Category: Exercise

Categories : Exercise NeurologyTags :

Dopamine’s Role in Exercise Feeling ‘Hard’ or ‘Easy’

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

Dopamine, long associated with pleasure, motivation and reward-seeking, also appears to play an important role in why exercise and other physical efforts feel ‘easy’ to some people and exhausting to others. These are the findings of of a study of people with Parkinson’s disease, which is published in NPG Parkinson’s Disease. Parkinson’s disease is marked by a loss of dopamine-producing cells in the brain over time.

According to the researchers, the findings might eventually lead to more effective ways to help people establish and stick with exercise regimens, new treatments for fatigue associated with depression and many other conditions, and a better understanding of Parkinson’s disease.

“Researchers have long been trying to understand why some people find physical effort easier than others,” says study leader Vikram Chib, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and research scientist at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. “This study’s results suggest that the amount of dopamine availability in the brain is a key factor.”

Chib explains that after a bout of physical activity, people’s perception and self-reports of the effort they expended varies, and also guides their decisions about undertaking future exertions. Previous studies have shown that people with increased dopamine are more willing to exert physical effort for rewards, but the current study focuses on dopamine’s role in people’s self-assessment of effort needed for a physical task, without the promise of a reward.

For the study, Chib and his colleagues from Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Kennedy Krieger Institute recruited 19 adults diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a condition in which neurons in the brain that produce dopamine gradually die off, causing unintended and uncontrollable movements such as tremors, fatigue, stiffness and trouble with balance or coordination.

In Chib’s lab, 10 male volunteers and nine female volunteers with an average age of 67 were asked to perform the same physical task, that of squeezing a hand grip equipped with a sensor, on two different days within four weeks of each other. On one of the days, the patients were asked to take their standard, daily synthetic dopamine medication as they normally would. On the other, they were asked not to take their medication for at least 12 hours prior to performing the squeeze test.

On both days, the patients were initially taught to squeeze a grip sensor at various levels of defined effort, and then were asked to squeeze and report how many units of effort they put forth.

When the participants had taken their regular synthetic dopamine medication, their self-assessments of units of effort expended were more accurate than when they hadn’t taken the drug. They also had less variability in their efforts, showing accurate squeezes when the researchers cued them to squeeze at different levels of effort.

In contrast, when the patients hadn’t taken the medication, they consistently over-reported their efforts, meaning they perceived the task to be physically harder, and had significantly more variability among grips after being cued.

In another experiment, the patients were given a choice between a sure option of squeezing with a relatively low amount of effort on the grip sensor or flipping a coin and taking a chance on having to perform either no effort or a very high level of effort. When these volunteers had taken their medication, they were more willing to take a chance on having to perform a higher amount of effort than when they didn’t take their medication.

A third experiment offered participants the choice between getting a small amount of guaranteed money or, getting either nothing or a higher amount of money on a coin flip. Results showed no difference in the subjects on days when they took their medication and when they did not. This result, researchers say, suggests that dopamine’s influence on risk-taking preferences is specific to physical effort-based decision-making.

Together, Chib says, these findings suggest that dopamine level is a critical factor in helping people accurately assess how much effort a physical task requires, which can significantly affect how much effort they’re willing to put forth for future tasks. For example, if someone perceives that a physical task will take an extraordinary amount of effort, they may be less motivated to do it.

Understanding more about the chemistry and biology of motivation could advance ways to motivate exercise and physical therapy regimens, Chib says. In addition, inefficient dopamine signalling could help explain the pervasive fatigue present in conditions such as depression and long COVID, and during cancer treatments. Currently, he and his colleagues are studying dopamine’s role in clinical fatigue.

Source: John Hopkins Medicine

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease Exercise GenderTags :

Strenuous Jobs Increase Men’s Cardiovascular Risk, but Reduce Women’s

On By ModernMedia
Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash

A long-term Danish study found that high physical activity at work was associated with higher risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) in men, but in women, this was associated with lower risk. The findings, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, highlight the importance of taking gender into account when considering the impact of high levels of occupational physical activity (OPA).

While previous studies have shown that physical activities in leisure time are protective against cardiovascular disease, high levels of OPA were shown to have no benefit – or even a detrimental effect.

The study followed up participants aged 30–61 years old after 34 years who took part in the Danish Monica 1 study in 1982–84. Participants, 1399 women and 1706 men, were actively employed, without prior IHD and who answered a question on OPA. The participants’ medical records were located in the Danish National Patient Registry and the researchers analysed the data, controlling for increasing numbers of factors such as age, then age and sex, and then age and sex plus factors such as smoking.

Compared to women doing sedentary work, women in all other OPA categories had a lower hazard ratio (HR) for IHD. Among men, the risk of IHD was 22% higher among those with light OPA, and 42% and 46% higher among those with moderate OPA with some lifting or strenuous work with heavy lifting, respectively, compared to men with sedentary OPA. Compared to women with sedentary work, HR for IHD was higher among men in all OPA categories, and a statistically significant interaction between OPA and sex was found.

Demanding or strenuous OPA seems to be a risk factor for IHD among men, whereas a higher level of OPA seems to protect from IHD among women. The researchers wrote that this underlines the importance of taking into account sex differences in studies of health effects of OPA. Future studies should investigate the underlying mechanisms for this difference, such as differences in exposure and physiology.

Categories : Exercise Mental Health PaediatricsTags :

Regular Physical Activity can Improve Mental Health of Young Adolescents

On By ModernMedia
Boys running
Photo by Margaret Weir on Unsplash

Regular physical activity can improve young adolescents’ mental health and help with behavioural difficulties, suggests research published in Mental Health and Physical Activity. Investigators found that engaging in regular moderate to vigorous physical activity at age 11 was associated with better mental health between the ages of 11 and 13.

Physical activity was also associated with reduced hyperactivity and behavioural problems, such as loss of temper, fighting with other children, lying, and stealing, in young people.

Researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh, Strathclyde, Bristol, and Georgia in the United States explored data from the Children of the 90s study (also known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children; ALSPAC). They looked at the levels of physical activity of 4755 11-year-olds which was measured using devices.

The devices recorded levels of moderate physical activity, typically defined as brisk walking or cycling, as well as vigorous activity which boosts heart rate and breathing, such as aerobic dancing, jogging or swimming.

The young people and their parents reported on their levels of depressive symptoms from age 11 and at age 13 years. Participants’ parents and teachers were also quizzed about the young people’s general behaviour and emotional difficulties.

In analysing the impact of moderate to vigorous exercise on the young people’s mental health and behaviour, the team also considered factors such as age, sex and socio-economic status.

They found that higher levels of moderate or intense physical activity had a small but detectable association with decreases in depressive symptoms and emotional difficulties.

Regular exercise had a small but detectable association with reduced behavioural problems, even after controlling for other possible influences, the study found.

The findings suggest regular moderate and intense physical activity may have a small protective influence on mental health in early adolescence, researchers say.

Dr Josie Booth, of the University of Edinburgh’s Moray House School of Education and Sport, said: “This study adds to the increasing evidence base about how important physical activity is for all aspects of young people’s development – it can help them feel better, and do better at school. Supporting young people to lead healthy active lives should be prioritised.”

Researchers say the study is the first to offer such a comprehensive approach to examining mental health and exercise in young people.

Professor John Reilly, at the University of Strathclyde, said: “While it might seem obvious that physical activity improves mental health the evidence for such a benefit in children and young people has been scarce, so the study findings are important. The findings are also important because levels of moderate-to-vigorous intensity activity globally are so low in pre-teens globally – less than a third achieve the 60 minutes per day recommended by the WHO and UK Health Departments.”

The study is a long-term health-research project that enrolled more than 14 000 pregnant women in 1991 and 1992.

Children of the 90s has been following the health and development of the parents and their children in detail and is currently recruiting the children and the siblings of the original children into the study. It receives core funding from the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the University of Bristol.

Source: University of Edinburgh

Categories : Exercise General InterestTags :

Walking 11 Minutes a Day Could Prevent 1 in 10 Early Deaths

On By ModernMedia

One in ten early deaths could be prevented if everyone managed at least half the recommended level of physical activity, say a team led by researchers at the University of Cambridge.

In a study published today in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the researchers say that 11 minutes a day (75 minutes a week) of moderate-intensity physical activity – such as a brisk walk – would be sufficient to lower the risk of diseases such as heart disease, stroke and a number of cancers.

Cardiovascular diseases – such as heart disease and stroke – are the leading cause of death globally, responsible for 17.9 million deaths per year in 2019, while cancers were responsible for 9.6 million deaths in 2017. Physical activity – particularly when it is moderate-intensity – is known to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, and the NHS recommends that adults do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity a week.

To explore the amount of physical activity necessary to have a beneficial impact on several chronic diseases and premature death, researchers from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis, pooling and analysing cohort data from all of the published evidence. This approach allowed them to bring together studies that on their own did not provide sufficient evidence and sometimes disagreed with each other to provide more robust conclusions.

In total, they looked at results reported in 196 peer-reviewed articles, covering more than 30 million participants from 94 large study cohorts, to produce the largest analysis to date of the association between physical activity levels and risk of heart disease, cancer, and early death.

The researchers found that, outside of work-related physical activity, two out of three people reported activity levels below 150 min per week of moderate-intensity activity and fewer than one in ten managed more than 300 min per week.

Broadly speaking, they found that beyond 150 min per week of moderate-intensity activity, the additional benefits in terms of reduced risk of disease or early death were marginal. But even half this amount came with significant benefits: accumulating 75 min per week of moderate-intensity activity brought with it a 23% lower risk of early death.

Dr Soren Brage from the MRC Epidemiology Unit said: “If you are someone who finds the idea of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week a bit daunting, then our findings should be good news. Doing some physical activity is better than doing none. This is also a good starting position – if you find that 75 minutes a week is manageable, then you could try stepping it up gradually to the full recommended amount.”

Seventy-five minutes per week of moderate activity was also enough to reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease by 17% and cancer by 7%. For some specific cancers, the reduction in risk was greater – head and neck, myeloid leukaemia, myeloma, and gastric cardia cancers were between 14 and 26% lower risk. For other cancers, such as lung, liver, endometrial, colon, and breast cancer, a 3–11% lower risk was observed.

Professor James Woodcock from the MRC Epidemiology Unit said: “We know that physical activity, such as walking or cycling, is good for you, especially if you feel it raises your heart rate. But what we’ve found is there are substantial benefits to heart health and reducing your risk of cancer even if you can only manage 10 minutes every day.”

The researchers calculated that if everyone in the studies had done the equivalent of at least 150 min per week of moderate-intensity activity, around one in six (16%) early deaths would be prevented. One in nine (11%) cases of cardiovascular disease and one in 20 (5%) cases of cancer would be prevented.

However, even if everyone managed at least 75 min per week of moderate-intensity physical activity, around one in ten (10%) early deaths would be prevented. One in twenty (5%) cases of cardiovascular disease and nearly one in thirty (3%) cases of cancer would be prevented.

Source: Cambridge University

Categories : ExerciseTags :

Fat Metabolism from Exercise Depends on Time of Day

On By ModernMedia
Tired woman after exercise
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels

Exercise at the right time of the day may increase fat metabolism, at least according to the results of a mouse study. Published in the journal PNAS, research shows that mice that did exercise in an early active phase, which corresponds to morning exercise in humans, increased their metabolism more than mice that did exercise at a time usually spent resting.

Physical activity at different times of the day can affect the body in different ways since the biological processes depend on the circadian rhythms of the cells. To ascertain the effect of exercise timing on the burning of fat, researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the University of Copenhagen studied the adipose tissue of mice after a session of high-intensity exercise performed at two points of the daily cycle, an early active phase and early rest phase (corresponding to a late morning and late evening session, respectively, in humans). The researchers studied various markers for fat metabolism and analysed which genes were active in adipose tissue after exercise.

Independent of food intake

The researchers found that physical activity at an early active phase increased the expression of genes involved in the breakdown of adipose tissue, heat production and mitochondria in the adipose tissue, indicating a higher metabolic rate. These effects were observed only in mice that exercised in the early active phase and were independent of food intake.

“Our results suggest that late morning exercise could be more effective than late evening exercise in terms of boosting the metabolism and the burning of fat, and if this is the case, they could prove of value to people who are overweight,” says Professor Juleen R. Zierath at Karolinska Institutet.

Improving the health benefits of exercise

Mice and humans share many basic physiological functions, and mice are a well-established model for human physiology and metabolism. However, there are also important differences, such as the fact that mice are nocturnal.

“The right timing seems to be important to the body’s energy balance and to improving the health benefits of exercise, but more studies are needed to draw any reliable conclusions about the relevance of our findings to humans,” says Professor Zierath.

Source: Karolinska Institutet

Categories : Ageing ExerciseTags :

In Older Women, Physical Activity Reduces Risk of Dementia

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Bennett Tobias on Unsplash

Senior women were less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment or dementia if they did more daily walking and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, according to a new study published in of Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.

The University of California San Diego-led team reported that among women aged 65 or older, each extra 31 minutes per day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was linked to a 21% lower risk of developing mild cognitive impairment or dementia. Risk was also reduced by 33% with each extra 1865 daily steps.

“Given that the onset of dementia begins 20 years or more before symptoms show, the early intervention for delaying or preventing cognitive decline and dementia among older adults is essential,” said senior author Andrea LaCroix, PhD, MPH, UC San Diego professor.

Dementias are a debilitating neurological condition that can cause loss of memory, the ability to think, problem solve or reason. Mild cognitive impairment is an early stage of memory loss or thinking problems that is not as severe as dementias.

More women live with and are at higher risk of developing dementia than men.

“Physical activity has been identified as one of the three most promising ways to reduce risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Prevention is important because once dementia is diagnosed, it is very difficult to slow or reverse. There is no cure,” said LaCroix.

However, because few large studies have examined device measures of movement and sitting in relation to mild cognitive impairment and dementia, much of the published research on the associations of physical activity and sedentary behavior with cognitive decline and dementia is based on self-reported measures, said first author, Steven Nguyen, Ph.D., M.P.H., postdoctoral scholar at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health.

For this study, the researchers sampled data from 1,277 women as part of two Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) ancillary studies – the WHI Memory Study (WHIMS) and the Objective Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Health (OPACH) study. The women wore research-grade accelerometers and went about their daily activities for up to seven days to obtain accurate measures of physical activity and sitting.

The activity trackers showed the women averaged 3,216 steps, 276 minutes in light physical activities, 45.5 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and 10.5 hours of sitting per day. Examples of light physical activity could include housework, gardening or walking. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity could include brisk walking.

The study findings also showed that higher amounts of sitting and prolonged sitting were not associated with higher risk of mild cognitive impairment or dementia.

Together, this information has clinical and public health importance as there is little published information on the amount and intensity of physical activity needed for a lower dementia risk, said Nguyen.

“Older adults can be encouraged to increase movement of at least moderate intensity and take more steps each day for a lower risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia,” said Nguyen.

“The findings for steps per day are particularly noteworthy because steps are recorded by a variety of wearable devices increasingly worn by individuals and could be readily adopted.”

The authors said further research is needed among large diverse populations that include men.

Source: University of California – San Diego

Categories : Addiction ExerciseTags :

Running away from Life’s Stresses: The Phenomenon of Exercise Addiction

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

Recreational running offers a lot of physical and mental health benefits – but some people can develop exercise dependence, a form of addiction to physical activity which can cause health issues. Shockingly, signs of exercise dependence are common even in recreational runners. A study published in Frontiers in Psychology investigated whether the concept of escapism can help us understand the relationship between running, well-being, and exercise dependence.

“Escapism is an everyday phenomenon among humans, but little is known regarding its motivational underpinnings, how it affects experiences, and the psychological outcomes from it,” said Dr Frode Stenseng of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, lead author of the paper.

Running to explore or to evade?

“Escapism is often defined as ‘an activity, a form of entertainment, etc. that helps you avoid or forget unpleasant or boring things.” In other words, many of our everyday activities may be interpreted as escapism,” said Stenseng. “The psychological reward from escapism is reduced self-awareness, less rumination, and a relief from one’s most pressing, or stressing, thoughts and emotions.”

Escapism can restore perspective, or it can act as a distraction from problems that need to be tackled. Escapism which is adaptive, seeking out positive experiences, is referred to as self-expansion. Meanwhile maladaptive escapism, avoiding negative experiences, is called self-suppression. Effectively, running as exploration or as evasion.

“These two forms of escapism are stemming from two different mindsets, to promote a positive mood, or prevent a negative mood,” said Stenseng.

Escapist activities used for self-expansion have more positive effects but also more long-term benefits. Self-suppression, by contrast, tends to suppress positive feelings as well as negative ones and lead to avoidance.

Self-suppression associated with exercise dependence

The team recruited 227 recreational runners, half men and half women, with widely varying running practices. They were asked to fill out questionnaires which investigated three different aspects of escapism and exercise dependence: an escapism scale which measured preference for self-expansion or self-suppression, an exercise dependence scale, and a satisfaction with life scale designed to measure the participants’ subjective well-being.

The scientists found that there was very little overlap between runners who favoured self-expansion and runners who preferred self-suppression modes of escapism. Self-expansion was positively related with well-being, while self-suppression was negatively related to well-being. Self-suppression and self-expansion were both linked to exercise dependence, but self-suppression was much more strongly linked to it. Neither escapism mode was linked to age, gender, or amount of time a person spent running, but both affected the relationship between well-being and exercise dependence. Whether or not a person fulfilled criteria for exercise dependence, a preference for self-expansion would still be linked to a more positive sense of their own well-being.

Although exercise dependence corrodes the potential well-being gains from exercise, it seems that perceiving lower well-being may be both a cause and an outcome of exercise dependency: the dependency might be driven by lower well-being as well as promoting it.

Similarly, experiencing positive self-expansion might be a psychological motive that promotes exercise dependence.

“More studies using longitudinal research designs are necessary to unravel more of the motivational dynamics and outcomes in escapism,” said Stenseng. “But these findings may enlighten people in understanding their own motivation, and be used for therapeutic reasons for individuals striving with a maladaptive engagement in their activity.”

Source: Frontiers

Categories : ExerciseTags :

Fixing Prolonged Sitting: Five Minutes’ Walking every Half Hour

On By ModernMedia

While evidence suggests that prolonged sitting is hazardous to health, the optimum interval and quantity for exercise breaks has been unclear. Now, exercise physiologists can provide an answer: just five minutes of walking every half hour during periods of prolonged sitting can offset some of the most harmful effects.

The study, led by Keith Diaz, PhD, associate professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, was published online in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

Unlike other studies that test one or two activity options, Diaz’s study tested five different exercise ‘snacks’: one minute of walking after every 30 minutes of sitting, one minute after 60 minutes; five minutes every 30; five minutes every 60; and no walking.

“If we hadn’t compared multiple options and varied the frequency and duration of the exercise, we would have only been able to provide people with our best guesses of the optimal routine,” Diaz says.

Each of the 11 adults who participated in the study came to Diaz’s laboratory, where participants sat in an ergonomic chair for eight hours, rising only for their prescribed exercise snack of treadmill walking or a bathroom break. Researchers kept an eye on each participant to ensure they did not over- or under-exercise and periodically measured the participants’ blood pressure and blood sugar (key indicators of cardiovascular health). Participants were allowed to work on a laptop, read, and use their phones during the sessions and were provided standardized meals.

The optimal amount of movement, the researchers found, was five minutes of walking every 30 minutes. This was the only amount that significantly lowered both blood sugar and blood pressure. In addition, this walking regimen had a dramatic effect on how the participants responded to large meals, reducing blood sugar spikes by 58% compared with sitting all day.

Taking a walking break every 30 minutes for one minute also provided modest benefits for blood sugar levels throughout the day, while walking every 60 minutes (either for one minute or five minutes) provided no benefit.

All amounts of walking significantly reduced blood pressure by 4 to 5 mmHg compared with sitting all day. “This is a sizeable decrease, comparable to the reduction you would expect from exercising daily for six months,” says Diaz.

The researchers also periodically measured participants’ levels of mood, fatigue, and cognitive performance during the testing. All walking regimens, except walking one minute every hour, led to significant decreases in fatigue and significant improvements in mood. None of the walking regimens influenced cognition.

“The effects on mood and fatigue are important,” Diaz says. “People tend to repeat behaviors that make them feel good and that are enjoyable.”

The Columbia researchers are currently testing 25 different doses of walking on health outcomes and testing a wider variety of people: Participants in the current study were in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and most did not have diabetes or high blood pressure.

“What we know now is that for optimal health, you need to move regularly at work, in addition to a daily exercise routine,” says Diaz. “While that may sound impractical, our findings show that even small amounts of walking spread through the work day can significantly lower your risk of heart disease and other chronic illnesses.”

Source: Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Categories : Ageing ExerciseTags :

How to Stop Losing Exercise Recovery Capacity as We Age

On By ModernMedia
Old man jogging
Photo by Barbra Olsen on Pexels

Although exercise is well-known to protect against many ageing-related diseases, it is not known the beneficial effects of exercise diminish with age. Now, in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers investigated how a mitochondrial mechanism improves physical fitness by exercise training and identified one anti-ageing intervention that delayed the declines that occur with ageing in the model organism. These findings may lead to new strategies for promoting muscle function during ageing.

“Exercise has been widely employed to improve quality of life and to protect against degenerative diseases, and in humans, a long-term exercise regimen reduces overall mortality,” said co-corresponding author T. Keith Blackwell, MD, PhD, a senior investigator at Joslin. “Our data identify an essential mediator of exercise responsiveness and an entry point for interventions to maintain muscle function during ageing.”

That essential mediator is the cycle of fragmentation and repair of the mitochondria. Disruption of mitochondrial dynamics the cycle of repairing dysfunctional mitochondria and restoring the connectivity among the energy-producing organelles has been linked to the development and progression of chronic, age-related diseases, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

“As we perceive that our muscles undergo a pattern of fatigue and restoration after an exercise session, they are undergoing this mitochondrial dynamic cycle,” said Blackwell. “In this process, muscles manage the aftermath of the metabolic demand of exercise and restore their functional capability.”

Blackwell and colleagues investigated the role of mitochondrial dynamics during exercise in the model organism C. elegans, a simple, well-studied microscopic worm species frequently used in metabolic and aging research.

Recording wild type C. elegans worms as they swam or crawled, the investigators observed a typical age-related decline in physical fitness over the animals’ 15 days of adulthood. The scientists also showed a significant and progressive shift toward fragmented and/or disorganised mitochondria in the ageing animals. For example, they observed in young worms on day 1 of adulthood, a single bout of exercise induced fatigue after one hour. The 60-minute session also caused an increase in mitochondrial fragmentation in the animals’ muscle cells, but a period of 24 hours was sufficient to restore both performance and mitochondrial function.

In older (day 5 and day 10) worms, the animals’ performance did not return to baseline within 24 hours. Likewise, the older animals’ mitochondria underwent a cycle of fragmentation and repair, but the network reorganization that occurred was reduced compared to that of the younger animals.

“We determined that a single exercise session induces a cycle of fatigue and physical fitness recovery that is paralleled by a cycle of the mitochondrial network rebuilding,” said first author Juliane Cruz Campos, a postdoctoral fellow at Joslin Diabetes Center. “Ageing dampened the extent to which this occurred and induced a parallel decline in physical fitness. That suggested that mitochondrial dynamics might be important for maintaining physical fitness and possibly for physical fitness to be enhanced by a bout of exercise.”

In a second set of experiments, the scientists allowed wild type worms to swim for one hour per day for 10 consecutive days, starting at the onset of adulthood. As in humans, the long-term training programme significantly improved the animals’ middle-aged fitness at day 10, and mitigated the impairment of mitochondrial dynamics typically seen during ageing.

Finally, the researchers tested known, lifespan-extending interventions for their ability to improve exercise capacity during ageing. Worms with increased AMPK – a “guardian” of metabolism and mitochondrial homeostasis – exhibited improved physical fitness. They also demonstrated maintenance of exercise performance during ageing – but not enhancement. Worms engineered to lack AMPK exhibited reduced physical fitness during ageing as well as impairment of the recovery cycle. They also did not receive the age-delaying benefits of exercise over the course of the lifespan.

“An important goal of the ageing field is to identify interventions that not only extend lifespan but also enhance health and quality of life,” said Blackwell, who is also a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School. “In ageing humans, a decline in muscle function and exercise tolerance is a major concern that leads to substantial morbidity. Our data point towards potentially fruitful intervention points for forestalling this decline – most likely along with other aspects of ageing. It will be of great interest to determine how mitochondrial network plasticity influences physical fitness along with longevity and ageing-associated diseases in humans.”

Source: Joslin Diabetes Center

Categories : Exercise Mental HealthTags :

Pop Culture Highlights How Exercise Can Improve Mental Health

On By ModernMedia

The workplace should take note

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels

A quarter of employees in South Africa have been diagnosed with depression, with the country’s economic contributors aged 25 to 44 being most affected and taking more than 18 days off work as a result, according to a recent study conducted by the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG). “While treatment or talking to someone is advised when dealing with mental health issues, the importance of exercise and healthy living is taking centre stage across pop culture channels,” says Sarah Rice, Chief People Officer at Skynamo.

This was illustrated in the recently released documentary produced by Jonah Hill on Netflix called ‘Stutz’. While highlighting the power of talk therapy, Hill’s therapist, Phil Stutz, outlines various tools that he has developed to help people manage depression, including his ‘life force’ model.

“This is a three levelled pyramid focussing on aspects that drive us forward,” shares Rice, who refers to the film where Stutz says that your life force is the only thing that’s capable of guiding you when you’re lost. “The bottom level of the pyramid is your relationship with your physical body, the second is your relationship with other people and the top level is your relationship with yourself.”

“While we are the only ones who are responsible for our relationship with ourselves, considering the fact that we spend a large amount of time in the office, companies should think about offering activities to improve employees’ wellbeing such as forming a running club or introducing yoga classes. These activities should be built into the company calendar so that it gives people permission to do them and not feel like they’re taking away from work time,” explains Rice.

Not only does this assist with the exercise aspect but also gives colleagues the opportunity to form a real connection and bond with each other, she says. “Additionally, it shows that the business is really keen on providing employees with a work-life balance – something which is trumping salary as a priority for most professionals.”

“This will improve the company’s wellbeing too as it will result in increased employee productivity, reduced absenteeism, higher quality work, and even an R83.40 return for every R20 the business invests in the physical and mental health of employees, not to mention a 14% increase in profitability,” points out Rice.

She notes that, luckily, international companies like Google, Accenture, Microsoft and Nike are recognising that physical health is part of mental health. “A number of South African companies such as Absa, Discovery, Alexander Forbes, Unilever and South African Breweries are tapping into this as well.”

Victoria Henry, Head of Group Marketing at Alphawave, a specialised technology investment group with 16 companies in its portfolio, of which Skynamo is a part, echoes this by saying, “Mental health has definitely moved up the agenda in the workplace. It’s good to see more and more companies taking this seriously. Happy and healthy employees are better employees. Supporting employee mental health can increase engagement and performance, so it’s important that companies are investing in this.”

To encourage corporates – as well as individuals – to get active and connected to each other, Skynamo, in partnership with Alphawave, will be sponsoring the third annual Skynamo CROSS CHALLENGE – South Africa’s biggest off-road triathlon. A crucial component of the event is the Skynamo Corporate Challenge where teams will get to cycle, run and swim for the chance to win prizes, bragging rights and a trophy to showcase in the office – not to mention a team building experience full of exhilarating adventure and healthy competition.

Jacques de Villiers, co-founder of event organising company Scuttle adds that being outdoors and exercising greatly enhances mental health, especially since this reduces employee screen time. “Funnily enough, 70% of employees say that they would exercise more if they spent less time at their computers.”

The Skynamo CROSS CHALLENGE will be taking place on Saturday, 25 February 2023 in Grabouw with races for all ages and fitness levels. The full race comprises a 1000m swim, 22km mountain bike ride and 7,2km trail run, while the sprint race is approximately half the distance. There are also race options available for kids.

In the lead up to the Skynamo CROSS CHALLENGE, teams can test their fitness levels and group dynamics at the Lomond and Franschhoek Cross Triathlons taking place in December 2022 and January 2023 respectively.

Rice concludes by saying, “To help employees’ mental health in 2023, businesses should be raising awareness around and encouraging healthy living. Employers need to see employees as whole people, not just as ‘work people’, and must support them in living their best lives.”

To register, or for more information, go to www.scuttle.co.za/scuttle-events/crosschallenge. Online entries close on 20 February 2023 and no entries will be taken at the event.