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Category: Exercise

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Beware of big soda companies bearing gifts to scientists and their misleading messages to consumers. This time it is Coca-Cola that is trying to influence the research by funding scientists who shift blame for obesity to lack of exercise.There is a large body of evidence finding that what you eat is very important for health and weight control, and this does not mean a diet filled with highly processed foods, including soda.

Yes, exercise is important, but the overall diet is even more important. And we know that soda is not a beneficial food for the beneficial microbes within us (Feeding Your Gut Microbes). Coca Cola's sales of soda are really slipping and this Global Energy Balance Network is a major effort on their part to try to boost sales of sugary drinks. From NY Times:

Coca-Cola Funds Scientists Who Shift Blame for Obesity Away From Bad Diets

Coca-Cola, the world’s largest producer of sugary beverages, is backing a new “science-based” solution to the obesity crisis: To maintain a healthy weight, get more exercise and worry less about cutting calories.The beverage giant has teamed up with influential scientists who are advancing this message in medical journals, at conferences and through social media. To help the scientists get the word out, Coke has provided financial and logistical support to a new nonprofit organization called the Global Energy Balance Network, which promotes the argument that weight-conscious Americans are overly fixated on how much they eat and drink while not paying enough attention to exercise.  ...continue reading "Ignore Big Soda’s Message"

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Research found that more time spent standing rather than sitting is associated with improved blood sugar, fats in the blood and cholesterol levels, and replacing time spent sitting with time walking is associated with a smaller waistline and body mass index (BMI). The researchers' motto: Stand Up, Sit Less, Move More.

Activity adds up over the course of a day as Dr.Lopez-Jimenez of the Mayo Clinic points out: "A person walking while at work for two hours, standing for another four hours, and performing some daily chores at home for another hour will burn more calories than jogging or running for 60 minutes. From Medical Xpress:

Get up for your heart health and move for your waistline

More time spent standing rather than sitting could improve your blood sugar, fats in the blood and cholesterol levels, according to a new study published today (Friday) in the European Heart Journal. The study also shows that replacing time spent sitting with time walking could have additional benefits for your waistline and body mass index (BMI).

Researchers in Australia gave activity monitors to 782 men and women, aged 36-80 years, who were taking part in the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study. The monitors were capable of determining, very accurately, how long each participant spent sleeping, sitting or lying down, standing and stepping (which includes walking and running)....participants each wore an activity monitor on their thigh for 24 hours a day over a seven-day period. .

An extra two hours per day spent standing rather than sitting was associated with approximately 2% lower average fasting blood sugar levels and 11% lower average triglycerides (fats in the blood). Extra standing time was also associated with 0.06 mmol/L higher average levels of the "good" type of cholesterol, HDL, and a 6% lower average total/HDL cholesterol ratio, which indicates an improvement in the total amount of HDL cholesterol in relation to "bad" LDL cholesterol.

Replacing two hours a day of sitting time with stepping was associated with an approximately 11% lower average BMI and a 7.5cm smaller average waist circumference. In addition, average blood sugar levels fell by approximately 11% and average triglycerides by 14% for every two hours spent walking rather than sitting, while HDL cholesterol was 0.10 mmol/L higher. There was no significant effect on BMI or waistline of replacing sitting time with standing.

"However, it is important to say that not all sitting is bad; but if people can incorporate alternatives to sitting wherever possible, it may benefit their heart and metabolic health. Our message is to 'Stand Up, Sit Less, Move More'."She said the study had also produced evidence of how common standing is during the waking day. "Standing takes up nearly a third of waking hours, and among this group of participants who could choose when they sat, stood or walked, the standing had health benefits.

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People fear dementia and Alzheimer's disease, because they are progressive diseases that nothing treats successfully. However, in the past year there have been some studies showing improvements with lifestyle changes (not cures, but for some the progression was slowed or showing some improvements).

The latest studies found that exercise (especially aerobic execise) had some beneficial effects on those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer's disease, and vascular cognitive  impairment (VCI): neuropsychiatric improvements, improvements in biomarkers for the disease, and improved blood flow to the brain. From Medscape:

Physical Activity May Help Treat Dementia

New research shows that being physically active not only reduces cognitive decline and improves neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with dementia but may actually reduce Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers, including amyloid and tau protein in the brain. Exercise could also benefit patients with types of dementia other than AD, another study suggests.Some of this promising new research on exercise was presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) 2015. 

Danish researchers had already presented cognition-related results of the multicenter ADEX study ...The intervention consisted of 1 hour of aerobic exercise three times a week for 16 weeks. The control group received usual care..... The analysis found that these [neuropsychiatric] symptoms improved in the 66 patients in the "high exercise"group... The NI is a 12-item questionnaire that rates, among other things, depression, apathy, agitation, hallucinations, irritability, weight loss, and sleep."We saw that the control group got worse; there was a small decline in this group, which you would expect because this is progressive disease," said Steen Hasselbalch, MD, Danish Dementia Research Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark. "But the intervention group remained at the same level and even got a little better, so at end of the intervention there was a significant difference."

The question arises of whether exercise could not just delay worsening of symptoms but actually change brain pathology.The answer, suggests other research, is yes. In a separate study presented at the AAIC 2015, researchers found decreased phosphorylated tau (P tau) in older, previously sedentary persons completing a 6-month regimen of moderate- to high-intensity aerobic exercise.

The study enrolled 70 patients aged 55 to 89 years with prediabetes as well as amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI)....We think they are at high, high risk for developing dementia of the Alzheimer's type." These patients were randomly assigned to the aerobic exercise group or to the stretching group. Those in the aerobic group started slowly — 10 minutes of exercise a week — and gradually built the time and intensity up over 6 weeks to the point where they were exercising 45 minutes a day, 4 days a week, at 75% to 85% of their maximum heart rate...."This group had a choice of exercises: treadmill, stationary cycling, elliptical trainer, or preapproved group classes.

The stretching group, whose members could do balance exercises, gentle yoga, and other approved classes in addition to stretching, maintained a maximum heart rate of below 35%. All exercises were adapted to the needs and limitations of individual patients and were done at a local YMCA.

The researchers looked at biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), including P tau protein and amyloid β 42....Most intervention trials don't show such changes in P tau. "But we saw it with exercise and no medications," said Dr. Baker. "Exercise was enough to move a biomarker that indicates the severity of the disease."  It wasn't surprising, she added, that this was true only for older patients. "It may be that before age 70, you have a lot of compensatory mechanisms that help to maintain brain health, and after 70, those start breaking down."

The study also showed that the aerobic activity increased blood flow to the brain...The researchers demonstrated that the increased blood flow was in regions characteristically affected by aging and AD (ie, memory and processing). Cognitive benefits were particularly noteworthy for executive function..."Our brain imaging results are just fantastic; they show some really nice increases in blood flow in the areas of brain that support executive function and areas of the brain that normally show decreased flow for people with MCI, so it's reversing the blood flow detriment in MCI."

AD may not be the only dementia potentially treatable through exercise. Another study discussed at the meeting showed that this intervention may help those with vascular cognitive impairment (VCI). It's the first intervention trial to suggest that exercise can improve cognition in patients with confirmed VCI, said Teresa Liu- Ambrose, PhD, Canada Research Chair, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, who reported the results.The 6-month study included 71 patients aged 56 to 96 years with mild VCI of varying physical capacities. They were assigned to usual care that included a nutrition component or to an intervention of moderate-intensity walking, 3 times a week for an hour....In a subset of patients who had neuroimaging, there was "evidence of efficiency" in the brain of those who exercised, Dr Liu-Ambrose told Medscape Medical News.

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Women: if you sit at work all day, and then you sit 6 or more hours during your leisure time, then you are at significantly greater risk of developing any cancer (compared to women who sit for fewer than 3 hours a day during leisure time). And the odds for certain cancers (multiple myeloma, ovarian cancer, and invasive breast cancer) are greatly increased. That 30 minutes at the gym doesn't cancel out the negative effects of sitting all day. But interestingly, this pattern didn't apply to men. From Medscape:

Leisure Time Sitting Increases Cancer Risk in Women

Women who sit 6 or more hours a day during their leisure time have a 10% greater risk of developing any cancer compared with women who sit for fewer than 3 hours a day. In addition, they are more likely to develop certain site-specific cancers, such as invasive breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and multiple myeloma. However, no similar pattern emerged for men.

"So when we think about independent risk factors for many types of cancer, and definitely for invasive breast cancer, you want to tell women to maintain a physically active lifestyle, to maintain a healthy weight, to limit their alcohol consumption, and now you also want to tell them to reduce their time spent sitting," she said.

The findings come from an analysis of data on some 69,260 men and 77,462 women enrolled in the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition. All participants were cancer-free on enrolment. Between 1992 and 2009, 18,555 men and 12,236 women were diagnosed with cancer. On average, men were followed for 13.2 years, and women were followed for an average of 15.8 years.

"In women, leisure-time spent sitting was associated with a statistically significant higher risk of total cancer incidence...after adjustment for physical activity, [body mass index (BMI)], and other potential confounders," the authors report. Sitting 6 or more hours a day during leisure time was also associated with a 65% greater risk for multiple myeloma, a 43% greater risk for ovarian cancer, and a 10% greater risk for invasive breast cancer compared with women who sat less than 3 hours a day during leisure time. The association between longer sitting times and endometrial cancer was statistically significant before adjusting for BMI, but was attenuated when adjusted for BMI.

The same pattern was not seen in men in this study. Leisure time spent sitting was not associated with cancer risk in men, with the exception of an 11% higher risk associated with sitting time among obese men.

"There are a lot of individuals whom I would describe as 'an active couch potato.' " Dr Patel said. "People are going to the gym and maintaining a healthy weight, but they spend the majority of the rest of their time in sedentary activities — sitting at work, sitting in the car, sitting at home — so you really have to think not just of that 30 minutes a day where you are intentionally engaging in physical activity, but what does the rest of your day look like?"

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The study results of 218 overweight, postmenopausal women who had insufficient levels of vitamin D (like most people) at the beginning of the study found that weight loss (including exercise), in combination with vitamin D supplementation, had a greater effect on reducing chronic inflammation than weight loss alone.

Current thinking is that chronic inflammation is linked to various chronic diseases as well as cancers. So reducing chronic inflammation is good. From Medical Xpress:

Weight loss plus vitamin D reduces inflammation linked to cancer, chronic disease

For the first time, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have found that weight loss, in combination with vitamin D supplementation, has a greater effect on reducing chronic inflammation than weight loss alone. Chronic inflammation is known to contribute to the development and progression of several diseases, including some cancers.

"We know from our previous studies that by losing weight, people can reduce their overall levels of inflammation, and there is some evidence suggesting that taking vitamin D supplements can have a similar effect if one has insufficient levels of the nutrient," said lead and corresponding author Catherine Duggan, Ph.D., a principal staff scientist in the Public Health Sciences Division at Fred Hutch. 

To explore this question, Duggan and colleagues recruited 218 healthy, overweight older women who had lower-than-recommended levels of vitamin D (less than 32 ng/mL). The women then took part in a 12-month diet and exercise program (including 45 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise five days a week). Half of the study participants were randomly selected to receive 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily for the duration of the year-long trial, and the other half received an identical-appearing placebo, or dummy vitamin. 

At the end of the study, all of the participants had reduced levels of inflammation, regardless of whether they took vitamin D, "which highlights the importance of weight loss in reducing inflammation," Duggan said. However, those who saw the most significant decline in markers of inflammation were those who took vitamin D and lost 5 to 10 percent of their baseline weight. These study participants had a 37 percent reduction in a pro-inflammatory cytokine called interleukin-6, or IL-6, as compared to those in the placebo group, who saw a 17.2 percent reduction in IL-6. The researchers found similar results among women in the vitamin D group who lost more than 10 percent of their starting weight. While IL-6 has normal functions in the body, elevated levels are associated with an increased risk of developing certain cancers and diabetes and may be implicated as a cause of depression, Duggan said.

Inflammation occurs when the body is exposed to pathogens, such as bacteria or viruses, which puts the immune system in overdrive until the "attack" ceases and the inflammatory response abates. Overweight or obese people, however, exist in a state of chronic inflammation. This sustained upregulation of the inflammatory response occurs because fat tissue continually produces cytokines, molecules that are usually only present for a short time, while the body is fighting infection, for example.

"It is thought that this state of chronic inflammation is pro-tumorigenic, that is, it encourages the growth of cancer cells," she said. There is also some evidence that increased body mass "dilutes" vitamin D, possibly by sequestering it in fat tissue."Weight loss reduces inflammation, and thus represents another mechanism for reducing cancer risk," Duggan said. "If ensuring that vitamin D levels are replete, or at an optimum level, can decrease inflammation over and above that of weight loss alone, that can be an important addition to the tools people can use to reduce their cancer risk."

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Looks like another procedure is found not to be beneficial and possibly harmful - this time arthroscopic surgery as a treatment for the middle aged or older person with a painful arthritic knee or torn meniscus (the shock absorbing cartilage between the knee bones). The researchers also found that "exercise therapy" had more benefits. From Medical Xpress:

Benefit of knee surgery for middle aged or older patients 'inconsequential', say experts

The benefit of surgery for middle aged or older patients with persistent knee pain is inconsequential and such surgery is potentially harmful, say researchers in a study published in The BMJ this week.Their findings do not support arthroscopic surgery as a treatment for the middle aged or older person with a painful arthritic knee or torn meniscus (the shock absorbing cartilage between the knee bones).

The article is part of The BMJ's Too Much Medicine campaign - to highlight the threat to human health and the waste of resources caused by unnecessary care. Over 700,000 knee arthroscopies (a type of keyhole surgery) are carried out in the USA and 150,000 in the UK each year on middle aged and older adults with persistent knee pain. Yet the evidence for arthroscopic surgery is known to be weak, with all but one published trials showing no added benefit for surgery over control treatment.Despite this, many specialists are convinced of the benefits of surgery.

So researchers based in Denmark and Sweden reviewed the results of 18 studies on the benefits and harms of arthroscopic surgery compared with a variety of control treatments (ranging from placebo surgery to exercise) for middle aged and older people with persistent knee pain.s.

Overall, surgery was associated with a small but significant effect on pain at three and six months (but no longer) compared with control treatments. No significant benefit on physical function was found. A further nine studies reporting on harms found that, although rare, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) was the most frequently reported adverse event, followed by infection, pulmonary embolism (a blockage of the main artery of the lung), and death.

"Interventions that include arthroscopy are associated with a small benefit and with harms," say the authors, and the benefit is "markedly smaller than that seen from exercise therapy." These findings "do not support the practice of arthroscopic surgery as treatment for middle aged or older patients with knee pain with or without signs of osteoarthritis," they conclude.

"It is difficult to support or justify a procedure with the potential for serious harm, even if it is rare, when that procedure offers patients no more benefit than placebo," argues Professor Andy Carr from Oxford University in an accompanying editorial.

 

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Could this be true? Eating fermented foods linked to fewer social anxiety symptoms? Fifteen years ago before the world of bacteria could be explored with state of the art genetic tests, this would have sounded too woo-woo. And now we say - could be. Next the researchers will test an experimental version of this study to see if they find causation. Right now all we can say they are linked or that we see an association.

But note that exercise also reduced social anxiety (this was also a finding in other studies). From Science Daily:

Decreased social anxiety among young adults who eat fermented foods

A possible connection between fermented foods, which contain probiotics, and social anxiety symptoms, is the focus of recent study...The researchers found that young adults who eat more fermented foods have fewer social anxiety symptoms, with the effect being greatest among those at genetic risk for social anxiety disorder as measured by neuroticism. "It is likely that the probiotics in the fermented foods are favorably changing the environment in the gut, and changes in the gut in turn influence social anxiety," said Hilimire. "I think that it is absolutely fascinating that the microorganisms in your gut can influence your mind."

The researchers designed a questionnaire that was included in a mass testing tool administered in the university's Introduction to Psychology courses during the fall 2014 semester; about 700 students participated. The questionnaire asked students about the fermented foods over the previous 30 days; it also asked about exercise frequency and the average consumption of fruits and vegetables so that the researchers could control for healthy habits outside of fermented food intake, said Hilimire.

"The main finding was that individuals who had consumed more fermented foods had reduced social anxiety but that was qualified by an interaction by neuroticism. What that means is that that relationship was strongest amongst people that were high in neuroticism," Hilimire said.The secondary finding was that more exercise was related to reduced social anxiety. 

"However, if we rely on the animal models that have come before us and the human experimental work that has come before us in other anxiety and depression studies, it does seem that there is a causative mechanism," said Hilimire. "Assuming similar findings in the experimental follow-up, what it would suggest is that you could augment more traditional therapies (like medications, psychotherapy or a combination of the two) with fermented foods -- dietary changes -- and exercise, as well."

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Study after study finds health benefits from exercise of all sorts, but what about those people who are so fit that they run marathons longer than normal marathons of 26.2 miles?

This study looked at those who participate in extreme events include ultramarathons, which tend to be 30 to 50 miles long, but can be more than 100 miles long or even last 24 hours. One study published in 2014 found that "compared with the general population, ultramarathon runners appear healthier and report fewer missed work or school days due to illness or injury...have a higher prevalence of asthma and allergies than the general population" and they may get some "exercise-related injuries such as stress fractures involving the foot."

But this newly published study found that the effects of extreme exercise (because it causes changes in the gut wall and allows bacteria to leak into the bloodstream) can be very serious if you haven't trained properly and over a long period of time.

From Medical Xpress: Extreme exercise linked to blood poisoning

Researchers have discovered that extreme exercise can cause intestinal bacteria to leak into the bloodstream, leading to blood poisoning. Experts at Monash University monitored people participating in a range of extreme endurance events, including 24-hour ultra-marathons and multi-stage ultra-marathons, run on consecutive days.

"Blood samples taken before and after the events, compared with a control group, proved that exercise over a prolonged period of time causes the gut wall to change, allowing the naturally present bacteria, known as endotoxins, in the gut to leak into the bloodstream. This then triggers a systemic inflammatory response from the body's immune cells, similar to a serious infection episode. Significantly the study found that individuals who are fit, healthy and follow a steady training program to build up to extreme endurance events, develop immune mechanisms to counteract this, without any side effects.

However individuals who take part in extreme endurance events, especially in the heat and with little training, put their bodies under enormous strain above the body's protective capacity. With elevated levels of endotoxins in the blood, the immune system's response can be far greater than the body's protective counter-action. In extreme cases, it leads to sepsis induced systemic inflammatory response syndrome, which can be fatal if it is not diagnosed and treated promptly.

The study, led by Dr Ricardo Costa, from the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, is the first to identify a link between extreme endurance exercise and the stress it may place on gut integrity. "Nearly all of the participants in our study had blood markers identical to patients admitted to hospital with sepsis. That's because the bacterial endotoxins that leach into the blood as a result of extreme exercise, triggers the body's immune cells into action."

Dr Costa said anything over four hours of exercise and repetitive days of endurance exercise is considered extreme...."It's crucial that anyone who signs up to an event, gets a health check first and builds a slow and steady training program, rather than jumping straight into a marathon, for example, with only a month's training," he said.

The research team found that people who were fitter and trained over a longer period of time leading into the ultra-marathon event had higher levels of Interleukin 10 – an anti-inflammatory agent, which allowed them to dampen down the negative health impacting immune response.

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Once again, research results finding that some daily physical activity (here 30 minutes 6 days a week) is linked to a lower risk of death (here 40% lower risk from any cause for elderly men).

The researchers said the increased physical activity levels was as good for health as giving up smoking, and the men who regularly engaged in moderate to vigorous activity lived on average 5 years longer then sedentary men. In this study the men had been observed over a 12 year period.

From Science Daily: Half hour of physical activity 6 days a week linked to 40 percent lower risk of early death

Thirty minutes of physical activity -- irrespective of its intensity -- six days a week is linked to a 40 percent lower risk of death from any cause among elderly men, finds new research. Boosting physical activity levels in this age group seems to be as good for health as giving up smoking, the findings suggest.

The researchers base their findings on people taking part in the Oslo Study, which invited almost 26,000 men born between 1923 and 1932 for a health check in 1972-3 (Oslo I).Some 15,000 agreed....These were categorised as sedentary (watching TV/reading); light (walking or cycling, including to and from work for at least 4 hours a week); moderate (formal exercise, sporting activities, heavy gardening for at least 4 hours a week); and vigorous (hard training or competitive sports several times a week).

Some 6000 of the surviving men repeated the process in 2000 (Oslo II) and were monitored for almost 12 years to see if physical activity level over time was associated with a lowered risk of death from cardiovascular disease, or any cause, and if its impact were equivalent to quitting smoking.During the monitoring period, 2154 out of the 5738 men who had gone through both health checks died.

The analysis indicated that less than an hour a week of light physical activity was not associated with any meaningful reduction in risk of death from any cause. But more than an hour was linked to a 32% to 56% lower risk.

Less than an hour of vigorous physical activity, on the other hand, was linked to a reduction in risk of between 23% and 37% for cardiovascular disease and death from any cause.The more time spent doing vigorous exercise the lower the risk seemed to be, falling by between 36% and 49%.And men who regularly engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity during their leisure time lived five years longer, on average, than those who were classified as sedentary.

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Much has been written in the past few months on how to keep your brain sharp and avoid cognitive and memory declines due to aging, and especially how to lower the risk of dementia.

Many studies have shown the following to be beneficial to brain health: exercise (any exercise, including walking, is good), having friends and social networks to interact with, eating a lot of healthy foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes (beans), seeds, nuts, and fish), having a purpose in life, using the computer, playing video games (action puzzle games such as Portal 2 and NeuroRacer, but according to one study - not Lumosity), participating in arts or crafts, and learning new skills - that is, try out and learn new things (a musical instrument, a new language, take a class, a new craft, etc), or even visit new places.

Many of these can be summarized as: feed your brain and body, and keep your brain and body active. Here is one recent study of aging, from Medical Xpress:

Civic engagement may stave off brain atrophy, improve memory

Instead of shrinking as expected, as part of the normal aging process, the memory center in the brains of seniors maintained their size and, in men, grew modestly after two years in a program that engaged them in meaningful and social activities, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health-led research suggests. At the same time, those with larger increases in the brain's volume over two years also saw the greatest improvements on memory tests, showing a direct correlation between brain volume and the reversal of a type of cognitive decline linked to increased risk for Alzheimer's disease.

The research, published online in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, studied participants in the Baltimore Experience Corps, a program that brings retired people into public schools to serve as mentors to young children, working with teachers to help them learn to read in understaffed school libraries."By helping others, participants are helping themselves in ways beyond just feeding their souls. They are helping their brains. The brain shrinks as part of aging, but with this program we appear to have stopped that shrinkage and are reversing part of the aging process."

For the study, Carlson and her colleagues randomized 111 men and women to either participate in the Experience Corps (58) or not (53).... The control arm of the study, those not involved in Experience Corps, exhibited age-related shrinkage in brain volumes. Typically, annual rates of atrophy in adults over age 65 range from .8 percent to two percent. The men who were enrolled in Experience Corps, however, showed a .7 percent to 1.6 percent increase in brain volumes over the course of two years.