Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Geriatrics, Memory / 29.12.2014

Scott M. Hayes, Ph.D. Associate Director Neuroimaging Research for Veterans Center Memory Disorders Research Center VA Boston Healthcare System Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Boston University School of MedicineMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Scott M. Hayes, Ph.D. Associate Director Neuroimaging Research for Veterans Center Memory Disorders Research Center VA Boston Healthcare System Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Boston University School of Medicine Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Hayes:   Studies with rodents have demonstrated that physical activity positively impacts memory, whereas human studies have tended to emphasize a relationship with executive function—which refers to one’s ability to plan, organize, and manipulate information in one’s mind.  To clarify the relationship between fitness, cognition, and aging, we directly assessed cardiorespiratory fitness (heart and lung function) using the gold standard in the field, a graded treadmill test, and assessed both memory and executive functions in young and older adults.  Our results showed that cardiorespiratory fitness was positively associated with memory and executive functions in older adults, but not young adults.  In fact, on tests of executive functions, older adults with higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness performed as well as younger adults. The impact of cardiorespiratory fitness may be age-dependent.  Young adults, who are at their peak in terms of memory performance, may exhibit minimal associations with cardiorespiratory fitness.  In contrast, cardiorespiratory fitness likely has a larger impact in older adults by attenuating age-related decline in memory. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Heart Disease / 26.11.2014

Carl "Chip" Lavie MD, FACC Medical Director, Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention Director, Exercise Laboratories John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute Professor of Medicine Ochsner Clinical School-UQ School of Medicine Editor-in-Chief, Progress in Cardiovascular DiseasesMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Carl "Chip" Lavie MD, FACC Medical  Director, Cardiac  Rehabilitation and Prevention Director, Exercise Laboratories John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute Professor of Medicine Ochsner Clinical  School-UQ School of Medicine Editor-in-Chief, Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases Medical Research: What are the key points of your editorial? Dr. Lavie: 1) The importance of higher fitness to predict a lower rate of developing Heart Failure; 2) improvements in fitness over  time  predict a lower rate of developing  Heart Failure, and 3) Once Heart Failure develops, higher fitness predicts a more favorable prognosis. (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, 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…)
Aging, Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension / 20.09.2014

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 29208Xuemei 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 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Sui: First, blood pressure is inversely associated with cardiorespiratory fitness levels among men. People in higher fitness categories had lower blood pressure than those in lower fitness categories. Second, fitness is a strong effect modifier for the systolic blood pressure aging trajectory. A higher fitness level can significantly delay the natural age-associated increase in blood pressure. (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, Diabetes, Diabetologia, Exercise - Fitness / 15.12.2013

Dr. Merja K. Laine Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care University of Helsinki MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Merja K. Laine Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care University of Helsinki MedicalResearch.com: What is the background of your study? Answer: We were interesting to know does a top-level sport during young adulthood protect against disturbances in glucose regulation in later life. In Finland, a unique study program including former male elite athletes and their age- and area-matched controls already initiated in 1985. In 2008, we invited those subjects who participated in the study earlier and were still alive. (more…)