Physical Activity: Beneficial Effects

Author(s):  
M.H. Murphy ◽  
E.M. Murtagh
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 1120-1125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Eve Mathieu ◽  
Ryan E R Reid ◽  
Neil A King

ABSTRACT The sensory profile, referring to sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch, plays an essential role in optimizing the habitual intake of energy and macronutrients. However, specific populations, such as older adults, are known to have impaired energy intake. In this paper, the relevance of sensory impairments in this older population is described, and the extent to which nutritional and physical activity interventions can modulate these sensory responses when food intake is insufficient is explored. With aging, all senses deteriorate, and in most cases, such deteriorations diminish the nutritional response. The only exception is sight, for which both positive and negative impacts on nutritional response have been reported. From a prevention perspective, nutritional interventions have been understudied, and to date, only hearing is known to be positively affected by a good nutritional profile. In comparison, physical activity has been more frequently studied in this context, and is linked to an improved preservation of 4 senses. Regarding treatment, very few studies have directly targeted sensory training, and the focus of research has tended to be on nutrition and physical activity intervention. Sensory training, and nutritional and physical activity treatments all have beneficial effects on the senses. In the future, researchers should focus on exploring gaps in the literature specifically concerning prevention, treatment, and sensory response to understand how to improve the efficacy of current approaches. In order to maintain sensory acuity and recover from sensory impairment, the current state of knowledge supports the importance of improving nutritional habits as well as physical activity early on in life. A combined approach, linking a detailed lifestyle profile with the assessment of numerous senses and one or more interventional approaches (nutrition, physical activity, sensory training, etc.), would be required to identify effective strategies to improve the nutritional state of older individuals.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
C Dupré ◽  
N Barth ◽  
A El Moutawakkil ◽  
F Béland ◽  
F Roche ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Few previous cohorts have studied the different type of physical activities and the degree of cognitive decline. The objective of this work was to analyze the leisure, domestic and professional activities with mild and moderate cognitive disorders in older people living in community. Methods The study used data from the longitudinal and observational study, FrèLE (FRagility: Longitudinal Study of Expressions). The collected data included: socio-demographic variables, lifestyle, and health status (frailty, comorbidities, cognitive status, depression). Cognitive decline was assessed by using: MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination) and MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment). MoCA was used with two cut-offs (26 and 17) so as to define mild and moderate cognitive disorders Physical activity was assessed by the PASE (Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly), structured in three sections: leisure, domestic and professional activities. Spline and proportional hazards regression models (Cox) were used to estimate the risk of cognitive disorders. Results At baseline, 1623 participants were included and the prevalence of cognitive disorders was 6.9% (MMSE) and 7.2% (MoCA), mild cognitive disorders was 71.3%. The mean age was 77 years, and 52% of the participants were women. After a 2 years long follow-up, we found 6.9% (MMSE) and 6% (MoCA) cognitive disorders on participants. Analyses showed that domestic activities were associated to cognitive decline (HR = 0.52 [0.28-0.94] for MMSE and HR = 0.48 [0.28-0.80] for MoCA). No association were found with leisure and professional activities, and no spline were significant with mild cognitive disorders. Conclusions Analysis showed a relationship between cognitive disorders and type of physical activity, thanks to the use of specific questionnaire of elderly and two global test of cognition. These findings will contribute to the debate on the beneficial effects of physical activity on cognition. Key messages This work allowed to compare two test of cognition and their link with physical activity. It contributes to the debate on the beneficial effects of physical activity on cognition. The work allowed us to see the effect of the different types of physical activity and the impact of the statistical method on the results.


2014 ◽  
Vol 94 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole E. Andrews ◽  
Jenny Strong ◽  
Pamela J. Meredith ◽  
Rachel G. D'Arrigo

BackgroundIndividuals with chronic pain consider improved sleep to be one of the most important outcomes of treatment. Physical activity has been shown to have beneficial effects on sleep in the general population. Despite these findings, the physical activity–sleep relationship has not been directly examined in a sample of people with chronic pain.ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the association between objective daytime physical activity and subsequent objective sleep for individuals with chronic pain while controlling for pain and psychosocial variables.DesignAn observational, prospective, within-person study design was used.MethodsA clinical sample of 50 adults with chronic pain was recruited. Participation involved completing a demographic questionnaire followed by 5 days of data collection. Over this period, participants wore a triaxial accelerometer to monitor their daytime activity and sleep. Participants also carried a handheld computer that administered a questionnaire measuring pain, mood, catastrophizing, and stress 6 times throughout the day.ResultsThe results demonstrated that higher fluctuations in daytime activity significantly predicted shorter sleep duration. Furthermore, higher mean daytime activity levels and a greater number of pain sites contributed significantly to the prediction of longer periods of wakefulness at night.LimitationsThe small sample size used in this study limits the generalizability of the findings. Missing data may have led to overestimations or underestimations of effect sizes, and additional factors that may be associated with sleep (eg, medication usage, environmental factors) were not measured.ConclusionsThe results of this study suggest that engagement in high-intensity activity and high fluctuations in activity are associated with poorer sleep at night; hence, activity modulation may be a key treatment strategy to address sleep complaints in individuals with chronic pain.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. e0247039
Author(s):  
Viviana Aya ◽  
Alberto Flórez ◽  
Luis Perez ◽  
Juan David Ramírez

Introduction The intestinal microbiota comprises bacteria, fungi, archaea, protists, helminths and viruses that symbiotically inhabit the digestive system. To date, research has provided limited data on the possible association between an active lifestyle and a healthy composition of human microbiota. This review was aimed to summarize the results of human studies comparing the microbiome of healthy individuals with different physical activity amounts. Methods We searched Medline/Ovid, NIH/PubMed, and Academic Search Complete between August–October 2020. Inclusion criteria comprised: (a) cross-sectional studies focused on comparing gut microbiome among subjects with different physical activity levels; (b) studies describing human gut microbiome responses to any type of exercise stimulus; (c) studies containing healthy adult women and men. We excluded studies containing diet modifications, probiotic or prebiotic consumption, as well as studies focused on diabetes, hypertension, cancer, hormonal dysfunction. Methodological quality and risk of bias for each study were assessed using the Risk Of Bias In Non-randomized Studies—of Interventions tool. The results from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are shown independently. Results A total of 17 articles were eligible for inclusion: ten cross-sectional and seven longitudinal studies. Main outcomes vary significantly according to physical activity amounts in longitudinal studies. We identified discrete changes in diversity indexes and relative abundance of certain bacteria in active people. Conclusion As literature in this field is rapidly growing, it is important that studies incorporate diverse methods to evaluate other aspects related to active lifestyles such as sleep and dietary patterns. Exploration of other groups such as viruses, archaea and parasites may lead to a better understanding of gut microbiota adaptation to physical activity and sports and its potentially beneficial effects on host metabolism and endurance.


2016 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 26-28
Author(s):  
Andrew D Hanna ◽  
Natalie V Scime

Global rates of type 2 diabetes (T2D) among children and adolescents are steadily rising. As such, an increasing amount of attention and research has begun to focus on strategies to prevent this chronic and burdensome disease in pediatric populations. The purpose of this article is to briefly review current evidence pertaining to the effectiveness of physical activity versus metformin in improving insulin sensitivity of children at-risk (ie, obese and/or insulin resistant) for developing T2D. Potential barriers to each preventative intervention will also be discussed. Physical activity, both aerobic and resistance, has demonstrated effectiveness in a moderate number of demographically diverse pediatric studies. However, the pediatric population is already alarmingly sedentary with barriers such as lack of motivation, social stigma and discomfort presenting a challenge. A small number of studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of metformin in children and adolescents for improved insulin sensitivity. However, longer and larger studies are required to confirm these findings and elucidate upon the long-term safety and efficacy of this pharmaceutical in pediatric populations. While no head-to-head studies examining physical activity and metformin exist in pediatric populations and more research is needed, current evidence seems to favour the use of physical activity given the larger quantity of studies and generalizability of its beneficial effects. Thus, physical activity should be emphasized in clinical and public health practice when targeting at-risk children and adolescents to prevent a T2D diagnosis.


Author(s):  
Mark Hargreaves

Since ancient times, the health benefits of regular physical activity/exercise have been recognised and the classic studies of Morris and Paffenbarger provided the epidemiological evidence in support of such an association. Cardiorespiratory fitness, often measured by maximal oxygen uptake, and habitual physical activity levels are inversely related to mortality. Thus, studies exploring the biological bases of the health benefits of exercise have largely focused on the cardiovascular system and skeletal muscle (mass and metabolism), although there is increasing evidence that multiple tissues and organ systems are influenced by regular exercise. Communication between contracting skeletal muscle and multiple organs has been implicated in exercise benefits, as indeed has other inter-organ "cross-talk". The application of molecular biology techniques and 'omics' approaches to questions in exercise biology has opened new lines of investigation to better understand the beneficial effects of exercise and, in so doing, inform the optimisation of exercise regimens and the identification of novel therapeutic strategies to enhance health and well-being.


Author(s):  
Stefano Palermi ◽  
Olimpia Iacono ◽  
Felice Sirico ◽  
Michele Modestino ◽  
Carlo Ruosi ◽  
...  

Abstract Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a widespread condition, representing a challenging disease to manage. Exercise is being increasingly recommended as part of the therapeutic regimen for DM but the management of different forms of physical activity is difficult for individuals with diabetes, trainers, and physicians. Regular exercise can improve health and well-being, helping individuals to achieve their target lipid profile, body composition, cardio-respiratory fitness, and glycemic goals. People with diabetes tend to be as inactive as the general population, with a large percentage of individuals not achieving the minimum amount of recommended physical activity levels. Indeed, several barriers to exercise exist for persons with diabetes, including sports eligibility, multi-modality management of diabetic athletes, and inadequate knowledge about adequate type and intensity of exercise. The aim of the present review is to provide the current understanding of mechanisms, recommendations, and beneficial effects of different modalities of exercise for the treatment of DM.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Gambardella ◽  
Marco Bruno Morelli ◽  
Xu‐Jun Wang ◽  
Gaetano Santulli

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