Author Interviews, Diabetes, Exercise - Fitness / 25.11.2014

Lauren Marie Sparks, PhD Faculty Scientist at the Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes Florida Hospital and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute Orlando, FLMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lauren Marie Sparks, PhD Faculty Scientist at the Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes Florida Hospital and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute Orlando, FL Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Sparks: As a clinical scientist focused on exercise effects on muscle metabolism in diabetes, I have seen first-hand a significant minority of individuals with diabetes not improve their glucose control (HbA1c) after 9 months of supervised exercise. They poured their hearts out on those treadmills 3-4 days a week for 9 months and still ended up no better than when they started. I have also seen similar data from some of my colleagues’ studies. So I really want diabetes research to invest the intellect and dollars into discovering what these roadblocks are—I happen to believe it is in the DNA (genetics) and the way that DNA is “read” or expressed (epigenetics). So it’s a bit of a ‘call to action’ for researchers to start looking into some of their data to find these people and better understand this phenomenon and for hopefully the funding sources to recognize this as a viable area of research. (more…)
Exercise - Fitness, Kidney Disease / 20.11.2014

Prof. Francesca Mallamaci Professor of Nephrology Head of the Hypertension Unit at the Department of Nephro-Urology, CNR-IBIM Research on Clinical Epidemiology and Pathophysiology of Renal Diseases and Hypertension, Reggio Calabria, ItalyMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Francesca Mallamaci Professor of Nephrology Head of the Hypertension Unit at the Department of Nephro-Urology, CNR-IBIM Research on Clinical Epidemiology and Pathophysiology of Renal Diseases and Hypertension, Reggio Calabria, Italy Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Mallamaci: It is well known that physical activity is beneficial both in normal individuals and in patients with heart failure which represent a high risk category of patients. We have scanty information about physical activity in dialysis patients. So the aim of our study was to test the effectiveness of a low-intensity, easy to implement, home exercise program on physical performance in about 300 dialysis patients in a multicenter, randomized, controlled clinical trial (EXCITE, ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01255969). What we found in our study was that dialysis patients who performed exercise improved their physical performance and this was documented by 2 well known and validated performance tests such as the Six Minute Walking Test and the Sit-to-stand-to sit test. We found also that after 2 year follow-up dialysis patients who were in the active exercise arm had a lower rate of hospitalization and a trend to a better survival, compared to dialysis patients in the control arm of the study. (more…)
Breast Cancer, Exercise - Fitness / 20.11.2014

MedicalResearch.com: Interview Invitation Dr. Wenji Guo University of Oxford Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Response: Previous studies report increased risk for breast cancer in postmenopausal women who have a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) – a measure of body fat based on height and weight. However, BMI is unable to distinguish between excess weight due to fat rather than muscle. More direct measures of fatness, such as body fat percentage, may be better indicators of disease risk. And although probable evidence for the relationship between physical activity and breast cancer now exists, questions still remain over the role of vigorous compared to lower intensity physical activity. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness / 03.11.2014

MedicalResearch.com: Comments from Virpi Kuvaja-Köllner and her team: Project manager, teacher, M.Sc. (Health Economics), PhD Student University of Eastern Finland Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies Department of Health and Social Management Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Response: As we all know insufficient physical activity (PA) is associated with an increased risk of various chronic diseases and increases in health care expenditure. However, there are some economic evaluation studies related to physical activity interventions that have proved some of those interventions can offer “good value for money”. Unfortunately, most of these studies have focused on interventions at the individual or patient group level. It is easy to notice that there is a lack of studies related to cost-effectiveness of physical activity interventions at the population level. Somehow this is controversial because the need to increase physical activity in the population is urgent and the public funding for health care and other services is tighter than ever. We should remember that if we can increase physical activity among large population groups, especially among those whoare physically inactive, it might also have an impact on our healthcare costs. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness / 03.11.2014

Paul D. Loprinzi, PhD Center for Health Behavior Research Department of Health, Exercise Science and Recreation Management The University of Mississippi, University, MS.MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Paul D. Loprinzi, PhD Center for Health Behavior Research Department of Health, Exercise Science and Recreation Management The University of Mississippi, University, MS. Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Loprinzi: COPD not only induces inflammation in the lung, but systemic inflammation as well.  Therefore, individuals with COPD are at an increased risk of cardiovascular and metabolic disease as a result of increased systemic inflammation.  Physical activity has been shown to reduce systemic inflammation in the general population, but the association between physical activity and systemic inflammation among those with COPD is less established.  Our study demonstrated that individuals with COPD who were more active had less systemic inflammation than those who were less active. (more…)
Aging, Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness / 22.10.2014

Professor Emrah Düzel Director, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience University College LondonMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Emrah Düzel Director, Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research, OvG Univ. Magdeburg, Germany Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience University College London Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Professor Düzel: We found that even in old age, intensive and long-term (3 months) aerobic exercise can improve blood flow in the hippocampus, a brain structure that is of critical importance for memory.  The increase in blood flow is evident during a resting state and this means that the exercise improves the overall perfusion of the hippocampus. Such effects had previously only been reported in young adults. As previously observed in young adults, the change in blood flow after exercise is related to the improvement of specific memory skills. We found the closest relationship between improved blood flow and recognition memory for complex objects. This is interesting because this type of memory is likely to benefit from “pattern separation”, a process that in animal studies of exercise is tightly associated with hippocampal neurogenesis. However, we also found that the exercise-related improvement in hippocampal blood flow and in recognition memory was absent in the older seniors of our study cohort. Those  who were beyond 70 did not show any improvement. We reasoned that this may have been due to higher levels of stress in the older seniors. Therefore, we investigated whether elevated serum cortisol levels dampened the benefits of exercise in the older seniors. But this was not the case making it unlikely that stress levels can account for these findings. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Transplantation / 15.10.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Elvira Cicognani PhD Department of Psychology School of Psychology and Education, University of Bologna Piazza Aldo Moro, 90 - Cesena, Italy - Viale Berti Pichat, 5 - Bologna, Italy Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Cicognani: The study is part of a larger project of the Italian National Transplant Center (Centro Nazionale Trapianti, CNT), started in 2008, in collaboration with Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Centro Studi Isokinetic, University of Bologna, Cimurri Impresa e Sport and Patients’ associations. The general aim is to encourage transplant patients to practice physical activity and even sport activity, in view of its benefits in enhancing recovery and quality of life after transplantation. In this study we assessed Health-related quality of life on 118 active kidney transplant patients practicing different sports at low to moderate intensity and compared them with those of 79 sedentary kidney transplant patients and with 120 active healthy control subjects. Active transplant patients reported higher levels of quality of life than sedentary patients on most dimensions of quality of life and similar to active healthy controls. In brief, practicing sports may allow patients to achieve a level of quality of life similar to the general population of active individuals. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Karolinski Institute, Ophthalmology / 04.10.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jinjin Zheng Selin, MSc Unit of Nutritional Epidemiology Institute of Environmental Medicine Karolinska Institutet Stockholm Sweden Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Response: Our results suggest that higher levels of total physical activity, especially in the long-term, as well as specific types of physical activity including walking/bicycling and work/occupational activity, may be associated with decreased risk of age-related cataract among middle-aged and elderly women and men. On the other side, high levels of leisure time inactivity may be associated with increased risk of cataract. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Diabetologia, Exercise - Fitness, Genetic Research / 01.10.2014

Dr. Yann C Klimentidis, PhD Assistant professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health University of Arizona Medical CenterMedicalResearch.com Interview Invitation with: Dr. Yann C Klimentidis, PhD Assistant professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health University of Arizona Medical Center   Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Klimentidis: The main finding is that the association of physical activity with type-2 diabetes risk is weakest among those who are at high genetic risk for type-2 diabetes. Furthermore, we find that this trend is stronger among women as compared to men, and that it appears to be driven mainly by genetic risk to insulin resistance, as opposed to genetic risk for reduced beta-cell function. (more…)
Aging, Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness / 30.09.2014

Associate Professor Dafna Merom Ph.D Physical Activity and Health University of Western Sydney Penrith NSW AustraliaMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Associate Professor Dafna Merom Ph.D Physical Activity and Health University of Western Sydney Penrith NSW Australia   Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Merom: In a cohort of 1667 older Australian men (mean age 76.8 years) data on incident falls were  collected every four months by telephone interview. We compared the rate of falling over 48 months of follow-up of  men who participated in  golf, Calisthenics, lawn balls, aerobic machines and swimming.  We  found that only swimming was associated with 33% reduction in falls occurrence. We also found that swimmers performed better on balance tests in our baseline measurements. In particular on the postural stability test and for  those whose leisure activity was  only swimming, apart from walking and other lifestyle activities. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Kidney Disease / 27.09.2014

Pietro Manuel Ferraro, MD PhD Candidate Division of Nephrology Catholic University of the Sacred Heart Rome ItalyMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Pietro Manuel Ferraro, MD PhD Candidate Division of Nephrology Catholic University of the Sacred Heart Rome Italy Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Ferraro: We analyzed the association between physical activity and energy intake and the risk of developing kidney stones in three large cohorts of U.S. health professionals. The 215,133 participants included did not have any history of kidney stones when follow-up began. During 20 years of follow-up, 5,355 of them developed a kidney stone. Initially, we found that participants with higher physical activity levels had a reduced risk of developing stones in two of the three cohorts. However, after accounting for a number of factors that could potentially confound the association such as age, body mass index and dietary intake, the association was no longer significant. Similarly, energy intake was not associated with a reduced risk of developing kidney stones. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, General Medicine, Metabolic Syndrome, Weight Research / 26.09.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Tuomo Tompuri, MD Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine Kuopio University Hospital, Finland Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Tompuri: Measures of the cardiorespiratory fitness should be scaled by lean mass instead of body weight, while aiming to enable comparison between the subjects. Our result is physiologically logical and confirms earlier observations of the topic. Scaling by body weight has been criticized, because body fat, per se, does not increase metabolism during exercise. We did observe that scaling by body weight introduces confounding by adiposity. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness / 26.09.2014

Prof. Bin He M.S. Ph.D University of Minnesota’s College of Science and Engineering Director of the University’s Institute for Engineering in Medicine.MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Bin He M.S. Ph.D University of Minnesota’s College of Science and Engineering Director of the University’s Institute for Engineering in Medicine. MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Prof. He: It is found that people with long term mind body awareness training including yoga and meditation can learn much faster and better the brain-computer interface skills to control a computer cursor by their minds. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Gender Differences, PLoS / 11.09.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Eero Haapala, MSc in Exercise Medicine, BASc PhD student University of Eastern Finland,School of Medicine Institute of Biomedicine, Physiology Kuopio, Finland Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: Our study is one of the first studies to investigate the different types of physical activity and sedentary behavior with academic achievement in children. Our main finding was that children who were more physically active during school recess were better readers in Grades 1-3 than less active children. We also found a direct relationship between physically active school transportation, which was mainly walking and cycling, and reading skills in boys. These findings suggest that particularly physical activity within a school day benefits academic achievement and that physical activity benefit academic achievement more in boys than in girls 6-8 years of age. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, General Medicine, Occupational Health / 10.09.2014

Saurabh S. Thosar, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Researcher Oregon Institute for Occupational Health Sciences, Oregon Health & Science UniversiMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Saurabh S. Thosar, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Researcher Oregon Institute for Occupational Health Sciences, Oregon Health & Science University Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Thosar: We discovered that 3 hours of sitting leads to an impairment in shear rate and an impairment in femoral artery endothelial function. When systematic breaks are added in the sitting time the shear rate and the endothelial function are preserved. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Gender Differences, Heart Disease, Stanford / 21.08.2014

Marco Perez, MD Instructor in Cardiovascular Medicine Director, Inherited Cardiac Arrhythmia Clinic Stanford University Medical Center Cardiac Electrophysiology & Arrhythmia Service Stanford, CA 94305-5233MedicalResearch.com Interview with Marco Perez, MD Instructor in Cardiovascular Medicine Director, Inherited Cardiac Arrhythmia Clinic Stanford University Medical Center Cardiac Electrophysiology & Arrhythmia Service Stanford, CA 94305-5233 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Perez: It was already known that obesity is an important risk factor for atrial fibrillation.  We studied over 80,000 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative who were followed for the onset of atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm associated with stroke and death.  We found that those who exercised more than 9 MET-hours/week (equivalent to a brisk walk of 30 minutes six days a week) were 10% less likely to get atrial fibrillation than those who were sedentary.  Importantly, the more obese the women were, the more they benefited from the exercise in terms of atrial fibrillation risk reduction. (more…)
Author Interviews, BMJ, Exercise - Fitness, Weight Research / 20.08.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Ellen Flint, BA MSc PhD, Research Fellow Department of Social & Environmental Health Research London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Tavistock Place, LondonMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Ellen Flint, BA MSc PhD, Research Fellow Department of Social & Environmental Health Research London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Tavistock Place, London Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Flint: Men and women who commuted to work by cycling, walking or public transport had significantly lower BMI and percentage body fat than their car-using counterparts. This was the case despite adjustment for a range of factors which may affect both body weight and commuting mode preference (e.g. limiting illness, age, socioeconomic position, sports participation and diet). The differences were of a clinically meaningful magnitude. For example, compared to car users, men who commuted via active or public transportation modes were on average 1 BMI point lighter. For the average man in the sample this would equate to a difference in weight of almost half a stone (3kg). (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Exercise - Fitness, JCEM / 13.08.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Sylvie Mesrine, Gynecologist, MD Inserm, CESP Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health, U1018, Nutrition, Hormones and Women's Health Team, Villejuif, France. Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: We wanted to disentangle the effect of recent physical activity (within the previous four years) from the effect of past physical activity (5-9 years earlier) on postmenopausal breast cancer risk. Our most important finding was that recreational/transport physical activity (including walking, cycling and engaging in other sports), even of modest intensity, seemed to have a rapid impact on breast cancer risk: it was quite rapidly associated with a decrease in breast cancer risk, which was however attenuated when activity stops. To our knowledge, our study is the first to independently assess the association between breast cancer risk and recreational physical activity both 5 to 9 years earlier and within the previous 4 years. Furthermore, the association of recent recreational physical activity and breast cancer risk decrease was observed whatever the recent levels of gardening or do-it yourself activities. (more…)
Diabetes, Diabetologia, Exercise - Fitness / 07.08.2014

Kristian KarstoftMD The Centre of Inflammation and Metabolism and The Centre for Physical Activity ResearchDepartment of Infectious Diseases and CMRC, Rigshospitalet Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, DenmarkMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kristian Karstoft MD The Centre of Inflammation and Metabolism and The Centre for Physical Activity ResearchDepartment of Infectious Diseases and CMRC, Rigshospitalet Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Karstoft: Four months of Interval-walking training (IWT; five sessions/week, one hour/session) in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus maintained insulin secretion, improved insulin sensitivity index and disposition index in opposition to energy-expenditure and time-duration matched continuous walking training (CWT). (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness / 06.08.2014

James Fisher BSc (Hons) MSc PGCLT(HE) Senior Lecturer Sports Conditioning and Fitness IFBB Certified Weight Training Prescription Specialist Centre for Health, Exercise and Sport Science Faculty of Business, Sport and Enterprise Southampton Solent University, SouthamptonMedicalResearch.com Interview with: James Fisher  BSc (Hons)  MSc  PGCLT(HE) Senior Lecturer Sports Conditioning and Fitness IFBB Certified Weight Training Prescription Specialist Centre for Health, Exercise and Sport Science Faculty of Business, Sport and Enterprise Southampton Solent University, Southampton Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: The study reports that pre-conceived ideas about exercise order, and rest intervals are not substantiated by evidence, and that advanced training routines such as pre-exhaustion appear to induce no greater strength adaptations than simpler training methods. Ultimately, that a single set of each exercise performed at a repetition duration which maintains muscular tension is all that is necessary to induce significant increases in strength in even trained persons. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Frailty, Geriatrics / 18.07.2014

Dr. Wenjun Li , PhD Health Statistics and Geography Lab Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester.MedicalResearch.com: Interview with: Dr. Wenjun Li , PhD Health Statistics and Geography Lab Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester. Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Wenjun Li: Compared to those walking for recreational purposes only, older adults walking for utilitarian purposes had higher risk for outdoor falls and fall-related injuries that require medical attention. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Diabetologia, Exercise - Fitness / 07.07.2014

Lukas Schwingshackl, MSc Department of Nutritional Sciences University of Vienna Vienna, AUSTRIAMedicalResearch.com: Interview with: Lukas Schwingshackl, MSc Department of Nutritional Sciences University of Vienna Vienna, AUSTRIA Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Lukas Schwingshackl: The results of the present meta-analyses showed that, in patients with established diabetes, aerobic training might be more effective in reducing glycosylated haemoglobin and fasting glucose when compared with resistance training. Combined aerobic and resistance training was more powerful in reducing glycosylated haemoglobin compared with aerobic training, and more effective in reducing glycosylated haemoglobin, fasting glucose and tricylglycerols when compared with resistance training. However, these results could not be confirmed when only low risk of bias studies were included. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Heart Disease / 07.07.2014

Peter Kokkinos PhD Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cardiology Division Washington, DC 20422MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Peter Kokkinos PhD Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cardiology Division Washington, DC 20422 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Kokkinos: The main finding of the study is that we defined an exercise capacity threshold for each age category (<50; 50-59; 60-69; and ≥70 years of age). The mortality risk increases progressively below this threshold and decreases above it. We then calculated the 5 and 10-year mortality risk for each age category. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Exercise - Fitness, Mayo Clinic / 24.06.2014

Xuemei Sui, MD, MPH, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Exercise Science Division of Health Aspects of Physical Activity Arnold School of Public Health University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208MedicalResearch.com Interview with:  Xuemei Sui, MD, MPH, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Exercise Science Division of Health Aspects of Physical Activity Arnold School of Public Health University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208 MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Sui: In the present study, cancer survivors who reported performing resistance exercise (RE) at least 1 day of the week had a 33% lower risk of all-cause mortality compared with individuals who did not report participation in resistance exercise.  Further, there was an inverse relationship between resistance exercise and all-cause mortality in those who were physically active, but not in those who were physically inactive.  Although leisure-time physical activity was not associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality, the present results support the benefits of resistance exercise and physical activity was during cancer survival. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, JAMA, Statins / 10.06.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with David S.H. Lee, Pharm.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Pharmacy Practice College of Pharmacy Oregon State University/Oregon Health and Science University Portland OR, 97239MedicalResearch.com Interview with David S.H. Lee, Pharm.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Pharmacy Practice College of Pharmacy Oregon State University/Oregon Health and Science University Portland OR, 97239 MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Lee: We found that older men taking a statin were less physically active and had more sedentary behavior. They had about 37 minutes of less moderate exercise per week. For comparison, the American heart Association recommends about 40 minutes of moderate activity 3-4 times per week. We also found that those that started using a statin during the study had the largest drop in physical activity. (more…)
Asthma, Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness / 05.06.2014

Holger Cramer, PhD Director of Yoga Research University of Duisburg-Essen | Faculty of Medicine Department of Internal and Integrative Medicine | Kliniken Essen-Mitte Essen Germany MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Holger Cramer, PhD Director of Yoga Research University of Duisburg-Essen | Faculty of Medicine Department of Internal and Integrative Medicine Essen  Germany MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Cramer: There is a number of randomized trials available on yoga for asthma. Based on those trials, there is evidence that yoga can improve asthma symptoms, asthma control, and pulmonary function in patients with asthma. However, yoga does not seem to be superior to sham procedures or breathing exercises and generally the evidence was quite weak. Yoga seems to be relatively safe in this patient population. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, JCEM, Menopause / 24.05.2014

Unab I. Khan, M.B.,B.S., M.S. Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Family & Social Medicine Division of Adolescent Medicine The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore The Pediatric Hospital for Albert Einstein College of Medicine Bronx, NY 10467MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Unab I. Khan, M.B.,B.S., M.S.   Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Family & Social Medicine Division of Adolescent Medicine The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore The Pediatric Hospital for Albert Einstein College of Medicine Bronx, NY 10467 MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Khan: We wanted to find factors that lead to either an increase or decrease in risk of developing cardiovascular disease. We found that in middle aged overweight and obese women, who may not have any medical problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, an increase in weight over time and the development of any of the conditions stated above, increased the risk of cardiovascular disease significantly. On the other hand, even moderate physical activity decreased the risk of heart disease, even in the presence of the above stated conditions. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, General Medicine, JAMA, Rheumatology / 21.05.2014

Professor Kim Bennell ARC Future Fellow Department of Physiotherapy University of Melbourne Parkville, Vic 3010 AustraliaMedicalResearch.com Interview Professor Kim Bennell ARC Future Fellow Department of Physiotherapy University of Melbourne Parkville, Vic 3010 Australia MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Professor Bennell: In 102 people with painful hip osteoarthritis, we compared a 'real' physical therapy program involving exercise, manual therapy techniques,education and provision of a cane if appropriate to a sham physical therapy treatment that was made to look as though it was real but instead involved turned off ultrasound and gentle application of a hand crème to the hip region. Participants in both groups went to see a physical therapist on 10 occasions over 12 weeks and performed home exercises if in the 'real' physical therapy group or lightly applied the cream at home if in the sham group. Participants were followed for 9 months in total. We found that while both groups showed improvements in pain and physical function, the improvements were similar between the two groups. That is, the real physical therapy program did not show greater benefits over a sham treatment.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Heart Disease, Karolinski Institute / 16.05.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Nikola Drca Department of Cardiology at the Karolinska Institute, Karolinska University Hospital Stockholm Sweden MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Nikola Drca: We found that intense physical activity like leisure-time exercise of more than five hours per week at the age of 30 increased the risk of developing atrial fibrillation later in life by 19%. In contrast, moderate-intensity physical activity like walking or bicycling of more than 1 hour per day at older age (age 60) decreased the risk by 13%. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Diabetologia, Exercise - Fitness, Sugar / 14.05.2014

MedicalResearch Interview with: Monique Francois Teaching Fellow & Research Assistant at the University of Otago School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences University of Otago Dunedin, New Zealand MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: We found that small 'snacks' of interval exercise before the three main meals lowered postprandial blood glucose and contributed to a lower blood glucose across the day. Whereas 30 minutes of continuous moderate exercise before dinner did not lower postprandial blood glucose nor mean glucose levels the exercise day or the following day, compared to exercise snacking. Six one minute intervals as walking or a combination of walking and resistance 3x per day (before the three main meals) improved glycaemic control in individuals with insulin resistance. (more…)