Exercising Is Like Doing Drugs; On the Way to Curing Prostate Cancer

Discovered: There is such a thing as too much exercise, a new Prostate cancer drug, American heads are getting bigger and bug bombs don't work on bed bugs

Discovered: There is such a thing as too much exercise, a new Prostate cancer drug, American heads are getting bigger, bug bombs don't work on bed bugs and a mysterious radioactive event.

• There is such a thing as too much exercise. Exercise is like doing drugs and therefore one can overdose on exercise. Really. "Physical exercise, though not a drug, possesses many traits of a powerful pharmacologic agent," explains researcher James H. O'Keefe. "As with any pharmacologic agent, a safe upper dose limit potentially exists, beyond which the adverse effects of physical exercise, such as musculoskeletal trauma and cardiovascular stress, may outweigh its benefits," he continues. Hear that kids, too much of that exercise drug will mess you up. (Yes, that means you marathon runners.) And, as friends don't let friends overdose on exercise, we demand you forgo those evening gym plans for some sunny outside lounging. If you want to learn more about exercise overdose, O'Keefe explains it all, including a disclaimer that exercise is important, yadda yadda, in a nifty almost 10 minute long video here. [Mayo Clinic Proceedings]
• This new drug slows advanced prostate cancer. In what sounds like a pretty incredible finding, researchers found that a drug called Zytiga also known as abiraterone acetate was pretty effective in dealing with prostate cancer in its advance stages. "This drug extended lives and gave patients more time when they weren't experiencing significant pain from the disease,'' explains researcher Charles J. Ryan. Even though the study only looked at those with late-stage prostate cancer, science thinks these encouraging results mean the drug might have wider use, too. "But it appears that this medication may lay a foundation for the use of this drug at an earlier stage of prostate cancer, and its benefits may be able to be delivered to a much wider population of patients as a result," added Ryan. But, we shouldn't expect to see the drug on the market anytime, too soon. The final analyses isn't expected until 2014. [UCSF]
• American heads are getting bigger. The most symbolic finding we've seen in awhile, science has discovered American skulls are getting physically bigger. Since the mid 1800s, average skull height from the base to the top in men has increased by eight millimeters. Overall size in men has grown by 200 cubic centimeters, which the research tells us is about as big as a tennis ball. a space equivalent to a tennis ball. Women have seen a seven millimeter increase in height and 180 cubic centimeters overall. All very awful jokes aside, our heads have likely gotten bigger because of our stereotypical American lifestyles. "It likely results from modified growth patterns because of better nutrition, lower infant and maternal mortality, less physical work, and a breakdown of former ethnic barriers to marriage. Which of these is paramount we do not know," explains researcher Lee Jantz. [University of Tennessee, Knoxville]
• Don't use bug bombs on bed bugs. They won't work, sorry. "These foggers don't penetrate in cracks and crevices where most bed bugs are hiding, so most of them will survive," explains researcher Susan Jones . "If you use these products, you will not get the infestation under control, you will waste your money, and you will delay effective treatment of your infestation. Bed bugs are among the most difficult and expensive urban pests to control. It typically takes a professional to do it right. Also, the ineffective use of these products can lead to further resistance in insects," she adds. So, if you're still suffering from the bed bug epidemic of 2010, stop being cheap, get the proffessionals to handle it. [Journal of Economic Entomology]
• Something hit the Earth with a massive radiation blast about 1,200 years ago. The whole thing sounds very mysterious to us. "Some very energetic event occurred in about ad 775," explains researcher Daniel Baker. We know. This sounds more like something spiritual than scientific. But our researchers figured this out by looking at trees, where they found a big 1.2 percent jump in the carbon-14 isotopes over the course of no longer than a year, which is about 20 times more than the normal rate. This has led science to conclude that something weird happened. But, what exactly happened, science is not sure. [Nature]