dancer. The
slogan for Zumba says it all—Ditch the workout and join the party!

The hour-long Zumba classes follow the principles of interval
training to maximize caloric output. In practice, this means
that your heart rate accelerates during a fast-paced salsa
routine, then recovers during a slower, more stylized flamenco
number, then increases again during a gyrating African dance,
and so on. Toning exercises are also included in a typical
Zumba class, although with a dance-inspired twist. Sqauts and
lunges might be accompanied by shoulder shimmies or flamenco-
style arm movements.

When asked what the main appeal of a Zumba class is, Susie
Bartes, a certified Zumba instructor in Los Angeles has no
hesitation: “It’s the music.” She often gets inquiries from
students about the music she uses in class. Like many Zumba
instructors, Bartes prefers to use music in its original,
authentic form, rather than an Americanized version mixed by
a deejay. “The music transports you to another part of the
world and inspires you to shake stuff you’re not used to
shaking.” The music makes Bartes’ job easier since it’s her
goal to treat her students to such a good time that they don’t
even feel like they’re working out. A qualified Zumba instructor,
like Bartes, will have a solid command of musical arrangement
and know how to choreograph according to the phrasing of a song.
But how do you know if your Zumba instructor has truly been
“Zumbafied?”

Zumba is a trademarked program, but that doesn’t necessarily
prevent unqualified, untrained, and inexperienced people from
leading a class that’s promoted as Zumba. The fitness industry
is notorious for being a breeding ground for self-proclaimed
“experts.” Zumba does require that people participate in a
certification workshop to use the Zumba name, and to keep their
instructor status current by taking follow-up courses presented
by the Zumba Academy. But like a lot of trademarked programs in
the fitness industry, there is no quality control or monitoring
after the certification process. So the irony is, an uncertified
but naturally gifted dancer and teacher may be a better Zumba
instructor than someone who went the legal route through the
certification process. In the end, the marketplace will weed
out the unqualified instructors. Fitness enthusiasts are savvy
consumers, and a good instructor will keep them coming back for
more.

After being an instructor in the fitness industry for many years,
I love being a student in a class where I can learn something new.
Zumba gives me the opportunity to finally know the difference
between a merengue and a mambo. But my favorite thing about my
weekly Zumba class is sharing the dance floor with the women
over sixty who shimmy and circle their hips with abandon. What
an inspiration!

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Pancreatic cancer gene is identified

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — University of Michigan researchers have
identified a gene that’s over-expressed in 90 percent of
pancreatic cancers — the most deadly type of cancer. The
scientists, led by Dr. Diane Simeone, director of the
university’s multi-disciplinary Pancreatic Cancer Clinic,
said expression of the gene ATDC (Ataxia Telangiectasia
Group D Complementing gene) is on average 20 times higher
in pancreatic cancer cells than in cells from a normal
pancreas. And the gene appears to make pancreatic cancer
cells resistant to current therapies. “One of the challenges
in pancreatic cancer is that it is biologically aggressive
and it does not respond well to chemotherapy or radiation,”
Simeone said. “We found ATDC not only causes the cancer
cells to grow faster and be more aggressive but it also
makes the cancer cells particularly resistant to chemotherapy
and radiation. By targeting this gene, we may be able to make
cancer cells more sensitive to the therapies we already have
in hand.” The research, which included Lidong Wang, David
Heidt, Cheong Lee, Huibin Yang, Eric Fearon and Mats Ljungman
from the University of Michigan; Craig Logsdon from the M.D.
Anderson Cancer Center; and Lizhi Zhang from the Mayo Clinic,
is reported in the journal Cancer Cell.

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New critical immune response origin found

DURHAM, N.C. — U.S. medical scientists say they’ve found a
new origin for an immune system response that is critical
during the first stages of a viral or bacterial attack. Duke
University Medical Center researchers say they’ve determined
the body’s defense against viruses and harmful bacteria comes
from an entirely different direction than previously thought.
“This finding will have important implications in vaccine
science and autoimmune disease therapy development,” said
Dr. Michael Gunn, senior author of the study. Type 1 helper
T cell immune responses are critical for the control of
viruses and certain bacteria, the researchers said, and
until now most immunologists believed TH1 responses were
induced by rare immune cells called dendritic cells. When
activated by infection or vaccination, the dendritic cells
were thought to move from peripheral tissues into lymph
nodes to stimulate T cell responses. The Duke researchers,
however, said they discovered the dendritic cells that stimu-
late TH1 responses didn’t come from peripheral tissues but
rather arose from monocytes — a common cell type in the
blood — that moved directly into lymph nodes after infection.
“The result speaks to the most basic principles of immune
response to pathogens,” Gunn said. “It may also explain the
poor results we have seen in attempts to develop effective
dendritic-cell vaccines.” The study, which included Hideki
Nakano, Kaifeng Lisa Lin, Manabu Yanagita, Chantal Charbonneau,
Donald Cook and Terutaka Kakiuchi, appears in the journal
Nature Immunology.

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More recalls of peanut products announced

WASHINGTON — The Roman Meal Co. is one of the most recent
U.S. firms recalling products with possibly tainted peanut
ingredients from the Peanut Corporation of America. The U.S.
Food and Drug Administration said the Tacoma, Wash., company
is recalling Roman Meal-brand whole grain and fruit dark
chocolate peanut butter snack bars because they might be
contaminated with salmonella. Roman Meal officials said the
only lot code affected by the recall is “Best Before 22JUN09A”
PCA is under investigation by federal and state officials for
distributing peanuts and peanut products contaminated with
the bacteria. The peanut products were used by various manu-
facturers to produce candy, cereal, pet foods, ice cream and
other items. However, the FDA said no major brands of peanut
butter sold in jars were involved in the recalls. Other re-
cent recalls included the Jelly Belly Candy Co. of Fairfield,
Calif.; and Reser’s Find Foods Inc. of Beaverton, Ore. Jelly
Belly recalled three of its products — chocolate-covered
peanuts, chocolate peanut clusters and no-sugar-added choco-
late peanuts. The items were sold from bulk scoop bins in
grocery and candy stores nationwide. Reser’s recalled its
Thai noodle salad sold in 5-pound bulk-size tubs in the
United States and in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada.
FDA’s detailed list of the hundreds of products being
recalled — including lot codes, expiration dates and other
information — is available at:

http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/salmonellatyph/recalls.html.

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Device kills bacteria in packaged foods

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.– A U.S. scientist says  he’s developed
an ozone device that eliminates bacteria in packaged foods
such as spinach and tomatoes. Purdue University Associate
Professor Kevin Keener said his device consists of a set
of high-voltage coils attached to a small transformer that
generates a room-temperature plasma field in a package,
ionizing the gases inside. Keener said the process kills
harmful bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella. “Conceptu-
ally, we can put any kind of packaged food we want in there,”
said Keener. “So far, it has worked on spinach and tomatoes
but it could work on any type of produce or other food.” He
said ozone kills bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella and
the longer the gas in the package remains ionized, the more
bacteria are killed. Eventually, the ionized gas will revert
back to its original composition. The technology is outlined
in the early online edition of the journal LWT — Food
Science and Technology.

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New bone remodeling pathway found

MONTREAL — Canadian scientists using interferon gamma say
they’ve discovered a new pathway that controls bone remodel-
ing. The McGill University Health Center researchers said
interferon gamma is a hormone that “holds great promise”
in repairing bones affected by osteoporosis. The scientists
said tweaking a certain group of multi-potent stem cells
called mesenchymal stem cells with interferon gamma may pro-
mote bone growth. “We have identified a new pathway, centered
on (interferon) gamma, that controls the bone remodeling
process both in-vivo and in-vitro,” said Dr. Richard Kremer,
the study’s lead author and co-director of the Musculoskel-
etal Axis at the McGill University Health Center. “More
studies are required to describe it more precisely, but we
are hopeful that it could lead to a better understanding of
the underlying causes of osteoporosis, as well as to inno-
vative treatments.” The research that included Gustavo Duque,
Dao Chao Huang, Michael Macoritto, Xian Fang Yang and Daniel
Rivas appears in the journal Stem Cells.

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Lack of Sleep Could Raise Risk of Diabetes

Did you ever think those late nights during the work week
could cause more than just sleep deprivation? It has been
found that people who have slept fewer than six hours a
night were more likely to develop a condition that precedes
diabetes than those sleeping for longer periods of time.

The researchers said that the study supported mounting
evidence that cutting back on your sleep can have a very
profound impact on your health. This six-year study was
presented at a recent conference for the American Heart
Association.

Cases of type 2 diabetes, which is often linked to obesity,
have been rising all across the world. This condition
develops when the body makes too much insulin, but does not
use the hormone the hormone efficiently to help break down
sugar in the blood. It is considered a stepping stone on the
way to the condition which is known as impaired fasting
glucose, in which the levels of blood sugar are too high,
but not high enough to constitute a diagnosis of diabetes.

A research team from the University of Buffalo, in New York,
followed a group of volunteers for the study for over a period
of six years. They found out that the people who slept on
average for fewer than six hours a night during the work week
were approximately 4.56 times more likely to develop impaired
fasting glucose than those that were sleeping six to eight hours
a night.

The lead researcher of the study, Lisa Rafalson, said, “This
study supports growing evidence of the association of
inadequate sleep with adverse health issues. Our findings
will hopefully spur additional research into this very
complex area of sleep and illness.” Dr. Rafalson also stated
that was likely that hormones and the nervous system were
behind this link.

A sleep expert at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital,
Dr. Neil Stanley, also agreed that there was a mounting body
of evidence that has linked lack of sleep to conditions such
as diabetes. However, he also said that the reason still
remain unclear, although it was possible that the lack of
sleep raised the risk of gaining weight, which in turn could
also raise the risk of diabetes. “There is some evidence that
lack of sleep mucks up our appetite hormones, so you want to
eat more, and eat the wrong things —when we are tired we tend
to crave sugary foods. A good night’s sleep is a biological
necessity: your body wants and needs a good night’s sleep every
night, and if you are well rested you will get a lot more done
during the day.”

The director of research at the charity Diabetes UK, Dr.
Iain Frame, said that this study was much to small to draw
an firm conclusions from. However, the findings have echoes
studies previously conducted which found that there might be
a link between disturbed sleep patterns and a raised risk for
developing type 2 diabetes.

He also added that when it comes to discussing the major
risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes, issues that
involve sleep duration will remain less significant than
other more established risk factors such as being obese,
being over the age of 40, or having a history of diabetes
that runs in the family.

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