Fatigue is a Brain-Derived Emotion that Regulates the Exercise Behavior to Ensure the Protection of Whole Body Homeostasis

An influential book written by A. Mosso in the late nineteenth century proposed that fatigue that “at first sight might appear an imperfection of our body, is on the contrary one of its most marvelous perfections. The fatigue increasing more rapidly than the amount of work done saves us from the injury which lesser sensibility would involve for the organism” so that “muscular fatigue also is at bottom an exhaustion of the nervous system.” It has taken more than a century to confirm Mosso’s idea that both the brain and the muscles alter their function during exercise and that fatigue is predominantly an emotion, part of a complex regulation, the goal of which is to protect the body from harm. Mosso’s ideas were supplanted in the English literature by those of A. V. Hill who believed that fatigue was the result of biochemical changes in the exercising limb muscles – “peripheral fatigue” – to which the central nervous system makes no contribution. The past decade has witnessed the growing realization that this brainless model cannot explain exercise performance. This article traces the evolution of our modern understanding of how the CNS regulates exercise specifically to insure that each exercise bout terminates whilst homeostasis is retained in all bodily systems. The brain uses the symptoms of fatigue as key regulators to insure that the exercise is completed before harm develops. These sensations of fatigue are unique to each individual and are illusionary since their generation is largely independent of the real biological state of the athlete at the time they develop. The model predicts that attempts to understand fatigue and to explain superior human athletic performance purely on the basis of the body’s known physiological and metabolic responses to exercise must fail since subconscious and conscious mental decisions made by winners and losers, in both training and competition, are the ultimate determinants of both fatigue and athletic performance

Pakeha and River Spirituality: A Contextual Study of the Hutt River

This thesis ... seeks to identify expressions of spirituality that have been evident in Pakeha interaction with and reflection upon the Hutt River since 1840. To achieve this, an historical-contextual approach has been adopted using Claire Wolfteich's premise that 'spirituality must be analysed through a historical-contextual approach which can uncover the contours of a community's spiritual practice in relation to a given time and place.' It is important to note here that the historical-contextual approach does not treat spirituality as purely metaphysical and therefore extraordinary to human experience or history. Instead, it recognizes social context as the very environment in which spirituality is located and found. Using this approach the thesis uncovers expressions of nature spirituality that have been operative in relation to the Hutt River since the arrival of the first European settlers. It demonstrates that a range of these spiritual expressions have always existed, and highlights the way that these spiritualities have been shaped, in varying degrees, by religious, economic, political and aesthetic factors. The evolution, accommodations and adaptations which have occurred amongst expressions of nature spirituality present a scene of diversity, complexity and variegation. Overall, this thesis therefore argues that various expressions of river spirituality are clearly evident in Pakeha interaction and relationships with the Hutt River. These expressions are complex in make up and how they interrelate with each other. River spirituality exists with its own unique set of dynamics within a wider discussion of Pakeha earth centered spirituality. (p. 7

Cross-fostering and Parent-offspring Responses in Cichlasoma citrinellum (Pisces, Cichlidae)

Previous studies of parent-young interactions in cichlid fish have established some of the details of such relations, but have raised, or left unanswered many questions. In particular, there are questions as to the recognition of parents and young by each other, and to what extent learning might be involved in such recognition. Based on observations of exchanges of parents between families of Cichlasoma citrinellum, we suggest that parents learn to recognize young during each parental cycle. They appear to have a moderately short term memory for recognition of young, and accept young corresponding to this memory. Parental fish accept conspecific fry younger than, or the same age, but not those older than their own. Successive presentations of young fry maintained parental behavior for much longer than normal. Changes in color pattern, and some aspects of parental behavior are described

Low-carbohydrate and high-fat intake can manage obesity and associated conditions: Occasional survey

This study analyses 127 communications from individuals self-reporting their weight change following adoption of a low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) eating plan. Total combined self-reported weight loss was 1 900 kg (range 5 kg gain to 84 kg loss). The mean ± standard deviation weight loss of 15 (±12) kg is among the largest yet described. Sixteen subjects reported the LCHF ‘cured’ (i.e. medications no longer required) one or more of their medical conditions, most commonly type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) (n=14), hypertension (n=8) and hypercholesterolaemia (n=7). Another 9 subjects with either type 1 diabetes mellitus or T2DM reduced medications as did 7 patients with hypertension; 8 no longer suffered from irritable bowel syndrome. These data show that significant and rapid weight loss is possible on an unsupervised eating plan that severely restricts daily carbohydrate intake to approximately <75 g/day. Better weight loss on a carbohydrate-restricted LCHF eating plan than on an iso-caloric high-carbohydrate, low-fat (HCLF) diet is well described in the literature, probably due to a paradoxical reduction of hunger by carbohydrate restriction. A randomised controlled clinical trial is urgently required to disprove the hypothesis that the LCHF eating plan can reverse cases of T2DM, metabolic syndrome and hypertension without pharmacotherapy.