The Stress of Competing: Cortisol and Amylase Response to Training and Competition

TeamGym is a popular form of gymnastics, including tumbling (Tu), trampette (Tr) and floor exercises (F) characterized by intensive practice placing high levels of stress on athletes. The aim of the study was to investigate athletes’ stress-related changes during TeamGym training and competition, considering hormonal and enzymatic responses (i.e., salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase). Ten (5 males and 5 females) TeamGym athletes (age: 22–28 y) were tested twice at the same time before training and competition; furthermore, for excluding circadian effect on hormonal and enzymatic responses, they were tested at the same time during a rest day. Alpha-amylase and cortisol were measured 15 min before the beginning of exercise, after each gymnastic equipment performance, and after thirty minutes from the end of the performance. Factorial ANOVA with repeated measures was used to verify differences between training and competition (p < 0.05). Competition elicited higher values of alpha-amylase than training (p ranging from 0.001 to 0.019) and rest (p ranging from 0.001 to 0.019). Cortisol showed no exercise induced increase, and its concentrations were higher prior to training compared to competition. TeamGym responses confirm other sports findings in stating that competition elicits higher stress response than training and suggest that salivary alpha-amylase is a more sensitive marker than cortisol to psychophysiological stress also in gymnastics intermittent performance

Autism spectrum disorder and physical activity

Autism is a common developmental disorder characterized by difficulties with speech and behaviours, such as lack of social abilities and repetitive behaviours. Some studies have shown that after the intervention of physical activity, all of the social interaction ability, communication ability, stereotyped behaviour and sports skills of children and adolescents with autism have been improved, which can reduce the degree of autism. The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has increased dramatically and is currently estimated at 1 in 68 children. ASD is defined by two symptom dimensions including social impairments and circumscribed and repetitive behaviours and interests (American Psychiatric Association). One subgroup that has increased is those with ASD without intellectual disability who currently comprise 68% of those diagnosed. Current guidelines recommend that youth engage in ≥ 60 minutes of Physical Activity daily, with the majority being moderate-to-vigorous, and muscle strengthening activities ≥ 3 days per week. Despite the significant need, few exercise programs have been developed or adapted for children with ASD, and there is a lack of evidence-based exercise treatments. Recommendations for improving exercise intervention studies in ASD include testing of treatments in function-ally-homogeneous (narrower) subgroups with ASD using larger well-characterized samples. This is necessary as children with ASD have different tolerances for activities/tasks and functional heterogeneity will likely lead to variable treatment responsiveness. Additionally, group-based treatments will be more applicable for children with ASD without intellectual disability

The Social Brain and Emotional Contagion: COVID-19 Effects

Background and objectives: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious infectious disease, responsible for a global pandemic that began in January 2020. Human/COVID-19 interactions cause dierent outcomes ranging from minor health consequences to death. Since social interaction is the default mode by which individuals communicate with their surroundings, dierent modes of contagion can play a role in determining the long-term consequences for mental health and emotional well-being. We examined some basic aspects of human social interaction, emphasizing some particular features of the emotional contagion. Moreover, we analyzed the main report that described brain damage related to the COVID-19 infection. Indeed, the goal of this review is to suggest a possible explanation for the relationships among emotionally impaired people, brain damage, and COVID-19 infection. Results: COVID-19 can cause several significant neurological disorders and the pandemic has been linked to a rise in people reporting mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety. Neurocognitive symptoms associated with COVID-19 include delirium, both acute and chronic attention and memory impairment related to hippocampal and cortical damage, as well as learning deficits in both adults and children. Conclusions: Although our knowledge on the biology and long-term clinical outcomes of the COVID-19 infection is largely limited, approaching the pandemic based on lessons learnt from previous outbreaks of infectious diseases and the biology of other coronaviruses will provide a suitable pathway for developing public mental health strategies, which could be positively translated into therapeutic approaches, attempting to improve stress coping responses, thus contributing to alleviate the burden driven by the pandemic

Guinea worm wrap-up

Sudan has reported 21,433 cases of dracunculiasis in January-July 2002, which is 73% of the global total of cases reported for that period. Whereas 36% of 8,058 endemic villages reported in January-July 2001, 62% of 6,224 endemic villages reported during the same period of 2002. The latest update on the status of the program was discussed during the annual Program Review of the Guinea Worm Eradication Programs of Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda, which was held in Nairobi, Kenya on September 30 \ue2\u20ac\u201c October 2. The percentage of known endemic villages with nylon filters in every household increased from 29% to 58% between 2001 and 2002, and over 7 million pipe filters were distributed in 2001. Health education talks by village volunteers have increased from 50% to 83% of endemic villages, and are increasingly supplemented by radio broadcasts in local languages. Abate usage is still limited in all but the northern states of the country

The Metabolic Rearrangements of Bariatric Surgery: Focus on Orexin-A and the Adiponectin System

The accumulation of adipose tissue represents one of the characteristics of obesity, increasing the risk of developing correlated obesity diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and immune diseases. Visceral adipose tissue accumulation leads to chronic low inflammation inducing an imbalanced adipokine secretion. Among these adipokines, Adiponectin is an important metabolic and inflammatory mediator. It is also known that adipose tissue is influenced by Orexin-A levels, a neuropeptide produced in the lateral hypothalamus. Adiponectin and Orexin-A are strongly decreased in obesity and are associated with metabolic and inflammatory pathways. The aim of this review was to investigate the involvement of the autonomic nervous system focusing on Adiponectin and Orexin-A after bariatric surgery. After bariatric surgery, Adiponectin and Orexin-A levels are strongly increased independently of weight loss showing that hormone increases are also attributable to a rearrangement of metabolic and inflammatory mediators. The restriction of food intake and malabsorption are not sufficient to clarify the clinical effects of bariatric surgery suggesting the involvement of neuro-hormonal feedback loops and also of mediators such as Adiponectin and Orexin-A

Short-Term Physiological Effects of a Very Low-Calorie Ketogenic Diet: Effects on Adiponectin Levels and Inflammatory States

Adipose tissue is a multifunctional organ involved in many physiological and metabolic processes through the production of adipokines and, in particular, adiponectin. Caloric restriction is one of the most important strategies against obesity today. The very low-calorie ketogenic diet (VLCKD) represents a type of caloric restriction with very or extremely low daily food energy consumption. This study aimed to investigate the physiological effects of a VLCKD on anthropometric and biochemical parameters such as adiponectin levels, as well as analyzing oligomeric profiles and cytokine serum levels in obese subjects before and after a VLCKD. Twenty obese subjects were enrolled. At baseline and after eight weeks of intervention, anthropometric and biochemical parameters, such as adiponectin levels, were recorded. Our findings showed a significant change in the anthropometric and biochemical parameters of these obese subjects before and after a VLCKD. We found a negative correlation between adiponectin and lipid profile, visceral adipose tissue (VAT), C-reactive protein (CRP), and pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a), which confirmed the important involvement of adiponectin in metabolic and inflammatory diseases. We demonstrated the beneficial short-term effects of a VLCKD not only in the treatment of obesity but also in the establishment of obesity-correlated diseases

Role of the orexin system on the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis

Hypocretin/orexin (ORX) are two hypothalamic neuropeptides discovered in 1998. Since their discovery, they have been one of the most studied neuropeptide systems because of their projecting fields innervating various brain areas. The orexinergic system is tied to sleep-wakefulness cycle, and narcolepsy is a consequence of their system hypofunction. Orexinergic system is also involved in many other autonomic functions such as feeding, thermoregulation, cardiovascular and neuroendocrine regulation. The main aim of this mini review article is to investigate the relationship between ORX and thyroid system regulation. Although knowledge about the ORX system is evolving, its putative effects on hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis still appear unclear. We analyzed some studies about ORX control of HPT axis to know better the relationship between them. The studies that were analyzed suggest Hypocretin/ORX to modulate the thyroid regulation, but the nature (excitatory or inhibitory) of this possible interaction remains actually unclear and needs to be confirmed