exercise Tag
20 Mar In VA Study, Moderate Physical Activity Lowered Risk Of Chronic Kidney Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Peter Kokkinos, PhD, FAHA, FACSM
Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Professor, Georgetown University School of Medicine
George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Director, LIVe Program
Medical Research: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Kokkinos: This is a prospective study and part of a larger cohort, the Veterans Exercise Testing Study (VETS) designed to assess the association between aerobic fitness and the risk of developing Chronic Kidney Disease or CKD. Our cohort included 5,812 middle-aged male Veterans from the Washington, DC Veterans Affairs Medical Center. All participants were CKD-Free prior to entering the study.
Exercise capacity was assessed by a graded exercise test and peak Metabolic Equivalents or METs were determined. Accordingly, we established the following four age-adjusted fitness categories based on Quartiles of peak METs achieved: Least-fit (≤25%; 4.8±0.90 METs; n=1258); Low-fit (25.1%-50%; 6.5±0.96 METs; n=1614); Moderate-fit (50.1%-75%; 7.7±0.91 METs; n=1958), and High-fit (>75%; 9.5±1.0 METs; n=1436).
Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the exercise capacity-CKD association. The models were adjusted for age, BMI, blood pressure, medications, CVD, Risk factors, race, and history of alcoholism.
Medical Research: What are the main findings?
Dr. Kokkinos: During a median follow-up period of 7.9 years, 1,000 individuals developed CKD. The CKD-fitness association was independent, inverse and graded. The CKD risk was 22% lower for every 1-MET increase in exercise capacity.
When considering fitness categories, CKD risk decreased progressively as fitness status increased. Specifically, when compared to the Least-Fit individuals the risk of developing CKD was 13% 45% and 58% lower for individuals in the Low-Fit; Moderate and High-Fit categories, respectively.
These findings support that higher aerobic fitness lowers the risk of developing CKD. The average exercise capacity necessary to realize these health benefits was just over 6.5 METs (Low-fit). This level of fitness is achievable by many middle-aged and older individuals by daily exercises such as brisk walking. Moderate intensity exercises are effective in improving aerobic fitness regardless of age or comorbidities. Thus, exercise interventions for individuals at risk for CKD and those with preclinical CKD may be implemented to prevent or at least attenuate the rate of developing CKD.
14 Mar Some Athletes May Need Salt Supplementation During Endurance Events
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Juan Del Coso Garrigós Profesor CC. de la Act. Física y del Deporte Responsable del Laboratorio de Fisiología del Ejercicio UNIVERSIDAD CAMILO JOSÉ CELA MedicalResearch: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: From a scientific point of view, it is well known that salt (either in capsules or included in a drink) can improve physical performance and several other physiological factors such as plasma volume maintenance, thermoregulation, etc in endurance activities. These effects are more evident when the amount of salt ingested during exercise matches the amount of salt lost by sweating. By using only sports drinks, it is impossible to replace all the salt lost by sweating because they only contain a relatively small amount of salt in their compositions (between ½ and 1/3 of the amount of salt lost by sweating). In fact, some of the investigations that determined the effectiveness of ingesting salt in sports have been financed by most popular sport drinks trademarks. However, sports drink companies only include a part of the salt lost by sweating because for them, taste is elemental for their markets! I suppose that, if they include more salt in their commercially available drinks, they would be more effective to prevent dehydration and performance decline, but at the same time, the taste of the drink would diminish the amount of beverage ingested worldwide. In this case, in the sport drinks market there is a well- established balance between taste and physiological effectiveness. As an example, most “salted” sport drinks contain 20-25 mM of sodium while it is well known that sweat sodium concentration ranges from 20 to 60 mM (salty sweater can reach 100 mM!!). This is not a regulatory limitation, because UE considers sports drinks to carbohydrate-electrolyte solutions that contain sodium between 20 and 50 mM. Our main finding is: To ingest salt capsules, in addition to the habitual rehydration routines with sports drinks, improves performance in a triathlon. This ergogenic effect was mediated by better maintenance of body water and electrolytes balances.14 Mar ‘Exercise Pill’ Irisin Appears To Be A Myth
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Harold P. Erickson Ph.D.
James B. Duke Professor, Department of Cell Biology
Duke Univ. Med. Center Durham, NC 27710
MedicalResearch: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Erickson: In Jan 2012 a paper reported the discovery of irisin, a hormone reportedly lopped off a precursor in muscle and sent through the bloodstream to fat tissue, where it turned white fat into brown fat. Brown fat burns calories, and is what hibernating animals – and even human babies -- use to keep warm. Turning on brown fat had exciting promise for obesity, diabetes, etc. Dozens of labs around the world jumped on the discovery and started trials in animals and humans of how irisin levels in blood were altered by exercise and a variety of metabolic challenges.
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings? Early reports.
Dr. Erickson: The follow-up studies from different labs reported a huge range of values for the level of irisin in blood, so they could not all be right. And most of them failed to find any significant effect of exercise. In 2013 two papers criticized the irisin study. A commentary article by Harold Erickson (Adipocyte 2:289-93) reported two substantial flaws in the original study. A research paper by S. Raschke, J. Eckel and colleagues (PloS one 8:e73680) concluded that humans did not make significant amount of irisin. The human gene for irisin has a deleterious mutation in the start codon, and Raschke et al showed that this reduced irisin expression to only 1% the level with the normal start. These two reports may have slowed new labs entering the field, but many groups already invested continued to publish.
21 Jan Exercise Improves Cognitive Performance In Young People
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Liana Machado PhD
Department of Psychology Brain Health Research Centre
University of Otago Dunedin New Zealand
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: A large body of data indicates links between chronic physical activity levels and cognitive performance in healthy populations. Although the bulk of evidence comes from studies in older adults, a number of studies have established links in children and in young adults. However, the mechanisms supporting the exercise-cognition links have remained unclear. Finding from an earlier study of ours, published in the journal Neuropsychology, pointed toward cerebrovascular factors as potentially important. In our new study in Psychophysiology, we found evidence suggesting that higher oxygen availability in the brain is one of the cerebrovascular factors that helps support better cognitive performance in people who exercise more regularly, thus providing important insight toward understanding why cognitive performance improves with regular exercise.
20 Nov Exercise Improves Outcomes in Dialysis Patients
MedicalResearch.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.
20 Nov Obesity, Sedentary Lifestyle May Increase Risk of Breast Cancer
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.05 Nov Aerobic and/or Resistance Exercise Improves Fitness and Body Composition
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Angela Alberga, PhD Eyes High Postdoctoral Fellow Werklund School of Education University of Calgary Ronald J. Sigal, MD, MPH, FRCPC Professor of Medicine, Kinesiology, Cardiac Sciences and Community Health Sciences Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary Health Senior Scholar, Alberta Innovates-Health Solutions Member, O'Brien Institute of Public Health, Libin Cardiovascular Institute and Julia McFarlane Diabetes Research Centre Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Response: The Healthy Eating, Aerobic and Resistance Training in Youth study examined the effects of exercise on body composition and cardiometabolic risk markers in adolescents with obesity. A total of 304 overweight or obese adolescents were randomized to four groups. The first group performed resistance training involving weight machines and some free weights; the second performed only aerobic exercise on treadmills, elliptical machines and stationary bikes; the third underwent combined aerobic and resistance training; and the last group did no exercise training. All four groups received nutritional counseling. In analyses involving all participants regardless of adherence, each exercise program reduced percent body fat, waist circumference and body mass index to a similar extent, while the diet-only control group had no changes in these variables. In participants who exercised at least 2.8 times per week, we found that combined aerobic and resistance training produced greater decreases in percentage body fat, waist circumference, and body mass index than aerobic training alone. Waist circumference decreased close to seven centimeters in adherent participants randomized to combined aerobic plus resistance exercise, versus about four centimeters in those randomized to do just one type of exercise, with no change in those randomized to diet alone.22 Oct Exercise Improves Brain Blood Flow Up To About Age 70
MedicalResearch.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.
29 Sep Moderate Physical Activity Could Protect Against Heart Failure in Women
MedicalResearch.com Interview Invitation with:
Dr. Iffat Rahman Ph.D.
Unit of Nutritional Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Box 210, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Rahman: Our study suggests that moderate to high level of physical activity could protect against heart failure in women.
27 Sep Physical Activity Did Not Reduce Incidence of Kidney Stones
MedicalResearch.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.
10 Sep Take a Short Walk: Don’t Sit For Long Periods of Time
MedicalResearch.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.
21 Aug Atrial Fibrillation Risk Lower In Postmenopausal Women Who Exercise
Posted at 10:41h
in AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Gender Differences, Heart Disease, Stanford
MedicalResearch.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.
20 Aug Can Skipping The Car Commute Make You Thinner?
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, 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).
13 Aug Even Modest Exercise May Decrease Breast Cancer Risk
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.07 Aug Interval Training Beats Continuous Exercise For Glucose Control
MedicalResearch.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).
06 Aug Simpler Resistance Exercise Program Brings Big Gains in Strength
MedicalResearch.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.
14 Jul Obesity, Lack of Exercise Linked to COPD
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Gundula Behrens Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine University of Regensburg Franz-Josef-Strauss-Allee 11 93053 Regensburg, Germany Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr Behrens: We studied the relations of obesity and physical activity to the incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) among more than 100,000 middle-aged to elderly men and women living in the U.S. People with a large waist circumference (43.5 inches (110 cm) or over in women and 46.5 inches (118 cm) or over in men) had a 72% increased risk of COPD as compared to people with a normal waist circumference. In contrast, individuals who were physically active five times or more per week had a 29% decreased risk of COPD as compared to their physically inactive counter-parts.07 Jul Diabetes: Combining Resistance with Aerobic Exercise May Be More Effective For Glucose Control
MedicalResearch.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.
07 Jul VA Study Defines Optimum Exercise Capacity Threshold By Age
MedicalResearch.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.
24 Jun Resistance Exercise May Improve Cancer Survival
MedicalResearch.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.
10 Jun Exercise May Improve Intestinal Bacterial Diversity
Posted at 16:21h
in Author Interviews
MedicalResearch.com Interview
Fergus Shanahan, MD, DSc
Professor and Chair,
Department of Medicine, and
Director, Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre
University College Cork, National University of Ireland
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?
Professor Shanahan: We already know that most (if not all) of the elements of a modern lifestyle in socio-economically developed societies influence the composition and performance of the microbiota colonising the human body. The composition of the microbiota or disturbances of it have been linked with an increased risk of various chronic non-communicable diseases including immune-allergic disorders and metabolic diseases including obesity. In particular, loss of microbial diversity is a feature of many of these disorders. The most important aspect of our study is that draws attention to the possibility that exercise may have a beneficial effect on the microbiota and is associated with a more diverse microbiota.
22 May Physical Activity May Slow Progression From Gestational To Type 2 Diabetes
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Wei Bao MD, PhD
Postdoc fellow, Epidemiology Branch
Division of Intramural Population Health Research
NICHD/National Institutes of Health
Rockville, MD 20852
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Wei Bao: This study, to our knowledge, is the first attempt to examine the associations of physical activity and sedentary behaviors with risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), which is a high-risk population of T2DM. The main findings are:
(1) Physical activity is inversely associated with risk of progression from GDM to T2DM. Each 5-metabolic equivalent hours per week increment of total physical activity, which is equivalent to 100 minutes per week of moderate-intensity physical activity or 50 minutes per week of vigorous physical activity, was related to a 9% lower risk of T2DM; this inverse association remained significant after additional adjustment for body mass index (BMI).
(2) An increase in physical activity is associated with a lower risk of progression from gestational diabetes mellitus to T2DM. Compared with women who maintained their total physical activity levels, women who increased their total physical activity levels by 7.5 MET-h/wk or more (equivalent to 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity physical activityor 75 minutes per week of vigorous physical activity) had a 47% lower risk of T2DM; the association remained significant after additional adjustment for BMI.
(3) Prolonged time spent watching TV, as a common sedentary behavior, is associated with an increased risk of progression from gestational diabetes mellitus to T2DM. Compared with women who watched TV 0 to 5 hours per week, those watched TV 6 to 10, 11 to 20, and 20 or more hours per week had 28%, 41%, and 77%, respectively, higher risk of T2DM. The association was no longer significant after additional adjustment for BMI.
16 May Atrial Fibrillation: Risk With Intense Exercise Varies by Age
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%.14 May Brief Exercise Before Meals May Improve Blood Sugar Control
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.08 May Maintaining Physical Activity Important For Healthy Aging
MedicalResearch.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.
25 Feb Post Menopause: Exercise Reduced Blood Pressure, Atherosclerosis Marker
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.21 Feb Sitting Time Linked to Increased Disability
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 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.
12 Feb Optimal Sleep Quality and Morning or Evening Exercise?
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, 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.
02 Feb Knee Osteoarthritis: Exercise Impact on Pain and Disability
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.