Sports « Weekly Gravy

Kids with good physical fitness are more likely to grow into teens with better mental health and brain function, a new study has found. Children who performed better at shuttle sprints scored better on cognitive tests as teenagers, researchers found. In addition, better cardio fitness in childhood added up to lower levels of stress and depression among teenagers, results show. “Our results should encourage policymakers as well as parents and guardians to see the significance of physical fitness more holistically, as poor physical fitness can increase mental health challenges and impair cognitive skills needed for learning,” said lead researcher Eero Haapala, a senior lecturer of sports and exercise medicine at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland. In the study, researchers followed the physical fitness of 241 Finnish kids for eight years, tracking them from childhood through to adolescence. Tests of physical fitness were compared to scores of kids’ thinking ability and emotional health. The findings, published recently in the journal Sports Medicine, showed that the more fit the kids were, the less stress and depression they reported as teenagers. This could be because kids with better physical health have more self-esteem and better mental resilience, researchers said. However, the researchers warned that kids who spend more times with screens might find the benefits of physical fitness blunted a bit. “The whole of society should support… read on > read on >

Depression can make it tougher for athletes to recover from a concussion, and vice versa, a new study finds. Student athletes who have both concussion and depression have significantly worse symptoms for both conditions, researchers reported recently in the journal Brain Research. What’s more, electrical signals in the brain are more disrupted among people with both concussion and depression than among those with only one of these conditions, the researchers noted. “We wanted to measure — both subjectively and objectively — whether these two neurological conditions also have a compounding effect on each other, and our study demonstrated that they do,” said lead researcher Owen Griffith, a doctoral candidate in kinesiology with Penn State. For the study, researchers studied 10 male and 25 female college athletes. All received EEG brain scans and underwent screenings for concussion and depression symptoms. Those who had both depression and concussion reported nearly twice as many symptoms of depression as those who had either condition alone, results showed. Likewise, those with both depression and concussion reported significantly worse and more prolonged post-concussion symptoms than those who suffered a concussion but no depression. The EEG brain scans showed that people had less coherent brain wave patterns if they suffered both concussion and depression, researchers said. These EEG measurements show that functional connectivity between brain areas is significantly disrupted in people with… read on > read on >

A child’s risk of asthma can be cut by nearly half if their mother regularly works out while expecting, a new study says. Exercising three or more times a week while pregnant reduces a child’s risk of asthma by about 46%, researchers reported Oct. 9 in the journal Med. This level of protection is akin to an expecting mother or father quitting smoking while she’s pregnant, thus reducing her exposure to cigarette smoke, researchers noted. The results jibe with earlier studies that showed newborns have stronger lung function if their mothers regularly exercised during pregnancy, researchers noted. “This is the first time we are observing an association between maternal exercise and the development of asthma in the child,” said lead investigator Emma-Reetta Musakka, a doctoral student with the University of Eastern Finland. For the study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 1,000 mother-child pairs in Finland. The mothers were asked whether they’d exercised during pregnancy, and how often they worked out. The most common exercises were walking (34%), jogging (32%), strength training (29%) and group exercise classes or working out at home (22%). Mothers whose kids developed asthma tended to work out fewer than three times a week, results showed. The lower asthma risk associated with regular exercise held even after researchers accounted for other factors like a mom’s weight, stress or illness; family exercise habits… read on > read on >

You’ve broken a hip and rehabilitation is part of the way back to mobility, or your partner has suffered a stroke and needs help re-learning certain skills. These scenarios play out every day for Americans, and rehabilitation therapies are often needed. But what kind of therapy is best, and where can you find it? One expert has tips on finding the best rehab for you. Kerri Fitzgerald is executive director of the Hackensack Meridian Johnson Rehabilitation Institute at Ocean University Medical Center, in Hackensack, N.J. She stated that, first of all, decisions around rehabilitation are a team effort. “Ideally, following initial treatment or assessment of your loved one’s injury or condition, the health care team will recommend whether outpatient [home and/or therapy location] or inpatient [hospital or 24/7 acute facility setting] therapy is the most beneficial and will provide a referral,” Fitzgerald said in an institute news release. She said that it’s important that any rehab program be tailored to the needs of the patient, taking into consideration any underlying health issues the patient may have, and making sure the program and facility are safe. Then there are factors such as the physical accessibility of the rehab facility, and how open they might be to family visits. Outpatient therapy According to Fitzgerald, prospective clients at any outpatient rehabilitation center should ask key questions: Is care provided… read on > read on >

This year, breakdancing joined the ranks of Olympic-caliber sports, with Japan’s B-girl Ami Yuasa and Canada’s B-boy Phil Wizard taking home the gold. Now doctors warn breakdancing shares something else with other major sports – the risk of serious overuse injury. Specifically, breakers appear to run the risk of “headspin hole” or “breakdance bulge,” a protruding lump on the scalp formed by too many headspins on the floor, researchers say in the journal BMJ Case Reports. “Despite ‘headspin hole’ being known within the breakdancing community, it is scarcely documented in the medical literature,” noted the research team led by Dr. Christian Baastrup Sondergaard, a neurosurgeon with the Copenhagen University Hospital’s Department of Neurosurgery in Denmark. Their paper relates the tale of a man in his early 30s who developed a large, painful lump on the top of his head after more than 19 years of breaking. The man practiced breakdancing about five times a week for an hour and a half, and during these sessions he’d perform headspin moves as part of his routine. Within the past five years, there had been a noticeable increase in the lump’s size. It also became very tender, and the man started to lose hair on that part of his scalp. Doctors found that the skin, flesh and bone on the top of the man’s head had grown thicker… read on > read on >

The key to weight loss could come down to a combination of 14 “skinny genes,” a recent study says. People with these genes dropped twice as much weight through regular exercise compared to those without the genes, researchers found. Those with the most of these genetic markers lost up to 11 pounds following eight weeks of running, compared to a little more than 4 pounds for those who didn’t get the same genetic boost. “This study highlighted some important genes associated with taking inches off the jeans, but it’s important to remember that the genes will do nothing without exercise and lifestyle changes as they are all interlinked,” lead researcher Henry Chung, a lecturer with the University of Essex School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences in the U.K., said in a news release. “Without intervention, they won’t show their true potential and then it doesn’t matter what genes you have,” he continued. For the study, researchers recruited 38 people ages 20 to 40. About half were asked to run 20 to 30 minutes three times a week, while maintaining all their usual diet and lifestyle habits. The rest served as a control group. Results show that one specific gene, called PPARCG1A, was most key to weight loss. The gene is involved in energy metabolism and was present in participants who lost the most weight,… read on > read on >

Avoiding couches and chairs might be a good way of keeping your back pain from getting worse, new research suggests. Finnish researchers found that when people with back pain sat even a little less each day, their pain was less like to progress over the next six months. “If you have a tendency for back pain or excessive sitting and are concerned for your back health, you can try to figure out ways for reducing sitting at work or during leisure time,” advised study lead author Jooa Norha, of the University of Turku. There’s not been a lot of study into the effects of prolonged sitting on back health and back pain, Norha’s group noted. So, they asked 64 overweight or obese people with heart risk factors to reduce the time they spent sitting each day by 40 minutes. All of the participants were already battling some level of back pain when they entered the study. After six months, “back pain intensity increased significantly more in the control group than in the intervention [less sitting] group in which back pain intensity remained unchanged,” Norha’s team concluded. He said he wasn’t surprised by the finding, which was published recently in the journal BMJ Open. “Our participants were quite normal middle-aged adults, who sat a great deal, exercised little and had gained some extra weight,” said Norha,… read on > read on >

A tumble, a tackle: Anything can bring on a sidelining sports injury. Now, four experts in such injuries at Penn State Health give advice on recovery and when it’s okay to return to play. AC shoulder sprains This happens when your acromioclavicular (AC) joint pops out and separates or is sprained, typically after a fall that lands on the shoulder area. You’re going to feel pain all over the front and top of the shoulder, said Penn sports medicine physician Dr. Caitlyn Haines. Treating AC sprains “depends on the degree of injury and can range from conservative measures like anti-inflammatories and rest to surgery if the joint is significantly separated,” Haines explained. Returning to play again depends on the extent of injury, she said. “Athletes may need some time off before returning, but others may miss little to no time if the sprain is mild and the shoulder exhibits full range of motion,” Haines noted. Recovery times can range from one to six weeks. Keeping the shoulder from a repeat injury is paramount, she added. Ankle sprains Ankle sprains typically involve damage to connective ligaments, not bone, said Penn sports physician Dr. Douglas Leder. You’ll know when you’ve sprained your ankle. It “usually occurs when an athlete stretches, falls upon or exerts their ankle in an abnormal way, resulting in stretching or tearing of the… read on > read on >

There’s good news for folks who struggle to fit regular exercise into their busy workweek. “Weekend warrior” workouts are just as beneficial as daily exercise to a person’s overall health, a new study says. People who get all their weekly recommended exercise in one or two days are about as healthy as those who spread their workouts more evenly throughout the week, researchers reported Sept. 26 in the journal Circulation. Both groups had a similarly lower risk of developing more than 200 possible diseases across 16 categories, ranging from heart and digestive conditions to mental health and brain illnesses, researchers found. “Because there appears to be similar benefits for weekend warrior versus regular activity, it may be the total volume of activity, rather than the pattern, that matters most,” said co-senior researcher Dr. Shaan Khurshid, a cardiologist with the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias. Guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each week, researchers said in background notes. But how a person gets those minutes each week has remained an open question. Is it better to perform 20 to 30 minutes of exercise daily, or can a person pack all that physical activity into a couple of days and go longer between workouts? For this study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 90,000 participants in the UK Biobank, an ongoing health… read on > read on >

One in three former NFL players believe they have football-related brain damage that’s doing untold harm to their lives, a new study finds. Unfortunately, their fears might be harming their mental health on top of whatever risks they face from head injuries sustained during their careers, researchers report. About one-third of nearly 2,000 retired NFL players believe they have chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain condition linked to repeated head trauma, researchers reported Sept. 23 in the journal JAMA Neurology. Players who suspect they have CTE reported significantly more problems with brain function, low testosterone, depression and chronic pain than those who don’t think they have the condition, researchers found. In addition, about 25% of players who believe they have CTE also reported suicidal thoughts or behaviors, compared with about 5% of those who don’t think they have CTE, results showed. NFL retirees who believe they have CTE are twice as likely to report frequent thoughts of suicide, even after accounting for symptoms of depression, researchers said. These symptoms are potentially related to the dread faced by NFL retirees who are certain they have CTE and expect a long and excruciating decline in their mental function, researchers said. Incurable brain diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease also have been associated with elevated suicide rates. “As complex human beings, our beliefs can exert a… read on > read on >