Muscular mitochondria
Exercising is a popular New Year’s resolution, though usually for naught. Various studies have found that nearly one-quarter of people quit their resolutions by the end of the first week and almost half by the end of January. Only 8 percent to 9 percent stick with them for an entire year or to completion.
But if you’re still busily huffing and puffing at the gym or at home, here’s a little insight into what happens inside your body while you wait for gratifying external evidence.
When you push your body physically, your muscles respond by increasing the number of mitochondria — the so-called “power plants” of cells. The key driver is a molecule called peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 alpha, or PGC-1-alpha, a protein that basically regulates the expression of many genes in skeletal muscles. Besides boosting mitochondrial mass, PGC-1-alpha increases the number of blood vessels in muscles, improving the supply of nutrients and oxygen.
Strength training produces other effects, such as increasing the production of proteins that regulate muscle growth. More proteins, more muscle.
Body of knowledge
According to acupuncturists, there is a point on the head that you can press to stop feeling hungry. It is located in the hollow just in front of the flap of the ear.
Get me that. Stat!
The combined weight of all humans on Earth is estimated to be 390 million metric tons (a metric ton is a bit heavier than the familiar U.S. ton of 2,000 pounds), or 10 times the total weight of all wild land and marine mammals, according to a February 2023 study published in PNAS. That pales in comparison to the total weight of all domesticated mammals at an estimated 630 million metric tons.
Side note for cat lovers: The total mass of domestic cats in the world is more than that of all of the world’s African savanna elephants combined.
Medical history
This week in 1944, American obstetrician and gynecologist John Charles Rock, with Miriam F. Menkin, fertilized the first human egg in a test tube. After hundreds of efforts, they had produced a fertilized, two-cell human egg. The embryo was not returned to the womb.
Rock is perhaps better known as creating, with biologist Gregory Pincus, the first effective oral contraceptive, which debuted as “the Pill” in 1960.
Mark your calendar
February is awareness month for heart health, cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer) and, more generally, cancer prevention, low vision, prenatal infection prevention, children’s dental health, Marfan syndrome (a connective tissue disorder characterized by unusually long limbs and believed to have affected Abraham Lincoln) and Raynaud’s disease, which causes decreased blood flow to fingers, toes and other areas of the body.
February 29 is Rare Disease Day, especially notable this year because it’s a leap day, only seen every four years or so.
Counts
Doc talk
Phobia of the week
Best medicine
With great reflexes comes great response ability.
Observation
“The great secret of doctors, known only to their wives, but still hidden from the public, is that most things get better by themselves; most things, in fact, are better in the morning.”
Sum body
Fourteen diseases you can get from your pets:
1. Plague
2. Hookworm
3. Rabies
4. Toxoplasmosis
5. Cat scratch disease
6. Tapeworm
7. Ringworm
8. Salmonella
9. Psittacosis
10. Lyme disease
11. Rocky Mountain spotted fever
12. Campylobacter
13. Giardia
14. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
Note: The total number of (zoonotic) diseases that can spread between animals and people is surprisingly large, from Aeromonas infections to tularemia. Check out the CDC’s website for a more comprehensive listing.
Curtain calls
Sir Arthur Aston was a Royalist general during the English Civil War (1642-1651). Shortly after becoming governor of Oxford in 1644, Aston was thrown from his horse and broke his leg. He developed gangrene and required amputation. The procedure was a success, with Aston given a wooden prosthesis.
After the execution of King Charles I in 1649, Aston commanded a 3,000-man army facing off against Oliver Cromwell’s forces. Adiston’s army was roundly defeated and Aston was beaten to death with his own wooden leg.
LaFee is vice president of communications for the Sanford Burnham Prebys research institute.
