Anxiety effectively treated with exercise
November 9, 2021
Science Daily/University of Gothenbur
Both moderate and strenuous exercise alleviate symptoms of anxiety, even when the disorder is chronic, a study led by researchers at the University of Gothenburg shows.
The study, now published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, is based on 286 patients with anxiety syndrome, recruited from primary care services in Gothenburg and the northern part of Halland County. Half of the patients had lived with anxiety for at least ten years. Their average age was 39 years, and 70 percent were women.
Through drawing of lots, participants were assigned to group exercise sessions, either moderate or strenuous, for 12 weeks. The results show that their anxiety symptoms were significantly alleviated even when the anxiety was a chronic condition, compared with a control group who received advice on physical activity according to public health recommendations.
Most individuals in the treatment groups went from a baseline level of moderate to high anxiety to a low anxiety level after the 12-week program. For those who exercised at relatively low intensity, the chance of improvement in terms of anxiety symptoms rose by a factor of 3.62. The corresponding factor for those who exercised at higher intensity was 4.88. Participants had no knowledge of the physical training or counseling people outside their own group were receiving.
"There was a significant intensity trend for improvement -- that is, the more intensely they exercised, the more their anxiety symptoms improved," states Malin Henriksson, doctoral student at Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, specialist in general medicine in the Halland Region, and the study's first author.
Importance of strenuous exercise
Previous studies of physical exercise in depression have shown clear symptom improvements. However, a clear picture of how people with anxiety are affected by exercise has been lacking up to now. The present study is described as one of the largest to date.
Both treatment groups had 60-minute training sessions three times a week, under a physical therapist's guidance. The sessions included both cardio (aerobic) and strength training. A warmup was followed by circle training around 12 stations for 45 minutes, and sessions ended with cooldown and stretching.
Members of the group that exercised at a moderate level were intended to reach some 60 percent of their maximum heart rate -- a degree of exertion rated as light or moderate. In the group that trained more intensively, the aim was to attain 75 percent of maximum heart rate, and this degree of exertion was perceived as high.
The levels were regularly validated using the Borg scale, an established rating scale for perceived physical exertion, and confirmed with heart rate monitors.
New, simple treatments needed
Today's standard treatments for anxiety are cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and psychotropic drugs. However, these drugs commonly have side effects, and patients with anxiety disorders frequently do not respond to medical treatment. Long waiting times for CBT can also worsen the prognosis.
The present study was led by Maria Åberg, associate professor at the University of Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska Academy, specialist in general medicine in Region Västra Götaland's primary healthcare organization, and corresponding author.
"Doctors in primary care need treatments that are individualized, have few side effects, and are easy to prescribe. The model involving 12 weeks of physical training, regardless of intensity, represents an effective treatment that should be made available in primary health care more often for people with anxiety issues," Åberg says.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211109095348.htm
Moderate-vigorous physical activity is the most efficient at improving fitness
Physical fitness is a powerful predictor of health outcomes
August 27, 2021
Science Daily/Boston University School of Medicine
In the largest study performed to date to understand the relationship between habitual physical activity and physical fitness, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that higher amount of time spent performing exercise (moderate-vigorous physical activity) and low-moderate level activity (steps) and less time spent sedentary, translated to greater physical fitness.
"By establishing the relationship between different forms of habitual physical activity and detailed fitness measures, we hope that our study will provide important information that can ultimately be used to improve physical fitness and overall health across the life course," explained corresponding author Matthew Nayor, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at BUSM.
He and his team studied approximately 2,000 participants from the community-based Framingham Heart Study who underwent comprehensive cardiopulmonary exercise tests (CPET) for the "gold standard" measurement of physical fitness. Physical fitness measurements were associated with physical activity data obtained through accelerometers (device that measures frequency and intensity of human movement) that were worn for one week around the time of CPET and approximately eight years earlier.
They found dedicated exercise (moderate-vigorous physical activity) was the most efficient at improving fitness. Specifically, exercise was three times more efficient than walking alone and more than 14 times more efficient than reducing the time spent sedentary. Additionally, they found that the greater time spent exercising and higher steps/day could partially offset the negative effects of being sedentary in terms of physical fitness.
According to the researchers, while the study was focused on the relationship of physical activity and fitness specifically (rather than any health-related outcomes), fitness has a powerful influence on health and is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and premature death. "Therefore, improved understanding of methods to improve fitness would be expected to have broad implications for improved health," said Nayor, a cardiologist at Boston Medical Center.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210827133756.htm
Strength training can burn fat too, myth-busting study finds
September 22, 2021
Science Daily/University of New South Wales
It's basic exercise knowledge that to gain muscles, you strength train, and to lose fat, you do cardio -- right?
Not necessarily, a new UNSW study published this week in Sports Medicine suggests.
In fact, the study -- a systematic review and meta-analysis that reviewed and analysed existing evidence -- shows we can lose around 1.4 per cent of our entire body fat through strength training alone, which is similar to how much we might lose through cardio or aerobics.
"A lot of people think that if you want to lose weight, you need to go out and run," says senior author of the study Dr Mandy Hagstrom, exercise physiologist and senior lecturer at UNSW Medicine & Health.
"But our findings show that even when strength training is done on its own, it still causes a favourable loss of body fat without having to consciously diet or go running."
Up until now, the link between strength training and fat loss has been unclear. Studies have investigated this link in the past, but their sample sizes tend to be small -- a side effect of not many people wanting to volunteer to exercise for months on end. Smaller sample sizes can make it difficult to find statistically significant results, especially as many bodies can respond differently to exercise programs.
"It can be really difficult to discern whether there's an effect or not based on one study alone," says Dr Hagstrom. "But when we add all of these studies together, we effectively create one large study, and can get a much clearer idea of what's going on."
Dr Hagstrom and her team pulled together the findings from 58 research papers that used highly accurate forms of body fat measurement (like body scans, which can differentiate fat mass from lean mass) to measure the outcomes from strength training programs. Altogether, the studies included 3000 participants, none of which had any previous weight training experience.
While the strength training programs differed between the studies, the participants worked out for roughly 45-60 minutes each session for an average of 2.7 times per week. The programs lasted for about five months.
The team found that, on average, the participants lost 1.4 per cent of their total body fat after their training programs, which equated to roughly half a kilo in fat mass for most participants.
While the findings are encouraging for fans of pumping iron, Dr Hagstrom says the best approach for people who are aiming to lose fat is still to stick to eating nutritiously and having an exercise routine that includes both aerobic/cardio and strength training.
But if aerobics and cardio just aren't your thing, the good news is you don't need to force it.
"If you want to exercise to change your body composition, you've got options," says Dr Hagstrom.
"Do what exercise you want to do and what you're most likely to stick to."
Busting the fat loss myth
Part of the reason many people think strength training doesn't live up to cardio in terms of fat loss comes down to inaccurate ways of measuring fat.
For example, many people focus on the number they see on the scale -- that is, their total body weight. But this figure doesn't differentiate fat mass from everything else that makes up the body, like water, bones and muscles.
"More often than not, we don't gain any muscle mass when we do aerobic training," says Dr Hagstrom. "We improve our cardiorespiratory fitness, gain other health and functional benefits, and can lose body fat.
"But when we strength train, we gain muscle mass and lose body fat, so the number on the scales won't look as low as it would after aerobics training, especially as muscle weighs more than fat."
The research team focused on measuring how much the total body fat percentage -- that is, the amount of your body that's made up of fat mass -- changed after strength training programs. This measurement showed fat loss appears to be on par with aerobics and cardio training, despite the different figures on the scales.
"A lot of fitness recommendations come from studies that use inaccurate measurement tools, like bioelectrical impedance or scales," says Dr Hagstrom.
"But the most accurate and reliable way of assessing body fat is through DEXA, MRI or CT scans. They can compartmentalise the body and separate fat mass from lean tissue."
While this study didn't show whether variables like exercise duration, frequency, intensity, or set volume impacted fat loss percentage, the team hope to next investigate whether how we strength train can change the amount of fat loss.
A better way of measuring progress
As part of their study, the team conducted a sub-analysis comparing how different ways of measuring fat can influence a study's findings.
Interestingly, it showed that when papers used more accurate measurements like body scans, they tended to show lower overall changes in body fat.
"Using accurate fat measurements is important because it gives us a more realistic idea of what body changes to expect," says lead author of the study Mr Michael Wewege, PhD candidate at UNSW and NeuRA.
"Future exercise studies can improve their research by using these more accurate body measurements."
Reframing the way we measure progress doesn't just apply to sports researchers, but to everyday people, too.
"Resistance training does so many fantastic things to the body that other forms of exercise don't, like improving bone mineral density, lean mass and muscle quality. Now, we know it also gives you a benefit we previously thought only came from aerobics," says Dr Hagstrom.
"If you're strength training and want to change how your body looks, then you don't want to focus on the number on the scale too much, because it won't show you all your results.
"Instead, think about your whole body composition, like how your clothes fit and how your body will start to feel, and move, differently."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210922121905.htm
People with stroke who walk 30 minutes per day may have 54% lower risk of early death
August 11, 2021
Science Daily/American Academy of Neurology
A new study shows that people who walk or garden at least three to four hours per week, or bike at least two to three hours per week, or the equivalent after having a stroke may have a 54% lower risk of death from any cause. The research is published in the August 11, 2021, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found the most benefit for younger stroke survivors. When people under the age of 75 exercised at least that amount, their risk of death was reduced by 80%.
"A better understanding of the role of physical activity in the health of people who survive stroke is needed to design better exercise therapies and public health campaigns so we can help these individuals live longer," said study author Raed A. Joundi, MD, DPhil, of the University of Calgary in Canada and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. "Our results are exciting, because just three to four hours a week of walking was associated with big reductions in mortality, and that may be attainable for many community members with prior stroke. In addition, we found people achieved even greater benefit with walking six to seven hours per week. These results might have implications for guidelines for stroke survivors in the future."
The study looked at 895 people with an average age of 72 who had a prior stroke and 97,805 people with an average age of 63 who had never had a stroke.
Average weekly physical activity was evaluated from questions about activities such as walking, running, gardening, weight training, bicycling and swimming. For example, people were asked, "In the past three months, how many times did you walk for exercise? About how much time did you spend on each occasion?" Researchers used the frequency and duration of each type of physical activity to calculate the amount of exercise.
Researchers followed participants for an average of about four and a half years. After accounting for other factors that could affect risk of death, like age and smoking, researchers found that 25% of the people who had previous strokes died from any cause, compared to 6% of the people who had never had a stroke.
In the stroke group, 15% of the people who exercised at least the equivalent of three to four hours of walking each week died during follow up, compared to 33%, who did not exercise that minimum amount. In the group of people who had never had strokes, 4% of the people who exercised that amount died, compared to 8% who did not.
Researchers found the largest reduction in death rate among people who had a previous stroke but were under 75 years of age. In that group, 11% of those who exercised at least the minimum amount died, compared to 29% who did not. People with previous stroke who were under 75 years of age and met the minimum level of physical activity were about 80% less likely to die during study follow-up than those who did not. People over 75 years of age who exercised the minimum experienced less of a benefit, but were still 32% less likely to die.
"Our results suggest that getting a minimum amount of physical activity may reduce long-term mortality from any cause in stroke survivors," Joundi said. "We should particularly emphasize this to stroke survivors who are younger in age, as they may gain the greatest health benefits from walking just thirty minutes each day."
A limitation of the study is that people may not have accurately reported their amount of exercise.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210811175147.htm
Sports: Men and women react differently to a missing audience
June 22, 2021
Science Daily/Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Without an audience, men run slower and women faster: The lack of spectators during the coronavirus pandemic appears to have had a noticeable effect on the performance of athletes at the 2020 Biathlon World Cup, a new study by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) in Psychology of Sport and Exercise shows. According to the new analysis, women also performed better in complex tasks, such as shooting, when an audience was present while men did not.
Social facilitation theory states that a person's performance is impacted if other people watch them. The mere presence of an audience improves the performance of simple tasks, especially those that require stamina. "The studies have been relatively clear so far, but the results are more heterogeneous when it comes to more complex coordinative tasks," explains Amelie Heinrich from the Institute of Sports Science at MLU. In general, it is assumed that performance tends to deteriorate when there is an audience.
Heinrich is a sports psychology expert who coaches Germany's junior biathlon squad. In her new study she took advantage of the special situation in sport caused by the coronavirus. "The pandemic offers a unique opportunity to study an audience's influence outside of experimental conditions in the real world," says Heinrich. She compared the running times and shooting successes of male and female biathletes from the 2018/2019 season with their performances in the 2020 season in the sprint and mass start events. "The men's results were as expected: they ran faster with an audience present, but performed more poorly in shooting," says Heinrich. While cross-country skiing mainly requires stamina, shooting is a coordinative task. "Interestingly, it was the other way around for women." They ran slower in the presence of spectators, but on average, it took them an entire second less to make their shot and, at least in the sprint, their scoring performance was five per cent higher. The researchers believe the results are not only due to a fluctuation in the athletes' performance. The study had a good basis of evidence, with 83 (sprint) and 34 (mass start) World Cup biathletes, and the same tendency was shown for both disciplines.
"To our knowledge, this is the first time that a study was able to show a different effect of the audience on men and women," says Professor Oliver Stoll, head of the sports psychology section at MLU. Most of the previous studies on the topic have been conducted with men mostly. "Our study raises questions about the generalisability of the social facilitation theory and indicates there might be a previously unknown difference between men and women," says Heinrich. She says, this should be investigated more thoroughly in further studies for other sports that also contain both stamina-related and coordination-related elements.
So far, the researchers can only speculate about the reasons for the possible gender-specific performance differences in response to audiences or the lack of. "It is possible that gender-specific stereotypes play a role," says Heinrich. For example, men are considered to be physically stronger -- a stereotype that could be reinforced by the presence of spectators. Some studies also show that women react more sensitively to feedback. In any case, according to Heinrich, the findings show once again that gender should be taken into account in psychological studies as a possible influencing factor.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210622123303.htm
Running to music combats mental fatigue
June 22, 2021
Science Daily/University of Edinburgh
Listening to music while running might be the key to improving people's performance when they feel mentally fatigued a study suggests.
The performance of runners who listened to a self-selected playlist after completing a demanding thinking task was at the same level as when they were not mentally fatigued, the research found.
The study is the first to investigate the effect of listening to music playlists on endurance running capacity and performance when mentally fatigued.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh used two tests to study how listening to music affected the running performance of eighteen fitness enthusiasts.
One test looked at the effects on interval running capacity -- alternating between high intensity running and lower intensity jogging -- with a group of nine physically active exercisers, and the other on a 5km time-trial with a group of nine trained runners.
The groups completed a 30 minute computer based cognitive test which put them in a mentally fatigued state before completing high intensity exercise. The runners were tested with and without self-selected motivational music.
Researchers assisted participants in choosing motivational songs with a pre-test questionnaire asking them to rate the rhythm, style, melody, tempo, sound and beat of the music.
Examples of songs participants listened to were: Everyday by A$ap Rocky; Addicted To You by Avicii; Run This Town by Jay-Z; Power by Kanye West; No One Knows by Queens of the Stone Age; and Eye of the Tiger by Survivor.
During the exercise, heart rate and rating of perceived exertion were measured at multiple points.
The team took into account the results of a baseline test taken by participants which was without a mentally demanding test beforehand -- and without the use of music.
The researchers found the interval running capacity among the mentally fatigued fitness enthusiasts was moderately greater with music compared to without music, and was the same as when the participants were not mentally fatigued.
The 5km time-trial performances also showed small improvements with self-selected music versus no music.
Researchers say the positive effects of music could potentially be due to altered perception of effort when listening to tunes.
Dr Shaun Phillips, of the University of Edinburgh's Moray House School of Education and Sport, said: "Mental fatigue is a common occurrence for many of us, and can negatively impact many of our day-to-day activities, including exercise. Finding safe and effective ways to reduce this negative impact is therefore useful.
"The findings indicate that listening to self-selected motivational music may be a useful strategy to help active people improve their endurance running capacity and performance when mentally fatigued. This positive impact of self-selected music could help people to better maintain the quality and beneficial impact of their exercise sessions."
Researchers say there are opportunities for further study into how listening to music while running affects larger and different groups of people, in different settings, and using different exercise challenges. Work in these areas is ongoing at the University of Edinburgh.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210622123235.htm
Exercise may boost kids’ vocabulary growth
New study suggests exercise can boost kids’ vocabulary growth
July 28, 2021
Science Daily/University of Delaware
Swimming a few laps likely won't turn your child into the next Katie Ledecky or Michael Phelps, but it just might help them become the next J.K. Rowling or Stephen King.
A recent study by University of Delaware researchers suggests exercise can boost kids' vocabulary growth. The article, published in the Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, details one of the first studies on the effect of exercise on vocabulary learning in children.
Children ages 6 to 12 were taught new words before doing one of three things -- swimming, taking part in CrossFit exercises or completing a coloring sheet. The children who swam were 13% more accurate in follow up tests of the vocabulary words.
It makes sense to the lead researcher, Maddy Pruitt, herself a former college swimmer who now regularly takes CrossFit classes. "Motor movement helps in encoding new words," she said, explaining that exercise is known to increase levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a protein Pruitt describes as the "Miracle-Gro of the brain."
Why then, did swimming make a difference while CrossFit did not? Pruitt attributes it to the amount of energy each exercise demands of the brain. Swimming is an activity the kids could complete without much thought or instruction. It was more automatic, while the CrossFit exercises were new to them. The children needed to learn the moves, which required mental energy.
Pruitt conducted the research as part of her Master's Capstone Project and graduated in 2020. She now works as a speech language pathologist at an elementary school in South Carolina, where she puts her findings into practice.
"My sessions are very rarely at a table," she said. "I'll take my kids out to the playground or we'll take a walk around the school."
Pruitt's adviser and coauthor Giovanna Morini is building on the findings in her lab. Morini, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, said most research into exercise examines it from the angle of a healthy lifestyle, not much enters the domain of language acquisition. She said she sees this as a rich line of inquiry and has another student running a similar experiment now with toddlers.
"We were so excited about this study because it applies to clinicians, caregivers and educators who can put it into practice," Morini said. "It's simple stuff, nothing out of the ordinary. But it could really help boost the outcomes."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210728105611.htm