Basic Takedowns filmed at our 'Tactical Edge Core Combatives' workshop for 'Combat Ready' in Edinburgh. In this clip we're working on three basic takedowns as a 'Dry Fire Drill', so we're doing them without supporting strikes, & we're not working against an attack; we're using our training partner as a 'crash test dummy' to perfect the technique.
I've had lots of stuff here before about sugary diets and cancer - for example this here.
I usually post the simple science, the idea being that starving cancers of sugar can kill them. Other cells can be fuelled in other means but tumours need sugar, so if you cut off the supply then they struggle to grow:
unlike healthy cells, which generate energy by metabolizing sugar in their mitochondria, cancer cells appeared to fuel themselves exclusively through glycolysis, a less-efficient means of creating energy through the fermentation of sugar in the cytoplasm. The theory is simple: If most aggressive cancers rely on the fermentation of sugar for growing and dividing, then take away the sugar and they should stop spreading. Meanwhile, normal body and brain cells should be able to handle the sugar starvation; they can switch to generating energy from fatty molecules called ketone bodies — the body's main source of energy on a fat-rich diet — an ability that some or most fast-growing and invasive cancers seem to lack.
Asclepius posted this morning about a new bit of research doing the rounds:
Consuming two or more soft drinks per week increased the risk of developing pancreatic cancer by nearly twofold compared to individuals who did not consume soft drinks, according to a report in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Although relatively rare, pancreatic cancer remains one of the most deadly, and only 5 percent of people who are diagnosed are alive five years later.
Mark Pereira, Ph.D., senior author on the study and associate professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, said people who consume soft drinks on a regular basis, defined as primarily carbonated sugar-sweetened beverages, tend to have a poor behavioral profile overall.
However, the effect of these drinks on pancreatic cancer may be unique.
"The high levels of sugar in soft drinks may be increasing the level of insulin in the body, which we think contributes to pancreatic cancer cell growth," said Pereira.
I keep an eye out on the internet for mentions of the paleo diet. There has been a flurry of interest recently - as I mentioned here - but I do not think some of the coverage is doing the concept any favours.
Focussing on raw meat (?!) is sensationalist and doesn't address the science, but hey it will sell papers.
To them it is just another fad diet.
I hate it when things I like become popular. It is like when you have a favourite band that you follow for a couple of years. Then they get a hit and everyone becomes a fan. Then the magic goes.
I believe that micronutrient deficiency also plays a role. Inadequate vitamin and mineral status can contribute to inflammation and weight gain. Obese people typically show deficiencies in several vitamins and minerals. The problem is that we don't know whether the deficiencies caused the obesity or vice versa. Refined carbohydrates and refined oils are the worst offenders because they're almost completely devoid of micronutrients.
Vitamin D in particular plays an important role in immune responses (including inflammation), and also appears to influence body fat mass. Vitamin D status is associated with body fat and insulin sensitivity in humans (14, 15, 16). More convincingly, genetic differences in the vitamin D receptor gene are also associated with body fat mass (17, 18), and vitamin D intake predicts future fat gain (19).
.........food sources of vitamin D, such as fish (300-400 units per serving) and egg yolks (20 units per yolk), are inadequate. This makes sense: Humans are not meant to obtain vitamin D from food, but from sun exposure over a large body surface area. And this is a phenomenon that is meant to occur only in the youthful, ensuring that nature takes its course and us older folks get old and make way for the young (i.e., unless we intervene by taking vitamin D supplements).
I train at Krav Maga Edinburgh's new Combat Ready Academy, which is a good purpose desinged venue. The classes are well taught and the students are a great supportive bunch of lads, training hard and having a laugh. In the Krav Maga classes Marcus and Lee often introduce techniques from Tactical Edge and I've been at a couple of sessions taught by Mark Davies.
Last week I bought a DVD from the gym with Mark Davies and Marcus Houston giving a great, basic and understandable introduction to useful self defence techniques.
The DVD cost me £10. While not a "professional" product, it is well shot and put together, with sufficient repetition and the techniques being demonstrated from different angles with close ups where necessary.
A lot of great information is put over in the 1 hour and 45 minutes of the DVD, with a format of Mark explaining the techniques and the associated concepts and then demonstrating them.
The focus is that it shouldn’t take years to lean how to protect yourself. This is not traditional martial arts, it is self protection. A handful of simple effective techniques drilled repetitively are all you really need.
Valuable wee nuggets of information are sprinkled throughout the material, for example:
It talks about how to avoid fights. Fights are always dangerous, you are likely to get hurt, there could be legal repercussions. The legal issues are touched on too - what counts as legitimate self defense? How can you ensure that you are perceived as the good guy? What are the implications of the huge numbers of CCTV cameras which will be taping you in lots of pubs / clubs and streets?
There is lots of anatomy too - where and why to hit. How the nervous system works, the realities of adrenaline and how it will affect your fine, complex and gross motor skills. How heart rate can limit your ability to do complex things.
He describes the OODA loop and how to apply it, for example with a preemptive strike where necessary.
In terms of techniques the DVD goes through very basic but effective stuff:
The Passive guard
A basic “fence” and why it is to be preferred to a traditional fighting stance Strikes
Palm Strikes – why punching is a bad idea ( it wrecks your hands, so keep it hard to soft, soft to hard)
Replacement jabs, hooks, uppercuts, down strikes
Hammer-fists
Elbow stikes, with a secondary strike from the other hand, downward elbows with a walkthrough
Knee strikes
Takedowns
Safety, perception to those watching, the reality of a hard floor in the real world and the danger of doing fatal damage
Head tilt
Horizontal Neck Twist
Rear neck whip
Situationals - The 5 most common street attacks from crime statistics:
Haymaker
Clothing grab
Choke
Kick
Knife attack
All of it is explained really well and demonstrated simply and clearly. It is not a complex set of techniques that will take forever to learn, but a simple adaptable skill set that takes account of the reality of the world outside the gym.
Overall, a great DVD that I would recommend to anyone, especially those with no previous exposure to self defense materials or techniques.
The DVDs are available directly from Mark Davies or from Combat Ready in Edinburgh. If you have any questions, contact me and I'll be happy to discuss or get hold of one and send it to you.
Here are a couple of clips of Mark Teaching, although the techniques here are a bit more complex than on the DVD
That post the other day on creatine got me thinking about it again. I had not taken it for about a year or so. It usually makes me gain a bit of weight but also gives me cramps.
The research seems to indicate that it is safe and effective with lots of benefits apart from those related to sports performance.
I keep an eye out on the internet for mentions of the paleo diet. There has been a flurry of interest recently - as I mentioned here - but I do not think some of the coverage is doing the concept any favours.
