Author Interviews, Brain Injury, Exercise - Fitness, JAMA / 18.12.2019
More Concussions Occur Off Playing Field Than On
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
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Dr. Breck[/caption]
John Breck, DO, CAQSM
Medical Services at University of Colorado, Boulder
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: To date, most concussion research has focused on sport-related concussion, though it is known that a substantial number of concussions occur outside of participating in sport.
Focusing solely on sport-related concussion may result in an underestimation of the underlying incidence and prevalence of concussion in the general population and leads to the widely held perception that most concussions are sport-related. An understudied population at risk for concussion are United States undergraduate college students.
Dr. Breck[/caption]
John Breck, DO, CAQSM
Medical Services at University of Colorado, Boulder
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: To date, most concussion research has focused on sport-related concussion, though it is known that a substantial number of concussions occur outside of participating in sport.
Focusing solely on sport-related concussion may result in an underestimation of the underlying incidence and prevalence of concussion in the general population and leads to the widely held perception that most concussions are sport-related. An understudied population at risk for concussion are United States undergraduate college students.
Dr. Chen[/caption]
Tiffany Won-Shau Chen MD
Internal Medicine Residency
Mount Sinai Beth Israel
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The research I presented on details a randomized, prospective study done to evaluate whether it would be feasible and effective to implement a yoga program for breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy that could reduce patients' chemotherapy-related symptoms and improve their quality of life.
50 patients were recruited, half of whom underwent a 12-week long yoga program with weekly courses, while the other half did not participate in the program.
Surveys were completed at baseline, 6 weeks, and 12 weeks assessing patients' functional wellbeing, sleep quality, and anxiety/depression levels.




Dr. Phelan[/caption]
Dermot Phelan, MD, PhD
Director of the Sports Cardiology Center
Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: It is well recognized that long-term elite endurance athletes are at higher risk of atrial fibrillation. We wished to evaluate whether this held true for primarily strength-type athletes. We had the opportunity to screen almost 500 former NFL athletes. It became clear that we were seeing more atrial fibrillation than one would expect during the screenings.

Dr. Li[/caption]
Fuzhong Li, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist
Oregon Research Institute
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Injurious falls among community-dwelling older adults are a serious public health and cost-bearing problem worldwide.Exercise has been shown to reduce falls and injurious falls among older adults. However, evidence is limited with regard to the type of exercise interventions that are most effective, without exacerbating the risk in some individuals, in reducing injurious falls.
This study addresses this knowledge gap in the field of falls prevention. Findings from this study showed that a six-month Tai Ji Quan program reduced the incidence of injurious falls among frail elderly by 53% compared to a regular (multimodal) exercise intervention. The effect of the Tai Ji Quan intervention was shown to be robust, and still evident at follow-up examinations six months after the study.
Dr Paul Gentil
Faculty of Physical Education and Dance
Federal University of Goias
Goiania, Brazil
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Although being overweight and/or obese are associated with numerous health risks, the prevalence of both are continuing to increase worldwide. The treatment would include anything that results in an increase in energy expenditure (exercise) or a decrease in energy intake (diet). However, our metabolism seems to adapt to variations in physical activity to maintain total energy expenditure. Although lower-than-expected weight loss is often attributed to incomplete adherence to prescribed interventions, there are other factors that might influence the results, such as, metabolic downregulation.
So, instead of making people spend more calories, maybe we have to think on how to promote metabolic changes in order to overcome these physiological adaptations above-mentioned. In this regard, high intensity training might be particularly interesting as a strategy to promote fat loss. Irrespective the amount of calories spent during training, higher intensity exercise seems to promote many physiological changes that might favor long-term weight loss. For example, previous studies have shown that interval training is able to promote upregulation of important enzymes associated with glycolysis and beta oxidation pathways, which occurs in a greater extent than with moderate intensity continuous exercise.
Our findings suggest that interval training might be an important tool to promote weigh loss. However, I t might be performed adequately and under direct supervision in order to get better results.