Exercise intensity not linked to mortality risk in older adults, finds trial
October 7, 2020
Science Daily/BMJ
Exercise intensity appears to make no difference to risk of mortality among older adults, suggests a randomised controlled trial from Norway published by The BMJ today.
Physical activity has been highlighted as one of the most important actions people of all ages can engage in to improve health, and data from observational studies show that early death is significantly reduced in physically active compared with inactive individuals.
Yet high quality clinical trial evidence on a potential direct (causal) relation between current advice on physical activity levels and longevity is lacking.
So an international research team set out to evaluate the effect of five years of supervised exercise training compared with recommendations for physical activity on mortality in older adults (70-77 years).
The trial involved 1,567 participants (790 women and 777 men) living in Trondheim, Norway, with an average age of 73 years. In total, 87.5% of participants reported overall good health and 80% reported a medium or high level of physical activity at the start of the trial.
Of these 1,567 participants, 400 were assigned to two weekly sessions of high intensity interval training (HIIT), 387 were assigned to moderate intensity continuous training (MICT), and 780 to follow the Norwegian guidelines for physical activity (control group), all for five years.
After five years, the overall mortality rate was 4.6% (72 participants).
The researchers found no difference in all cause mortality between the control group (4.7%, 37 participants) and combined HIIT and MICT group (4.5%, 35 participants).
They also found no differences in cardiovascular disease or cancer between the control group and the combined HIIT and MICT group.
For example, the total proportion of participants with cardiovascular disease after five years was 15.6%, with 16% (125 participants) in the control group, 15% (58 participants) in the MICT group, and 15.3% (61 participants) in the HIIT group.
The researchers point to some limitations. For example, highly active participants in the control group could have hampered finding differences between groups, and many participants were healthier than expected at the start of the study, which may have limited the potential to increase activity levels further.
However, strengths include the large number of older adults, and the long intervention period and monitoring throughout the study.
"This study suggests that combined MICT and HIIT has no effect on all cause mortality compared with recommended physical activity levels," write the researchers.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201007193656.htm
Sport and memory go hand in hand
September 23, 2020
Science Daily/Université de Genève
If sport is good for the body, it also seems to be good for the brain. By evaluating memory performance following a sport session, neuroscientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) demonstrate that an intensive physical exercise session as short as 15 minutes on a bicycle improves memory, including the acquisition of new motor skills. How? Through the action of endocanabinoids, molecules known to increase synaptic plasticity. This study, to be read in the journal Scientific Reports, highlights the virtues of sport for both health and education. School programmes and strategies aimed at reducing the effects of neurodegeneration on memory could indeed benefit from it.
Very often, right after a sporting exercise -- especially endurance such as running or cycling -- one feels physical and psychological well-being. This feeling is due to endocannabinoids, small molecules produced by the body during physical exertion. "They circulate in the blood and easily cross the blood-brain barrier. They then bind to specialise cellular receptors and trigger this feeling of euphoria. In addition, these same molecules bind to receptors in the hippocampus, the main brain structure for memory processing," says Kinga Igloi, lecturer in the laboratory of Professor Sophie Schwartz, at UNIGE Faculty of Medicine's Department of Basic Neurosciences, who led this work. "But what is the link between sport and memory? This is what we wanted to understand," she continues.
Intense effort is more effective
To test the effect of sport on motor learning, scientists asked a group of 15 young and healthy men, who were not athletes, to take a memory test under three conditions of physical exercise: after 30 minutes of moderate cycling, after 15 minutes of intensive cycling (defined as 80% of their maximum heart rate), or after a period of rest. "The exercise was as follows: a screen showed four points placed next to each other. Each time one of the dots briefly changed into a star, the participant had to press the corresponding button as quickly as possible," explains Blanca Marin Bosch, researcher in the same laboratory. "It followed a predefined and repeated sequence in order to precisely evaluate how movements were learnt. This is very similar to what we do when, for example, we learn to type on a keyboard as quickly as possible. After an intensive sports session, the performance was much better."
In addition to the results of the memory tests, the scientists observed changes in the activation of brain structures with functional MRI and performed blood tests to measure endocannabinoid levels. The different analyses concur: the faster individuals are, the more they activate their hippocampus (the brain area of memory) and the caudate nucleus (a brain structure involved in motor processes). Moreover, their endocannabinoid levels follow the same curve: the higher the level after intense physical effort, the more the brain is activated and the better the brain's performance. "These molecules are involved in synaptic plasticity, i.e. the way in which neurons are connected to each other, and thus may act on long-term potentiation, the mechanism for optimal consolidation of memory," says Blanca Marin Bosch.
Improving school learning or preventing Alzheimer's disease
In a previous study, the research team had already shown the positive effect of sport on another type of memory, associative memory. However, contrary to what is shown here, they had observed that a sport session of moderate intensity produced better results. It therefore shows that, as not all forms of memory use the same brain mechanisms, not all sports intensities have the same effects. It should be noted that in all cases, physical exercise improves memory more than inaction.
By providing precise neuroscientific data, these studies make it possible to envisage new strategies for improving or preserving memory. "Sports activity can be an easy to implement, minimally invasive and inexpensive intervention. For example, would it be useful to schedule a sports activity at the end of a school morning to consolidate memory and improve learning?"
Improving academic learning or preventing Alzheimer's disease
In a previous study, the research team had already shown the positive effect of sport on another type of memory, associative memory. But, contrary to what is shown here, they had observed that a sport session of moderate intensity, not high intensity, produced better results. Thus, just as not all forms of memory use the same brain mechanisms, not all sports intensities have the same effects. It should be noted that in all cases, physical exercise improves memory more than inaction.
By providing precise neuroscientific data, these studies make it possible to envisage new strategies for improving or preserving memory. "Sports activity can be an easy to implement, minimally invasive and inexpensive intervention. Would it be useful, for example, to plan a moment of sport at the end of a school morning to consolidate school learning," Kinga Igloi wonders, who, with her colleagues at Sophie Schwartz's laboratory, aims to achieve such practical objectives.
Neuroscientists are currently pursuing their work by studying memory disorders, and in particular by studying populations at high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. "Some people as young as 25 years of age may experience subtle memory deficits characterised by overactivation of the hippocampus. We want to evaluate the extent to which sports practice could help compensate for these early deficits that are precursors to Alzheimer's disease.," conclude the authors.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200923124616.htm
Concussions are a risk for young athletes in all sports -- not just football
Retrospective study reveals that younger brains take longer to heal
September 15, 2020
Science Daily/Henry Ford Health System
A recent study from the Henry Ford Sports Medicine Research team suggests that high school athletes competing, not only in football, but in soccer, hockey, basketball, swimming, cheerleading and other sports are not only at risk for concussions, but may need a longer recovery than first thought.
The study's results published by Orthopedics, a nationally recognized, peer-reviewed journal for orthopedic surgeons found that the most common sports for brain injuries were indeed football, hockey and soccer.
"We thought that concussion issues would be very short-lived," said Vasilios (Bill) Moutzouros, M.D., chief of Sports Medicine at Henry Ford and a study co-author, "That they wouldn't have as many attention issues, that they'd be able to recover for their sport much more quickly. Our study found just the opposite."
"The two sports, other than football, where concussions are common are soccer and hockey, although brain injuries can happen in any sport," said Meaghan Rourke, one of more than 30 Henry Ford athletic trainers who support sports programs at over 20 high schools, colleges and universities and professional teams in the tri-county area.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's latest executive order allows the high school football season to begin September 18. Football was reinstated by the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) after initially being postponed until spring 2021. With football back in action with an adjusted six-game season, athletic trainers will once again be patrolling the sidelines and be on the lookout for signs of concussions. Other sports given the green light to compete this fall include soccer, volleyball, swimming and diving. These competitions will also present the potential for brain injuries from collisions, falls and impacts with the field of play.
"I went through a four-year period as an athletic trainer where I had at least one swimmer suffer a concussion. That's a sport you don't really think about in terms of concussions," said Rourke. She explained that in one instance a swimmer miscalculated her distance to the pool wall while doing the backstroke and bumped her head against the wall. As a result, the swimmer was out for more than a month with a concussion. Diving is another sport susceptible to brain injuries as the divers' heads impact the surface of the water at high speeds generated from their dives. In reality, all sports have the potential for concussions since athletics involve physical activity and competition.
"Competitive cheerleading is another sport where I've seen concussions happen. The kids get very high in the air, and if they slip and fall when they are coming down, they can suffer serious head injuries," said Rourke, "We usually have one or two athletes in that sport suffer concussions. Overall, I've probably had to deal with a concussion in every sport, including golf."
The retrospective study looked at Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) scores at baseline testing and following concussions performed by neuropsychologists. The study found that memory ImPACT scores increased as players suffered repeated concussions.
ImPACT is the brain injury testing protocol developed in the late 1990s at the University of Pittsburgh and released in the early 2000s. The testing protocol is the only FDA-approved tool for concussion assessment and is the national testing used by healthcare, educational and sports organizations to help assess and manage concussions. The protocol defines a concussion as "a disturbance in brain function that occurs following either a blow to the head or as a result of the violent shaking of the head." Symptoms of a concussion can include a combination of headaches, nausea, vomiting, balance problems, dizziness, fatigue, visual problems and a host of other brain-associated symptoms.
The study examined the records of 357 high school athletes who were treated for concussions at Henry Ford from 2013 to 2016. The athletes age averaged between 14-18 with nearly 62% being males. Football yielded the most concussions (27.7%), followed by hockey (21.8%), soccer (17%), basketball (9 %) and cheerleading (4.2%). From the study's participants, 72 played in "Other" sports and accounted for 20.3% of the total number of concussions. Overall, 14 % reported suffering from amnesia and 33 % reported a history of concussions.
Henry Ford athletic trainers use internationally approved guidelines to accurately diagnose concussions, appropriately manage the recovery process, and safely return athletes back to their game. They use sideline tools such as the Sports Concussion Assessment Tool 5 (SCAT5) to immediately evaluate cognitive function and, if needed, additional neuropsychological tests may be administered by a physician to track progression through the recovery process. SCAT5 is a standardized concussion assessment used by licensed healthcare providers when a concussion is suspected in athletes ages 12 and older.
Current MHSAA protocols call for a player showing concussion symptoms to be sidelined for at least 24 hours. Athletes at high schools staffed with a Henry Ford athletic trainer are sidelined for at least five days and follow a strict return to play protocol, "We're going to slowly bring them back," said Rourke. "We don't want to just throw them out there where they're going to get hit again, and then they're dealing with prolonged symptoms."
The Henry Ford research team found that athletes with only one concussion required at least 30 days of recovery prior to returning to their sport while others who reported a second or more concussions required more recovery time. They also learned that visual motor speed and reaction time scores decreased with recurrent concussions, and that male and female athletes with a previous history of concussion, and those with delayed diagnosis, required more time before returning to competition.
The study team hopes that the results help start the conversation on how to more safely return student athletes to their sport after a brain injury. "When you recognize that it can be up to 30 days to get a young student athlete back, you're going to change your mind-set on how you advance them, in terms of how you push them, in terms of how you test them," said Dr. Moutzouros.
Previously, it was believed that brain injuries were related to a player's age. The younger the player, the shorter the recovery time. "We need more studies on the younger athletes," said Dr. Moutzouros, "Many of us have children. We're all worried about them and we want them to be safe. So, we need to recognize that this is a problem for the youth athlete."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200915110014.htm
5 Dietary Supplements to Add on In Your Fitness Program
Sponsored content: CBD-News
Are you getting the right supplements to support your fitness program? Getting physically fit and leading a healthier lifestyle is extremely important. A healthy balanced diet is perhaps even more crucial if you want to experience your fitness program's real long-term results.
That said, supplements can go a long way in redressing any imbalances in your diet. For example, sarms canada has shown promising results in managing obesity and aiding in fat loss.
Here are five other useful additives that will help keep your body in perfect working order and give you the best platform to meet your fitness goals.
1. Creatine
Creatine is one of the most popular performance-enhancing supplements used in fitness. It helps increase muscle mass, as well as increasing overall strength and energy levels.
Creatine is the perfect supplement for anyone trying to gain muscle or performing exercises, which involves a short burst of a high-intensity activity such as splinting or lifting weights. Creatine is also thought to increase lean muscle mass and help muscles recover more quickly during exercise.
This explains why it’s particularly popular among professional athletes such as wrestlers, footballers, hockey players, and gymnasts. You can take it either pre or post-workout and quickly mix into smoothies, protein shakes, or taken on its own.
Some of the benefits of taking creatine include:
● It helps your muscle cells produce more energy.
● Useful for adding muscle mass.
● Improves exercise performance.
● Speeds up muscle growth.
● Helps lower your blood sugar.
● Reduce tiredness and fatigue.
Creatine is clearly a great supplement and has powerful benefits for fitness and overall health.
2. Multi-Vitamins
Also known as multimineral, multis, or vitamins, these are the most commonly used supplements. They promote efficiency in your metabolism, muscle building, and performance and can also support your immune system.
They are a combination of many different vitamins that are found in foods and other natural sources. Many multivitamin products contain minerals such as iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and zinc, which should be taken with a full glass of water.
Taking a high-potency multivitamin formula will help get essential nutrients necessary for optimum efficiency when leading an active lifestyle.
Benefits include:
● Helps you build muscle
● Essential in delivering energy throughout your body
● Essential vitamins help you recover and protect your tissue
However, a good rule of thumb is taking no more than one multivitamin product at the same time. Doing this will lead to overdosing or severe side effects.
3. Whey Protein
Whey is one of the best-studied supplements in the world, and for good reasons.
It has excellent nutritional values and a vast range of health benefits. This is because whey protein is quickly consumed by the body and helps fill you up, which is excellent for weight loss and weight management.
Your body needs protein after an exercise session to help maintain muscle fibers and repair micro-tears during workouts. Whey protein is also so much more useful than simply helping you get the most out of your fitness exercises.
● It helps you build muscle mass and improve strength. This is why whey is so popular among athletes and bodybuilders.
● Whey is satiating and keeps you full for longer resulting in fat loss.
● It offers a complete profile of amino acids and is the best protein source, especially for vegetarians.
● It helps boost your immune system by increasing the production of a certain type of white blood cell to protect the body from bacteria and viruses.
● It aids in a quick recovery after intense exercise.
Protein is a basic building block for your muscles, bones, skin, cartilage, and blood. So if you are looking to build a superior, stronger, and leaner physique, consider investing in a high-quality whey protein.
4. BCAAs (Branch Chain Amino Acids)
You may have heard a thing or two about BCAAs from your supplement-savvy gym partner. What’s the big fuss anyway, you ask? Branch Chain Amino Acids contain leucine, valine, and isoleucine, which play a vital role in protein synthesis and glucose uptake into your cells.
BCAAs have gained enough popularity in the weights room to wager that of whey protein and are a must-have supplement for any serious sportsman.
Amino acids supplements have important functions post workout to aid in muscle recovery and immune regulation and for overall healing, especially after sporting events.
Other essential benefits include:
● Help decrease muscle soreness after a workout.
● Prevent muscle wasting or breakdown
● Delay fatigue during prolonged exercise
● Improve anaerobic performance when taken regularly
BCAAs are essential to any fitness program, and since your body does not produce them, it’s important to supplement them to provide the required benefits.
5. Caffeine
Caffeine, which can be found in coffee, tea, mate, and other products, is more than just a wake-up wonder! Its effects on energy go far beyond the buzz and can be an essential supplement in your fitness program.
Caffeine supplement is one of the most commonly used stimulants among athletes, and for good reasons. Caffeine can boost alertness and is linked to improvements in simple reaction time, training intensity, and volume.
It helps increase athletic performance, focus, and energy, especially for those who want to train hard. Other benefits include:
● Increased endurance, especially during intense cardio workouts.
● Boost in dopamine signals in the brain to reduce poor training/exercising performance.
● Increased strength when taken an hour before training.
● Boost fat burning during low-intensity exercises such as aerobics.
● Decreases pain during resistance training.
● Aids in recovery when taken after exercise.
However, taking caffeine can leave you dehydrated, hence crucial that you increase your water intake while using it.
Final Thought
Although fitness goals are best met with a nutritious diet, supplements can help you boost your routine and give you an upper hand in your training. Supplements make it much more efficient to get the necessary nutrients to lose weight, gain muscle, and achieve your overall fitness targets.
References:
https://www.midwesthormonecenters.com/growth-hormone-mk-677/
https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/best-vitamins-to-take-daily
https://www.ibtimes.com/drinking-too-much-coffee-can-lead-dehydration-2803733
Aerobic exercise could have the final say on fatty livers
July 29, 2020
Science Daily/Trinity College Dublin
A new study from Trinity College Dublin highlights that fitness may be a more important clinical endpoint for improvement in patients with fatty liver diseases during exercise trials, rather than weight loss. The findings have been published today (Tuesday, 28th July 2020) in the medical journal Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
Metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is a condition characterised by a build up of fat in the liver. The liver is central to a suite of vital processes in the body including digestion, blood clotting and energy production.
If left untreated, MAFLD can lead to serious complications like liver fibrosis (scarring), cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer, as well as cardiovascular and metabolic issues. Risk factors for developing MAFLD include type 2 diabetes and obesity. The global estimated prevalence of MAFLD is 25%, making it the leading cause of chronic liver disease worldwide, and is quickly becoming the leading cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer in liver transplant candidates in the western world.
Up to now, due to the lack of approved pharmacological interventions, treatment has been a combination of prescribed weight loss and physical activity, with a weight loss target of 7-10% being the primary treatment endpoint. There is some evidence that exercise training alone without significant weight loss can reduce liver fat content (assessed using non-invasive methodologies such as transient elastography and ultrasound) in MAFLD patients. However, the independent effects of exercise alone on biopsy-measured outcomes (the gold standard for diagnosing and assessing MAFLD) have been unknown.
This new study highlights that increased fitness, the result of aerobic exercise participation, may be a more important clinical endpoint for improvement in MAFLD patients during exercise trials, rather than weight loss.
In Ireland and worldwide, MAFLD is a silent epidemic. In Ireland, there is currently no national screening programme for the disease, so the true prevalence in Ireland is unknown. However, St James's Hospital, Dublin, where the study took place, now has over 1000 patients on their own database, with the numbers growing year on year.
The Trinity study is the first to demonstrate significant improvements in biopsy-measured liver outcomes in a MAFLD cohort following an exercise-only intervention, without clinically significant weight loss. The study also demonstrates that improvements in biopsy-measured liver outcomes were significantly related to improvements in fitness levels. The study also found however, that when patients were followed up longitudinally, none of the benefits of the exercise intervention were sustained.
The study is unique in that it used repeat biopsies in MAFLD patients during an exercise-only intervention. Only two previous studies have been conducted using repeat biopsies in exercise-only trials, but these studies had significant methodological limitations. These studies used low-intensity resistance exercise and lacked exercise supervision, which may have led to non-significant changes on liver biopsy outcomes. This study is also the first to relate improvements on liver biopsies with improvements in fitness, suggesting a potential interrelationship between the two outcomes.
Dr Philip O'Gorman, Department of Physiotherapy, Trinity College said:
"The benefits of exercise training on both liver and cardiometabolic outcomes for these patients is very clear. Our findings suggest that there is an urgent need to better transition exercise into the community setting for these patients as the benefits of exercise intervention were not sustained longitudinally. This study clearly demonstrates the clinical benefit of exercise in MAFLD in as little as 12 weeks and shows the clinical benefit of improving cardiorespiratory fitness, which is increasingly being considered a 'clinical vital sign.'
Worryingly, there is little to no exercise referral systems in place within hospital departments and beyond throughout the healthcare system in Ireland. However, as our results have shown, the lack of sustainability of the benefits of exercise in MAFLD is concerning and there is an urgent unmet need to enable patients to continually engage in exercise therapy in the community setting. A systems-based approach whereby clinicians can refer patients to exercise specialists in the community is required for long-term benefits of exercise to be sustained."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200729114728.htm
To bond with nature, kids need solitary activities outdoors
August 5, 2020
Science Daily/North Carolina State University
A new study found solitary activities like fishing, hunting or exploring outside are key to building strong bonds between children and nature. Activities like these encourage children to both enjoy being outside and to feel comfortable there.
In addition to these independent activities, researchers led by an investigator from North Carolina State University reported that they found social activities can help cement the bond between children and nature.
The findings could help children gain the mental and physical benefits linked with being outdoors at a time when researchers say younger generations of Americans may be less connected to nature than before.
"In order to create a strong bond with nature, you need to provide kids with an opportunity to be alone in nature, or to experience nature in a way that they can personally connect with it, but you need to reinforce that with social experiences either with peers or adults," said Kathryn Stevenson, corresponding author of the study and an assistant professor in North Carolina State University's Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management.
For the study, researchers surveyed 1,285 children aged 9 through 12 in North Carolina. The survey focused on identifying the types of activities that help children build a strong connection to nature, which they defined as when children enjoy being outdoors and feel comfortable there.
The researchers asked children about their experiences with outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing, hiking, camping and playing sports, and their feelings about nature overall. The researchers then used children's survey responses to assess which activities were most likely to predict whether they had a strong connection to nature.
While they found that children who participated in solitary activities such as hunting or fishing built strong connections to nature, they also saw that social activities outdoors, such as playing sports or camping, helped to cement the strongest bonds that they saw in children.
"We saw that there were different combinations of specific activities that could build a strong connection to nature; but a key starting point was being outside, in a more solitary activity," Stevenson said.
The finding that solitary activities were important predictors of strong connections to the natural world wasn't surprising given findings from previous research, said Rachel Szczytko, the study's first author. She was previously an environmental education research assistant at NC State, and now works at the San Francisco-based Pisces Foundation.
"We have seen that when people who go into environmentally focused careers reflect on their lives, they describe having formational experiences outdoors during childhood, like walking on a favorite trail or exploring the creek by their home," she said. "We know that these kind of meaningful life experiences are motivating going forward. So we expected that when children are doing something more solitary, contemplative, when they're noticing what's around them, and have a heightened sense of awareness, they are more likely having these formative experiences and are developing more comfort and affinity for the outdoors."
The findings highlight a need to provide more solitary opportunities for kids when they are outside.
"When you think about recreation opportunities for kids, social activities are often covered; people are signing their kids up for sports, camp and scouts," Stevenson said. "Maybe we need more programming to allow children to be more contemplative in nature, or opportunities to establish a personal connection. That could be silent sits, or it could be activities where children are looking or observing on their own. It could mean sending kids to the outdoors to make observations on their own. It doesn't mean kids should be unsupervised, but adults could consider stepping back and letting kids explore on their own."
Researchers said children who are connected to nature are also likely to spend more time outside, which can lead to benefits for children's mental and physical health, attention span and relationships with adults. In addition, researchers said building connections with nature is also important for getting children involved in environmental conservation.
"There are all kinds of benefits from building connections to nature and spending time outside," Stevenson said. "One of the benefits we're highlighting is that children who have a strong connection to nature are more likely to want to take care of the environment in the future."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200805110113.htm
Elite gamers share mental toughness with top athletes
June 11, 2020
Science Daily/Queensland University of Technology
In one of the first studies to investigate mental toughness and stress and coping in high performing esports athletes, researchers have found similarities to traditional elite athletes.
High performing esports professionals may require the same mental stamina it takes to be a top Olympian, according to latest QUT research.
A new study, published in Frontiers in Psychology, indicated an overlap between the mental toughness and stress-coping processes in traditional sports and competitive esports athletes.
Competitive esports athletes appear to cope with stressors similarly to high-performing sports athletes
esports players with higher ranks tended to have higher levels of mental toughness
sports psychology interventions for high-performing sports athletes may also be beneficial to competitive esports athletes.
QUT esports researcher Dylan Poulus said 316 esports players aged 18 and over were studied from among the top 40 per cent of players.
"A disposition considered to be influential in sporting success is mental toughness and it appears to be important for success in esports," Mr Poulus said.
"To be a millionaire esports gamer you deal with stress similar as if you are getting ready to go to the Olympics.
"It is one of the fastest growing sports in the world, and with the coronavirus pandemic there has been huge interest."
The study used athletes who played Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rainbow Six: Siege, Defence of the Ancients 2 and League of Legends competitively.
Events can draw more than 60 million online views.
Mr Poulus said the study identified some of the mental skills required for optimal performance among gamers, including high levels of mental toughness, emotional control, and life control.
"Similar to traditional sports athletes, esports athletes with higher mental toughness employed more problem-focused coping strategies which aided in their success," he said.
However, the findings also showed how esports athletes with high mental toughness employed emotion-focused coping strategies like acceptance coping.
"By accepting the elements of their game that are beyond their control could lead to better performance," Mr Poulus said.
"Everything we see in sports psychology interventions that work with traditional sports is likely going to work with esports athletes."
Mr Poulus is completing his PhD at QUT's Faculty of Health school of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences.
The research, titled Stress and Coping in Esports and the Influence of Mental Toughness, was co-authored by Michael Trotter, Dr Tristan Coulter and Professor Remco Polman.
This study was one of the first studies to investigate mental toughness and stress and coping in performing esports athletes.
Further research is investigating what specifically causes stress to high performing esports athletes.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200611104801.htm
Exercise can slow or prevent vision loss
July 1, 2020
Science Daily/University of Virginia Health System
Exercise can slow or prevent the development of macular degeneration and may benefit other common causes of vision loss, such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, new research suggests.
The new study from the University of Virginia School of Medicine found that exercise reduced the harmful overgrowth of blood vessels in the eyes of lab mice by up to 45%. This tangle of blood vessels is a key contributor to macular degeneration and several other eye diseases.
The study represents the first experimental evidence showing that exercise can reduce the severity of macular degeneration, a leading cause of vision loss, the scientists report. Ten million Americans are estimated to have the condition.
"There has long been a question about whether maintaining a healthy lifestyle can delay or prevent the development of macular degeneration. The way that question has historically been answered has been by taking surveys of people, asking them what they are eating and how much exercise they are performing," said researcher Bradley Gelfand, PhD, of UVA's Center for Advanced Vision Science. "That is basically the most sophisticated study that has been done. The problem with that is that people are notoriously bad self-reporters ... and that can lead to conclusions that may or not be true. This [study] offers hard evidence from the lab for very first time."
The Benefits of Exercise
Enticingly, the research found that the bar for receiving the benefits from exercise was relatively low -- more exercise didn't mean more benefit. "Mice are kind of like people in that they will do a spectrum of exercise. As long as they had a wheel and ran on it, there was a benefit," Gelfand said. "The benefit that they obtained is saturated at low levels of exercise."
An initial test comparing mice that voluntarily exercised versus those that did not found that exercise reduced the blood vessel overgrowth by 45%. A second test, to confirm the findings, found a reduction of 32%.
The scientists aren't certain exactly how exercise is preventing the blood vessel overgrowth. There could be a variety of factors at play, they say, including increased blood flow to the eyes.
Gelfand, of UVA's Department of Ophthalmology and Department of Biomedical Engineering, noted that the onset of vision loss is often associated with a decrease in exercise. "It is fairly well known that as people's eyes and vision deteriorate, their tendency to engage in physical activity also goes down," he said. "It can be a challenging thing to study in older people. ... How much of that is one causing the other?"
The researchers already have submitted grant proposals in hopes of obtaining funding to pursue their findings further.
"The next step is to look at how and why this happens, and to see if we can develop a pill or method that will give you the benefits of exercise without having to exercise," Gelfand said. "We're talking about a fairly elderly population [of people with macular degeneration], many of whom may not be capable of conducting the type of exercise regimen that may be required to see some kind of benefit." (He urged people to consult their doctors before beginning any aggressive exercise program.)
Gelfand, a self-described couch potato, disclosed a secret motivation for the research: "One reason I wanted to do this study was sort of selfish. I was hoping to find some reason not to exercise," he joked. "It turned out exercise really is good for you."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200701100025.htm
Study finds exercise increases benefits of breast milk for babies
Even moderate exercise increases compound that reduces risk of heart disease, diabetes and obesity
June 29, 2020
Science Daily/Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
A new study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine finds even moderate exercise during pregnancy increases a compound in breast milk that reduces a baby's lifelong risks of serious health issues such as diabetes, obesity and heart disease.
Findings from the study published online today in the journal Nature Metabolism.
"We've done studies in the past that have shown that maternal exercise improves the health of offspring, but in this study, we wanted to begin to answer the question of why," said Kristin Stanford, a researcher at The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center's Diabetes and Metabolism Research Center and lead author of the study. "Because there is evidence that breast milk plays a major role, we wanted to isolate the effects of breast milk on offspring health."
To do that, Stanford and her team -- including researchers at the University of California, San Diego, Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center, and the Joslin Diabetes Center -- studied mice born from sedentary mothers and fed them milk from mothers who were active throughout pregnancy. They found that the health benefits from fit moms transferred to the pups, proving that they were, in fact, passed through breast milk and not simply inherited genetic traits.
Researchers also followed about 150 pregnant and postpartum women using activity trackers and found that those who had more steps per day had an increased amount of a compound known as 3SL in their breast milk, which they believe is responsible for these health benefits.
"The increase in 3SL were not necessarily related to exercise intensity, so even moderate exercise like a daily walk is enough to reap the benefits," said Stanford, an associate professor of physiology and cell biology at Ohio State's Dorothy M. Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute. "Exercise is also great for your overall health during and after pregnancy, so anything you can do to get moving is going to benefit both you and your baby."
Because many women are unable to breastfeed or experience complications that require bed rest, researchers are examining if they can isolate this beneficial compound found in the breast milk of active moms and add it to infant formula.
"This human milk oligosaccharide had a significant impact on offspring healthy. Being able to add this into formula could provide benefits for babies when women aren't able to breastfeed," Stanford said.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200629120220.htm
Lifting weights makes your nervous system stronger, too
The first few weeks of weightlifting strengthen the reticulospinal tract, not muscles
June 29, 2020
Science Daily/Society for Neuroscience
Gym-goers may get frustrated when they don't see results from weightlifting right away, but their efforts are not in vain: the first few weeks of training strengthen the nervous system, not muscles. New research published in JNeurosci reveals how.
The brain orchestrates movement via two major neural highways descending to the spinal cord: the corticospinal tract (CST) and reticulospinal tract (RST). The CST is thought to be the dominant pathway, with the RST controlling posture. However, the CST does not change during strength training, so increased strength must stem from the more primitive RST.
Glover and Baker trained monkeys to pull a weighted handle using one arm, with the weight gradually increasing over twelve weeks. Each day, the scientists stimulated the motor cortex and the two motor tracts, measuring the resulting electrical activity in the arm muscles. Over the course of the training regimen, the electrical response from stimulating the cortex and RST increased -- a sign of strengthened signaling. After three more months of strength training, stimulating the RST elicited a greater response in the side of the spinal cord connected to the trained arm. Outputs from the reticulospinal tract become more powerful during weight training and could be the driving force behind increases in strength.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200629132104.htm
The death marker protein cleans up your muscles after exercise
May 28, 2020
Science Daily/Faculty of Science - University of Copenhagen
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports have demonstrated that physical activity prompts a clean-up of muscles as the protein Ubiquitin tags onto worn-out proteins, causing them to be degraded. This prevents the accumulation of damaged proteins and helps keep muscles healthy.
Physical activity benefits health in many ways, including the building and maintenance of healthy muscles, which are important for our ability to move about normally, as well as to fulfill the vital role of regulating metabolism. As most of the carbohydrate that we eat is stored in muscle, our muscles are extremely important for regulating metabolism.
An intense bike ride boosts Ubiquitin activity
Maintaining muscular function is essential. Part of our ability to do so depends upon proteins -- the building blocks of muscles -- being degraded when worn-out and eliminated in a kind of clean up process that allows them to be replaced by freshly synthesized proteins.
Now, Danish researchers -- in collaboration with research colleagues at the University of Sydney, Australia -- have demonstrated that a single, intense, roughly 10-minute bicycle ride results in a significant increase in the activity of Ubiquitin, the 'death marker protein' and a subsequent intensification of the targeting and removal of worn-out proteins in muscles. This paves the way for an eventual build-up of new proteins:
"Muscles eliminate worn-out proteins in several ways," explains Professor Erik Richter of the Section for Molecular Physiology at UCPH's Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports. He continues:
"One of these methods is when Ubiquitin, "the death-marker," tags a protein in question. Ubiquitin itself is a small protein. It attaches itself to the amino acid Lysine on worn-out proteins, after which the protein is transported to a Proteasome, which is a structure that gobbles up proteins and spits them out as amino acids. These amino acids can then be reused in the synthesis of new proteins. As such, Ubiquitin contributes to a very sustainable circulation of the body's proteins."
Why physical activity is healthy
While extensive knowledge has been accumulated about how muscles regulate the build-up of new proteins during physical training, much less is known about how muscle contractions and exercise serve to significantly clean-up worn-out proteins. According to Professor Bente Kiens, another project participant: "The important role of Ubiquitin for 'cleaning-up' worn-out proteins in connection with muscular activity was not fully appreciated. Now we know that physical activity increases Ubiquitin tagging on worn-out proteins."
Professor Jørgen Wojtaszewski, a third Danish project participant, explains that their findings serve to strengthen the entire foundation for the effect of physical activity: "Basically, it explains part of the reason why physical activity is healthy. The beauty is that muscle use, in and of itself , is what initiates the processes that keep muscles 'up to date', healthy and functional."
There remains a great amount of knowledge that would be interesting to delve deeper into, as very little is known about how different training regimens, gender, diet and genetic background impact the process and thus, the possibility of influencing optimal muscle function.
About the study:
Six healthy, untrained men ages 26-28 years-old completed an 8-11 minute training session on an exercise bike. Blood tests and muscle biopsies were taken prior to and upon the completion of their training session. Thereafter, the muscle biopsies were studied using mass spectrometry, which demonstrated how Ubiquitin was used on a large scale to clean up damaged proteins.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200528082552.htm
Molecular effects of exercise detailed
May 28, 2020
Science Daily/Stanford Medicine
A simple blood test may be able to determine how physically fit you are, according to a new study conducted by scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
The test could complement treadmill tests, a more traditional clinical evaluation of fitness, and provide individuals with far more nuanced information about their body's molecular response to exercise.
The blood test is an offshoot of a complex study conducted by a team of researchers that took hundreds of thousands of molecular measurements from a group of individuals before and after exercising.
"Everybody knows exercise is good for you, but we really don't know what drives that at a molecular level," said Michael Snyder, PhD, professor and chair of genetics. "Our goal at the outset was to conduct a highly comprehensive analysis of what's happening in the body just after exercising."
The team tracked molecular markers of a wide array of biological processes, such as metabolism, immunity, oxidative stress and cardiovascular function. Hundreds of thousands of measurements from 36 study participants provided a window into the sea of chemical fluctuations the body experiences during intense exercise. To the scientists' knowledge, such comprehensive measurements of post-exercise molecular fluctuations have never been performed. What's more, the team saw that the participants who were most physically fit shared similar molecular signatures in their resting blood samples captured before exercise.
"It gave us the idea that we could develop a test to predict someone's level of fitness," said Kévin Contrepois, PhD, director of metabolomics and lipidomics in the Department of Genetics. "Aerobic fitness is one of the best measures of longevity, so a simple blood test that can provide that information would be valuable to personal health monitoring."
With the preliminary data, the team has created a proof-of-principle test, for which they've filed a patent application. The test is not currently available to the public.
A paper describing the study will be published May 28 in Cell. Snyder, who holds the Stanford W. Ascherman, MD, FACS, Professorship in Genetics, and Francois Haddad, MD, clinical professor of medicine, are co-senior authors of the study. Contrepois shares lead authorship with postdoctoral scholars Si Wu, PhD, and Daniel Hornburg, PhD, and with clinical assistant professor Kegan Moneghetti, MD, PhD.
A flurry of change
Snyder's team set out to better understand the molecular shifts that underlie changes in physical fitness. The gold standard of medical fitness assessments is a peak VO2 test, which measures a person's peak oxygen consumption during intense exercise and uses the score as a proxy for aerobic fitness. But Snyder and his team wanted more detail -- specifically, about the ways in which exercise initiates change at the molecular level.
They performed VO2 testing for 36 individuals, including Snyder, on a treadmill. Participants, both male and female, had an average body mass index of 29 kilograms/meter squared, and their age range was from 40 to 75 years old. Before the treadmill test, the researchers drew a baseline blood sample. Participants then donned an oxygen-measuring mask and ran at a slight incline until they reached peak oxygen consumption, at which point they stopped and got off the treadmill. The researchers took blood samples from participants 2 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes and 60 minutes after they had reached their peaks.
"All of these measurements allow us to describe a choreography of molecular events that occur after physical exercise," Snyder said. "We know that exercise causes an array of physiological responses, such as inflammation, metabolism and hormone fluctuation, but these measurements allowed us to characterize those changes in unprecedented detail."
It turns out that in the first two minutes post-exercise, the body experiences an intense flurry of molecular activity. In most participants, molecular markers of inflammation, tissue healing and oxidative stress, a natural byproduct of metabolism, spiked sharply shortly after hopping off the treadmill, as their bodies began to recover. Molecular markers of metabolism varied, Snyder said. At 2 minutes, blood samples revealed evidence that the body was metabolizing certain amino acids for energy, but it switched to metabolizing glucose, a type of sugar, around 15 minutes. "The body breaks down glycogen as part of its exercise recovery response, so that's why we see that spike a little later," Snyder said. Glycogen is a form of stored glucose.
As part of the study, Snyder also compared the molecular response in individuals who were insulin resistant, meaning they're unable to process glucose properly, with the response in individuals who could process glucose normally. "The main difference we see is that insulin resistant individuals have a dampened immune response post-exercise," he said.
Blood test for fitness
Although it wasn't the team's original intent, they noticed some consistencies in the baseline measurements of the participants who performed better on the peak VO2 test. In these individuals, the researchers saw a strong correlation between a set of molecules and an individual's level of aerobic fitness. They discovered a collection of thousands of molecules -- including markers of immunity, metabolism and muscle activity -- that correlate with a person's aerobic fitness. "At this point, we don't fully understand the connection between some of these markers and how they are related to better fitness," Snyder said. The researchers hope to unravel those connections in a future investigation.
Snyder said that because the molecular profiling done in the study was so thorough, it wouldn't be practical for doctors to use in their clinics; it would be expensive and provide more information than necessary. But his team is working on whittling down the biomarkers to those that are most representative of a person's fitness level in an effort to make the test practical for broader use. Already, the team is developing an algorithm to select a subset of these molecules that are highly correlative to peak VO2 results, Contrepois said. As the researchers continue to optimize the fitness test, they hope it can one day be a faster, cheaper and more convenient way for people to objectively measure aerobic fitness.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200528115826.htm
Replacing time spent sitting with sleep or light activity may improve your mood
May 20, 2020
Science Daily/Iowa State University
Moving more and sitting less was a challenge for many of us, even before states started issuing stay-at-home orders. Despite disruptions to our daily work and exercise routines, there are some subtle changes we can make at home to help improve our mental health.
New research, published by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that substituting prolonged sedentary time with sleep was associated with lower stress, better mood and lower body mass index (BMI), and substituting light physical activity was associated with improved mood and lower BMI across the next year. Jacob Meyer, lead author and assistant professor of kinesiology at Iowa State University, says light activity can include walking around your home office while talking on the phone or standing while preparing dinner.
"People may not even think about some of these activities as physical activity," Meyer said. "Light activity is much lower intensity than going to the gym or walking to work, but taking these steps to break up long periods of sitting may have an impact."
Meyer and colleagues used data collected as part of the Energy Balance Study at the University of South Carolina. For 10 days, study participants, ranging in age from 21 to 35, wore an armband that tracked their energy expenditure. Meyer, director of the Wellbeing and Exercise Lab at Iowa State, says the data allowed researchers to objectively measure sleep, physical activity and sedentary time, rather than relying on self-reports.
In addition to the benefits of sleep and light physical activity, the researchers found moderate to vigorous activity was associated with lower body fat and BMI. Given the negative health effects of prolonged sedentary time, Meyer says the findings may encourage people to make small changes that are sustainable.
"It may be easier for people to change their behavior if they feel it's doable and doesn't require a major change," Meyer said. "Replacing sedentary time with housework or other light activities is something they may be able to do more consistently than going for an hour-long run."
Getting more sleep is another relatively simple change to make. Instead of staying up late watching TV, going to bed earlier and getting up at a consistent time provides multiple benefits and allows your body to recover, Meyer said. Sleeping is also unique in that it is time you're not engaging in other potentially problematic behaviors, such as eating junk food while sitting in front of a screen.
Something we can control
Making these subtle changes was associated with better current mood, but light physical activity also provided benefits for up to a year, the study found. While the research was conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Meyer says the results are timely given the growing mental health concerns during this time of physical distancing.
"With everything happening right now, this is one thing we can control or manage and it has the potential to help our mental health," Meyer said.
As states start to ease stay-at-home restrictions, Meyer is looking at changes in physical activity and sitting time with potentially interesting results for those who regularly worked out prior to the pandemic. Preliminary data from a separate study show a 32% reduction in physical activity. The question he and colleagues hope to answer is how current changes in activity interact with mental health and how our behaviors will continue to change over time.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200520124958.htm
Exercise improves memory, boosts blood flow to brain
Study: 1-year workout program shows benefits for older people at risk of dementia
May 20, 2020
Science Daily/UT Southwestern Medical Center
Scientists have collected plenty of evidence linking exercise to brain health, with some research suggesting fitness may even improve memory. But what happens during exercise to trigger these benefits? New UT Southwestern research that mapped brain changes after one year of aerobic workouts has uncovered a potentially critical process: Exercise boosts blood flow into two key regions of the brain associated with memory. Notably, the study showed this blood flow can help even older people with memory issues improve cognition, a finding that scientists say could guide future Alzheimer's disease research.
"Perhaps we can one day develop a drug or procedure that safely targets blood flow into these brain regions," says Binu Thomas, Ph.D., a UT Southwestern senior research scientist in neuroimaging. "But we're just getting started with exploring the right combination of strategies to help prevent or delay symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. There's much more to understand about the brain and aging."
Blood flow and memory
The study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, documented changes in long-term memory and cerebral blood flow in 30 participants, each of them 60 or older with memory problems. Half of them underwent 12 months of aerobic exercise training; the rest did only stretching.
The exercise group showed 47 percent improvement in memory scores after one year compared with minimal change in the stretch participants. Brain imaging of the exercise group, taken while they were at rest at the beginning and end of the study, showed increased blood flow into the anterior cingulate cortex and the hippocampus -- neural regions that play important roles in memory function.
Other studies have documented benefits for cognitively normal adults on an exercise program, including previous research from Thomas that showed aging athletes have better blood flow into the cortex than sedentary older adults. But the new research is significant because it plots improvement over a longer period in adults at high risk to develop Alzheimer's disease.
"We've shown that even when your memory starts to fade, you can still do something about it by adding aerobic exercise to your lifestyle," Thomas says.
Mounting evidence
The search for dementia interventions is becoming increasingly pressing: More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, and the number is expected to triple by 2050.
Recent research has helped scientists gain a greater understanding of the molecular genesis of the disease, including a 2018 discovery from UT Southwestern's Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute that is guiding efforts to detect the condition before symptoms arise. Yet the billions of dollars spent on researching how to prevent or slow dementia have yielded no proven treatments that would make an early diagnosis actionable for patients.
UT Southwestern scientists are among many teams across the world trying to determine if exercise may be the first such intervention. Evidence is mounting that it could at least play a small role in delaying or reducing the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
For example, a 2018 study showed that people with lower fitness levels experienced faster deterioration of vital nerve fibers in the brain called white matter. A study published last year showed exercise correlated with slower deterioration of the hippocampus.
Regarding the importance of blood flow, Thomas says it may someday be used in combination with other strategies to preserve brain function in people with mild cognitive impairment.
"Cerebral blood flow is a part of the puzzle, and we need to continue piecing it together," Thomas says. "But we've seen enough data to know that starting a fitness program can have lifelong benefits for our brains as well as our hearts."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200520084123.htm
Aerobics may be a smart workout for your brain at any age
May 13, 2020
Science Daily/American Academy of Neurology
It's never too late to lace up some sneakers and work up a sweat for brain health, according to a study published in the May 13, 2020, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study suggests older adults, even couch potatoes, may perform better on certain thinking and memory tests after just six months of aerobic exercise.
"As we all find out eventually, we lose a bit mentally and physically as we age. But even if you start an exercise program later in life, the benefit to your brain may be immense," said study author Marc J. Poulin, Ph.D., D.Phil., from the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. "Sure, aerobic exercise gets blood moving through your body. As our study found, it may also get blood moving to your brain, particularly in areas responsible for verbal fluency and executive functions. Our finding may be important, especially for older adults at risk for Alzheimer's and other dementias and brain disease."
The study involved 206 adults who prior to starting the six-month exercise intervention worked out no more than four days per week at a moderate intensity for 30 minutes or less, or no more than two days per week a high intensity for 20 minutes or less per day. They had an average age of 66 and no history of heart or memory problems. Participants were given thinking and memory tests at the start of the study, as well as an ultrasound to measure blood flow in the brain. Physical testing was repeated at three months, and thinking and physical testing repeated at the end of the six months.
Participants were enrolled in a supervised aerobic exercise program held three days a week. As they progressed through the program, they increased their workout from an average of 20 minutes a day to an average of at least 40 minutes. In addition, people were asked to work out on their own once a week.
Researchers found that after six months of exercise, participants improved by 5.7% on tests of executive function, which includes mental flexibility and self-correction. Verbal fluency, which tests how quickly you can retrieve information, increased by 2.4%.
"This change in verbal fluency is what you'd expect to see in someone five years younger," Poulin said.
Before and after six months of aerobic activity, the participants' average peak blood flow to the brain was measured using ultrasound. Blood flow rose from an average of 51.3 centimeters per second (cm/sec) to an average of 52.7 cm/sec, a 2.8% increase. The increase in blood flow with exercise was associated with a number of modest but significant improvements in aspects of thinking that usually decline as we age, Poulin said.
"Our study showed that six months' worth of vigorous exercise may pump blood to regions of the brain that specifically improve your verbal skills as well as memory and mental sharpness," said Poulin. "At a time when these results would be expected to be decreasing due to normal aging, to have these types of increases is exciting."
A limitation of the study was that the people doing the exercise were not compared to a similar group of people who were not exercising, so the results may have been due to other factors, although the researchers tried to control for this by testing participants twice over six months before the start of the program. In addition, some of the exercise was unsupervised, so the amount reported may be unreliable.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200513171130.htm
Exercise boosts motor skill learning via changes in brain's transmitters
Researchers find switch in chemical messaging is key prelude to motor skill acquisition
May 4, 2020
Science Daily/University of California - San Diego
Comparing the brains of mice that exercised with those that did not, researchers found that specific neurotransmitters switched following sustained exercise, leading to improved learning for motor-skill acquisition. Underscoring the critical benefits of exercise, even in a time of a global pandemic, the researchers found that mice that exercised acquired several demanding motor skills such as staying on a rotating rod or crossing a balance beam more rapidly than a non-exercised group.
Doctors have relentlessly impressed upon us the many benefits of exercise. Energy, mood, sleep and motor skills all improve with a regular fitness regimen that includes activities such as running. This has become of particular interest in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But what happens in the brain during these improved states of health? The underlying neurological changes that open the door to these benefits have been unclear.
Now, Assistant Project Scientist Hui-quan Li and Distinguished Professor Nick Spitzer of the University of California San Diego have identified key neurological modifications following sustained exercise. Comparing the brains of mice that exercised with those that did not, Li and Spitzer found that specific neurons switched their chemical signals, called neurotransmitters, following exercise, leading to improved learning for motor-skill acquisition.
"This study provides new insight into how we get good at things that require motor skills and provides information about how these skills are actually learned," said Spitzer, the Atkinson Family Chair in the Biological Sciences Section of Neurobiology and a director of the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind.
The study's results are published May 4 in Nature Communications.
Spitzer's laboratory discovered neurotransmitter switching in the adult mammalian brain and has led groundbreaking research on the ability of neurons to change their transmitter identity in response to sustained stimuli, typically leading to changes in behavior. After carrying out research that described neurotransmitter switching in depression, Spitzer and his colleagues began to turn their attention to how such switching might be involved in healthy conditions.
Li says the results underscore the importance of exercise, even at home during the current pandemic quarantine situation.
"This study shows that it's good for the brain to add more plasticity," said Li. "For people who would like to enhance their motor skill learning, it may be useful to do some exercise to promote this form of plasticity to benefit the brain. For example, if you hope to learn and enjoy challenging sports such as surfing or rock climbing when we're no longer sheltering at home, it can be good to routinely run on a treadmill or maintain a yoga practice at home now."
During the new study, Li and Spitzer compared mice that completed a week's worth of exercise on running wheels with mice that had no access to running wheels. They found that the exercised group acquired several demanding motor skills such as staying on a rotating rod or crossing a balance beam more rapidly than the non-exercised group.
When the brains of the running mice were examined, a group of neurons in the brain region known as the caudal pedunculopontine nucleus (cPPN) that regulates motor coordination was discovered to have switched neurotransmitters from acetylcholine to GABA.
To confirm their findings, the researchers used molecular tools to block the newly identified transmitter switch resulting from exercise. They found that the enhancement of motor skill learning in these mice was prevented. Based on their findings, the researchers propose a new model in which conversion of cPPN excitatory cholinergic neurons to inhibitory GABAergic neurons provides feedback control regulating motor coordination and skill learning.
The researchers say the discovery could lead to further findings where neurotransmitter switching leads to key motor skill changes. The researchers say they'd like to test ideas such as whether neurotransmitters could be deliberately switched to benefit motor skills, even without exercise. They also plan to conduct research on whether exercise similarly triggers benefits of motor skill learning in those with neurological disorders.
"We suggest that neurotransmitter switching provides the basis by which sustained running benefits motor skill learning, presenting a target for clinical treatment of movement disorders," the authors conclude in the paper.
Says Spitzer: "With an understanding of this mechanism comes the opportunity to manipulate and to harness it for further beneficial purposes. In the injured or diseased individual, it could be a way of turning things around... to give the nervous system a further boost."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200504074712.htm
'Make physical activity part of children's routine' during lockdown
April 29, 2020
Science Daily/University of Strathclyde
Parents and carers should ensure that physical activity is part of the routine for children and families during the COVID-19 lockdown, according to an international study involving the University of Strathclyde.
The study, detailed in a comment article published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, covers 15 nations. It found that time spent in places such as parks, beaches and community gardens reduced by nearly a third between the week ending 23 February -- before the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a COVID-19 pandemic -- and the week ending 5 April.
Travel by public transport was down by more than half -- 59% -- over the same period.
While these and other restrictions are in keeping with the global effort to halt the spread of COVID-19, the researchers found that they were having the effect of reducing still further what were often already low levels of physical activity in children.
The researchers make a number of recommendations to families, health professionals, teachers and policy-makers on promoting healthy activity, including:
taking the opportunity to go outdoors, while observing distancing regulations
incorporating physical activity into children's daily routines -- supported by use of electronic media -- and breaking up extended sedentary periods every 30 to 60 minutes; families should also be encouraged to join in while observing distancing regulations
keeping children's bedtime and rising time consistent, keeping screens out of the rooms where they sleep and avoiding screen use before bedtime
health professionals recommending current guidelines to parents, family members and caregivers
promotion by governments of healthy movement behaviours in children as part of response strategies and public messages
regular media messages promoting physical activity
Children advocating for their right to a healthy, active life within the COVID-19 restrictions.
Professor John Reilly, of Strathclyde's School of Psychological Sciences & Health, is the sole UK participant in the study.
He said: "The measures against COVID-19 are in place for a very good reason but this reduction in physical activity could be seen as an unintended consequence. Even before the lockdown measures, it was a major problem; our previous research has found that, in Scotland alone, fewer than 20% of children were meeting physical activity guidelines.
"It's important that people make whatever use of their environment they can and take the opportunities they can to keep physical activity going. The vast majority of children have access to outdoor spaces they can still use.
"While we have been fortunate with the weather during lockdown, even screen time can also incorporate activity resources, such as online fitness sessions. Breaks in screen time are also important but one reason physical activity is most needed just now is that school is the place where children most often have it.
"We have found that they are much less active on the non-school days of weekends and holidays; our concern is that they are missing out not only in education but also in activity."
Along with the UK, countries participating in the study were: China; Australia; Chile; South Africa; Morocco; Brazil; Mexico; United States; Russia; Sweden; South Korea; Netherlands, India and Canada.
The study reflects Good Health and Wellbeing, which is among the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The University of Strathclyde is a signatory to the Goals, which the UN has set to pursue justice, peace, good health, responsible use of resources and the eradication of poverty and hunger.
Professor Reilly was also a member of an expert panel which produced WHO guidelines, published in 2019, on childhood physical activity.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200429191851.htm
After a heart attack, physical activity makes you feel better
April 24, 2020
Science Daily/European Society of Cardiology
Heart attack patients who take part in a lifestyle improvement programme feel better -- especially when they do additional physical activity. That's the finding of a large study presented today on ACVC Essentials 4 You, a scientific platform of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
"Exercise improves fitness, which has both physical and mental health benefits," said study author Dr. Ben Hurdus of the University of Leeds, UK. "If you're more able to participate in activities that bring you happiness, then you're more likely to have a better quality of life."
Heart attack patients are typically offered lifestyle classes -- called cardiac rehabilitation -- unless they have a particular reason why it's not suitable for them. Classes include exercise, smoking cessation, advice on diet and stress management, and the importance of taking medications.
This study investigated the impact of those classes on how heart attack patients feel about their physical and mental health (collectively termed 'health-related quality of life'). Heart attacks have a detrimental effect on quality of life, including problems with mobility, self-care, and daily activities which many people take for granted such as work and leisure.
Previous research has shown a link between cardiac rehabilitation and improved quality of life in heart attack patients. However, most of these studies were conducted prior to modern drugs and procedures such as statins to lower 'bad' cholesterol and stents to open clogged arteries.
The EMMACE-3 study recruited 4,570 patients who were admitted to 48 hospitals across England with suspected heart attack in 2011 to 2013. Patients completed a questionnaire while in hospital and then at 1, 6, and 12 months after discharge. Questions included whether they attended cardiac rehabilitation, their perceived quality of life, and their physical activity levels.
Patients who attended cardiac rehabilitation had a higher quality of life at all time points compared to those who did not. Patients who went to cardiac rehabilitation and exercised 150 minutes or more per week had even higher quality of life scores compared to those who did neither.
Dr. Hurdus said: "Cardiac rehabilitation involves not only exercise but also advice on lifestyle and medications which likely all contribute to making people feel better. There are also the added social benefits such as being around other people in a similar situation and having that shared sense of community. People who also do more than the recommended minimum of 150 minutes of activity per week report even higher quality of life."
Professor Chris Gale, senior author from the University of Leeds concluded: "All heart attack patients should be referred for cardiac rehabilitation unless their healthcare professional advises against it. If it isn't discussed, speak to your local healthcare professional to see if is suitable for you."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200424093602.htm
Slow, steady increase in exercise intensity is best for heart health
February 26, 2020
Science Daily/American Heart Association
For most people, the benefits of aerobic exercise far outweigh the risks, however, extreme endurance exercise -- such as participation in marathons and triathlons for people who aren't accustomed to high-intensity exercise -- can raise the risk of sudden cardiac arrest, atrial fibrillation (a heart rhythm disorder) or heart attacks, according to a new Scientific Statement "Exercise-Related Acute Cardiovascular Events and Potential Deleterious Adaptations Following Long-Term Exercise Training: Placing the Risks Into Perspective-An Update from the American Heart Association," published today in the Association's premier journal Circulation.
Aerobic exercises are activities in which the large muscles move in a rhythmic manner for a sustained time. They can be done at low intensity or high intensity and include walking, brisk walking, running, bicycling, swimming and many others.
"Exercise is medicine, and there is no question that moderate to vigorous physical activity is beneficial to overall cardiovascular health. However, like medicine, it is possible to underdose and overdose on exercise -- more is not always better and can lead to cardiac events, particularly when performed by inactive, unfit, individuals with known or undiagnosed heart disease," said Barry A. Franklin, Ph.D., chair of the writing committee for the new Scientific Statement, director of preventive cardiology and cardiac rehabilitation at Beaumont Health in Royal Oak, Michigan, professor of internal medicine at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine in Rochester, Michigan.
"More people are running marathons, participating in triathlons and doing high-intensity interval training. The purpose of this statement is to put the benefits and risks of these vigorous exercise programs in perspective," said Franklin.
After reviewing more than 300 scientific studies, the writing committee found that, for the vast majority of people, the benefits of exercise and improving physical fitness outweigh the risks. Physically active people, such as regular walkers, have up to a 50% lower risk of heart attack and sudden cardiac death. However, the committee also identified potential risks with intense exercise training.
The writing group also reviewed a small study that concluded the risk of sudden cardiac death or heart attack is low among people participating in high-intensity exercise such as marathons and triathlons. However, over time, the risk of heart attack or sudden cardiac death among male marathon participants has risen, suggesting that these events are attracting higher risk participants (those who may have an underlying or undiagnosed cardiovascular condition such as heart rhythm abnormalities or a prior heart attack). For women, who comprised only 15% of the study population, the occurrence of sudden cardiac death was 3.5-fold less than in men.
Among participants in triathlons almost 40% of cardiac events occurred in first-time participants, indicating that inadequate training or underlying heart problems may be involved. The writing group also found that:
Half of cardiac events occur in the last mile of a marathon or half-marathon, so maintaining a steady pace rather than sprinting is advised;
The risk of cardiac events is greater at high altitudes, but can be decreased by spending at least one day acclimating to the elevation prior to strenuous activity;; and
Risk of atrial fibrillation (AFib), a common heart arrhythmia that raises the risk of stroke, is beneficially reduced with moderate exercise volumes but is highest in people who are sedentary and almost as high in people who are engaged in very high volumes of exercise training, that is, high-intensity training (such as running 60-80 miles a week).
For people who want to become more active, the Association suggests that most people can start a light program of exercise and build up slowly to a moderate to vigorous exercise regimen without seeing a physician first, unless they have physical symptoms such as chest pain, chest pressure or severe shortness of breath while exercising. "It is important to start exercising -- but go slow, even if you were an athlete in high school," said Franklin.
In addition, people with known heart disease (such as a previous heart attack, bypass surgery or angioplasty) should get their doctor's approval prior to starting an exercise program.
For currently inactive/sedentary people, the Association also suggests checking with your doctor before engaging in any strenuous activities such as shoveling snow or racquet sports, which create rapid increases in heart rate and blood pressure and greatly increase the strain on the heart.
To implement a healthy physical activity program:
Warm up before exercise by doing the planned activity -- such as walking -- at a slower pace to let your heart rate rise gradually;
Walk on a level surface for 6-8 weeks, progressing to walking up hills, jogging or taking part in more vigorous activities as long as no symptoms occur such as shortness of breath, lightheadedness, chest pain or chest pressure;
Increase the amount of time spent on exercise incrementally from five to ten minutes at the beginning and build up slowly to the desired time;
Lower the intensity of your exercise when environmental conditions place a greater strain on the heart, such as high humidity or high altitude to which you are not accustomed;
Cool down after exercise by walking at a slow pace to let your heart rate return to normal; and
Stop and seek medical evaluation if you experience any heart-related symptoms such as lightheadedness, shortness of breath, or chest pain or pressure.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200226072108.htm
How green space can reduce violent crime
Researchers seek to enhance public safety by harnessing nature
February 27, 2020
Science Daily/University of Virginia Health System
Properly designed and maintained outdoor green space has the potential to reduce violent crime and gun violence, to make communities safer and keep residents healthier, a new study suggests. Conversely, green space that is poorly designed and inadequately maintained can help crime take root and spread.
The findings come from a team of scientists that has assembled a big-picture review of research on the complicated relationship between nature and crime in urban areas. They identified several patterns that can help inform public policy, guide urban design and promote neighborhoods that are safe and pleasant to live in.
The project came about because members of the research team had been touched by crime, either directly or indirectly. "All of us had some sort of experience, personally or through family members. And we thought maybe we can do something about it," said Hessam Sadatsafavi, PhD, of the School of Medicine. "How to control violent crime is a polarizing issue. We are interested to see, as designers whose work is to shape the physical environment, if it's possible for us to contribute to this conversation and to take some actions to see if we, personally, can contribute to reducing crime."
The Weed of Crime Bears Bitter Fruit
The research, initiated at Cornell University, sought to synthesize the findings of many previous studies that looked at the effects of various forms of green space on crime and criminal behavior. "We said, OK, we have to start by understanding what is out there in terms of theory, what other people have found," Sadatsafavi said. "Green space can be a source of or increase the risk of crime in a neighborhood through some mechanism, and it can also reduce the risk. So why is that happening? Is there any way to find a solution to make the risk reduction more effective?"
The initial review was challenging because the topic is vast and can be approached from many angles. "You might talk about community gardens, you might talk about people's lawns," Sadatsafavi explained. "People who do the studies might go out and count the number of trees on sidewalks, or examine satellite images. Or look at the number of vacant lots that were turned into green space."
That, combined with the wide variety of crime examined and how it was reported, made it difficult for the researchers to draw specific conclusions. "But," Sadatsafavi said, "there are definitely patterns."
For example, nine studies looked at the effect of green space on gun violence. Six found that such interventions reduced crime, while three were inconclusive. "There is evidence that greening interventions at the urban level reduces violent crime, specifically gun violence," said Sadatsafavi, of UVA's Department of Emergency Medicine.
"By looking at all these studies, we were able to propose possible pathways [to reduce crime and] put together an overall picture of why this is happening, both in terms of gun violence and in terms of overall crime rate."
Sadatsafavi hopes that the researchers' findings, outlined in a paper in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, will lead to community interventions that keep people safe, decrease crime and promote better quality of life.
"The dream scenario for me, personally, is to raise awareness about the effectiveness and the cost effectiveness of these strategies," he said. "Our next goal as a team is to develop design guidelines for, say, how a community garden or small community park should be designed, to improve the positive effects of the green space and provide practical, hands-on information for people who are in the field, whether landscape architects or people who are starting their own community garden."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200227144253.htm