EAS Peak: Performance Nutrition

Got this package in the mail today. It was three bottles of EAS Peak, each with 10 grams of protein. The press release boasts of 3 P's: Push, Performance and Protect. There's no caffeine. It does contain the following scientific words: Beta-alanine: an amino acid used to produce carnosine in the muscles. (Which is said to delay fatigue); isomaltulose: a slowly digesting carb; and HMB: an ingredient that can help slow muscle protein breakdown while promoting the production of new muscle tissue.
Wanna know what HMB stands for? beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate. Whoa.
Did it help get me through Spin? Yes, and it tasted pretty good too.
Thanks, EAS.

Wired: Double amputee swims English channel

Did y'all hear about this?
Frenchman Philippe Croizon, who lost both arms and legs in an electrical accident in 1994, successfully swam across the English Channel yesterday in just under 14 hours, using a snorkel affixed to his face as well as some specially designed prosthetic flippers.
Croizon, who trained more than 30 hours a week for two years for this attempt, had been hoping to make the swim in roughly 24 hours. Instead, he made the 21-mile crossing from Folkstone, UK, to Wissant, France in just over half a day.
Back in 1994, Croizon made his living as a French metal worker when he climbed the roof of his house one day and made contact with a nearby power line. His life-threatening injuries required the amputation of all four of his four limbs, although that hasn’t affected Croizon from living his life.
In fact, you’ll likely soon find his name on the official list of Channel-swim record-holders.
Read the rest here.

AP photo

Garrison Keillor: Leave me alone

"One short weekend, so much to do -- an invitation to go swimming at night by moonlight, the Iran protest march downtown with our mouths taped shut, a dance at the Eagles Club with a hot horn band playing '70s funk that propels people onto the dance floor as if shot from guns -- but here I am stuck with houseguests who are unable to sit in a room without me for more than 15 minutes. They follow me around like faithful collies. We ran out of conversation on Friday and they're here until Wednesday. I have had un-Christian thoughts about them. I may have to run away from home.
The problem, dear hearts, is a common one here in the American heartland: an inability to express personal preference in simple declarative sentences, no modifiers.
E.g., 'I vish to be alone.' "
This is the rest.
Bravo.

Well: What doctors don't know about nutrition

Some of the most common questions patients ask their doctors focus on the link between diet and health, according to the Well blog on NewYorkTimes.com. But as Dr. Pauline Chen explains this week in her Doctor and Patient column, many of the nation’s medical schools are failing to provide new doctors with adequate nutrition education. She writes:
"Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill asked nutrition educators from over 100 medical schools to describe the nutrition instruction offered to their students. While the researchers learned that almost all schools require exposure to nutrition, only about quarter offered the recommended 25 hours of instruction, a decrease from six years earlier, when almost 40 percent of all schools met the minimum recommendations. In addition, four schools offered nutrition optionally, and one school offered nothing at all. And while the majority of medical schools tended to intersperse lectures on nutrition in standard, required year-long or semester courses, like biochemistry or physiology, only a quarter of the schools managed to have a single course dedicated to the topic."
Read the rest here.
I like one of the comments: "Money talks and the beet growers associations can’t afford TV advertising like Lilly can."

Slow cooker: Take the slow-cooker quiz

All hail the slow cooker. This marvel of modern cookery is an asset to busy home cooks everywhere. The set-it-and-forget-it technique means dinner will be ready at the end of the day with a minimum of prep in the morning. Are you a smarty when it comes to slow cooking? Prove your know-how with this challenging quiz.
Good luck!

MCAT: How the scoring breaks down

In case you are curious about the MCAT--the medical school admissions test--here's how the different sections break down, scoring-wise.
I have a friend who just took it and she feels pretty solid about it. All the best to her. She has to wait about three more weeks for results. Imagine THAT agony.
The sections are: Physical Sciences; Verbal Reasoning; Biological Sciences; and Writing. Not so sure how I'd handle Physical and Biological Sciences--which, yes, sort of counts me out for this particular profession.

Consumer Reports: Rate those heart surgeons

Medical groups that perform heart bypass surgery are now being rated alongside cars and toaster ovens in Consumer Reports.
In most parts of the country, data-based ratings of doctors are not available to patients. Only a few states, including New York, provide them.
The magazine published ratings of 221 surgical groups from 42 states online last Tuesday and will print them in its October issue. Groups are rated, not individual doctors. The groups receive one, two or three stars, for below average, average or above average. The scores were based on complication and survival rates, whether the groups used the best surgical technique and whether patients were being sent home with certain medicines that research has shown to be beneficial after this type of surgery.
Read this rest here.
And why not? If you can get a good sense of the best toasters, why not someone--or a group of someones--operating on you?