Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Technology / 10.07.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jacob Barkley, Ph.D., College of Education, Health and Human Services Kent State  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Our group has demonstrated that cellular telephone (cell phone) use is positively associated with sedentary behavior (i.e., sitting). To that end, high cell phone users sit for 80 to 100 minutes longer than their lower-use peers. We have also shown that cell phone use during exercise decreases exercise intensity and slows free-living walking speed. In other words, cell use may be comparable to traditional sedentary screen use in that it promotes sitting and may interfere with physical activity. However, some cell phone functions may actually promote positive health behaviors. Fitness apps, connecting with active peers and administering health recommendations via the cell phone all may have utility in promoting physical activity and reducing sedentary behavior. While not well studied, novel physically-interactive cell phone games may also promote physical activity. One such game, Pokémon Go! requires users to walk through real environments and locate avatars in the game using GPS. The purpose of the game is to find these avatars. In order to find more avatars, the player will need to walk to more areas. Therefore, playing Pokémon Go! may promote walking. (more…)
Author Interviews, CDC, Exercise - Fitness, JAMA / 04.07.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Emily Neusel Ussery, MPH PhD Epidemiologist, Physical Activity and Health Branch CDC MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Walking is an easy way for most people to start and maintain a physically active lifestyle. Step It Up! The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Promote Walking and Walkable Communities identifies walking as an important public health strategy to increase physical activity levels in the U.S. A previous report found that the percentage of adults who reported walking for transportation or leisure increased by 6 percentage points between 2005 and 2010, but it is unknown if this increase has continued. This report examined trends in the proportion of U.S. adults who reported walking for transportation or leisure for at least one 10-minute period in the past week, using nationally representative data from the 2005, 2010, and 2015 National Health Interview Surveys. We also examined differences in walking trends by sociodemographic characteristics. If you take walking seriously, make sure you invest in some custom boots to make sure you don't damage your feet. For those who need to transport larger items while walking isn't an option, utilizing a Large Item Courier service can help ensure safe and efficient delivery. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Urology / 28.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Baoyan Liu, MD Guang’an Men Hospital China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Beijing, China MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The prevalence of stress urinary incontinence(SUI) is as high as 49% and varies according to the population studied and the definition of stress urinary incontinence. SUI causes psychological burden, affects relationships, lowers physical productivity, and decreases quality of life in women. Yet, few effective therapies are available for treating stress urinary incontinence. In this randomized clinical trial that included 504 women, the mean decrease in urine leakage, measured by the 1-hour pad test from baseline to week 6, was 9.9 g with electroacupuncture vs 2.6 g with sham electroacupuncture, a significant difference. (more…)
ASCO, Author Interviews, Colon Cancer, Exercise - Fitness, Nutrition, UCSF / 06.06.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Erin Van Blarigan, ScD Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics UC San Francisco MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: There are over 1.3 million colorectal cancer survivors in the United States. Cancer survivors often seek guidance on what they can do to lower their risk of cancer recurrence and death. In response to patient interest and the need for improved survivorship care, the American Cancer Society (ACS) published guidelines on nutrition and physical activity for cancer survivors. The guidelines are to: 1) achieve and maintain a healthy body weight; 2) engage in regular physical activity; and 3) achieve a dietary pattern that is high in vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Orthopedics, Pediatrics / 31.05.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jacqueline Pasulka, OMS II Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine , Des Moines , IA Division of Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago , Chicago , IL MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: In this study young athletes were recruited from both sports medicine and general practice clinics and were asked to complete surveys reporting on their sports participation, training patterns, and any sports-related injuries they had over the previous six months. We focused this study on the subset of athletes who met the criteria for being a single-sport specialized athlete based on their reported participation in only one sport and training for eight months or more during the year for that sport. Athletes participating in individual sports were more likely to be single-sport specialized than their team sport peers, and they also reported an earlier age at which they began specializing in their sport. Additionally, injury types differed among these two groups as single-sport specialized athletes in individual sport athletes had a greater proportion of overuse injuries, while single-sport specialized athletes in team sport athletes had a greater proportion of acute injuries. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Geriatrics, NEJM, Weight Research / 17.05.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dennis T. Villareal, MD Professor of Medicine Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism Baylor College of Medicine Staff Physician, Michael E DeBakey VA Medical Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The prevalence of obesity in the elderly is rapidly increasing, given that the baby boomers are becoming senior citizens, but we do not know how best to manage obesity in the elderly population. Weight loss is the cornerstone of management for obesity but weight loss in the elderly is controversial because weight loss could cause not only fat loss but also muscle mass and bone mass losses, that could worsen rather than improve frailty. We tested the hypothesis that weight loss plus exercise training, especially resistance training, would improve physical function the most compared to other types of exercise (aerobic training or combined aerobic and resistance training added to diet-induced weight loss). Previous studies especially in younger adults have shown that combining aerobic with resistance exercise could lead to interference to the specific adaptations to each exercise, and thus less gain in strength with combined exercise compared to resistance training alone. On the other hand, contrary to our hypothesis, we found that there was no interference between aerobic and resistance exercise, and the most effective mode to improve physical function and thus reverse frailty was in fact weight loss plus the combination of aerobic and resistance exercise, which was also associated with some preservation of muscle and bone mass. (more…)
Aging, Author Interviews, BMJ, Cognitive Issues, Exercise - Fitness / 26.04.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Joseph Michael Northey UC Research Institute for Sport and Exercise (UCRISE), Discipline of Sport and Exercise Science, Faculty of Health University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Physical exercise has an important role to play in maintaining cognitive function across the lifecycle. However, the benefits of implementing a physical exercise intervention were not clear. To address these issues which prevented evidence-based prescription of exercise for cognitive function, a systematic review of all the available literature up to November of 2016 in adults older than 50 was conducted. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Gastrointestinal Disease, Microbiome / 10.04.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Orla O’Sullivan Computational Biologist, Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Co. Cork, Ireland  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Previously we had demonstrated that professional rugby players had significantly increased microbial diversity compared to both low and high BMI controls. This microbial diversity correlated with creatine kinase levels in the blood (which we had used as a proxy for exercise) and protein intake. In this present study we went a step further and demonstrated that these same athletes had distinct functional potential in their gut microbes compared to controls and furthermore both the host derived ( urine) and bacterial derived ( faecal water) metabolites were also distinct in the athlete group. In particular we found that the athlete’s microbiome is primed for tissue repair and to harness energy from the diet, reflecting the significant energy demands and high cell-turnover evident in elite sport. Thus, the state of physical fitness is not limited to the host alone; it appears to also include conditioning of the microbiota. (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Exercise - Fitness, Osteoporosis / 23.03.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Pamela S. Hinton, Ph.D. Associate Professor & Director of Graduate Studies Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology Columbia MO 65211 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: This study builds on our previous work showing that weight-bearing, high-impact physical activity throughout the lifespan is associated with greater bone mass in men.  We previously conducted a 12-month randomized trial of the effectiveness of resistance training versus jump training to increase bone mass in men with low bone density of the hip or lumbar spine. The current study is a follow up study investigating how exercise might work to increase bone mass. The main findings are that exercise reduced circulating levels of a bone protein that inhibits bone formation (sclerostin) and increased levels of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), a hormone with osteogenic effects. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Genetic Research, Heart Disease, JAMA, University of Michigan / 19.03.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sara Saberi, MD Assistant Professor Inherited Cardiomyopathy Program Frankel Cardiovascular Center University of Michigan Hospital and Health Systems  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy are often told not to exercise or to significantly curb their exercise due to concern over the potential risk of increased ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. There is no data regarding risks/benefits of exercise in HCM though. There is, however, data that shows that patients with HCM are less active and more obese than the general population AND a majority feel that exercise restrictions negatively impact their emotional well-being. So, we devised a randomized clinical trial of a 16-week moderate-intensity aerobic exercise program versus usual activity with the primary outcome being change in peak VO2 (oxygen consumption). This exercise intervention resulted in a 1.27 mL/kg/min improvement in peak VO2 over the usual activity group, a statistically significant finding. There were no major adverse events (no death, aborted sudden cardiac death, appropriate ICD therapies, or sustained ventricular tachycardia). There was also a 10% improvement in quality of life as measured by the Physical Functioning scale of the SF-36v2. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Pediatrics / 16.03.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael G. Ciccotti, MD Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery Rothman Institute Chief of Sports Medicine, and Director of the Sports Medicine Fellowship Thomas Jefferson University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?  Response: No doubt sports plays a huge role in the United States and all over world with millions of young people between the ages 6 and 18 participating in an organized sport on a regular basis. Over the past decade, there has been a tremendous focus on youth single sport specialization (SSS), with pressure from coaches, parents and the athletes themselves to participate in one sport year round. Many participants, coaches and parents believe that early specialization may allow the young athlete to become better and progress more quickly in their sport, perhaps allowing them a greater chance of becoming a professional athlete. This drive toward early specialization has been fueled by popular icons i.e. Tiger Woods (golf) and Lionel “Leo” Messi (soccer) as well as by media hits such as Friday Night Tykes (young football players) and The Short Game (7-year old golfers). The pop-psych writer, Malcolm Gladwell, whose The 10,000 Hour Rule (in his book Outliers) holds that 10,000 hours of "deliberate practice" are needed to become world-class in any field may have also encouraged the specialization trend. There is little doubt that youth sports may encourage a lifelong interest in a healthy lifestyle as well as improved self-esteem and social relationships. The flip side is that extreme training and singular focus on a sport can lead to stress on the developing musculo-skeletal system, a pressure to succeed at all costs, reduced fun, burnout and sometimes social isolation. The dilemma we are beginning to scratch the surface of is does single sport specialization enhance the likelihood of getting to an elite level and does it increase the risk of injury? There is a growing sense in the medical community that SSS raises injury risk without enhancing progression to a higher level. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Gender Differences / 27.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sean Notley, PhD. Postdoctoral Fellow School of Human Kinetics | École des sciences de l'activité physique University of Ottawa | Université d'Ottawa Ottawa ON MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Gender-differences in human heat loss (skin blood flow and sweating) have long been ascribed to innate differences between men and women. However, we believed that these were more related more to size than to gender, because most previous research compared average (larger) men with average (smaller) women. In our view, the size and shape (morphology) of an individual might be as important, if not more important, than gender in determining heat loss. When we matched men and women for body morphology, and when we studied those participants in tolerable conditions, we found that larger men and women were more dependent on sweating and less on skin blood flow, while smaller individuals were more reliant on skin blood flow and less on sweating. Moreover, as anticipated, gender differences in those heat-loss responses could be explained almost entirely by individual variations in morphology. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Gender Differences, Rheumatology / 14.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Adam Culvenor, PT, PhD Research Fellow,Institute of Anatomy Paracelsus Medizinische Privatuniversität Strubergasse Salzburg, Austria MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Thigh muscle weakness, particularly of the knee extensors (quadriceps), is a common feature of people with knee osteoarthritis. Thigh muscle weakness could be a consequence of knee osteoarthritis, or precede knee osteoarthritis development. There is conflicting evidence regarding the role of thigh muscle weakness as a risk factor for incident knee osteoarthritis in both men and women. Thigh muscle specific strength is a measure of muscle quality incorporating both the capacity of the muscle to produce force as well as muscle structure (ie. size, cross-sectional area), and preliminary data suggests this may be a more relevant measure of strength in relation to knee osteoarthritis development. (more…)
Author Interviews, Global Health, Nutrition, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 07.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lara Dugas, PhD, MPH, FTOS Public Health Sciences Loyola University Chicago MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Our NIH-funded study is led by Dr. Amy Luke, Public Health Sciences, Loyola University Chicago, and is titled “Modeling the Epidemiologic Transition study” or METS. It was initiated in 2010, and 2,500 young African-origin adults were recruited from 5 countries, spanning the Human Development Index (HDI), a WHO index used to rank countries according to 4 tiers of development. The 5 countries include the US, Seychelles, Jamaica, South Africa, and Ghana. Within each country 500 young adults, 25-45 yrs., and 50% male, were recruited and followed prospectively for 3 years. Each year, contactable participants completed a health screening, body composition, wore an activity monitor for 7 days, and told researchers everything they had eaten in the preceding 24hrs. Our main research questions we were trying to answer were to understand the impact of diet and physical activity on the development of obesity, and cardiovascular disease in young adults. It was important to have countries spanning the HDI, with differences in both country-level dietary intake and physical activity levels. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Exercise - Fitness, Lifestyle & Health, Weight Research / 27.01.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Arch G. Mainous III, PhD HSRMP Department Chair Florida Blue Endowed Professor of Health Administration University of Florida Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: As our post-industrial society becomes more and more sedentary, there is a concern that a lack of activity is associated with poor health outcomes like diabetes. At the same time, the medical community has a strong focus on determining whether patients are overweight or obese as a way to classify them as  being at higher risk for poor health outcomes. However, individuals at a “healthy weight” in general, are considered to be at low risk. Some recent studies have shown that many individuals at “healthy weight” are not metabolically healthy. How then might we predict who at “healthy weight” would be unhealthy? We hypothesized that individuals at “healthy weight” who had a sedentary lifestyle would be more likely to have prediabetes or undiagnosed diabetes. (more…)
ASCO, Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Colon Cancer, Exercise - Fitness / 21.01.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Brendan John Guercio, M.D. Clinical Fellow in Medicine (EXT) Brigham and Women's Hospital MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Sedentary lifestyle is a known risk factor for the development of colon cancer and has been associated with increased disease recurrence and mortality in patients with early stage colorectal cancer. This is the first study to our knowledge to show an association between increased physical activity (i.e. non-sedentary lifestyle) and improved survival and progression-free survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Rheumatology / 10.01.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dorothy D. Dunlop Ph.D. Professor of Medicine and Preventive Medicine Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Institute for Public Health and Medicine Center for Healthcare Studies Chicago, IL 60611  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?  
  • We know is being active is good for health.
  • Good evidence supports the current federal guidelines of doing 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week to prevent serious conditions such as heart disease
  • But only 1 in 10 older US adults with arthritis in their lower limb joints (e.g., knees) meet federal physical activity guidelines
  • Inadequate physical activity is a major public health concern because It can lead to poor function, which threatens a person’s ability to live independently.
These issues motivated our study to investigate the minimum time commitment needed to improve function (or sustain high function) for adults with lower joint osteoarthritis. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, JAMA / 09.01.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Gary O’Donovan, Ph.D. Research Associate: Exercise as Medicine School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine Loughborough University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: This study was inspired by the classic Harvard University study of weekend warriors. It was a privilege to work with Professor I-Min Lee, one of the authors of the classic study. Our study was much larger than the classic study. With greater statistical power, we found that, compared with inactive adults, all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease mortality, and cancer mortality risks were significantly lower in weekend warriors who performed the recommended amount of 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous activity in one or two sessions per week. Our study extends the classic study by showing that the benefits of the weekend warrior physical activity pattern are much the same in men and women. (more…)
Author Interviews, Critical Care - Intensive Care - ICUs, Exercise - Fitness, PLoS / 31.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michelle Kho, PT, PhD Canada Research Chair in Critical Care Rehabilitation and Knowledge Translation Assistant Professor School of Rehabilitation Science McMaster University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Patients who survive the ICU are at risk for muscle weakness and can experience physical functional disability lasting 5 to 8 years after the ICU. From a study conducted in Belgium, patients who were randomized to receive cycling after being in ICU for 2 weeks walked farther at ICU discharge than those who did not. Other research supported physiotherapy starting within days of starting mechanical ventilation to improve functional outcomes. Our CYCLE research program combines these 2 concepts – Can we start cycling very early in a patient’s ICU stay, and will this improve functional outcomes post-ICU? (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Diabetes Care, Exercise - Fitness, Lifestyle & Health / 12.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bernard M Duvivier  Department of Human Biology and Movement Science NUTRIM School for Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Maastricht University Medical Centre Maastricht, the Netherlands MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?  What are the main findings? Response: The health benefits of exercise have been well established but sitting is a risk factor for health, independent of exercise. As many people with type 2 diabetes don’t like to exercise we investigated whether replacing sitting time with light-intensity activities (standing and light walking) is equally effective to exercise when energy expenditure is comparable. Our results suggest that for people with type 2 diabetes, light-intensity activities (light walking and standing) can be an alternative to exercise to improve glucose regulation. In addition we showed that too much sitting has negative effects on insulin sensitivity which could not be fully compensated by 1 hour of exercise per day. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Frailty, JAMA / 06.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Maayan Agmon, PhD The Cheryl Spencer Department of Nursing Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Studies University of Haifa Haifa, Israel MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: To address the issue of functional decline during and post hospitalization . Up to 40% of older adults decline in their function at the time of hospitalization and acute illness. Most part of this functional decline is not explained by illness itself. So far, we know that in-hospital mobility is a protective factor but how much walking is required to prevent this decline has yet to be determined. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Heart Disease / 03.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bjarne M. Nes, PhD K.G. Jebsen Center for Exercise in Medicine, Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim, Norway. MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: It is well known that cardiorespiratory fitness is an important predictor of future cardiovascular disease risk. Still, fitness levels are rarely measured in clinical practice, likely because of costly and time-consuming procedures that requires quite a lot of training. Therefore, we wanted to test the ability of a simple estimation of fitness, from a so-called non-exercise algorithm, to identify individuals at high and low risk of cardiovascular mortality. We tested fitness alone and in combination with traditional risk factors such as high blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking and family history of heart disease and diabetes, among 38,480 men and women from the Nord-Trondelag Health Study in Norway. We found that estimated fitness strongly predicts premature deaths from all causes and that traditional clinical risk factors added little above and beyond fitness in terms of predicting risk. (more…)
Author Interviews, BMJ, Exercise - Fitness, Heart Disease / 30.11.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Emmaneul Stamatakis PhD, MSc, BSc Associate Professor | NHMRC Senior Research Fellow Charles Perkins Centre, Prevention Research Collaboration School of Public Health, Sydney Medical School The University of Sydney MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We examined the association between participation in different sports and risk of death during subsequent decade in a large sample of >80k adults aged 30 and over who lived in Scotland and England between 2994 and 2008 . We found the following significant reduction in risk of dying from all causes among participants compared with non-participants: cycling 15%, aerobics 27%, swimming 28%, racquet balls 47%; there was no significant reduction in mortality for running/jogging and football/rugby. We also found the following significant reduction in risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases: aerobics 36%, swimming 41%, racquet balls 56%; there were no significant reduction in mortality for running, cycling and football/rugby. Results in both cases were adjusted for the potential confounders: age, sex, chronic conditions, alcohol drinking and smoking habits, mental health, obesity, education level, doctor-diagnosed CVD, cancer, weekly volume of other physical activity besides the sport (including walking and domestic activity. (more…)
Author Interviews, Emory, Exercise - Fitness, Geriatrics, Heart Disease, Lifestyle & Health / 18.11.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Vasiliki Georgiopoulou MD MPH PhD Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) Emory University School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Although existing evidence suggests that more exercise capacity is associated with lower risk of CV disease and death, we don’t know whether more exercise capacity would lead to lower risk for heart failure also. This would be especially important for older adults, who are the group with the highest risk to develop heart failure. We used the data of a cohort study to test this association. The exercise capacity was evaluated by a walking test that is easy to perform – the long-distance corridor walk test. We observed that older adults who were able to complete the test had the lowest risk to develop heart failure and the lowest mortality rates, when compared with those who were not able to complete the test and those who could not do the test for medical reasons. We also observed that changes in exercise capacity 4 years later did not predict subsequent heart failure or mortality – perhaps because less fit older patients had already developed heart failure or had died. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Heart Disease, Lifestyle & Health / 31.10.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ulrik Wisløff, PhD Professor, Head of K.G. Jebsen Center for Exercise in Medicine Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging Norwegian University of Science and Technology Norway MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Prolonged time spent sedentary on a daily basis is detrimental for general health and is associated with increased risk of developing and dying from lifestyle related diseases such as cardiovascular disease – even in those following todays advice for physical activity given by health authorities worldwide. Number of hours spent inactive tend to increase with increased age. A person’s fitness level is regarded the best predictor of future health. We tested, in older adults (aged 70-77 years old) whether meeting physical activity recommendations and/or having high age-specific fitness level attenuated the adverse effect of prolonged sedentary time on cardiovascular risk factor clustering. Main finding was that high age-specific fitness level fully attenuated the adverse effect of prolonged sedentary time on clustering of cardiovascular risk factors, independent of meeting the physical activity recommendation in older adults. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Diabetologia, Exercise - Fitness, Nutrition / 18.10.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Andrew Reynolds Department of Human NutritionUniversity Otago Dunedin New Zealand MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Current guidelines for people with type 2 diabetes are to undertake activities such as walking for at least 150 minutes a week, or 30 minutes a day. When to walk in the day is not specified. We thought it reasonable that walking after meals would improve blood sugars more so than a walk where the timing was unspecified. Our randomised controlled trial considered exactly this, a prescription to walk as per the guideline of 30 minutes a day and a prescription to walk for 10 minutes after each meal. Our participants were free-living, but wore accelerometers to record their movement, and continuous glucose monitoring systems to observe their blood glucose levels. We found that post-meal blood sugar levels dropped 12 per cent on average when the participants followed the walking after meals advice compared to walking at any time of the day. Most of this effect came from the highly significant 22 per cent reduction in blood sugar when walking after evening meals, which were the most carbohydrate heavy, and were followed by the most sedentary time. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, OBGYNE / 12.10.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Kari Bø PhD Norwegian School of Sport Sciences Oslo, Norway MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The background is that more and more female elite athletes continue to exercise into their 30s and beyond and more want to become pregnant and some to continue to compete at the same level after giving birth. MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report? Response: To date there is little scientific knowledge on elite athletes and others who perform strenuous exercise (eg women in the military) during pregnancy and after childbirth and we therefore have to be cautious when recommending intensity levels of both endurance and strength training exercise. However, given the knowledge we have now.
  • Elite athletes planning pregnancy may consider reducing high impact training routines in the week after ovulation and refraining from repetitive heavy lifting regimens during the first trimester as some evidence suggests increased miscarriage risk.
  • There is little risk of abnormal fetal heart rate response when elite athletes exercise at <90% of their maximal heart rates in the second and third trimesters.
  • Baby birthweights of exercising women are less likely to be excessively large (>4000g) and not at increased risk of being excessively small (<2500g).
  • Exercise does not increase the risk of preterm birth.
  • Exercise during pregnancy does not increase the risk of induction of labour, epidural anesthesia, episiotomy or perineal tears, forceps or vacuum deliveries.
  • There is some encouraging evidence that the first stage of labour (before full dilatation) is shorter in exercising women.
  • There is also some encouraging evidence that exercise throughout pregnancy may reduce the need for caesarean section.
(more…)
Author Interviews, Duke, Exercise - Fitness, Lancet / 06.10.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Aarti Sahasranaman, PhD Duke-NUS Gradaute Medical School Singapore MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: More than half of adults in developed countries do not achieve recommended levels of physical activity. Despite the popularity of activity trackers as a tool for motivating and monitoring activity levels, little research exists on whether they can help people lead healthier lives, or if financial incentives could encourage people to wear them for longer and achieve higher fitness levels. One in ten US adults owns an activity tracker but research suggests that about a third of people abandon them within 6 months of purchase. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Heart Disease, JACC, Pediatrics / 03.10.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. James McKinney MD MSc FRCP(C) Division of Cardiology University of British Columbia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is the leading medical cause of death in young athletes. Sporting activity may predispose athletes with underlying cardiovascular conditions to develop life threatening ventricular arrhythmias during physical exercise. Despite being a relatively rare event, the death of a young healthy person is a tragic event that is difficult to comprehend. The prevalence of an underlying cardiovascular disorder in young athletes that predisposes to SCD is approximately 0.3%. Sudden cardiac death is often the first clinical manifestation of an underlying cardiovascular condition; up to 80% of athletes are previously asymptomatic. Pre-participation screening is the systematic practice of medically evaluating athletes for the purpose of identifying (or raising suspicion of) abnormalities that could provoke sudden death. There is agreement amongst sporting and medical bodies that athletes should undergo some form of pre-participation screening. An Achilles’ heel of screening is the significant number of false-positive screens that require subsequent costly secondary testing to rule out disease. Prevention of sudden cardiac death among athletes is a common goal, however the optimal strategy for its achievement is uncertain. (more…)