Sports « Weekly Gravy

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 >

Autopsies of deceased boxers and pro football players have long confirmed that repeat head injuries can lead to a devastating brain condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Now, research supports the notion that contact sports can also raise the odds for a Parkinson’s-like disease, called parkinsonism, in athletes already affected by CTE. In the new study, “subjects with parkinsonism were more likely to have more severe CTE-related brain cell death in a region of the brainstem important for controlling movement,” noted study lead author Dr. Thor Stein. He’s an associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Boston University. The study involved postmortem examination of the brains of 481 deceased athletes. It was published July 15 in the journal JAMA Neurology. As the researchers described it, parkinsonism carries some of the hallmarks of classic Parkinson’s disease — tremor, slowed movements, abnormal stiffness in the limbs. The two conditions differ, however, in how they manifest in brain tissue. People with Parkinson’s disease typically show a buildup of proteins called Lewy bodies in their brain cells, but the new research found no such buildup in the brains of about three-quarters of people with CTE and parkinsonism. “We were surprised to find that most individuals with CTE and parkinsonism did not have Lewy body pathology,” Stein noted in a university news release. So, what’s driving the parkinsonism? According… read on > read on >

Dropping weight prior to competition is a common practice among athletes. But starving oneself prior to an intense athletic event is likely a wrongheaded, self-defeating practice, a new study warns. Triathletes who ate less prior to competition lost more muscle mass and performed poorly, compared to their function after they followed a sensible diet, researchers found. “There is no doubt that this practice greatly impairs one’s performance as an athlete, even over shorter periods of time,” said lead researcher Jan Sommer Jeppesen, a doctoral student with the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Attempts to lose weight prior to competition might be driven by a belief that fewer pounds will enhance performance, or by a desire to look “lean and mean” when hitting the field, researchers said. Regardless, it’s a widespread phenomenon among athletes, particularly those in endurance sports like running, swimming, cycling and rowing, researchers said. “It is particularly problematic among female endurance athletes. Many athletes focus heavily on weight in their respective sports. Consequently, they tend to go into short-term, but intense periods of weight loss with the expectation of performing better,” said senior researcher Ylva Hellsten, a professor with the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports. But not eating enough is associated with missed periods, compromised bone health, changes in metabolism, and other health effects that could actually hamper an… read on > read on >

Nearly half of cancer deaths and 4 of 10 cases of cancer are linked to a person’s lifestyle, a new study says. Cigarette smoking remains the biggest cancer risk, contributing to 30% of cancer deaths and 20% of cancer cases, results show. But excess body weight, drinking, lack of exercise, diet and skipping cancer-preventing vaccinations also increase a person’s risk of developing or dying from cancer, researchers said. For the study, researchers analyzed nationwide data on cancer for 2019 and its risk factors to estimate the number of cases and deaths attributable to lifestyle risk factors. Cigarette smoking contributes to 56% of all potentially preventable cancers in men and 40% of those in women, results show. “The number of lung cancer deaths attributable to cigarette smoking in the United States is alarming,” given that smoking has greatly declined during the past few decades, lead researcher Dr. Farhad Islami, senior scientific director of cancer disparity research at the American Cancer Society, said in a news release. “This finding underscores the importance of implementing comprehensive tobacco control policies in each state to promote smoking cessation, as well as heightened efforts to increase screening for early detection of lung cancer, when treatment could be more effective,” Islami added. Excess body weight contributed to about 8% of potentially preventable cancers, alcohol consumption to about 5%, exposure to the sun’s… read on > read on >

Prediabetes can be successfully fought through diet and exercise, a new study shows. People with prediabetes can reduce their long-term risk of death and illness if they use diet and exercise to delay the onset of diabetes for just four years, according to findings published July 9 in the journal PLOS Medicine. Prediabetes — also known as impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) — involves blood sugar levels that are higher than normal, but haven’t reached the levels associated with full-blown diabetes. “This study suggests that a longer duration of non-diabetes status in those with IGT has beneficial health outcomes” and reduces premature death, concluded the research team led by Dr. Guangwei Li of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Da Qing City, China. For the study, researchers tracked the health of 540 people with prediabetes who participated in an earlier six-year clinical trial. In the trial, prediabetic people were assigned to one of four groups – one that followed a healthy diet; one that got more exercise; one that both ate well and exercised; and a control group. After more than 30 years of follow-up, researchers found that people who didn’t lapse into diabetes for at least four years after their diagnosis with prediabetes had a significantly lower risk of dying or experiencing a heart health event like a heart attack or stroke. That protective effect was… read on > read on >

Going to the gym is good for your overall health, but if you and the gym aren’t practicing good hygiene you could still catch a nasty illness, an expert says. “Good hygiene prevents sicknesses like a cold, influenza and even salmonella, but cleanliness can also indicate that a gym is well-maintained overall, including the quality of equipment,” said Melanie McNeal, a physical and occupational therapy manager at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “If hygiene rules are not followed you could get sick, get others sick or even have your membership cancelled.” When going to a new gym for the first time, there are a few key indicators to determine if hygiene is prioritized in the space: A lack of sanitary wipes for members or staff to wipe down equipment after use often means equipment is harboring unseen bacteria No signs posted asking members to clean equipment after using or no cleaning schedule posted suggests cleanliness is not a priority for the gym Other gym members using equipment and not cleaning it afterwards on a consistent basis can show there is not a culture of cleanliness Caked on layers of dust on equipment can indicate that equipment has not been cleaned in a while Lots of broken-down machines for extended periods of time can be due to a lack of interest from gym management in… read on > read on >

Simple exercises performed during rounds of chemotherapy can help people avoid nerve damage normally associated with the cancer-killing drugs, a new study suggests. About twice as many cancer patients on chemo wound up with long-lasting nerve damage if they didn’t exercise, compared with two groups assigned different exercise regimens, researchers reported July 1 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. “The potential of physical activity is hugely underestimated,” lead researcher Fiona Streckmann, a research assistant at the University of Basel in Switzerland, said in a news release. About 70% to 90% of people who get chemo complain of pain, balance issues or feelings of numbness, burning or tingling, researchers said in background notes. These nerve symptoms can disappear after cancer treatment, but about half the time they endure. For the study, researchers recruited 158 cancer patients receiving one of two chemo drugs, oxaliplatin or vinca-alkaloids, and divided them into three groups. Two groups completed exercise sessions twice a week during their chemotherapy, each lasting 15 to 30 minutes. One group exercised while balancing on an unstable surface, and the other exercised on a vibration plate. The third group received standard care, with no exercise regimen. Regular exams over the next five years showed that the exercises performed alongside chemo reduced the incidence of nerve damage by 50% to 70%, researchers said. Exercise also improved patients’ quality… read on > read on >

Parks and lakes aren’t just good for your soul — new research suggests they also appear to protect your arteries. Living near green space and “blue” water space lowers a person’s odds of hardened arteries in middle-aged urban dwellers, researchers found. For every 10% increase in access to green space, the odds of having coronary artery calcification decline by 15%, on average, according to findings published June 27 in the journal Circulation. “Our findings provide quantitative evidence supporting environmental policies to enhance the accessibility and quality of residential blue and green spaces,” said researcher Dr. Lifang Hou, a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Artery calcification occurs when calcium forms plaques on the walls of arteries. These plaques can combine with blood clots to clog the arteries, causing heart attacks and strokes. For the study, researchers tracked nearly 3,000 men and women from four cities for 25 years, from 1985 to 2010. The participants hailed from Birmingham, Ala.; Chicago; Minneapolis; and Oakland, Calif. The research team compared CT scans taken at age 50 of calcium deposits in people’s arteries with their access to parks, water bodies and other natural spaces. That access was measured using the people’s long-term residential addresses. Black people living in poor neighborhoods especially benefitted from exposure to green space and open water, researchers found.… read on > read on >

Tai Chi appears to improve sleep, and as a result reduces inflammation and boosts the immune systems of breast cancer survivors, a new study says. The ancient Chinese martial arts practice relies on slow, precise movements performed as the person breathes deeply and focuses attention on the body. This mind-body practice appears as good as or better than cognitive behavioral therapy in helping breast cancer survivors deal with the aftermath of their disease, researchers reported recently in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity. About 30% of breast cancer survivors suffer from insomnia, twice the rate of the general population, researchers said in background notes. For this study, researchers analyzed blood samples from 90 Los Angeles breast cancer survivors who underwent weekly Tai Chi or cognitive behavioral therapy sessions lasting two hours for a three-month period. Both Tai Chi and cognitive behavioral therapy produced similar decreases in insomnia among the participants. But the blood samples, taken over 15 months, revealed that Tai Chi led to significant and sustained reductions in inflammation, compared with cognitive behavioral therapy. Tai Chi participants also experienced increases in antiviral activity within the immune system, although cognitive behavioral therapy produced even better improvements. These could help reduce the risk of breast cancer recurring in survivors, researchers said. “Effective treatment of insomnia has potent impacts on the immune system,” said lead researcher Dr.… read on > read on >