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Fitness Science
Dartmouth researchers are learning how exercise affects the brain
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- Published on Sunday, 20 May 2012 22:14
Exercise clears the mind. It gets the blood pumping and more oxygen is delivered to the brain. This is familiar territory, but Dartmouth's David Bucci thinks there is much more going on. "In the last several years there have been data suggesting that neurobiological changes are happening -- there are very brain-specific mechanisms at work here," says Bucci, an associate professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
From his studies, Bucci and his collaborators have revealed important new findings:
•The effects of exercise are different on memory as well as on the brain, depending on whether the exerciser is an adolescent or an adult.
•A gene has been identified which seems to mediate the degree to which exercise has a beneficial effect. This has implications for the potential use of exercise as an intervention for mental illness.
Exercise Slows Muscle Wasting from Age and Heart Failure
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- Published on Tuesday, 08 May 2012 19:35
Exercise can counteract muscle breakdown, increase strength and reduce inflammation caused by aging and heart failure, according to new research in Circulation, an American Heart Association journal.The benefits for heart failure patients are similar to those for anyone who exercises: there's less muscle-wasting, and their bodies become conditioned to handle more exercise.
Age of the patients didn't matter, either, researchers found. "Many physicians -- and insurance companies -- still believe that cardiac rehabilitation does not really help in old age. This study clearly falsifies this belief," said Stephan Gielen, M.D., lead co-author and Deputy Director of Cardiology at the University Hospital, Martin-Luther-University of Halle, Germany.
Men who do load-bearing exercise in early 20s may be shielded from osteoporosis
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- Published on Saturday, 05 May 2012 15:53
Young men who play volleyball, basketball or other load-bearing sports for four hours a week or more increase bone mass and might gain protection from developing osteoporosis later in life, according to a new study in the May issue of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.
The study, the largest scale investigation of its kind, discovered that young men who actively resisted the urge to adopt a "couch-potato" lifestyle in their late twenties seemed to gain the biggest bone benefit. "Men who increased their load-bearing activity from age 19 to 24 not only developed more bone, but also had larger bones compared to men who were sedentary during the same period," said senior study author Mattias Lorentzon, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Gothenburg, in Sweden.
Regular jogging shows dramatic increase in life expectancy
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- Published on Friday, 04 May 2012 11:17
Undertaking regular jogging increases the life expectancy of men by 6.2 years and women by 5.6 years, reveals the latest data from the Copenhagen City Heart study presented at the EuroPRevent2012 meeting. Reviewing the evidence of whether jogging is healthy or hazardous, Peter Schnohr told delegates that the study's most recent analysis (unpublished) shows that between one and two-and-a-half hours of jogging per week at a "slow or average" pace delivers optimum benefits for longevity. The EuroPRevent2012 meeting, held 3 May to 5 May 2012, in Dublin, Ireland, was organised by the European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (EACPR), a registered branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
"The results of our research allow us to definitively answer the question of whether jogging is good for your health," said Schnohr, who is chief cardiologist of the Copenhagen City Heart Study, speaking in the "Assessing prognosis: a glimpse of the future" symposium on Saturday. "We can say with certainty that regular jogging increases longevity. The good news is that you don't actually need to do that much to reap the benefits."
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- Dartmouth researchers are learning how exercise affects the brain
- Exercise Slows Muscle Wasting from Age and Heart Failure
- Men who do load-bearing exercise in early 20s may be shielded from osteoporosis
- How long does it take before muscles start to grow?
- Regular jogging shows dramatic increase in life expectancy