Gabriella Gonzales PE Paper 1 Owning a Dog Is Linked to Reduced Heart Risk, Anahad OConnor, NYTimes Owing to the growing

number of studies demonstrating a positive link between dog ownership and reduced risk of heart disease, the American Heart Association published a statement that recognized the cardiovascular benefits of owning a pet. There isnt quite enough evidence to prove that there is a direct correlation between owning a dog and reduced risk of heart disease; its certainly also plausible that healthier individuals are more likely to become dog owners in the first place. There was also a stark distinction between pet owners who walked their dogs and pet owners who did not walk their own dogs, suggesting what many may have already have suspected-- that it is the cardiovascular workout that accompanies owning a dog, rather than owning the dog itself (although the New York times does note that the actual physical presence of a dog has a calming effect on the human body) that has this effect. In a way, this article called to mind the recent slew of NYC Subway ads that promoted easy ways to incorporate exercise into ones daily routine, without it becoming a task. Some ideas included walking from place to place instead of taking the bus, using the stairs instead of the elevator, etc.-- simple things that dont require noticeably extra commitment. Obviously (hopefully?) people are not adopting or buying dogs for the sole purpose of reducing their own risk of heart disease, but this article served as a nice reminder that there are alternative ways of being healthy and living a healthful lifestyle that can act as supplements to more traditional means of staying fit, such as cutting down on sweets, meal portions, time in front of the TV, morning exercise routines. Perhaps that mile walk to the F train is really a blessing in disguise.

Gabriella Gonzales PE Paper 2 The Love Hormone as Sports Enhancer, Gretchen Reynolds, NYTimes Scientists speculate that oxytocin, a hormone that [promotes] positive intersocial relations... cuddliness and warm, intimate bonding may have the capacity to positively influence sports games. Scientists have noted that sports teams are more likely to perform better following a successful team members act of celebration: [W]hen one of the first shooters threw his arms in the air to celebrate a goal, his teammates were far more likely to subsequently shoot successfully than when no exuberant gestures followed a goal... (Reynolds, 1) The scientists attribute this phenomenon to transference of emotion. This is corroborated by the well-known fact that happiness and and confidence are contagious emotions. However, it is difficult to test whether or not oxytocin is present in team sports players because of most athletes (understandable) unwillingness to have their games paused in order for scientists to draw their blood! Then again, the oxytocin may be present simply because of the fact that exercise even by itself produces oxytocin. Initially I was puzzled over the relationship between increased spikes of oxytocin and better performance on the field. I did not understand how improved social bonds or feelings of self-confidence could improve performance. These feel-good emotions obviously cannot compensate for a lack of preparedness. Maybe Im too prone to cynicism, but the psychological effects of self-fulfilling prophecies that come about as a result of positive thinking do have some merit. Additionally, the social bonds that oxytocin releases could result in team players being better equipped to read each others body movements and intuit other players emotions.

Gabriella Gonzales PE Paper 3 How Exercise Can Prime the Brain for Addiction, Gretchen Reynolds, NYTimes This was a very intriguing article that depicted the role of exercise in an individuals capacity for addiction or sobriety. In this experiment, two groups of mice were fed liquid cocaine. One group of mice were sedentary, while the other group of mice were active runners. Each time they were fed cocaine, they were fed in the same area of their cage. The mice would then begin to associate this area of the cage with pleasurable, cocaine-induced experiences. If the mice congregated at this area frequently, then the scientists determined that they were addicted, or habituated. However, once the scientists cut their drug supply, very different patterns emerged from the two groups. Some sedentary mice had been given wheels and began to exercise following their addiction. These mice were quickly able to stop frequenting the area. However, mice that that had been runners before beginning the experiment had a much greater level of difficulty in attempting to give up that area. When scientists discovered that the running mice had twice as many brain cells as the sedentary mice, and that the majority of these brain cells were found in the hippocampus, an area of the brain known for associative learning, they deduced that exercise can result in the synthesis of new cells that are primed for learning. Can this article truly prove the importance of exercise in relation to learning? Its a double-edged sword in that the learning demonstrated in this article is extremely broad and the cells will indiscriminately learn whatever occurs in its environment. Additionally, is associative learning a skill that is commonly used in schools? It is common for students to use critical thinking skills and perhaps rote memorization in less inspired schools, but what role does associative learning play in learning in a school environment?

Gabriella Gonzales PE Paper 4 The Little Things Add Up in Fitness, Gretchen Reynolds (again!), NYTimes Were constantly being spurred to exercise more-- but is that always a good thing? Reynolds suggests that there is a sweet spot of weekly exercise that can promote good health and longer lifespans. Exercise and lifespan arent directly proportional. Too much exercising can result in a kind of blowback: exercisers become more fatigued and thus are more sedentary during times they are not exercising, and eat more as a result of this exhaustion. In contrast, in men who only exercised 30 minutes a day, it appeared as though their exercise manifested itself in more beneficial ways. These men appeared energized by their short burst of activity: [These men] stood up, walked, stretched and even bounced in place more than they once had. It looks like they were taking the stairs now, not the elevators, and just moving around more, Mr. Rosenkilde said. It was little things, but they add up.

Reynolds also takes care to show us an opposite issue, what happens when one does not exercise frequently enough. She quotes a previous article of hers, which stated that [e]very single hour of television watched after the age of 25 reduces the viewers life expectancy by 21.8 minutes. And this in contrast to cigarettes-- which reduced ones lifespan by 11 minutes, almost half that (still extremely damning of course, because one does not smoke a single cigarette for an hour). It is important that the public understand that while on the whole exercise is still an excellent routine to incorporate into ones daily life, it is certainly possible to have too much of it. I think that individuals suffering from anorexia or bulimia would benefit from this article. Many individuals with body-image issues turn to over-exercising as a way to achieve their ideal body. The resulting blowback from over-exercising should serve as a strong deterrent.