Dr Mel Siff Blog

I have great admiration for the book Supertraining by Siff and Verkhoshanksy. Not only is it one of the best books ever written on strength and conditioning, but it also does an excellent job disputing some common weightlifting myths.

Here is a small bird's eye view of some of my strategic marketing plan for the CNBC one hour documentary The Oprah Effect and the launch of the updated and expanded The Ultimate Guide to Getting Booked on Oprah: Super Training Kit. ...

Dr Mel Siff shoots straight from the hip in this post taken from the Supertraining mailing list.

For many years the role of elevated cholesterol in cardiac disease has been
debated but never adequately resolved. Several years ago, research suggested
that a bacterium, chlamydia pneumoniae, may be implicated in heart disease.
Now, workers are investigating the possibility that other bacteria may also be
involved in the process of cardiac disease.

I first read about this theory in 1997 soon after I had a near fatal heart
attack and quadruple bypass surgery and I raised the subject with my
cardiologist, who confirmed that he had also been studying the same research.
As a result, he suggested that I took a short dose of a specific antibiotic
called Azithromycin.

One of the sources which discussed this discovery was the Canada News, which
stated:

“Ours is the first compelling experimental evidence in the world to show how
a bacterial infection in the genital tract or lungs can lead to heart
disease,” Dr Penninger said of the study that his team published in the
scientific journal ‘Science’ (February 26, 1999).

Penninger and his research team found that the chlamydia bacterium resembles
the heart protein that makes the heart beat, but the body’s immune system
can’t tell the two apart. As a result, the immune system, which uses white
blood cells to kill off infectious diseases foreign to the body, is tricked
into launching twin attacks to destroy the invading bugs. It first attacks
the offending bacteria and then the heart protein. ”

http://canadanews.about.com/aboutcanada/canadanews/library/weekly/aa030199.htm
?iam=mt&terms=%2Bpenninger

Now, Penninger and co-workers have reported in ‘Nature Medicine’ (Aug 2000)
that bacteria, viruses and other microbes are all components of the protein
bit that is common to heart muscle and the chlamydia bacterium (Science News
Aug 2000, Vol 18).

In other words, microbes may play a central role in heart disease. Who
knows, within a few years elevated cholesterol and sedentary lifestyle may be
replaced by a dominant theory that heart disease may be “caught” like a
common cold and that all of the recommendations!

MORE REFERENCES

Other more technical articles relating to the same or related issues appear
in the following journals:

Penninger JM, Bachmaier K Review of microbial infections and the immune
response to cardiac antigens. J Infect Dis 2000 Jun;181 Suppl 3:S498-504

Bachmaier K, Neu N, Yeung RS, Mak TW, Liu P, Penninger JM. Generation of
humanized mice susceptible to peptide-induced inflammatory heart disease.
Circulation. 1999 Apr 13;99(14):1885-91

Bachmaier K, Neu N, de la Maza LM, Pal S, Hessel A, Penninger JM. Chlamydia
infections and heart disease linked through antigenic mimicry. Science. 1999
Feb 26;283(5406):1335-9.

Opavsky MA, Penninger J et al Susceptibility to myocarditis is dependent on
the response of alphabeta T lymphocytes to coxsackieviral infection. Circ Res
1999 Sep 17;85(6):551-8

Gura T. Chlamydia protein linked to heart disease. Science. 1999 Feb
26;283(5406):1238-9.

Bachmaier K, Le J, Penninger JM. “Catching heart disease”: antigenic mimicry
and bacterial infections. Nat Med. 2000 Aug;6(8):841-2.

Irwin MW, Mak S, et al Tissue expression and immunolocalization of tumor
necrosis factor-alpha in postinfarction dysfunctional myocardium.
Circulation. 1999 Mar 23;99(11):1492-8.

Penninger JM, Pummerer C, Liu P, Neu N, Bachmaier K. Cellular and molecular
mechanisms of murine autoimmune myocarditis. APMIS. 1997 Jan;105(1):1-13

Izumi T, Kodama M, Fujiwara M. Cardiac muscle cell damage through autoimmune
mechanism–can cardiac proteins provoke autoimmune myocarditis? Jpn Circ J.
1991 Nov;55(11):1138-43.

Dr Mel Siff

(Siff 'Supertraining' 2000 Ch 3). They have shown that greatest improvement in functional flexibility is achieved via integrated strength-flexibility exercises. This would seem to run counter to the common belief that all stretching ...

Dr Mel Siff critiques an endurance training article who are allegedly quoting Russian research to support their views – go Mel!

http://www.zdorovye.com/zdorovye/slavyanskiy.html

This is an extract from that site:

<The Russian Spetsnaz trainers to prepare their operatives for ultra-distance
physical extremes is the arcane endurance running technology called
‘Slavyanskiy Byeg’and the total health system: ‘Zdorovye’.

In ‘Slavyanskiy Byeg’ you will learn to coordinate your Carriage and Gait -
which is the process of integrating movement, alignment, and breathing. You
will learn how to virtually run indefinitely – without discomfort and expending
minimal energy. This running methodic teaches you how to wind your body like a
rubber band driven air-plane, using the ligaments and tendons in your body as
your engine, instead of using your large muscles. This is the most amazing
fitness technology ever to be released! >

***While I fully appreciate a great deal of former soviet strength and sports
training as a result of visiting Russia on a few occasions and collaborating
with some of the scientists from that country, I have always been intrigued
why Russian endurance athletes very rarely have matched the achievement of
endurance athletes from Africa, especially those from Kenya. Their dominance
of endurance running has also been a matter of great interest for some
Russian scientists who have been studying these African endurance masters to
ascertain why the Africans generally are far superior to most Russian
endurance runners, but the reasons for their excellence still remain a matter
of a great deal of speculation.

The remarkable endurance of the Khoi and San (‘Bushmen’) peoples in extremely
hot desert conditions with no access to exercise science, special foods or
energy replacement fluids is another case of African folk being remarkably
competent. Herein also lies another fascinating lesson that still has to be
dissected adequately.

While many of the Russian methods of training can be very productive and
effective, would this not seem to indicate that we should be turning to
Africa to learn the greatest secrets of endurance athleticism? Would anyone
like to suggest reasons for why African endurance athletes are currently so
dominant? What secrets could they teach the Russians and indeed, the rest of
us?

Is it due to a state of body, a state of mind, genetics, environment,
national outlook or what? This issue has been the topic of an increasing
amount of research and some popular articles and books have been written on
this subject, but none really has taken us much beyond the theories of
genetic superiority or environmental influences.

Here are a few websites which relate to this issue:

http://www.umist.ac.uk/UMIST_Sport/2_art2.htm
http://www.runnersworld.com/dailynew/archives/1998/February/980224.html
http://www.intellectualcapital.com/issues/issue353/item8676.asp

Dr Mel Siff