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Extensive exercise regimens are keeping astronauts healthy and protecting their hearts during extended space missions, new research finds. A study from scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas found no loss of heart mass or output, and no loss of function in the heart’s ventricles, during flights that can last up to six months. The findings could have implications for treating diseases in which gravity plays a role. They also could help in planning longer missions, such as to Mars. “Our study shows that, remarkably, what we are doing in space to preserve heart function and morphology is pretty effective,” said senior study author Dr. Benjamin Levine. He is a professor of internal medicine in the division of cardiology at UT Southwestern. It has been known that when astronauts return to Earth, they typically experience a dramatic loss in blood pressure. A key cause is remodeling that the heart experiences because of space’s microgravity conditions. While in space, astronauts’ bodies don’t have to counteract the effects of gravity. That means their bodies are working less hard. It’s similar to what someone would experience while on bed rest, the researchers explained. The heart muscle mass decreases by an average of 1% per week while in space and the volume of blood that the heart holds also drops. It was not known whether the two hours… read on > read on >

Adding 3,000 extra steps a day can help older adults with hypertension significantly lower their blood pressure. About 80% of older adults in the United States have high blood pressure. Keeping it down can help protect against heart failure, heart attacks and strokes. “We’ll all get high blood pressure if we live long enough, at least in this country,” Linda Pescatello, professor of kinesiology at the University of Connecticut, said in a university news release. “That’s how prevalent it is.” While her previous research had shown that exercise could have an immediate and long-lasting impact on blood pressure, this new study set out to learn whether moderately increasing walking — popular in this age group — could do the same. “It’s easy to do, they don’t need any equipment, they can do it anywhere at almost any time,” said co-author Duck-Chul Lee, a professor of kinesiology at Iowa State University. The researchers focused on a group of sedentary 68- to 78-year-olds who walked about 4,000 steps per day. By adding in 3,000 steps, they would log 7,000 daily steps, in line with a recommendation of the American College of Sports Medicine. Getting “3,000 steps is large enough but not too challenging to achieve for health benefits,” Lee said in the release. Participants received kits with pedometers, blood pressure monitors and step diaries to track their… read on > read on >

Heart failure can make everyday activities and exercise tough to carry out, but yoga might be a beneficial add-on to standard care. A new study from India finds this ancient practice improves quality of life and cardio functioning. “Our patients observed improvement in systolic blood pressure and heart rate compared to patients who were on medication without yoga,” said lead study author Ajit Singh, a research scientist at Manipal Academy of Higher Education. (Systolic blood pressure is the first number in a blood pressure reading.) In heart failure, the heart muscle is either too weak or too stiff to pump properly. This can lead to fluid buildup, shortness of breath and other complications. How might yoga help? “Yoga is a combination of mind-body techniques, which is a set of physical exercises [asana] with breathing techniques [pranayama], relaxation and meditation that can be effectively used to stimulate physical and mental well-being,” Singh explained in an American College of Cardiology news release. For the study, the researchers enrolled 75 heart failure patients between the ages of 30 and 70 at a care center in South India. They had received recommended therapy for the previous six months to one year. Each had what’s called left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of less than 45%, a sign of mild to moderate dysfunction, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.… read on > read on >

When it comes to staying trim, timing may be everything. That’s according to new research that found adults who routinely engaged in moderate-to-vigorous exercise early in the morning were less likely to be overweight or obese than those who worked out later in the day. “For individuals who exercise regularly, their body mass index [BMI] is 2 units lower and waist circumference is 1.5 inches shorter if they exercise in the early morning than in other times of day,” said study author Tongyu Ma, an assistant professor of exercise physiology at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, N.H. BMI and waist circumference are considered two key measures of obesity risk. The upshot, said Ma, is that a “morning workout is a promising tool for weight management.” To explore the question, investigators tracked obesity status among nearly 5,300 adult men and women. All were enrolled in the ongoing U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, either between 2003 to 2004 or between 2005 to 2006. Each of the participants wore a hip accelerometer whenever they were awake for somewhere between four to seven consecutive days, including at least one day over the weekend. Based on activity routines, they were then categorized into one of three exercise groups: morning (642 participants), midday (2,456) or evening (2,187). In turn, waist circumferences were measured and BMI scores were calculated. BMI… read on > read on >

Playing sports can offer a lot of benefits for kids, but it’s also important to help protect them from injuries. Parents and coaches can make a big difference in helping kids play safely, according to Nemours Kids Health. The medical organization suggests starting with proper equipment. Use it, but also make sure the safety gear is the right size, fits well and is right for the sport. That includes helmets for baseball, softball, bike riding and hockey, as well as for inline skating or riding scooters and skateboards. Ask your child’s coach about the appropriate helmets, shoes, mouth guards, athletic cups and supporters, and padding, Nemours advised. Also ask about protective eyewear for racquet sports, field hockey, lacrosse, basketball, softball and baseball. This might include shatterproof glasses. Make sure protective equipment is approved by the organizations that oversee the sports. That means bike helmets with safety certification from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and hockey masks approved by the Hockey Equipment Certification Council (HECC) or the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), for example. Take good care of this equipment so it holds up and continues working. Kids also need safe playing surfaces, including playing fields that are not full of holes and ruts that are a tripping hazard. High-impact sports, like basketball and running, should be done on surfaces like tracks and wooden basketball courts,… read on > read on >

Bolstering the notion that a strong body equals a strong mind, new research indicates that the more inactive seniors are, the higher their risk for dementia. The finding stems from a look at the onset of dementia among nearly 50,000 Brits. All were at least 60 years old when information about typical daily activity routines was entered into the UK Biobank database at some point between 2006 and 2010. Their risk for dementia was then tracked for an average of about seven years. “We looked into whether sitting too much can increase the risk of getting dementia,” said lead author David Raichlen, a professor of biological sciences and anthropology at the University of Southern California. “Turns out, if you’re sedentary for over 10 hours a day, there’s a higher risk.” Compared to spending nine hours a day on the proverbial couch, 10 hours of inactivity were associated with an 8% higher risk for dementia among seniors. And more inactivity was even riskier: Seniors who clocked 12 hours a day of inactivity — be it at one stretch, or over 24 hours — saw their risk for dementia spike by 63%. Those who sat around for 15 hours a day had a stunning 320% increase in dementia risk. The study doesn’t prove inactivity causes dementia, Raichlen stressed. It could be that other issues that might lead… read on > read on >

Therapies based on a hormone people make while exercising may be the next frontier in treating Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study. Researchers have found that the exercise-induced hormone irisin may reduce both the plaque and the tau tangles characteristic of the disease. Before this, this same team developed the first 3D human cell culture models of Alzheimer’s disease, which it was able to use in this new research into the impact of irisin on amyloid beta in the brain. Physical exercise had already been shown to reduce amyloid beta deposits in mouse models of Alzheimer’s, but it wasn’t clear how. The increase of circulating levels of the muscle-derived hormone irisin through exercise regulates glucose and lipid metabolism in fat tissue. It also increases energy expenditure by accelerating the browning of white fat tissue. Past research has shown that irisin is present in human and mouse brains. Its levels are lower in patients with Alzheimer’s. “First, we found that irisin treatment led to a remarkable reduction of amyloid beta pathology,” said study author Se Hoon Choi, of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “Second, we showed this effect of irisin was attributable to increased neprilysin activity owing to increased levels of neprilysin secreted from cells in the brain called astrocytes,” he said in a hospital news release. Neprilysin… read on > read on >

Being fit doesn’t just help your body — it also helps your mind, a new study reports. People in better physical condition appear to have less need for drugs to treat mood disorders, Norwegian researchers have found. “We find that people who are in better shape fill fewer prescriptions for anxiety and depression medications,” said senior author Linda Ernstsen, an associate professor of public health and nursing at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. For the study, researchers analyzed data from the Trøndelag Health Study, which has gathered health data since 1984 for more than 250,000 residents of that Norwegian county. The research group compared that data with information from the Norwegian Prescribed Drug Registry, an overview of medications dispensed in Norway. In a previous study, Ernstsen and her colleagues found that people who were in good physical shape had a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms during a follow-up 10 years later. The study didn’t come to any conclusions regarding anxiety, however. This new study allowed researchers to look at both depression and anxiety medication use. Being in good physical shape helps all age groups and both genders, researchers found, but they added that some types of people get greater benefits from fitness than others. “We find that men experience a greater effect from exercise than women. The correlations are also less… read on > read on >

If mountain biking is your exercise of choice, go for it. A new study finds that the benefits of this sport outweigh the risks, dashing a common view that it’s always dangerous, injury-inducing and meant for thrill seekers. “Mountain biking and hiking are some of the fastest growing recreation activities in the world, so understanding the spectrum of injuries becomes paramount for effective medical care,” said lead author Paul Braybrook, a doctoral candidate at Curtin University School of Nursing in Western Australia. His team analyzed data from dozens of studies across the world that included more than 220,000 injured mountain bikers and more than 17,000 injured hikers to try to pinpoint injury types. For mountain bikers, injuries were primarily on upper limbs, mostly bruises, scratches and mild cuts. Hikers had injured legs and ankles, including blisters and ankle sprains. “Despite a common perception of mountain biking as an ‘extreme’ sport, we found most reported injuries were of low severity,” Braybrook said in a university news release. “Although there were high proportions of ankle sprains in hikers and arm fractures in mountain bikers, with one study of the latter reporting more than half suffered head injuries, highlighting the importance of a good quality helmet.” The standard for protective gear and other equipment has increased as the popularity of both sports has grown, Braybrook said. This reduces… read on > read on >

The degenerative brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) may be striking some at much younger ages than thought possible: New research has uncovered early signs of the condition in amateur athletes who died young after playing contact sports. The troubling finding was discovered during the brain autopsies of 152 athletes. All had engaged in the type of sports, such as football, where head impacts are routine. And all had died before turning 30. Investigators determined that roughly 4 in 10 had developed early signs of CTE while still in their teens and 20s. And the vast majority of those with CTE — more than 70% — were just young amateurs, not professional players. “CTE is a neurodegenerative disease caused by repetitive hits to the head that has been found most often in contact sport athletes,” explained study author Dr. Ann McKee. She is a professor of neurology and pathology at Boston University and director of neuropathology care with the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System. But while most research has focused on the risk of brain damage among professional athletes, the latest analysis reveals “that CTE can begin very early, as early as 17 years, and that it can develop in amateur soccer, rugby, ice hockey and football players, and amateur wrestlers,” McKee stressed. That comes as little surprise to Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, chief… read on > read on >