Sports « Weekly Gravy

Exercise has been dubbed “nature’s antidepressant” by doctors for years, and now a new study confirms the notion. The finding follows a four-month look at the impact that running had on anxiety and depression when compared to a common antidepressant. SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) work by boosting levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that’s a key player when it comes to regulating mood, depression and anxiety. But among 140 depression patients, those who engaged in regular group running — meaning two or three 45-minute runs each week — actually saw their depression levels drop a bit more than those who took the popular SSRI medication escitalopram (Lexapro). And those who treated their depression with exercise reaped an added reward, with improvements seen in their physical health as well. That group, said study author Brenda Penninx, also “lost weight, improved fitness and reduced heart rate and blood pressure.” The medication group did not see those benefits. Penninx, a professor of psychiatric epidemiology and vice chair of the department of psychiatry at Amsterdam University Medical Center in the Netherlands, presented her findings this weekend at the ECNP meeting, which focuses on the science and treatment of brain disorders. The research was published earlier this year in the Journal of Affective Disorders. All told, she said, the findings suggest that “we should pay much more attention to lifestyle… read on > read on >

Former pro football players with symptoms of depression or anxiety are far more likely to receive an unverifiable diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) than players without those mental health conditions, a new study reports. Players with depression are 9.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with CTE, while players with both depression and anxiety are 12 times more likely, the study results showed. The problem: At this point CTE can only be diagnosed as part of a brain autopsy. “CTE can only be diagnosed after death,” said lead author Shawn Eagle, a research assistant professor of neurological surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “It shouldn’t be diagnosed in anyone while they’re living. Being told you have CTE when you’re alive is a problem because there’s no valid test to diagnose CTE in a living person.” Researchers argue that those players’ doctors are dropping the ball by handing out a CTE diagnosis, because there are effective treatments for the mood disorders that led to the diagnosis. “Depression, anxiety and sleep apnea produce cognitive symptoms, are treatable conditions, and should be distinguished from neurodegenerative disease,” Eagle said. “CTE is a neurodegenerative disease without available treatments or available diagnosis in a living person.” CTE is a degenerative brain disease that can be caused by repeated head impacts and concussions. It usually affects athletes who… read on > read on >

FRIDAY, Oct. 6, 2023 (HealthDay News) – Healthy steps: Living in a neighborhood that’s easy to walk in could be good for women’s health. New research finds that women who live in walkable neighborhoods have lower rates of obesity-related cancers. This was particularly true of postmenopausal breast cancer, but also of ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer and multiple myeloma, according to researchers at several universities in New York City. “These results contribute to the growing evidence of how urban design affects the health and well-being in aging populations,” said researcher Andrew Rundle, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Researchers noted that interventions to increase physical activity and reduce obesity one by one are costly. They also tend to have temporary effects. “However, urban design can create a context that promotes walking, increases overall physical activity, and reduce car-dependency, which could lead to subsequent improvements in preventing diseases attributed to unhealthy weight,” Rundle said said in a Columbia news release. Past research has linked obesity to increased risk for 13 types of cancer in women, independent of body size. Physical activity lowers the risk for some of these cancers. The study included data from more than 14,000 women ages 35 to 65 who were recruited at a New York City mammography screening center between 1985 and 1991. Researchers followed the women… read on > read on >

Good news for couch potatoes — bursts of activity as short as one to three minutes in duration can prompt a steep decrease in the risk of heart attack, stroke and early death, a new study reports. Researchers tracked the activity of more than 25,000 people in the United Kingdom, all of whom had wearable devices that monitored their movement down to 10-second intervals. The investigators found that short bouts of activity lasting fewer than 10 minutes caused a significant decrease in heart attacks and strokes, as well as death from any cause. These weren’t activities where someone needed to don sportswear and athletic shoes, either, said lead researcher Matthew Ahmadi, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Sydney in Australia. “The health-enhancing benefits they received all came from activities of daily living such as playing with children, gardening and household tasks that mixed in short bursts of vigorous intensity,” Ahmadi said. “Our study found that the health benefits traditionally attributed to exercise-based activities can also be achieved through everyday activities. This was a nice finding, particularly for adults who are unable to or cannot exercise regularly,” he said. Although even short bursts of activity produced benefit, the longer the bouts, the better off participants were, the researchers found. Compared to people who only moved in bouts of one minute or less: People who… read on > read on >

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 >