What's the buzz .

Protein drinks after exercise beneficial

Athletes have been using high-quality, high-protein beverages, particularly dairy-based drinks enriched with whey proteins, during and after exercise to enhance muscle growth.
Now, two studies have shown that the most beneficial timing of protein intake is immediately after exercise.

In the first study, researchers led by Stuart Phillips (McMaster University) investigated whether post exercise muscle protein synthesis is different when a large, single dose of whey protein (25 g) is consumed immediately after activity compared with when smaller doses (2.5 g) are consumed 10 times over an extended period.

In the second study led by Stefan Pasiakos from the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, active-duty military personnel consumed a high-protein beverage (10 g protein as essential amino acids) containing 1.87 or 3.5 g leucine while exercising on a stationary bicycle.

In both studies, post exercise muscle protein synthesis was evaluated.  Consuming the large bolus of whey protein immediately after exercise increased muscle protein synthesis more than when periodic smaller doses of protein were consumed.

Evidence of brain ‘rewiring’ in people who stammer

A study has found that the brains of people who stammer since childhood show evidence of “rewiring” between the left and right brain.

The study found that the human brain has the ability to reorganise itself in a profound way, and now a team of research scientists say they have shown that auditory-motor integration is located in a different part of the brain of people who stammer, the Daily Mail reported.

The reaserch team studied the performance of a group of adults who stutter, alongside a control group of adults who do not, in a finger tapping exercise. The scientists used Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to interfere temporarily with brain activity during the experiment.

TMS is a non-invasive method of interrupting the activity of neurons, which allows scientists to study the functioning, and interconnections of the brain. In control subjects, disturbing the left premotor cortex with TMS impaired the finger tapping, but disturbing the right premotor cortex had no effect. But in stuttering adults, the pattern was reversed.

Thus, in the brains of adults who stutter there appears to be a profound reorganization, possibly compensating for subtle brain disturbances in other parts of the brain.

E-books becoming threat to aspiring writers

E-books are increasingly becoming a major threat to the future of English literature because aspiring writers will not be paid enough to make a living, a leading author has claimed.

The Telegraph quoted Graham Swift, who won the Booker Prize in 1996 for his novel Last Orders, as saying that new writers face earning lower royalties for their work as e-books than for traditional hard- and paperbacks.

"If aspiring authors see that they are unable to make a living from their work, it may cause them to give up and leave potentially great stories unwritten," Swift said. "I wouldn't envy a young aspiring writer now," he said.

"E-book does seem at the moment to threaten the livelihood of writers, because the way in which writers are paid for their work in the form of e-books is very much up in the air," he added.

Describing the arrival of e-books as the greatest change for authors, Swift accused e-book sellers of using digitalisation as an excuse to pay writers less.

"When anything goes digital, let alone something as immaterial as a book, there is a tendency to see it as just in the air to be taken, and to lose the sense that somebody once made it," the paper quoted Swift, as saying. "Unfortunately writers take a very small part of the profit on their books, and I think in the e-book world there is a real danger they will take even less, unless they are vigilant and robust about protecting their own interests," he added.