It won't be Basso this year...

Tour de France hit by massive doping scandal

Associated Press

STRASBOURG, FRANCE — A doping scandal knocked Tour de France favourites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso out of the race Friday and threw the world's most glamorous cycling event into chaos.

The decision to prevent Ullrich, Basso and likely dozens of others from competing was made a day before the Tour began. Tour director Christian Prudhomme said the organizers' determination to fight doping was "total."

"The enemy is not cycling, the enemy is doping," he said.

Riders being excluded will not be replaced, meaning a smaller field than the 189 racers originally expected.

It is the biggest doping crisis to the hit the sport since the Festina scandal in 1998 nearly derailed the Tour. The Festina team was ejected from the race after customs officers found a large stash of banned drugs in a team car.

Basso, winner of the Giro d'Italia, and Ullrich — the 1997 Tour winner and a five-time runner-up — were among more than 50 cyclists said to have been implicated in a Spanish doping probe that has rocked the sport for weeks.

Basso and Ullrich's teams said Friday that because their names had come up in the probe they were being withdrawn from the Tour. Ullrich's T-Mobile squad said it also suspended rider Oscar Sevilla and sporting director Rudi Pevenage because of their involvement.

Basso was heading back to Italy, his team said.

The team of Spanish racer Francisco Mancebo, a top rider who finished fourth at the Tour last year, said it was also barring him.

Tour officials did not immediately say how many other riders were out of the race.

The Spanish scandal erupted in May when police there carried out arrests and raids, seizing drugs and frozen blood thought to have been readied for banned, performance-enhancing transfusions.

Since then, the names of riders said to have had contacts with Eufemiano Fuentes, a doctor among those arrested, have leaked in Spanish media.

Then, after more leaks on Thursday, Spanish authorities released details from the probe to Tour organizers and other cycling bodies, showing which riders were implicated in the investigation. It was on the basis of that official information that Tour teams decided to act.

T-Mobile received information implicating Ullrich, Sevilla and Pevenage from Tour organizers, including documents from the Spanish government, team spokesman Luuc Eisenga said.

"The only thing I can tell you is that the information is clear enough and didn't leave any doubt," he said.

Another T-Mobile spokesman, Stefan Wagner, told Germany's n-tv television that the team was acting on information indicating "that there was contact between the two riders and Rudi Pevenage and the Spanish doctor ... who is at the center of this doping story."

Asked whether T-Mobile would consider cutting ties with Ullrich completely, he replied "certainly ... we are now demanding evidence of his innocence."

"If this evidence can be provided, then we have a completely new situation," he said. "If it cannot be provided, nothing will change about this situation."

The extent of Basso's implication was not immediately clear. His team said that Basso insisted he was innocent. But it also said that the suspicion hanging over the Italian would have made his participation in the Tour difficult. He was the favourite to win and become the first rider since Marco Pantani in 1998 to take both the Tours of France and Italy in the same year.

"It would be big chaos if those riders remain in the race," said the manager of Basso's team, Bjarne Riis. "We have to protect cycling."

Riis noted that Basso's contract forbids him from working with doctors from outside their CSC team.

"Ivan must prove with his lawyer that he is innocent. I believe in Ivan but I have been forced to take the necessary steps," Riis said.

Spanish rider Joseba Beloki, runner-up at the 2002 Tour and third in both 2001 and 2000, was also among those named in media reports as being linked to the scandal. It was not immediately clear whether his team, Astana-Wurth, was also withdrawing him from this year's race.

Tour organizers had earlier sought to have the entire Astana team — which also includes favorite Alexandre Vinokourov — excluded. But the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled against it on Thursday.

Prudhomme said Friday that the court might have ruled differently had it had access to the latest information from the Spanish probe.

"So many names" of Astana riders appear in the Spanish investigation "that it looks like a system of team doping," he said.

More Lance...

Lance with Charlie Rose

Watch the video here.

In other news, I went to swim practice this morning and when I came out of the pool at 7am my car was gone! Apparently the majority of stolen cars are recovered but it might take up to 3 weeks. I have a club for the steering wheel, but stupidly, it was in the back seat! I have parked my car in the same spot for 2 years now and never even thought that it might be stolen (hence, the reason I never use the club!). Hopefully the police find it soon.

One week to go...Who will fill Armstrong's shoes?

The 2006 Tour de France is the most open since 1999 with no obvious candidate to totally dominate the race as Lance Armstrong did. With a balanced parcours that will favour an all-rounder and a mix of outgoing greats who have been waiting their turn and up-and-coming stars, this year's Tour could be the most exciting in years. John Kenny looks at the favourites and the outsiders for the podium in Paris.

The route for this year's edition of the Tour will open the race up to the non-climbers, as the race profile will favour all-rounders who can climb capably and who excel in time trials. The mountainous stages are also less severe this year compared to recent editions. It's difficult to see how a pure climber can win the yellow jersey without the ability to at least limit their losses in the two long, flat time trials.

The exclusion of the team test this year affects Ivan Basso (CSC) and Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) more than most other GC candidates. The leaders of the CSC and T-Mobile super-squads would have fancied their chances of landing a psychological blow through a show of team strength and solidarity. Putting some early time into riders from weaker teams would have been a bonus, although the race organisers had already effectively made the TTT more of a colourful display than a serious sorting out stage with the time-loss minimisation scheme.

The candidates

Basso and Ullrich may be the bookies favourites for the 2006 Tour, but there are a host of other riders who will fancy a shot at the title in the post-Armstrong era. Don't tell Floyd Landis (Phonak) and Alejandro Valverde (Caisse D'epargne - Illes Balears) that they're outsiders now that Armstrong has retired.

Alexander Vinokourov's team (Astana - Würth, née Liberty Seguros - Würth) has been allowed to start now that the re-jigged team has secured an eleventh-hour Protour license. He may be able to throw off the distractions of the Operacion Puerto doping affair and put together one of his trademark shows of strength and stamina and finish higher on GC than his third place in 2003.

The favourites

Ivan Basso won the Giro d'Italia this year at a canter, but winning the Giro/Tour double is a feat hasn't been achieved since Marco Pantani won both grand tours in 1998. Indeed, accepted wisdom in recent years holds that trying to win two three-week races so close together is just too difficult. However, there are multiple examples of riders who have won the double. Miguel Indurain achieved the feat as recently as 1992 and 1993.

Basso's efforts on Stage 16 of the Giro this year sealed him the overall win and invited comparisons not only to Indurain, but to Armstrong himself. On the slopes of the seventeen kilometre-long Monte Bondone, Basso - as the maglia rosa - rode virtually the entire second half of the 173-kilometre stage on his own en route to victory. Basso reminded forgetful observers of his strength after his stage-20 win over the embittered Gilberto Simoni, "I've been on the podium in the Tour de France twice and was the only rider who could stay with Armstrong on the climbs," he said.

Basso's CSC team lines up as one of the strongest on paper. Manager Bjarne Riis is astute as they come and has built a team around his Italian charge. "Ivan will be the exclusive leader and the full team will work for him," he said,

"Carlos Sastre is very important and we will see him lead Ivan into the mountains and he will be ready, that's for sure. Everybody knows Jens Voigt and his qualities. He is a world class rider who is always there. Bobby Julich had a hard Giro this year but finished strongly and I have followed him a lot in the last couple of weeks and have seen the best Bobby Julich I have ever seen."

The relative dearth of mountainous stages, the two long flat Tour time trials and a timely return to form increases Jan Ullrich's chances (and by extension, hurts Basso's chances as he is a stronger climber than he is a time trialist). The T-Mobile rider started the recent tour of Switzerland's final day's time trial in third place overall, but he secured the overall title after a blistering ride in the 30.7-kilometre test, averaging over 47 kilometres-per-hour.

A knee injury exacerbated Ullrich's indifferent early season form. However, a lack of early-season results hasn't stopped him from standing on the tour podium seven times.

T-Mobile's sports director, Rudy Pevenage, believes that Ullrich has completely overcome his Spring form deficit: "Yes, I think that he is now on the right track for the Tour," said Pevenage with confidence,

"He's definitely better than in the last two years; much stronger than last year."

The form of Floyd Landis has been more difficult to quantify in recent weeks. His early season successes in Paris-Nice, the Tour of Georgia and, to a lesser extent, the Tour of California had most pundits marking him as Armstrong's Tour successor. He can climb, as he showed on multiple occasions when serving his apprenticeship as Armstrong's domestique.

The parcours should suit Landis as he can time-trial as well as climb - he won both major tests in Georgia and California. He's been difficult to spot recently, but his early 2006 tour victories clearly mark him as a favourite.

The rivals

There are myriad riders who can challenge for a top-ten position this year. Picking the final podium places in Paris becomes even more difficult when you throw in a cast of quality outsiders such as Gilberto Simoni (Saunier Duval - Prodir) and Francisco Mancebo (Ag2r Prevoyance).

The Discovery riders George Hincapie, Yaroslav Popovych and Paolo Savoldelli may be expecting some reward for their years of Lance servitude and produce a top-ten GC result. Discovery's supremo, Johann Bruyneel, knows better than anyone how to get a result in this race. He certainly sounds like he welcomes the challenge of winning without Armstrong, as he commented in an open letter to Cyclingnews readers:

"… now we're facing the same race we have won seven years in a row. It's clear that we're in a transition period and every change takes time, but we're looking forward to the new challenge and we're extremely motivated! Yes, Lance is gone as a rider for our team, but his spirit and guidance as a leader is definitely still here."

Iban Mayo's win in the mountainous Briançon-La Toussuire stage of the Dauphiné Liberé has made him confident of a final podium place in the tour. He is backed by a strong Euskaltel - Euskadi squad that will give their all for him in the mountains.

Fans of native English-speaking riders will be hoping that the Davitamon-Lotto pair Cadel Evans and Chris Horner will take advantage of their recent good tour form. In April's Tour de Romandie Evans gained strength as the race progressed, winning the final time trial and the overall title.

The 29-year old former world-class mountain biker has become a fine time-triallist as his second place (helping him to tenth overall) in the final test in Switzerland showed. He also displayed some impressive strength in the mountains, evidenced by the help that he gave Horner during the American's win on the second stage of Romandie and his own third place on the mountain-top finish in Leysin.

Evans was affected by migraine headaches (not the mild case of Hunter's Syndrome that was initially suspected) during the last of the Spring Classics, which explained his sub-standard results in Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

If Evans can stay healthy (he also recently cited problems with a pollen allergy that he needs to get under control before the Tour) he may realise the initial promise that he showed when he changed disciplines.

Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner) can also be added to the mix; his win in the mountainous Dauphine Libere shows that his climbing is sharp. The Dauphine can be a reliable measure of Tour de France form: Armstrong participated in six editions of the Dauphiné (1999-2000, 2002-05), winning in 2002 and 2003 and placed fourth last year.

World time trial champion Michael Rogers will be expected to work for Ullrich, severely limiting his own chances for a high overall place, "I am still rebuilding form after my teeth problems in the Giro. But as the [Tour of Switzerland] has gone on I have felt better, so hopefully I will be feeling good again for the Tour."

A Tour de France without Lance Armstrong feels a bit odd. It seems so long ago that he rose from his deathbed to win the world's most arduous sporting event for the first time. His retirement makes choosing a winner from the list of possible candidates a difficult and puzzling task.

What is man's speed limit?

By David Woods

A half-century ago, it was beginning to seem as if no one would ever run faster than Jesse Owens. After all, no one had for 20 years.

Then someone did.Gary native Willie Williams ran 100 meters in 10.1 seconds on Aug. 3, 1956, breaking Owens' 1936 mark by a tenth of a second. Since then, the record -- which comes with the title World's Fastest Human -- has been lowered 10 more times. It's now 9.77, co-owned by Justin Gatlin, who will try to lower it again today and Friday in the AT&T USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at IUPUI's Carroll Stadium.

"I don't think it's going to go too much further," Williams, now 74, said last week.

Maybe not . . . except that it keeps falling. Someone always comes along. Which raises perhaps the most fundamental question in sports: How fast can man go? Jesus Dapena, an Indiana University biomechanics professor, said there must be a limit. A man will never run 100 meters in three seconds, for instance. But he said the limit can't be defined.

"There are a variety of people. We're looking here for the extreme," Dapena said. "Who's got the best muscles? There's a genetic factor in there. There's a training factor in there."

Indeed, things keep changing. Improving. More people compete from more countries, as evidenced by the record 202 nations at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Forty countries won medals in track and field, underscoring the sport's universality. Facilities and equipment are far more advanced than when Owens ran on cinder tracks. Today's athletes employ kinesiologists, nutritionists, massage therapists. Biomechanics experts evaluate everything from a sprinter's stride length to the number of steps per 100 meters (Gatlin said he takes 42). The issue of how low the record can go can also be seen as a math question. Even for the best minds, it's not easily solved.

Mathematical quandary

Mathematicians asked about the 100-meter record trot out the word "asymptote."

In calculus, that's the line that can forever approach a curve of changing slope but never crosses it. It defines the limit. An asymptote emerges when the line and the curve get ever closer, but by lesser amounts. Or, in this case, as the 100-meter record continues to be broken, but by lesser amounts.After studying the record's progression, Bob Glassey, an IU mathematics professor, said, "I'm looking for an asymptote here, and I don't see one." He said the times are decreasing, but not at a uniform rate.

Allen Weitsman, associate head of mathematics at Purdue University, said such a limit could be calculated only if all the parameters stay the same. And they don't. World records in the high jump, for instance, increased significantly when the technique changed from the head-first roll to the back-first flop. If someone were to discover a way to more efficiently use physiology in sprinting, Weitsman said, the model for 100-meter data would be destroyed. Any limit would have to be recalculated.

"Human beings, after all, we've been around for a teeny, teeny bit of time," Weitsman said. "We're really still in a stage where the physiology of some individual can be quite dramatically different from anyone who has come so far.

"Now, it's unlikely. But it's also a possibility."

Another factor, increasingly inescapable, is performance-enhancing drugs.

There is evidence of doping in sports as long ago as the 1960s, but drugs became the story at the 1988 Olympics, where Canada's Ben Johnson shattered the world record in the 100, only to have it discounted after he was proved to be on steroids. Since then, several track stars have been implicated, including Tim Montgomery, whose 2002 world record in the 100 was stripped last year. But in an era when all athletic performance is suspect, the current 100 meter record appears to be as authentic as any. Gatlin and his co-world record holder, Jamaica's Asafa Powell, have not been caught up in drug scandals, even by rumor. Indeed, their shared mark is faster than the best drug-aided times of Johnson and Montgomery. Dapena said that in the 1980s, with doping "totally gone wild," some records reached beyond the scope of reality. Now, however, times are following a normal trend, he said.

Faster and faster

Moreover, what may now seem implausible can later become realistic. Gatlin said he laughed when British sprinter Dwain Chambers recently suggested he could lower the 100-meter record to 9.65. Now it's no joke. Gatlin said he ran a less-than-perfect race when he clocked 9.77 last month at Doha, Qatar. He has run three successive races in less than 9.90, something no one had ever done.

"But after running consistently fast, and knowing that I have more left in the tank, I think a 9.6 is possible. I'm thinking a 9.69," Gatlin said.

How about faster? A 9.59? Williams, for one, said he couldn't see that coming soon. Williams went on to coach Gary West High School to five state championships and later coached at the University of Illinois. Back when he ran, events were hand-timed, with the lowest gradations being tenths of a second. Now that track is timed electronically, and times are carried to hundredths, records fall more often.

"I don't think I would have the (same) satisfaction of saying I broke the world record of some modern guy," Williams said. "The record has been held for a year, as opposed to a record that had stood for 20 years."

Former track star Carl Lewis, now 45 and pursuing a career in acting, said he didn't expect his 100 record to stand indefinitely. He lowered it to 9.86 in 1991, where it stayed for almost three years. The record might not drop into the 9.60s soon, Lewis said, but it inevitably will.

"I think that as long as people run times, people are going to break records," Lewis said. "I just really believe that."

3 weeks to go...

...until D-day. My name is finally on the grad studies website - I guess that means it is official!

Science in thrall to football

Economists, medics and inventors go mad for the world's favourite game.

Michael Hopkin

Football fever has gripped the globe, and nobody is immune, including scientists. In the weeks running up to the world's biggest football festival, news@nature.com has been deluged with press releases and story ideas, all aiming to show that scientists love the beautiful game too. We had our say last week in our World Cup special ; here's the best of the rest.

Money and the World Cup go hand in hand, so it's perhaps no surprise that the performance of a country's football team influences that of its stock market. Writing in the Journal of Finance¹, Oyvind Norli of the Norwegian School of Management in Oslo and his colleagues show that defeat for a nation's football side causes a strong, rapid slump on its stock exchange as disgruntled traders lose their appetite for a deal.

Strangely, however, the opposite is not true: whereas shares on the 39 markets studied slumped by an average of 0.38% immediately after a defeat, there was no corresponding rise in response to a victory. Perhaps the traders were too busy celebrating...

Watch out for celebrating Turks

Meanwhile, it seems that celebrating is a tricky business, if the experience of a group of Turkish footballers are anything to go by. Orthopaedic experts examined the causes of around 150 injuries to professional players admitted to clinics over the course of two seasons, and found that nine of the injuries were sustained while celebrating goals.

Football has a tradition for exuberant goal celebrations, but the victims here might consider taking things a little easier next time they score. Five of the injuries were caused by sliding in triumph along the turf, while three were the perhaps predictable result of an entire team of players jumping on top of a prone player. And spare some pity for the remaining casualty, who was body-checked by a team mate while racing jubilantly away from the goal.

As Bülent Zeren and Haluk Öztekin, both clinicians based in Izmir, report in the American Journal of Sports Medicine², the results included ankle and rib fractures, muscle and ligament sprains, and even spinal contusions. Turkey's national side has failed to qualify for the World Cup this time around, which may come as a relief to the nation's doctors.

Beating the bookies

Fans of teams that have made it to Germany should check out the Norwegian Computing Center's World Cup website , which provides daily updates on each team's percentage likelihood of walking away with the ultimate prize in football.

The list is compiled by simulating each match many times on a computer, taking into account details of each team's quality as judged by Norway's finest football pundits, and allowing for effects of random chance in the match. The program, having played some 2,000 virtual versions of the tournament, unsurprisingly makes Brazil the favourites, with a 16.5% chance of glory. With Norway also having failed to make the grade for this tournament, its mathematicians can hopefully be relied on to produce a dispassionate analysis.

A buddy to defend you

And finally, good news for youngsters hoping for future World Cup stardom. Inventors working with researchers at the University of Warwick, UK, have unveiled the Soccer Buddy, which comes in a range of heights from 1 metre to 1.6 metres-tall to help aspiring David Beckhams to practice shooting at goal with a defender in the way. The device comes equipped with a radar tracking system for instant feedback on the speed and power of the shot. Just be careful not to over-celebrate when things go right.

If this keeps up, we are going to be Vancouver renters forever!

Housing prices top $300,000

ROMA LUCIW

Globe and Mail Update

The average national price of an existing home in Canada surged above $300,000 for the first time ever in May, with actual sales activity smashing through all previous records as buyers rushed to buy a house while they can still afford to do so.

The latest data shows that despite forecasts of a slowdown, Canada's sizzling housing market continues to fire on all cylinders, particularly in oil-rich Alberta.

The price of a residential home in Canada surged 12.9 per cent from a year ago to $303,836 in May, topping $300,000 for the first time, according to sales tracked through MLS by the Canadian Real Estate Association. The 12.9 per cent rise is the biggest year-over-year increase in two years.

House prices in only three Canadian cities -- Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto -- actually averaged more than $300,000, with Calgary chasing Toronto for the No. 2 spot on the most expensive list.

The cheapest place to buy in May was the Mauricie region of Trois-Rivières in central Quebec, where the average home sold for $102,870. The priciest was the Greater Vancouver area, where homes averaged $518,176.

”May marks the fourth consecutive month in which the major market average residential price broke all previous records,” CREA chief economist Gregory Klump said.

Soaring house prices have resulted in a growing shortage of lower-priced homes in the resale market, he said, which is crimping sales of lower-priced homes and driving up the national average price.

"With prices on the way up and a shortage of listings in lower price ranges, some buyers may feel that if they don't buy now, they may not be able to afford to later,” Mr. Klump said.

Alberta's resale market led the gains, with home prices in Calgary soaring 43.6 per cent to $358,214. Home prices in Edmonton jumped 23 per cent to $242,936, in Vancouver they rose 23.7 per cent to $518,176, and in Toronto they rose 5.5 per cent to $365,537.

In Regina, Quebec City, Saint John, Saskatoon, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, and Winnipeg, average house prices were under $200,000, the CRE said.

In major Canadian cities across the country, 37,460 houses were sold in May, up 4.4 per cent from a year ago. Since the start of 2006 rose 5 per cent when compared with the first five months in 2005.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, sales in major markets rose 2.4 per cent to 28,441 homes in May, the CREA said.

New listings in May hit the highest level on record, but failed to match sales, leaving the market tighter.

Mr. Klump attributed the continued strength in the housing market to a booming labour market, rising incomes and resilient consumer confidence. Those factors are boosting sales activity, despite rising interest rates and home prices.

Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist for BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., warned last month that Canada's sizzling housing market is displaying some dangerous conditions, and that the current cycle may come to an ugly end.

"The big story here is that the housing market in the West is just on fire and its not letting up yet," he said in an interview Wednesday. "We are getting into dangerous territory, especially in Western Canada."

Until recently, the strength in the housing market was completely justified by low interest rates and a robust economy, Mr. Porter said. However in recent months, troublesome aspects such steep price acceleration and eroding affordability have emerged.

"The vast majority of people are going to get priced right out of the market," he said.

Mr. Porter still believes that the housing market will lose momentum over the next year, as economic growth slows, but he warned that "the longer it goes, the more dangerous it becomes."

Scientist gets vibes to build bones

Unnati Gandhi

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

It looks like an oversized bathroom scale. It hardly feels like it's moving. And it's silent.

But it is what you cannot see, feel or hear that is making doctors, businessmen and astronauts giddy with glee.

The new device, using vibration therapy, is promising to help build bone mass in people with osteoporosis, children with cerebral palsy, and those hovering above Earth in zero gravity.

The sleek platform measures 50 centimetres by 81 cm. A person who stands on it for 20 minutes a day can build bone density an average of 2 per cent a year -- that's comparable to the results of drug therapy for osteoporosis, and equivalent to what someone with osteoporosis loses a year. If used in space, researchers say, the platform can help astronauts prevent the 2-per-cent bone loss they experience every month.

Inspired by the way bones are naturally stimulated by muscle fibres to grow and develop, bone bioengineer Clinton Rubin embarked on a scientific journey in 1981 to understand and mimic that process for people whose bones are rapidly thinning out, and who can't, or won't, take medication to treat the condition.

Twenty-five years later, he arrived at his destination.

"We've managed to make the mechanics of bone into a [device]," said Dr. Rubin, who is chair of the biomechanical engineering department of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Dr. Rubin and the company manufacturing the platform, Juvent Inc. of New Jersey, introduced the device to Canada at the International Osteoporosis Foundation World Congress recently held in Toronto.

Osteoporosis, a skeletal disorder characterized by low bone density that predisposes a person to increased risk of fracture, affects one in four women older than 50 and one in eight men older than 50. An estimated 1.4 million Canadians suffer from it.

Dr. Rubin was intrigued by how little mechanical load the bone actually needs to react physiologically and build new mass. "[In our research], we kept loading it a little less and a little less, but it kept responding. We got the same response heavily loading the bone and just buzzing the bone for a longer period of time."

What came out of his quarter-century-long research was the Juvent 1000.

By sending small vibrations through the body -- moving about 50 micrometres (or the thickness of a few human hairs) up and down and repeating at a rate of 34 cycles per second -- the platform triggers musculoskeletal stimulations that naturally occur during common activities such as standing, maintaining balance and walking. The barely noticeable body twitches make the muscles around the hips and spinal cord contract, putting tiny stresses on the bone and resulting in bone-building activity. The body naturally sets off these twitches, but they slow down and aren't as strong with age. That's why osteoporosis afflicts so many seniors.

Because the vibrations from the platform are set to a frequency that is one-third that of gravity, the Juvent 1000 has been deemed safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Earlier this year, Health Canada granted the company a licence to sell it for "maintaining and or increasing bone density, restoring the fast twitch action of Type IIA muscle fibres in lower legs and increasing blood and lymph flow from the lower limbs to the heart." It retails for roughly $3,000 and is the only medical device licensed by Health Canada for increasing bone mass.

But Dr. Rubin warns against look-a-like exercise machines that have recently been popping up in gyms, promising to bulk up muscle and pump out hormones -- even attracting the likes of Madonna and Claudia Schiffer.

The machines are set to similar, but much stronger, vibrating frequencies at four to 15 times that of gravity, and do not have the evidence to support the medical claims they make, he said.

"In essence, it's like jumping off a refrigerator 30 times a second," he said. "You'll see stress fractures, you'll see herniated discs, disruption of major organs, you'll see some nasty things happen. I think they're incredibly dangerous."

In its final research stages, the Juvent was tested on three different groups of people, including 48 women between 16 and 21 with low bone density at the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles. Over all, the bone density of the controlled group increased by 3 per cent during a year, and muscle mass improved by 4 per cent. In 2004, a study involving 70 postmenopausal women used the oscillating plate twice a day for 10 minutes. They experienced similar results, with bone being preserved, if not improving, in the hip and spine regions. Another study focused on children with cerebral palsy.

Currently, about 90 people in Texas are participating in a U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration bed-rest study to test how effective the platform will be in space, because a variation of it is being sent up to the International Space Station next year. By staying in bed for a prolonged period of time, researchers can simulate the effects of zero gravity on the bones. NASA has co-funded many of the research studies involving the Juvent.

The device was unveiled in Canada after reports in the United States that some of the medications used to treat osteoporosis may be linked to a jaw disease.

"You can take a pill and treat your bones, but two-thirds of the risk factor for failure of osteoporosis is falling and muscle strength," Dr. Rubin said. "The pill is only helping the other one-third of the risk, whereas [the platform] helps make your bones and muscles stronger."

While she agrees with the short-term benefits of using the platform, Suzanne Morin, an osteoporosis expert at the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, said she is concerned about long-term effects.

"I understand that it is not dangerous and the vibration is tolerable, but there are still unanswered questions. Like, what happens if you stop using it? Do you lose the bone mineral density you gained?" Renée Newman, 58, has osteopenia (lower than normal bone mineral density).

She started using the platform about four months ago and has slowly been weaning herself off her medication.

"I would rather not have any drugs at all," the Los Angeles native said. "My mother has osteoporosis, and she broke her hip at 62. I don't want to end up like her -- I'm not waiting until I'm 65 to do something."

Ms. Newman, author of Osteoporosis Prevention: A Proactive Approach to Strong Bones & Good Health, says standing on the platform for 20 minutes a day is having the same effect on her body as daily strength-training does.

Race Across America

This race looks pretty crazy - there are a couple of Canadians doing it solo - one of them has daily reports on his website.

Policy recommendations from the Heart & Stroke Foundation

From www.heartandstroke.ca

Tipping the Scales of Progress - Heart Disease and Stroke in Canada 2006 is the seventh edition of our biennial publication on the status of cardiovascular diseases in Canada. The emphasis in this edition is on policy recommendations for disease prevention at a population level.

Tobacco Control

The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC) recommends that governments in Canada continue to develop, implement and enforce comprehensive tobacco control strategies, including:
• comprehensive smoking bans in all workplaces and public places;
• increased taxation on tobacco products.
• prohibition of tobacco product "point of sale" advertising and promotion.
• elimination of deceptive labeling e.g., "light" and "mild".

Obesity and Chronic Disease Prevention

The Heart and Stroke Foundation recommends that governments and school boards:
• require one hour per day of structured physical activity for elementary and secondary school students.
• remove unhealthy or "junk" food in school-site vending machines.
• improve healthy food choices in schools, including cafeterias.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation recommends that governments:
• remove sales taxes from restaurant foods that are ‘healthy’.
• remove sales taxes from ‘healthy’ food products such as single servings of bottled water, pre-packaged salads and fruit trays in retail stores.
• tax ‘unhealthy’ foods, but only in combination with tax incentives.
• remove sales taxes from sports and recreation equipment, such as bicycles, skates etc.
• provide tax breaks to individuals for the purchase of public transit passes.
• treat transit passes provided by companies to their employees as a non-taxable benefit.
• provide tax credits/breaks for enhancing physical activity such as the purchase of gym memberships, fitness classes etc.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation recommends that the federal government:
• implement and adequately fund a coordinated strategy to address common chronic disease
risk factors.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation recommends that governments:
• address socioeconomic factors, such as poverty, and other determinants of health that place
communities at high risk for cardiovascular disease.
• allocate at least 7% of transportation-related infrastructure2 funds toward the development of
community infrastructure that promotes the use of active modes of transportation e.g., bicycle
trails/paths, walking trails/paths and sidewalks.
• ensure that social infrastructure that supports physical activity e.g., parks and community and
recreation centers are included in the gas tax transfer program.
• enhance investments in public transit and infrastructure that promote physical activity.
• encourage mixed use developments that enable people to walk or bike to a variety of shops and
services in their neighbourhoods.

A link to the full report can be found here.

This looks like it will be an interesting movie

We saw MI III on Friday

New WR in women's 5K

Meseret Defar runs 5000m World Record in New York - 14:24.53
Saturday 3 June 2006

New York, USA - With a scorching 61-second last lap, Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar shaved 0.15 seconds from Turkish Elvan Abeylegesse's World 5000m record of 14:24.68 when she ran 14:24.53** tonight, at New York City's Icahn Stadium.

No uncertainties for Olympic champion

With a view of the Manhattan skyline from the stadium on Randall's Island in the East River, Defar was paced by Irina Vashchuk and U.S. miler Christin Wurth-Thomas. The conditions were overcast and cool, and barely a trace of rain after several showers before the meet; while the sprinters were grumbling about the cool temperatures, the distance runners thrived.

Wurth-Thomas led though 2000m in 5:47.7 (unofficially), and 3000m in 8:42.8, before sending Defar on her way. Defar maintained a steady pace of 70-second laps until she began picking up her turnover with two remaining.

At the bell, many observers thought the record attempt might be lost, but Defar had no such uncertainties. "I was very confident when I saw the one-lap-to-go split," she said afterward.

Defar credited another Ethiopian star with the confidence to make the record attempt. "I was in Hengelo with Haile Gebrselassie last week," she said. "He encouraged me; he said, 'Go to New York, and I know you can break the world record.”

Aims for IAAF Golden League Jackpot

Defar, who already is the fastest ever over 5K on the road (14:46), admitted that tonight’s World record** was not as exciting as her Olympic title in 2004. "I will try to break the record even faster," she said. "I will run five Golden League meets, at 5000m and 3000m., and I hope to win all of them."

**World record subject to the usual ratification process

No more Passion Fruit at The Body Shop

I was very disappointed to find out that The Body Shop has stopped making Passion Fruit Cleansing Gel - I have been using this face wash for more than 10 years. I was convinced by one of the Body Shop sales girls to try their new Moisture White Cleansing Powder - it is ok, but definitely not as good as the Passion Fruit gel.