Sports « Weekly Gravy

Look at a bodybuilder who has bulked up with bulging muscles, and it might not seem that lifting weights can shed pounds. But first impressions can be deceiving. Instead, experts say, building muscle can indeed be one way to transform your body and lose weight. “Weightlifting activates your large muscle groups and, when done appropriately, can burn more calories than steady state cardio,” said Dr. Russell Camhi, who works in primary care sports medicine for Northwell Health’s Orthopaedic Institute in Smithtown, N.Y. Still, weightlifting on its own is not the key to weight loss. At least 80% of weight loss is through nutrition, Camhi said. “No matter what exercise program you choose you will not lose weight if you are not monitoring your intake and properly fueling your body,” Camhi said. A person lifting weights to gain muscle mass should eat a high-protein diet, Camhi said. The goal should be 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. People who are already fit and trying to gain muscle may not lose weight, but someone who is overweight or obese will, Camhi said. “Once you lose a good portion of fat and become more fit then, yes, the weight loss will plateau but will be replaced with muscle growth and increased fitness,” Camhi said. “At that point, be less concerned about the number on the… read on > read on >

Millions of adults spend too much time at a desk or in front of a screen, and experts have long advised them to sit less, move more. But if lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar and a mood boost are the goals, what’s the bare minimum of movement that will get the job done? Apparently just five minutes of walking every 30 minutes. That’s the finding of a small, new study that compared the benefits of five exercise “snacks” — small bursts of exercise spread out during the day. “We’ve found in our past research that, on average, adults in the U.S. spend over three-quarters of their day sedentary, or about 11 to 12 hours a day,” said study co-author Keith Diaz. He directs Columbia University’s Exercise Testing Laboratory at the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health, in New York City. “Previous research has shown that people who sit for hours on end develop chronic diseases — including diabetes, heart disease, dementia and several types of cancer — at much higher rates than people who move throughout their day,” Diaz said. They also face a higher risk of early death. The bottom line: “If you have a job or lifestyle where you have to sit for prolonged periods, we suggest taking a five-minute walking break every half-hour. This one behavior change could reduce your health risks… read on > read on >

Six minutes of high-intensity exercise might prolong the lifespan of a healthy brain, perhaps delaying the start of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, a new, small study suggests. Researchers found that short but intense cycling increased the production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is essential for brain formation, learning and memory. It’s thought that BDNF might protect the brain from age-related mental decline. “BDNF has shown great promise in animal models, but pharmaceutical interventions have thus far failed to safely harness the protective power of BDNF in humans,” said lead study author Travis Gibbons, from the University of Otago in New Zealand. “We saw the need to explore non-pharmacological approaches that can preserve the brain’s capacity which humans can use to naturally increase BDNF to help with healthy aging,” Gibbons said. The report was published Jan. 11 in the Journal of Physiology. BDNF promotes the brain’s ability to form new connections and pathways, and also helps neurons survive. Animal studies have shown that increasing the availability of BDNF boosts cognitive performance, such as thinking, reasoning or remembering. For this study, the researchers wanted to look at the influence of fasting and exercise on BDNF production in humans. Working with a dozen men and women, the investigators compared fasting, low-intensity cycling for 90 minutes, six-minute high-intensity cycling, and a combination of fasting and… read on > read on >

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin has been released from a Buffalo hospital just nine days after he suffered cardiac arrest during a Monday night football game. “Damar Hamlin has been discharged from Buffalo General Medical Center/Gates Vascular Institute,” the Buffalo Bills team announced on Twitter Wednesday. “We have completed a series of tests and evaluations,” Dr. Jamie Nadler, the physician who led Hamlin’s care at Buffalo General Medical Center, added in the posting. “And in consultation with the team physicians, we are confident that Damar can be safely discharged to continue his rehabilitation at home and with the Bills.” There has been no announcement on what caused Hamlin to go into cardiac arrest, The New York Times reported. Hamlin, 24, collapsed after tackling Bengals receiver Tee Higgins during a Jan. 2 football game. When Hamlin suddenly collapsed and fell backward, on-field medical staff swiftly gave him CPR before he was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. The game was postponed and later canceled. The Buffalo Bills played the New England Patriots last Sunday. They finished 13-3, which was a half-game behind Kansas City Chiefs for the AFC’s No. 1 seed, CBS News reported. The Bills would have been No. 1 seed had they won the unfinished game against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bills will now play a wild-card round against the Miami Dolphins… read on > read on >

Anyone who has ever gardened knows what a labor of love it can be as you dig deep in the dirt to plant seeds and then take pride in your first crop, but new research shows it also translates into better health. It turns out that community gardens in urban areas can have folks eating more fresh food and getting exercise, while it can also ease stress and anxiety. “These kind of interventions that have a strong social organization, that have access to nature and contact with nature, where there’s active participation, these are the ingredients that we need to think about to have successful interventions to address a whole variety of health outcomes,” said senior study author Jill Litt. She is a professor in the department of environmental studies at University of Colorado, Boulder, and a senior scientist at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. For this study, researchers wanted to do a randomized, controlled trial on community gardens, to add to information from previous gardening studies. Litt said she was approached by Denver Urban Gardens to study the benefits when there were only 40 gardens in the city. Now, there are 180. “It hooked me. It was the most fascinating system where we could actually see how behavior change happens,” Litt said. “People were connecting to the landscape. They had social relationships, they… read on > read on >

TUESDAY, Jan. 10, 2023 (HealthDay News) – Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin is now back in New York. The football player who collapsed on the field after suffering cardiac arrest during a Monday night game in Cincinnati has been released from an Ohio hospital, and will continue his recovery in a Buffalo hospital, the Buffalo Bills football team posted on Twitter. “Mr. Hamlin has been released and returned to Buffalo. I traveled with him to the airport this morning with our UC Health air care and mobile care crew, including teammates who were with us on the field when Mr. Hamlin collapsed,” Dr. William Knight IV, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and director of the Emergency Medicine MLP Program, told CBS News. Hamlin, 24, collapsed after tackling Bengals receiver Tee Higgins. When Hamlin suddenly collapsed and fell backward, on-field medical staff swiftly gave him CPR before he was taken to Cincinnati Medical Center. The game was postponed and later canceled. The Buffalo Bills played the New England Patriots last Sunday. They finished 13-3, which was a half-game behind Kansas City Chiefs for the AFC’s No. 1 seed, CBS News reported. The Bills would have been No. 1 seed had they won the unfinished game against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bills will now play a wild-card round against… read on > read on >

The swimmer came to shore struggling to breathe and coughing up blood. A keen competitive long-distance swimmer and triathlete, the woman was fit and healthy when she started a nighttime open water swim event. But a couple weeks earlier, she’d had breathing difficulties during another open water swim that had forced her to abandon the event. She’d felt breathless for days after. The woman, in her 50s, had fallen prey to what’s becoming better known as a hazard associated with open water swimming – fluid on the lungs, or pulmonary edema. Open water swimming has become very popular, but mounting evidence points to a link between the activity and a condition called swimming-induced pulmonary edema (SIPE), according to Dr. James Oldman, lead author of a study published Jan. 9 in BMJ Case Reports. Oldman is a cardiologist with Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust in the U.K. First reported in 1989, SIPE leaves swimmers struggling to draw breath as fluid collects in the air sacs of the lungs. It affects an estimated 1% to 2% of open water swimmers, but cases are likely to be underreported, Oldman and his colleagues wrote. Older age, long distances, cold water, female gender, high blood pressure and heart disease are among the risk factors for SIPE, the researchers said. However, it often occurs even in those who are… read on > read on >

An antidote to teenage depression might be found in school gymnasiums and on sports fields, a major new review argues. Supervised exercise programs are associated with significant reductions in symptoms of depression among children and teenagers, according to the analysis of data from 21 studies involving more than 2,400 kids. “This is the first time that we’ve been able to put enough studies together so that we can make a pretty good conclusion to answer the question, ‘Is physical activity and exercise good for children with depressive symptoms?’” said co-study author Walter Thompson, a retired professor of exercise physiology with Georgia State University in Atlanta. “The answer is overwhelmingly yes.” Further, the data indicate a specific dose of exercise that will produce the biggest benefit in children: Around an hour of physical activity three days a week provided the best relief for symptoms of depression. “And you know, that’s pretty close to what the federal government has recommended as regular exercise for both children and adults, somewhere between 75 and 150 minutes a week,” Thompson said. The study also found that exercise programs shorter than 12 weeks produced greater benefits — possibly because such a tightly defined program allows participants a positive sense of achievement and accomplishment, according to an editorial co-authored by Eduardo Bustamante, an assistant professor of kinesiology and nutrition at the University… read on > read on >

FRIDAY, Jan. 6, 2023 (HealthDay News) – While NFL safety Damar Hamlin is still critically ill after suffering cardiac arrest during a game on Monday, he is making a “fairly remarkable recovery,” his doctors said during a news conference on Thursday. “There has been substantial improvement in his condition over the past 24 hours,” Dr. Timothy Pritts, a professor in the department of surgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, told reporters. “We had significant concern about him after the injury and after the event that happened on the field. But he is making substantial progress. As of this morning, he is beginning to awaken, and it appears that his neurological condition and function is intact.” Hamlin is “awake and breathing,” though still on a ventilator, Pritts added. He can communicate by writing with a pen and paper. “When he asked did we win, the answer is, ‘Yes, you know, Damar, you won, you’ve won the game of life,” said Pritts, referring to Hamlin’s question about who won the game after his collapse. His medical team could not say what caused the cardiac arrest in the 24-year-old, but Dr. William Knight IV said, “tests will continue to be ongoing as he continues to progress.” “It’s been a long and difficult road for the last three days,” said Knight, a professor in the university’s… read on > read on >

Damar Hamlin, the Buffalo Bills player who collapsed Monday after suffering cardiac arrest during a game, is showing “signs of improvement,” his team said Wednesday. Still, the 24-year-old “is expected to remain under intensive care as his health care team continues to monitor and treat him,” the Buffalo Bills tweeted. Meanwhile, Hamlin’s uncle, Dorian Glenn, said Tuesday night that his nephew’s heart stopped both on the field and again at the hospital, where “they had to hit him with the defibrillator.” The player has lung damage and can’t breathe on his own, Glenn said. He is receiving 50% oxygen, down from 100%, CBS News reported. CBS News medical contributor Dr. David Agus suggested that Hamlin may have experienced “commotio cordis,” a heart arrhythmia that happens with a direct blow to the chest, though that has not been confirmed. It’s the type of injury that causes a “confusion of the heart,” and is experienced by about 30 people in the United States each year, including Little League players who get hit in the chest with a ball, CBS News reported. Getting hit can interfere with the heart’s electrical signals, causing an erratic heartbeat that doesn’t send blood to the brain. “That’s why there are defibrillators on the sidelines of games, is to be able to use them to shock the best heart back into a regular… read on > read on >