October passenger numbers rise at JWA...

October passenger numbers rise at JWA

Airline passenger traffic at John Wayne Airport increased by

nearly 21% in October compared to last year’s figures, officials

announced Tuesday.

Statistics for October 2002 show 666,958 passengers at the

airport, compared to 553,194 for the same month in 2001 -- a gain of

20.6%. Commercial flights were up 4.1% while commuter flights -- also

known as air taxis -- increased 13.4%.

Despite the increases, total airport operations decreased by 2%,

from 31,441 combined takeoffs and landings in October 2001 to 30,825

this year.

Newport Beach to hold general plan meetings

Residents who want to have a say in the city’s general plan update

process are invited to attend Saturday’s Visioning Summit -- the last

in a series of city-sponsored events to gather citizen comments. Two

sessions of the summit will take place at the Oasis Senior Center, at

the intersection of 5th Street and Marguerite Avenue in Corona del

Mar.

The first session is from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; the second is

from 1 to 3:30 p.m.

City staff will offer information about the general plan update

process and its specific goals for the city -- everything from

traffic to tourism to development. Residents’ opinions will help

guide officials as they overhaul this blueprint for the city’s

future.

For more information, visit www.nbvision2025.com, or call (949)

644-3238.

UCI studies say it’s true: No pain, no gain

The phrase “no pain, no gain” -- often used by coaches to prod

school-age athletes -- may have more meaning than ever imagined, two

UCI College of Medicine studies have found.

The studies appear in the October issues of Pediatrics and

Pediatric Research and suggest new ways to mark the boundary between

healthy and unhealthy exercise. The research may also help physicians

and others develop optimal levels of exercise to help stave off an

epidemic of obesity in adults and children.

Dr. Dan Cooper, professor of pediatrics, and his colleagues from

the Center of the Study of Health Effects of Exercise in Children

found that even a single, intense bout of exercise in teens and

preteens raises levels of cellular chemicals that are usually

associated with disease, while the same bout builds muscle mass and

increases fitness.

“Physical activity in children gives two signals, one that marks a

healthy response and one that may be telling us the exercise stress

on the body has gone too far,” said Cooper, a specialist in the

effects of exercise on growth and development, in a press release.

“The healthy signals in cells help the body grow, build muscle mass

and increase lung capacity. But the bad signals are catabolic. They

actually encourage degradation of cells and are commonly linked to

diseases.

“The mystery we need to solve is how much exercise is too much,

and how much of these changes in signal levels are a normal product

of development,” he said.

Cooper’s team reported in the Pediatrics study that after 11

healthy teenage boys had a 90-minute strenuous wrestling practice

session, levels of cell messengers called IGF-I and insulin -- both

indicators of growth -- decreased at the same time as levels of

inflammation-inducing messengers had robust increases.

For example, Cooper’s team found an eight-fold increase in a

substance called IL-6. This substance is usually elevated in common

diseases such as the cold and the flu, and in more serious childhood

diseases like pediatric arthritis. In high concentrations, IL-6

causes fatigue, muscle aches and malaise.

In the study in Pediatric Research, 30 nonathletic boys ages 8 to

11 were tested. The boys partook in running, playing soccer, jumping

and other aerobic games for five weeks.

While the boys were engaged in a less intense exercise than

wrestling, the same cellular messengers associated with disease rose,

but to a lesser extent than they did with wrestlers.

“We now know there is a stress response to exercise that can be

measured even in healthy children,” Cooper said. “These stress

mediators are known to influence growth and development of many

tissues like muscle and bone.

“We think this research will one day play an important role in

understanding what the healthiest physical activity levels are for

children,” he said. “In addition, for children who suffer from

chronic diseases where many of these stress factors are already

elevated, this research may help provide these kids with physical

activity levels that are safe.”

Some of the cellular messengers, especially IL-6 and related

chemicals, are known to play a role in obesity and diabetes. These

messengers are also found to be elevated in asthmatics during

exercise.

Cooper and his colleagues are now looking at how responses in

these cellular messengers vary in different age groups in girls as

well as in boys. They are investigating whether the changes seen in

healthy children appear in children who suffer from childhood chronic

diseases such as asthma, obesity or cystic fibrosis, or in children

who have had heart surgery.

Cooper’s colleagues in the study include Dr. Dan Nemet, Youngman

Oh, Ho-Seong Kim and MaryAnn Hill of UCI. His colleagues in the

Pediatrics Research study include Nemet, Timothy Scheett and Robert

Newcomb of UCI, and James Stoppani and Carl Maresh of the University

of Connecticut.