Sports « Weekly Gravy

Athletes whose coaches are open, authentic and positive are more likely to have better mental health, a new study says. Athletes feel happier and deal with problems more easily if their coaches adopt an “authentic leadership” style, researchers report in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise. Such a leadership style also produces better and more cohesive team spirit at higher competitive levels, results show. Players in national, international or college leagues are more likely to support and encourage each other if they’re receiving such coaching, said lead researcher Maria Kavussanu, a professor of sport and exercise psychology with the University of Birmingham in the UK. “Higher level athletes tend to train together for longer hours and have the opportunity for more frequent social interaction with each other,” Kavussanu said in a news release. “The relationships that develop within the team become important, as do experiencing positive behaviors such as support and encouragement from their teammates, which can be promoted by coaches adopting an authentic leadership style,” Kavussanu added. Researchers said that aspects of authentic leadership include: Openly sharing information Showing understanding of athletes’ strengths and weaknesses Acting in an ethical manner Listening to alternative perspectives Authentic leadership from coaches is associated with fewer feelings of depression, anxiety and stress among athletes, researchers found. Such leadership also influenced athletes to better support each other, by… read on > read on >

Even a little physical activity can cut a person’s stroke risk compared to being a complete couch potato, a new review shows. Folks whose physical activity levels fell short of recommended guidelines still had a lower risk of stroke than those who got no exercise, researchers report. Compared with no exercise, the highest “ideal” amount of physical activity cut stroke risk by 29%, researchers said. However, even “below target” activity still reduced risk by 18%, results show. “According to our results, all levels of leisure-time physical activity can be beneficial for stroke prevention, including levels currently regarded as low or insufficient,” said the team led by senior researcher Raffaele Ornello, a postdoctoral investigator of applied clinical sciences and Biotechnology at the University of L’Aquila in Italy. “People should be encouraged to be physically active even at the lowest levels,” the researchers concluded. For their paper, the team pooled the results of 15 previous studies on physical activity levels and stroke risk, involving more than 752,000 adults followed for more than a decade, on average. Overall, moderate levels of physical activity that fell below recommended levels still cut stroke risk between 27% and 29%, when compared to no exercise, researchers found. The effects were independent of sex or age, researchers said. Essentially, everyone can benefit from whatever physical activity they can manage in their spare time.… read on > read on >

The more steps a person can fit into their day, the lower their risk of early death and heart disease, regardless of how much a couch potato they are otherwise, a new study shows. People who are sedentary for more than 11 hours a day gain the same health benefits from walking more as more active folks do, researchers found. The optimal number of daily steps to improve health was between 9,000 and 10,000, researchers said. That amount of walking lowered risk of death by 39% and heart disease risk by 21%. However, half of that benefit was achieved with half the effort, at around 4,000 to 4,500 steps a day, researchers found. Essentially, any steps above 2,200 daily were associated with lower risk of death and reduced heart disease risk. “Our results indicate sedentary time did not significantly modify the dose-response association of daily steps,” concluded the research team led by Matthew Ahmadi, a postdoctoral research fellow with the University of Sydney in Australia. “We also found the amount of physical activity [eg, steps/day] needed to lower the risk of mortality and incident [heart disease] may be lower than previously suggested,” the researchers added in a journal news release. For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 72,000 participants in UK Biobank, a major biomedical database created as part of a long-term research… read on > read on >

A bicycle built for two could be a positive prescription for Parkinson’s patients and their caregivers, a small, preliminary study says. Parkinson’s patients had better overall quality of life, improved mobility, and faster walking speed after sharing regular rides on a stationary tandem bike with a care partner, researchers plan to report at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in April. Care partners also got something out of the rides, reporting improvements in their perceived ability to bounce back or recover from stress, results show. “A unique cycling program that pairs people with Parkinson’s disease with their care partners can improve the physical, emotional and mental well-being of both cyclists to improve their quality of life,” said researcher Jennifer Trilk, a professor of biomedical sciences with the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Greenville. Parkinson’s is a progressive degenerative disease of the nervous system. Patients become less and less able to control their body, suffering from tremors, leg stiffness, and gait and balance problems. For the study, patients and caregivers shared a virtual reality ride on a tandem stationary bicycle twice a week for eight weeks. The study included nine Parkinson’s patients and their care partners. “It is just as important that care partners also receive care, so that is why we included them as the cycling partner,” Trilk said… read on > read on >

Rodeo riders might make it all look easy, but they’re actually participating in one of the most strenuous sports around, experts say. As such, folks participating in rodeo need to take steps to protect themselves, just as other athletes do, said Dr. Omar Atassi, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “You can get sprains or ligament tears, tendon injuries, breaks or fractures in bones in any sport,” Atassi said in a Baylor news release. “Just because you don’t hear about injuries in rodeo sport since it’s not as common as something like pickleball doesn’t mean it can’t be dangerous. When an injury does occur in rodeo sport, it can be fairly significant.” Atassi spoke out as locals prepare for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which draws in cowboys and cowgirls for days of rodeo events. The most common rodeo injuries are the sort of horse-related incidents that frequently occur among even weekend riders, Atassi said. A bucking horse might hit a rider’s hand with its head, potentially causing a broken hand or a strained wrist. Someone thrown from their horse might suffer an ankle sprain, torn ligaments or broken bones if their foot gets caught in the stirrup. In a worst-case scenario, a horse could fall on the rider, resulting in a pelvis fracture, Atassi added. Low-grade… read on > read on >

In a new study, yoga appears to have bolstered the brain health of older women who had risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. The study can’t prove that the ancient practice will slow or prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s, but it did seem to reverse some forms of neurological decline, researchers said. “That is what yoga is good for — to reduce stress, to improve brain health, subjective memory performance and reduce inflammation and improve neuroplasticity,” said study lead author Dr. Helen Lavretsky. She’s a health psychiatrist at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, part of UCLA Health. The researchers noted that, because they live longer and are affected by changes in estrogen levels as they age, women have about twice the odds of developing Alzheimer’s compared to men. The new study involved more than 60 women ages 50 or older. All were patients at a UCLA cardiology clinic and already had reported memory issues and risk factors indicating poorer brain blood flow. Lavretsky’s team divided the women into two groups. One joined weekly sessions of Kundalini yoga (focusing on meditation and breathing work rather than physical poses) for 12 weeks; while the other took memory enhancement training, where stories or lists are used to help boost memory powers. The researchers tracked each woman’s neurological health using blood samples that tracked… read on > read on >

Regular standing and walking activities in the classroom can aid in the fight against childhood obesity, a new study shows. Children who took part in the Active Movement program experienced an 8% reduction in their waist-to-height ratio, according to results from British primary schools. Participation in sports also increased by 10% at schools with the program, researchers report. The Active Movement program aims to integrate motion into classrooms, which can tend to be a very sedentary experience for deskbound students. “By introducing movement into teaching in creative ways, such as standing up to answer questions or walking around the classroom as part of a learning exercise, we can significantly reduce [students’] sedentary time,” said lead researcher Flaminia Ronca, an associate professor with the University of College London’s Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health. The program focuses on low-level physical activity, and doesn’t require extra equipment or staff to implement, researchers said. “Our study shows that this can lead to a recognizable improvement in their waist-to-height ratio,” Ronca added in a university news release. Nearly 21% of U.S. children ages 6 to 11 are obese, comparable to an obesity rate of nearly 23% among U.K. fifth graders, according to stats from the researchers and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For the study, researchers trained teachers at 26 U.K. primary schools to incorporate standing… read on > read on >

Women might need a lot fewer daily steps to lower their risk of heart failure than they think, a new study suggests. The usual recommendation is that people get 10,000 steps a day, but women ages 63 and older actually gain solid heart benefits from around 3,600 steps daily, researchers report Fev. 21 in the journal JAMA Cardiology. On average, 3,600 steps a day at a normal pace was associated with a 26% lower risk of developing heart failure, results show. “Accumulating 3,000 steps per day might be a reasonable target that would be consistent with the amount of daily activity performed by women in this study,” said lead researcher Michael LaMonte, a research professor of epidemiology and environmental health with the University of Buffalo’s School of Public Health and Health Professions. For this study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 6,000 U.S. women ages 63 and older. Participants wore a motion tracker on their hip for up to seven consecutive days, except for when in water. They averaged nearly 3,600 steps a day. Among these women, more than 400 heart failure cases occurred during an average 7.5 years’ follow-up. The risk of developing heart failure was 12% lower for each 70 minutes a day spent in light intensity exercises and 16% lower for each 30 minutes daily spent in moderate-to-vigorous intensity activity, results show. By… read on > read on >

Junk food increases people’s risk of colon cancer, as well as alcohol, lack of exercise and obesity. Unfortunately, many Americans don’t know about these risk factors for colon cancer, a new survey has found. Colon and rectal cancers have been rising in people under 50 for two decades, researchers said, meaning that many develop the cancer before screening colonoscopies are recommended. “We know that screening colonoscopy saves lives by detecting the disease in its earliest and often precancerous state, but it’s not recommended for a person of average risk before age 45 right now,” said researcher Dr. Matthew Kaladay, chief of colorectal surgery at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. That makes preventive lifestyle habits vitally important for younger adults. Unfortunately, the survey of about 1,000 adults 18 or older revealed that: Less than half (49%) know alcohol is a risk factor Two in five (42%) are unaware that a lack of physical activity is a risk factor More than a third don’t recognize obesity (38%) or a high-fat, processed food American diet (37%) are risk factors Four out of five people did know that family history is a risk factor for colon cancer. Unfortunately, Black and Hispanic people — the groups at highest risk — had the highest lack of knowledge about lifestyle risk factors. Black Americans are more likely to develop and… read on > read on >

An open question for weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound has been whether folks will keep the pounds off when they stop taking them. Regular exercise could be the key to quitting the drugs without regaining weight, a new Danish study says. “It is actually possible to stop taking the medication without large weight regain, if you follow a structured exercise regime,” said senior researcher Signe Sorensen Torekov, of the University of Copenhagen. As little as a couple hours a week of exercise maintained the weight lost with the drugs, researchers found. “Our study offers new hope, as we have shown that the majority of those who take weight-loss medication and exercise regularly are able to maintain the beneficial effects a year after treatment termination,” Torekov said in a university news release. For the study, researchers recruited four groups of test participants. One group was given a weight-loss drug, a second group was asked to exercise regularly and a third group was given the drug and asked to work out. The fourth group received a placebo. The results showed that the exercise groups experienced an improvement in their quality of life. And those taking the drug while exercising kept the weight off once they quit the medication. The new study was published Feb. 19 in the journal Lancet eClinical Medicine. “All it takes is… read on > read on >