Cycling UK Forum

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 81468.html

The subject of the health benefits big thighs has come up a lot today. I see it is referred to as an 'independent indicator' whic I presume means it doesn't make any difference if they are all muscle from riding up big hills or all flab from lying down and dreaming about it.

What next?
If we listened to half of what these "experts"told us we'd all be sloshing red wine down our necks by the gallon,wearing a blonde wig whilst cycling,analising our faeces daily,not eating eggs or is that eating eggs not going out in bright sunshine so we don't get skin cancer or going out in the sunshine to absorb some vitamin D,slapping oil of Ole (or is it Ulay) on and any number of other things,some of which I can remember some of which I can't,but all of which are worth sweet Fanny Adams.

Experts, really, I mean really!

PS sorry about that but I feel much better now I've released some inner tension (which I'm assured by experts is good for me)Ommmmm..................

PS Some thighs can be a sourse of tension

Ah, it's not the scientists who are to blame - tis the journalists!

But I'm a scientist, so I would say that, right?! I wouldn't quite say I'm an expert on anything yet, so I'm afraid I can't offer any baffling or conflicting advice. Sorry.

I was surprised to hear about thigh-size on the news yesterday. I wonder what sparked it off?

It's not new research, it's a known fact that thigh (and bum) muscles assist the heart in pumping. We did it in biology at school! They've even been talking about it for years with ref to DVT on long-haul flights.

Thighs pump blood. Bigger thighs pump more blood.

Mick F wrote:I was surprised to hear about thigh-size on the news yesterday. I wonder what sparked it off?

It's not new research, it's a known fact that thigh (and bum) muscles assist the heart in pumping. We did it in biology at school! They've even been talking about it for years with ref to DVT on long-haul flights.

Thighs pump blood. Bigger thighs pump more blood.

Quite, cjchambers has it exactly right, it's not the 'experts' it's the journo's. Whilst it's important people find out what's happening one can't help but think that perhaps we'd be much better off without them, forget governments real power is sadly in the hands of the ilk of The Daily Mail.

There are millions of 'experiments' happening all the time, the people that do them understand the value and the limitations of them most are done to see if further research is necessary. Without understanding why the research was done or what criteria were used or how it was analysed you can't really say what it's value is, most of this stuff does contribute to our knowledge but not in a black and white tabloid "big thighs means less heart attacks" sort of a way.

If you ignore the tabloid journalism then expert advice is primarily pretty sound and has been fairly constant for some time now the real issue is people picking up research and printing snippets without any background to the technically naive public whom generally seem to believe anything that's printed.

If you're interested you can read the paper here:

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/339/sep03_2/b3292

Note the 'limitations' at the end; exercise may be a confounding factor.

Jack wrote:If you're interested you can read the paper here:

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/339/sep03_2/b3292

Note the 'limitations' at the end; exercise may be a confounding factor.

If you read the paper almost immediately you start to at least some of the reasons the research was done.

a recent study suggested that lower body muscle mass is particularly related to the development of type 2 diabetes. Indeed, studies have reported that insulin resistance could be provoked in lower body muscle, such as leg muscle, but not in arm muscle,

The plot thickens.
So thats conclusive evidence, STOP cycling immediately it can damage your health!

reohn2 wrote:...we'd all be sloshing red wine down our necks by the gallon,wearing a blonde wig whilst cycling,analising our faeces daily,not eating eggs or is that eating eggs not going out in bright sunshine so we don't get skin cancer or going out in the sunshine to absorb some vitamin D,slapping oil of Ole (or is it Ulay) on and any number of other things,some of which I can remember some of which I can't.....

I don't see your point, really. Is it just me; am I the only one that does this?