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…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Geriatrics, Heart Disease / 08.05.2014

Luisa Soares-Miranda, PhD Research Center in Physical Activity, Health and Leisure Faculty of Sport, University of Porto Rua Dr. Plácido Costa, Porto PORTUGALMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Luisa Soares-Miranda, PhD Research Center in Physical Activity, Health and Leisure Faculty of Sport, University of Porto Rua Dr. Plácido Costa, Porto PORTUGAL MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Soares-Miranda: Modest physical activity, such as the distance and pace of walking, is important for the heart’s electrical well being of older adults. In our study, older adults that increased their walking pace or distance had a better heart rate variability when compared with those that decreased their walking pace or distance. Our results suggest not only that regular physical activity later in life is beneficial, but also that certain beneficial changes that occur may be reduced when physical activity is reduced. This supports the need to maintain modest physical activity throughout the aging process. Even small increases can lead to a better health, while reducing physical activity has the opposite effect. So, any physical activity is better than none, and more is better. (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Exercise - Fitness, Menopause / 25.02.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael Nyberg Ph.D. Post-doc  Human Physiology and Exercise Physiology Integrated Physiology Group Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen and Jens Bangsbo, Dr. Sci., Ph.D. Professor of Human Physiology and Exercise Physiology Head of Integrated Physiology Group, Section of Human Physiology Head of Copenhagen Centre of Team Sports and Health Deputy Head of Department, research Copenhagen Denmark MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: The main findings of the study were that despite being of similar age, the postmenopausal displayed higher blood pressure and higher blood levels of an early marker of atherosclerosis than women that had not reached menopause. Furthermore, just 12 weeks of floorball training twice a week for one hour improved the women’s conditions and reduced their blood pressure significantly. In addition, there was positive development in levels of substances vital to blood vessel function, including a decrease in the early marker of atherosclerosis. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness / 21.02.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dorothy D Dunlop, PhD Professor, Medicine-Rheumatology Center for Healthcare Studies - Institute for Public Health and Medicine and Preventive Medicine Northwestern University Feinberg School of MedicineDorothy D Dunlop, PhD Professor, Medicine-Rheumatology Center for Healthcare Studies - Institute for Public Health and Medicine and Preventive Medicine Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Dunlop: We know being active, especially doing moderate activity like taking a brisk walk, is good for health. We know a sedentary lifestyle leads to health problems. What we do not know is whether or not those are two ways of looking at the same question. Does being sedentary like sitting just reflect insufficient activity OR is sedentary time is a separate and distinct risk factor for health problems. Our physical activity research group looked at national US data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.  This is an important study because they monitored physical activity using an accelerometer.  We found sedentary behavior such as sitting was its own separate risk factor for disability. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Sleep Disorders / 12.02.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Matthew Buman PhD School of Nutrition and Health Promotion, Arizona State University Arizona State University, School of Nutrition and Health Promotion Phoenix, AZMatthew Buman PhD School of Nutrition and Health Promotion, Arizona State University Arizona State University, School of Nutrition and Health Promotion Phoenix, AZ MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Buman: We found that that exercise at night (within 4 hours of bedtime) was not associated with poor sleep compared with individuals that did not exercise before bed. However, we also found that morning exercise appears to be associated with optimal sleep quality. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Rheumatology / 02.02.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Carsten Juhl, PhD, MPH Research Physiotherapist Forskningsenheden for Muskuloskeletal Funktion og Fysioterapi (FoF) Institut for idræt og biomekanik Syddansk Universitet MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Juhi:  The main findings of this study including 48 RCTs with more than 4000 patients were that
  • [1] exercise therapy programs focusing on a single type of exercise were more efficacious in reducing pain and patient-reported disability than those mixing several types of exercise with different goals within the same session;
  • [2] the number of supervised sessions enhances the benefits of the aerobic exercise;
  • [3] exercise focusing on the knee extensor muscle strength only, may increase the benefits of resistance training and
  • [4] exercise seems to be effective therapy for knee osteoarthritis, regardless of age, sex, BMI, radiographic status or baseline pain.
(more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Karolinski Institute / 25.11.2013

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Elin Ekblom Bak | Doktorand Institutionen för Medicin, Enheten för klinisk epidemiologi, Karolinska universitetssjukhuset Solna 114 86 Stockholm MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: That we, in a large sample of 60 y old men and women, found that a generally active day life (compared with an inactive daily life) was significantly associated with a better metabolic health at baseline, and a reduced risk with 27% for a first time cardiovascular event and 30% for all-cause mortality during 12.5 years of follow up. This was seen regardless of intentional exercise. Why this is important is because the focus is often of just exercise for health benefits and longevity. Exercise is still important, but, as we saw in this study, the activity that we do during the extended hours of daily living is as important and has a significant effect on cardiovascular health and longevity. These results are in a reversed way in line with the detrimental effects of prolonged sitting (regardless exercise habits) now frequently reported in an increasing amount of research studies. This is because sedentary time mainly replaces time in daily activity, and vice versa (daily activity replace time spent sitting). (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Heart Disease, Weight Research / 14.10.2013

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Christian K. Roberts Exercise and Metabolic Disease Research Laboratory, Translational Sciences Section, School of Nursing University of California, Los Angeles, CA MedicalResearch.com: How would you best summarize the main findings/results of this study? Answer: Our main finding was that HDL functioned better in its antioxidant role in subjects who participated in resistance exercise training (i.e. weight training) a minimum of 4 days a week, regardless of their weight—one group was lean (BMI <25) and the other overweight/obese (BMI >27) —than those who didn’t exercise (overweight, BMI >27, and untrained). In addition, HDL had similar effectiveness as an antioxidant in the overweight-trained group as in the as lean-trained group. Although indices of weight were associated with dysfunctional HDL, differences in fitness may be a better measure of who has healthier functioning HDL. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Heart Disease / 11.09.2013

Madelein Hoogwegt, MSc Promovenda Center of Research on Psychology in Somatic diseases (CoRPS) Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology Kamer P711 Tilburg University 5000 LE TilburgMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Madelein Hoogwegt, MSc Promovenda Center of Research on Psychology in Somatic diseases (CoRPS) Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology Kamer P711 Tilburg University 5000 LE Tilburg MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: The main finding was that we found a significant relation between positive affect and mortality, and that exercise explained this relationship. With respect to the second outcome, hospitalization, we found a significant relation between positive affect and hospitalization, a significant relation between positive affect and hospitalization, but exercise did not mediate this relationship. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Menopause / 03.09.2013

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Pascale Mauriège, PhD, Division of Kinesiology PEPS, Room 2148, Laval University, Québec, Canada G1K 7P4 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: 1)    The impact of a 4-month brisk walking program (3 sessions/week of 45-min walking at 60% of heart rate reserve) on postmenopausal moderately obese (BMI=29-35 kg/m2) women’s perceived health, and more particularly the perceived ideal weight and stress level. 2)    The existence of a relationship between improvements in perceived ideal weight and fat mass reduction in the walking group. 3)    The lack of non respondents to our novel self-administered Short Perceived Health Questionnaire (SPHQ) that was completed within 2-3 min by all participant. 4)    The good reproductibility for five of six items of the SHPQ, and the validation of three questions against generic tools. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Exercise - Fitness, JCEM / 24.08.2013

Thomas P. J. Solomon, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences Department of Biomedical Sciences | Cellular & Metabolic Research Section Panum Institute 4.5 | University of Copenhagen | Blegdamsvej 3B | 2200 Copenhagen N | DenmarkMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Thomas P. J. Solomon, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences Department of Biomedical Sciences | Cellular & Metabolic Research Section Panum Institute 4.5 | University of Copenhagen | Blegdamsvej 3B | 2200 Copenhagen N | Denmark MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Solomon: The main findings were that when impaired glucose tolerant and type 2 diabetic subjects underwent 3-4 months of regular aerobic exercise training, although the majority of subjects (86-90%) increased increased VO2max, lost weight, and increased insulin sensitivity, only around two-thirds of subjects improved glycemic control (HbA1c, fasting glucose, and 2-hour OGTT glucose). The novel finding was that the changes in glycemic control were congruent with changes in oral glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS). We also found that exercise training-induced changes in glycemic control were related to changes in GSIS (P0.05), but not insulin sensitivity. Furthermore, we found that training-induced improvements in glycemic control were largest in subjects with greater pre-training GSIS, i.e. in subjects with greatest beta-cell function. And, we noted that high pre-training hyperglycemia blunted exercise-induced improvements in beta-cell compensation for insulin resistance. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Stroke / 26.07.2013

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michelle N. McDonnell, PhD Division of Health Sciences International Centre for Allied Health Evidence University of South Australia Adelaide, SA 5001 Australia.Michelle N. McDonnell, PhD Division of Health Sciences International Centre for Allied Health Evidence University of South Australia Adelaide, SA 5001 Australia. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. McDonnell: In this study, we asked people how many times a week they engaged in intense physical activity, enough to work up a sweat. People responded that they were physically active 0, 1-3 or 4 or more times a week. When we followed up these people for several years, those who did not do any vigorous exercise were 20% more likely to have a stroke, compared to those who exercised four or more times a week. However, when we adjusted these results for other risk factors, this attenuated the effect down to 14%  which was not statistically significant. We also noticed that people who exercised four or more times a week had less hypertension (high blood pressure), were less likely to be obese and less likely to have diabetes. Each of these things on their own reduces your risk of stroke, so when we adjust for that the association between physical activity and stroke is weaker (20% to 14%). So physical activity seems to have an effect on stroke risk by improving these other risk factors. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Exercise - Fitness, Weight Research / 31.05.2013

Martin Sénéchal, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Researcher The Manitoba Institute of Child Health University of Manitoba 511E- 715 McDermot Ave Winnipeg, ManitobaMedicalResearch.com eInterview with Martin Sénéchal, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Researcher The Manitoba Institute of Child Health University of Manitoba 511E- 715 McDermot Ave Winnipeg, Manitoba MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: The main finding of this study is that reducing central adiposity and increasing fitness in men and women with Type 2 diabetes are key components for successfully improving glycemic control. A secondary finding of the study is that improvement in both central adiposity (reduction) and fitness (increasing) simultaneously; increase the likelihood of reducing HbA1c, one of the most widely used indicators of glucose control, and/or Type 2 diabetes medications. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, JAMA, Stroke / 19.03.2013

MedicalResearch.com Interview with Carron D. Gordon, PhD Section of Physical Therapy, University of the West Indies, Mona, Box 126, Kingston 7, Jamaica, West Indies MedicalResearch.com:  What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Gordon: The walking group showed a 17.6% improvement in distance walked in six minutes (measure of endurance) compared to 4% in the control group and 16.7% improvement in SF36-Physical Component (health-related quality of life) compared to 2.6% in the control group. (more…)