Physical activity and hypocaloric diet recovers osteoblasts homeostasis in women affected by abdominal obesity.

Obesity is a multifactorial disease linked to metabolic chronic disorders such as diabetes, and hypertension. Also, it has recently been associated with skeletal alterations and low bone mineral density. We previously demonstrated that exposure of osteoblasts to sera of sedentary subjects affected by obesity alters cell homeostasis in vitro, leading to disruption of intracellular differentiation pathways and cellular activity. Thus, the purpose of the present study has been to evaluate whether sera of sedentary obese women, subjected to physical activity and hypocaloric diet, could recover osteoblast homeostasis in vitro as compared to the sera of same patients before intervention protocol. To this aim, obese women were evaluated at time 0 and after 4, 6, and 12 months of individualized prescribed physical activity and hypocaloric diet. Dual-energy-X-ray absorptiometry measurements were performed at each time point, as well as blood was collected at the same points. Cells were incubated with sera of subjects before and after physical activity as described: obese at baseline and after for 4, 6, and 12 months of physical activity and nutritional protocol intervention. Osteoblasts exposed to sera of patients, who displayed increased lean and decreased fat mass (from 55.5 ± 6.5 to 57.1 ± 5.6% p ≤ 0.05; from 44.5 ± 1.1 to 40.9 ± 2.6% p ≤ 0.01 respectively), showed a time-dependent increase of Wnt/β-catenin signaling, versus cells exposed to sera of obese patients before intervention protocol, suggesting recovery of osteoblast homeostasis upon improvement of body composition. An increase in β-catenin nuclear accumulation and nuclear translocation was also observed, accompanied by an increase in Adiponectin receptor 1 protein expression, suggesting positive effect on cell differentiation program. Furthermore, a decrease in sclerostin amount and an increase of type 1 procollagen amino-terminal-propeptide were depicted as compared to baseline, proportionally to the time of physical activity, suggesting a recovery of bone remodeling modulation and an increase of osteoblast activity induced by improvement of body composition. In conclusion, our results show for the first time that sera of obese sedentary women who increased lean mass and decreased fat mass, by physical activity and hypocaloric diet, rescue osteoblasts differentiation and activity likely due to a reactivation of Wnt/β-catenin-pathway, suggesting that a correct life style can improve skeletal metabolic alteration induced by obesity

Functional evaluation (joint and muscle problems, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, disability evaluation)

Obesity is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, hypertension, type II diabetes mellitus, and osteoarthritis. Moreover, severe obesity is often associated with disability. All these conditions result in a reduced life expectancy and in a reduced exercise capacity. It is well known the positive effect of physical activity in combination with dietary and behavioral modifications on obesity condition. In order to reach these positive effects, the exercise program needs to be tailored according to the individual\u2019s physical function, health status, exercise responses, and stated goals. For all these reasons, functional evaluation plays a fundamental role to individualize type, mode, and intensity of exercise with the subjects\u2019 characteristics. Functional evaluation should be performed taking into consideration the clinical conditions and the physical capacity of obese subjects. In fact, they show a low cardiorespiratory fitness, which is expressed by reduced oxygen uptake (VO2), decreased daily activity, and low exercise tolerance

Lifestyle and fertility: the influence of stress and quality of life on male fertility

Male infertility is a widespread condition among couples. In about 50% of cases, couple infertility is attributable to the male partner, mainly due to a failure in spermatogenesis. In recent times, the crucial role that modifiable lifestyle factors play in the development of infertility have generated a growing interest in this field of study, i.e. aging, psychological stress, nutrition, physical activity, caffeine, high scrotal temperature, hot water, mobile telephone use. Several studies have investigated associations between semen quality and the presence of lifestyle stressors i.e. occupational, life events (war, earthquake, etc.) or couple infertility; overall, these studies provide evidence that semen quality is impaired by psychological stress. In this review, we will discuss the impact of quality of life (modifiable lifestyle factors) and psychological stress on male fertility. In addition, the role that increased scrotal temperature along with inappropriate nutritional and physical exercise attitudes exert on male fertility will be presented

POSTURAL CONTROL AFTER A PROLONGED TREADMILL RUN AT INDIVIDUAL VENTILATORY AND ANAEROBIC THRESHOLD

The objective of the study was to verify whether young males' balance was affected by 30min prolonged treadmill running (TR) at individual ventilatory (IVT) and anaerobic (IAT) thresholds in recovery time. The VO2max, IAT and IVT during an incremental TR were determined. Mean displacement amplitude (Acp) and velocity (Vcp) of center of pressure were recorded before (pre) and after (0min post; 5min post; and 10min post) prolonged TR at IAT and IVT, through posturographic trials performed with eyes open (EO) and closed (EC). Significant differences between IVT and IAT for Vcp, between EO and EC for Acp and Vcp, were observed. The IAT induced higher destabilizing effect when postural trials were performed with EC. The IVT intensity produced also a destabilizing effect on postural control immediately after exercise. An impairment of postural control after prolonged treadmill running exercise at IVT and IAT intensity was showed. However, destabilizing effect on postural control disappeared within 10min after IAT intensity and within 5min after IVT intensit

Dance and Music for Improving Health among Patients with Breast Cancer and Parkinson’s Disease: A Narrative Review

Although a longer life may bring new opportunities for older people and society, advancing age is a leading risk factor for developing several chronic diseases, consequently limiting the health span. During the ageing process, changes in the activity of several endocrine glands may occur, leading to different clinical conditions. Being physically active becomes fundamental for healthy ageing. Despite regular physical activity being shown to have many health benefits, patients with cancer and neurodegenerative diseases remain physically inactive. Over the past two decades, there has been a major increase in arts engagement (e.g., dance and music) on health and well-being in both clinical and non-clinical contexts. Dance and music have been shown to induce positive effects on hormonal glands, patients’ sociality, and self-confidence. Therefore, this review aims to highlight evidence regarding the effects of music and dance on hormonal responses and as preventive and compliance tools for heathy ageing in breast cancer and Parkinson’s disease patients

The effects of music on cardiorespiratory endurance and muscular fitness in recreationally active individuals: a narrative review

Music is made up of several features (e.g., melody and rhythm) and it accompanies our life in different daily activities. During the last years, there was a growing interest in research about the music-related effects in the exercise domain. Music stimuli could act as an ergogenic effect leading to improvements in health-related and physical fitness components like cardiorespiratory endurance and muscular fitness. Moreover, listening to music may positively affect individuals’ psychological state which could lead to increased exercise adherence. Conflicting data exist regarding the effects of music on cardiorespiratory and muscle-strengthening exercises indicating that music’s characteristics (i.e., rhythm and musicality), studied samples (i.e., athletes and amateur) and methodology (i.e., self-selected music and research-selected music) might influence the results. Listening to music while exercising is becoming more frequent also in recreationally active individuals. While literature mainly focused on the effects of music in elite and amateur athletes, little data are available regarding recreationally active participants. Therefore, this review aims to summarize evidence regarding the effects of music on health-related physical fitness components in recreationally active individuals, specifically referring to cardiorespiratory endurance and muscular fitness. These outcomes will be helpful to all recreationally active participants to optimize the exercise protocol with the use of music

Physical exercise intensity prescription to impreve health and fitness in overweight and obese subject: A review of the literature

ABSTRACT Obesity is one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century. Overweight and obesity drastically increase a person’s risk of developing chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cardiovascular disease, can- cer and diabetes. Furthermore, obesity is al- ready responsible for 2% - 8% of health costs and 10% - 13% of deaths in several industrial- ized countries. Lifestyle modifications involving changes in exercise, diet and psychological support are effective in reducing the incidence of overweight. Moreover, positive effects of physical activity (PA) for weight loss and pre- vention of weight regain are well documented. It was recognized that health benefits regarding both psychological and physiological aspects, such as improving cardiorespiratory and mus- cular fitness and/or decreasing depression symptoms, can be obtained from numerous ac- tivities. Public health institutions (American College of Sports Medicine, World Health Or- ganization) provide recommendations for PA (volume, frequency, intensity and type of exer- cise) to achieve positive effects, at all ages and for many diseases and disorders situations. Al- though exercise under guidelines can be safely performed by obese subjects, several questions still need to be fully answered. In facts, the ex- ercise program should be tailored according to an individual’s habitual physical activity, physi- cal function, health status, exercise responses, and stated goals. Thus, this review analyzes the intensity of PA parameters. In the last years, re- search has been focused on the individualiza- tion of the right intensity in which different types of subjects’ condition must undergo to achieve the health goals. Aerobic exercise has been commonly used to reach weight loss goal. Pre- scription of aerobic exercise in clinical practice is frequently based on the percentage of maxi- mum heart rate (%HRmax), heart rate reserve (%HRreserve), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), maximal oxygen consumption (%VO2max) and for unhealthy subjects, peak oxygen consumption (%VO2peak). It has been shown that unhealthy subjects, such as individuals affected by diabe- tes, obesity and cardiovascular diseases have a reduced maximal aerobic exercise capacity. For instance, using the formula based on percent- age of HRmax or VO2max, it could be prescribed heavy exercises, which would result not appro- priated and fully functional for the specific indi- vidual goal. To avoid this problem, another ap- proach to individualize aerobic exercise could be to consider the gas exchange parameters such us aerobic gas exchange threshold (AerTGE). AerTGE corresponds to the first in- crease in blood lactate during incremental exer- cise. This review offers an overview of the dif- ferent methods to assess exercise intensity, considering the different subjects health char- acteristics, in order to choose the right methods to achieve the health goals in obese and over- weight subjects

Validity, reliability and minimum detectable change of COSMED K5 portable gas exchange system in breath-by-breath mode

Purpose This study aimed to examine the validity, reliability and minimum detectable change (MDC) of the Cosmed K5 in breath by breath (BxB) mode, against VacuMed metabolic simulator. Intra and inter-units reliability was also assessed. Methods Fourteen metabolic rates (from 0.9 to 4 L.min-1) were reproduced by a VacuMed system and pulmonary ventilation (VE), oxygen consumption (VO2) and carbon dioxide production (VCO2) were measured by two different K5 units. Validity was assessed by ordinary least products (OLP) regression analysis, Bland-Altman plots, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), mean percentage differences, technical errors (TE) and MDC for VE, VO2, and VCO2. Intra- and inter-K5 reliability was evaluated by absolute percentage differences between measurements (MAPE), ICCs, TE, and MDC. Results Validity analysis from OLP regression data and Bland- Altman plots indicated high agreement between K5 and simulator. ICC values were excellent for all variables (>0.99). Mean percentage differences in VE (-0.50%, p = 0.11), VO2 (-0.04%, p = 0.80), and VCO2 (-1.03%, p = 0.09) showed no significant bias. The technical error (TE) ranged from 0.73% to 1.34% (VE and VCO2 respectively). MDC were lower than 4% (VE = 2.0%, VO2 = 3.8%, VCO2 = 3.7%). The intra and inter K5 reliability assessment reveled excellent ICCs (>0.99), MAPE <2% (no significant differences between trials), TE < or around 1%, MDC <or around 3%. Conclusions K5 in BxB mode is a valid and reliable system for metabolic measurements. This is the first study assessing the MDC accounting only for technical variability reporting intra- and inter-units MDCs <3.3%

Acute Effects of Whole-Body Vibration on Quadriceps Isometric Muscular Endurance in Middle-Aged Adults: A Pilot Study

This study analysed the acute effects of whole-body vibration (WBV) on quadriceps isometric muscular endurance. Fifteen healthy middle-aged males performed an endurance isometric strength test after three different warm-up conditions: static half squat plus WBV (HSV), static half squat without WBV (HS), and control condition (CC). The endurance isometric strength test consisted of 10 maximal isometric contractions held for 4 s and interspersed by 2 s of rest between each repetition. Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) was assessed after warm-up (RPE1) and at the end of the testing session (RPE2). During each testing session, participant’s heart rate (HR) was continuously recorded. For each trial, the mean force across the 10 repetitions and fatigue index were evaluated. Mean force was significantly higher (p 1 and RPE2 were significantly lower (p p p > 0.05) or in HR during the endurance protocol. Performing half-squat with or without vibration stimuli does not increase isometric muscular endurance and does not influence fatigue index

Relationship between individual ventilatory threshold and maximal fat oxidation (MFO) over different obesity classes in women.

The use of the Individual Ventilatory Threshold (IVT), as parameter to prescribe exercise intensity in individuals with obesity, has become more frequent during the last years. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between IVT and Maximal Fat Oxidation (MFO) in women with obesity. Fifty-two obese female adults (age= 43.6±10.9 years; BMI= 38.5±5.2 kg/m2) were included in this study. According to the BMI classification, subjects were divided into three groups: Obese Class I (OBI, n=16); Obese Class II (OBII, n=20) and Obese Class III (OBIII, n=16). All subjects performed an incremental graded exercise test to evaluate peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak), IVT and MFO. MFO was evaluated using a stoichiometric equation. Fat max zone was determined for each subject within 10% of fat oxidation rates at MFO. For each HR, %HRmax, VO2 and %VO2peak variable, Pearson’s correlation test was done between IVT and MFO exercise intensity. When statistical correlation was found we used a comparative statistical analysis to assess differences between IVT and MFO. Statistical significance was set at P ≤ 0.05. For each HR, %HRmax, VO2 and %VO2peak variable there was a positive significant correlation (P&lt;0.01) between IVT and MFO. No significant differences were found for HR, %HRmax, and VO2 between IVT and MFO. %VO2peak was significantly higher at IVT than at MFO (P=0.03). MFO rates were significantly higher in OBIII women than in women of the other two classes. In all subjects, IVT was within the fat max zone. The use of HR and VO2 corresponding to IVT could be a useful parameter not only to improve cardiorespiratory fitness but also to prescribe physical activity that maximize fat oxidation in obese subjects