People diagnosed with one of the most common inherited heart arrhythmias, called Long QT syndrome (LQTS), can safely engage in vigorous exercise without any added risk for sudden death or cardiac arrest, a new study finds. “Arrhythmic events were low in these appropriately treated individuals with LQTS in both those exercising vigorously and those exercising moderately or who were sedentary,” concluded a team led by Dr. Rachel Lampert, a professor of cardiology at Yale University School of Medicine. According to the Cleveland Clinic, LQTS involves delays in “recharging” the heart’s electrical system, which in turn can lead to a potentially dangerous irregular heartbeat. Medications, implanted devices and surgery are used to help control the condition, which is often inherited. According to one European study, LQTS occurs in about 1 in every 2,500 people, making it “the most commonly detected genetic electrical abnormality” of the heart, Lampert’s team said. Prior studies had suggested that vigorous exercise might help trigger cardiac arrest in people with LQTS, but as the researchers pointed out, those studies largely involved patients whose LQTS was only diagnosed after such a heart event. What about people who already know they have LQTS and are being appropriately treated? To find out, her team tracked outcomes over three years for 1,413 people diagnosed with LQTS at 37 medical sites in five countries. These people ranged…  read on >  read on >

The Olympics are often described as a rare, once-in-a-lifetime shot at international sports glory. That may be more true for Olympic track and field competitors than other athletes, a new study reports. There appears to be a peak performance age for track and field athletes, who specialize in running, jumping and throwing events, researchers report. It turns out that the peak age for these athletes is 27. After age 27, there’s only a 44% chance that an athlete’s peak is still ahead of them, results show. That number drops every subsequent year. What’s more, the average age of Olympic track and field athlete has remained remarkably consistent over the past three decades — just under 27. “Because the Olympics occur only once every four years, track and field athletes must carefully consider when and how they should train to maximize their probability of qualifying for the Olympics while at their personal peak,” said lead researcher David Awosoga, a master’s student in data science at the University of Waterloo in Canada. For the study, researchers analyzed year-by-year career performance data from every track and field athlete at the Olympics since the 1996 games in Atlanta. The team considered each athlete’s gender, nationality, event type and training level. Researchers focused on track and field because for many of these athletes, the Olympics offers the best chance to…  read on >  read on >

Alix Popham played in two rugby World Cups and won a Six Nations Grand Slam before retiring in 2011 as a professional in the rough-and-tumble game. By 2020, he had already been diagnosed with early onset dementia and probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disabling brain disease long linked to repeated head trauma. Emboldened to activism by his experience, Popham helped found Head for Change, which advocates for better ways of preventing brain damage among rugby players. “This is more evidence that big changes need to happen to protect current rugby players. World Rugby need to get their heads out of the sand and in turn protect the game,” Popham said in a news release from Durham University. Similar to what’s been observed in other contact sports such as football and boxing, rugby can leave players with neurological damage long after they’ve retired. Now, a new study out of Durham suggests that certain blood biomarkers could predict those players at highest risk for CTE and other neurological issues. That might allow for earlier interventions that could minimize the damage, researchers said. Prior research has already demonstrated that retired professional rugby players have a much higher odds for depression, anxiety and irritability compared to amateur rugby players or athletes involved in non-contact sports.  In the new study, Durham researchers add to what’s known about specific components…  read on >  read on >

Bicycling to work can vastly improve your health and reduce your risk of death, a new study shows. People who bike commute have a 47% lower overall risk of an early death, researchers found. They also are less likely to develop heart disease, cancer and mental health problems, results show. Walking to work also conferred some health benefits, but bicycle commuting provided the strongest boost to a person’s well-being, researchers reported July 16 in the journal BMJ Public Health. “This study provides timely evidence of the health benefits of active commuting for both local, national and international policymakers,” concluded the research team led by Catherine Friel, a doctoral researcher with the University of Glasgow in Scotland. For this report, researchers analyzed data from a national health study in Scotland involving 5% of the Scottish population. As part of the national study, participants were asked how they commuted to work. Their responses were linked to records of national hospital admissions, drug prescriptions and deaths between 2001 and 2018. Researchers found that commuting by bicycle was associated with: A 51% lower risk of dying from cancer A 24% lower risk of being hospitalized for cancer A 24% lower risk of hospital admission for heart disease A 30% lower risk of being prescribed a heart medication A 20% lower risk of receiving a prescription for mental health problems…  read on >  read on >

Exercise near bedtime won’t necessarily wreck a person’s sleep, a new study says. Intense exercise is typically discouraged as bedtime approaches, since such activity can disturb sleep by increasing body temperature and heart rate, researchers said. But short resistance exercise “activity breaks” at regular intervals can actually improve a person’s sleep, compared to winding down on a couch, researchers reported in the journal BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine. Simple, three-minute “activity breaks” involving chair squats, calf raises and standing knee raises with straight leg hip extensions added nearly an extra half-hour to a person’s sleep, when performed at 30-minute intervals in the four hours before sleep, results show. “These results add to a growing body of evidence that indicates evening exercise does not disrupt sleep quality, despite current sleep recommendations to the contrary,” concluded the research team led by Jennifer Gale, a doctoral candidate and sedentary behavior researcher with the University of Otago in New Zealand. For the study, researchers recruited 30 people ages 18 to 40. All participants said they typically have more than five hours of sedentary time at work and two more hours in the evening. Each of the participants completed two different sessions in a controlled laboratory experiment, separated by a minimum of six days. In one session, they remained seated in the four hours prior to sleep. In the…  read on >  read on >