Why the media really suck at their job....

Yesterday Keri told me about having heard on the radio that there was some research that showed that weight lifting might lead to glaucoma.

Now, Glaucoma is a serious thing (WARNING: Boring definition) :

Glaucoma is a group of diseases of the optic nerve involving loss of retinal ganglion cells in a characteristic pattern of optic neuropathy. Although raised intraocular pressure is a significant risk factor for developing glaucoma, there is no set threshold for intraocular pressure that causes glaucoma. One person may develop nerve damage at a relatively low pressure, while another person may have high eye pressures for years and yet never develop damage. Untreated glaucoma leads to permanent damage of the optic nerve and resultant visual field loss, which can progress to blindness.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaucoma

I was skeptical, but I'm not a complete idiot, so I decided to look it up in case it was something to worry about. I did a quick search Google and picked the first 3 articles. Here's the headlines:

Lifting weights raises risk of glaucoma (MSNBC)
Weightlifting May Boost Glaucoma Risk (WebMD)
Weightlifting increases pressure within the eye (EurekAlert!)

Wow! Research has always shown that weight lifting helps the body to store energy efficiently, clear toxins and promote health. But according to these headlines - which is undoubtedly the ONLY source of information the radio personality used - weight lifting now might be the cause of Glaucoma!!

Then I read further...

It turns out that some research was performed in Brazil and published in the Archives of Ophthalmology. The research shows that pressure in the eye significantly rises when holding your breath when exerting the most pressure while weight lifting. If you know anything about exercising, you should know that proper breathing is essential. The original article can be found here: HTML or PDF.

The control exercise was the Benchpress (yes, just the one exercise) which is an exercise that most people perform incorrectly to begin with. The subjects did two sets of four repetitions at 80% of their maximum capacity. The first set the subjects exhaled normally on the last repetition. They waited an hour and performed the second set this time holding their breath on the last repetition. Their eye pressure was then measured while the subject still held the bar up. Their research showed that there was a 60% increase in eye pressure when breathing normally and a 90% increase when holding ones breath - which is a stupid technique.

The fact is that the research was conducted to measure the effects of weight lifting on eye pressure during weight lifting because all of the previous research had been done on the lingering, long-term effects of both aerobic and weight lifting training. And here's what will blow your socks off: the previous research shows that both cardiovascular exercise and weight lifting decreases eye pressure in the long-term.

Those articles published by the suppossedly respectable media had drawn the conclusion that weight lifting leads to a specific health risk. The research merely points out that eye pressure increases significantly when improper technique is used, even though the long-term result of weight lifting is lower eye pressure. Although there is a risk in developing normal-tension glaucoma due to repeated changes in eye pressure, the truth is that there is already plenty of research to show that regular weight training, along with cardiovascular exercise, improves all around health.

Proper technique, good nutrition and regular cardiovascular exercise is all that is required.

This son of Borikén....

On BBC News:

Puerto Rico budget woes deepen

Anger has been growing over the financial crisis
Thousands of workers in Puerto Rico are threatening to go on strike after a budget crisis partially shut down the island's government.
read more...

There have been a lot of problems down there since I left 10 years ago. The standard of living has gotten worse. Just last month the government had to shut down to save money.

Last semester I went back with my family. I took Keri along with me. I was so excited to show her the country where I grew up. But from the moment we walked into my grandmother's condo, we were slapped in the face by the heat of the unconditioned air - the lights were out due to rolling blackouts that stretch across the entire island. Family members have had to buy generators because the electricity that they pay for is so unreliable. The island is plagued by corrupt politicians and is suffering from a parent country that does not listen to it.

Last week 95,000 government workers were put out and half a million students were sent home when the governement and its schools were forced to close in an attempt to resolve the deficit problem. Because of this action, Moody's, a credit company, downgraded PR's bonds, junking most of them. So now our credit is shot, making the situation even worse.

People in the states talk about how the economy is slow and how spending isn't what it should be, but what they don't realize is that places like Puerto Rico, which is a self-governed commonwealth of the United States, gets hit much harder than any of the states.

I read these articles and hear about the condition of my home country and I just want to get up on my feet and yell out a cry of HELP!!! PLEASE HELP!! My people are in need and we're just a passing story on cnn's webpage. There is so much wealth in the states. Most americans just don't realize how blessed they are. But here we have an entire island of american citizens - 3.8 Million of them - living in poverty.

Try to imagine if what is occuring down there would happen here. Imagine if Virginia or Rhode Island had to close all government building and send the kids home because the state debt was so high and the governmental coffers so low that officials couldn't pay for the government to run. Could you imagine the uproar? The media and the talking heads would declare a national disaster and Bush's poll ratings might actually go down even further. Thousands would call for federal aid and an investigative commitee would be assembled to determine exactly who is to blame for allowing such a state of affairs to develop. Yet their is no uproar for Puerto Rico. We're just a side note in the news.

And why should the federal government or the media care? We're not allowed to vote for the president. We have no congressional votes. We're just second-class citizens living in a spit of land whose military worth has been exhausted and its only value is as a tourist stop.

That's why the only uproar you will hear is my own pitiful cry.


Pictures from the articles that I've been reading:



If you want to read more about this, I have a few saved links: http://del.icio.us/HokieGeek/puertorico+crisis(one is in spanish)