Vitamin D status among female handball and football elite athletes in Norway at latitude 60°N

Bakgrunn: En overhyppighet av suboptimal vitamin D-status er blitt rapportert på verdensbasis, men lite er kjent når det gjelder nivået hos idrettsutøvere. Vitamin D er kjent for sin funksjon i skjelettet og betydning for beinhelse. I tillegg har vitamin D en funksjon i muskel og immunforsvaret, og lave nivåer er trolig forbundet med både nedsatt muskelstyrke og kroniske sykdommer. Om disse funksjonene kan påvirke helsestatus og prestasjon hos idrettsutøvere er ennå ikke bekreftet. Hensikt: Å måle serum vitamin D-konsentrasjon, som 25-hydroksyvitamin D (25(OH)D), hos kvinnelige toppidrettsutøvere innen håndball og fotball på Østlandet i Norge, ved breddegrad 60ºN. Vi ville også se på mulige eksponeringsfaktorer for 25(OH)D-nivået i denne gruppen, ved å se på kosthold, bruk av kosttilskudd og solvaner. Metoder: Serum 25(OH)D-konsentrasjon ble målt for 48 kvinnelige toppidrettsutøvere (26 håndball/22 fotball) i oktober/november 2010. Utilstrekkelig 25(OH)D-nivå ble definert som <80 nmol/l. Utøverne registrerte kostholdet sitt med vekt i fire dager. Bruk av kosttilskudd og solvaner ble rapportert ved intervjuer-baserte spørreskjemaer. Resultater: Gjennomsnittlig serum 25(OH)D-konsentrasjon var 99 (SD=32) nmol/l. Utilstrekkelig vitamin D-nivå ble funnet hos 27 prosent av utøverne. Håndballspillerne hadde signifikant høyere serum 25(OH)D-nivå enn fotballspillerne (p=0.001). Deltakerne som kun oppholdt seg i Norden om sommeren, hadde signifikant lavere 25(OH)D-nivå enn deltakerne som reiste utenfor Norden (p=0.039). Håndballspillerne reiste signifikant mer utenfor Norden enn fotballspillerne (p=0.004). Vitamin D-inntaket var under anbefalt nivå, 7,5 µg/dag, for 73 prosent av alle deltakerne. Konklusjon: I denne studien, gjort på kvinnelige utøvere fra høy nordlig breddegrad, var gjennomsnittlig 25(OH)D-nivå om høsten tilsvarende optimalt nivå, og utilstrekkelig 25(OH)D-nivå ble funnet hos en av fire utøvere. Å reise utenfor Norden om sommeren så ut til å være den faktoren av størst betydning for 25(OH)D-nivåene. Siden deltakerne bor ved høy nordlig breddegrad og siden vitamin D-inntaket var under anbefalt nivå for ¾ av deltakerne, er det sannsynlig at 25(OH)D-nivåene deres vil synke i løpet av vinteren. Derfor er det nødvendig å diskutere om generell screening av 25(OH)D-konsentrasjon for kvinnelige toppidrettsutøvere bør anbefales

Vocation and avocation: Leisure activities correlate with professional engagement, but not burnout, in a cross-sectional survey of UK doctors

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.Abstract Background Sir William Osler suggested in 1899 that avocations (leisure activities) in doctors are related to an increased sense of vocation (professional engagement) and a decreased level of burnout. This study evaluated those claims in a large group of doctors practicing in the UK while taking into account a wide range of background variables. Methods A follow-up questionnaire was sent to 4,457 UK-qualified doctors who had been included in four previous studies of medical school selection and training, beginning in 1980, 1985, 1990 and 1989/1991. A total of 2,845 (63.8%) doctors returned the questionnaire. Questions particularly asked about work engagement, satisfaction with medicine as a career, and personal achievement (Vocation/engagement), stress, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization (BurnedOut), and 29 different leisure activities (Avocation/Leisure), as well as questions on personality, empathy, work experience, and demography. Results Doctors reporting more Avocation/Leisure activities tended to be women, to have older children, to be less surface-rational, more extravert, more open to experience, less agreeable, and to fantasize more. Doctors who were more BurnedOut tended to be men, to be more sleep-deprived, to report a greater workload and less choice and independence in their work, to have higher neuroticism, lower extraversion and lower agreeableness scores, and to have lower self-esteem. In contrast, doctors with a greater sense of Vocation/engagement, tended to see more patients, to have greater choice and independence at work, to have a deep approach to work, to have a more supportive-receptive work environment, to be more extravert and more conscientious, and to report greater self-esteem. Avocation/Leisure activities correlated significantly with Vocation/engagement, even after taking into account 25 background variables describing demography, work, and personality, whereas BurnedOut showed no significant correlation with Avocation/Leisure activities. Popular Culture and High Culture did not differ in their influence on Vocation/engagement, although there was a suggestion that Depersonalization was correlated with more interest in Popular Culture and less interest in High Culture. Conclusion In this cross-sectional study there is evidence, even after taking into account a wide range of individual difference measures, that doctors with greater Avocation/Leisure activities also have a greater sense of Vocation/Engagement. In contrast, being BurnedOut did not relate to Avocation/Leisure activities (but did relate to many other measures). Osler was probably correct in recommending to doctors that, 'While medicine is to be your vocation, or calling, see to it that you also have an avocation'.Peer Reviewe

New Opportunities to Advance Sport Nutrition

Sports nutrition is a relatively new discipline; with ~100 published papers/year in the 1990s to ~3,500+ papers/year today. Historically, sports nutrition research was primarily initiated by university-based exercise physiologists who developed new methodologies that could be impacted by nutrition interventions (e.g., carbohydrate/fat oxidation by whole body calorimetry and muscle glycogen by muscle biopsies). Application of these methods in seminal studies helped develop current sports nutrition guidelines as compiled in several expert consensus statements. Despite this wealth of knowledge, a limitation of the current evidence is the lack of appropriate intervention studies (e.g., randomized controlled clinical trials) in elite athlete populations that are ecologically valid (e.g., in real-life training and competition settings). Over the last decade, there has been an explosion of sports science technologies, methodologies, and innovations. Some of these recent advances are field-based, thus, providing the opportunity to accelerate the application of ecologically valid personalized sports nutrition interventions. Conversely, the acceleration of novel technologies and commercial solutions, especially in the field of biotechnology and software/app development, has far outstripped the scientific communities' ability to validate the effectiveness and utility of the vast majority of these new commercial technologies. This mini-review will highlight historical and present innovations with particular focus on technological innovations in sports nutrition that are expected to advance the field into the future. Indeed, the development and sharing of more “big data,” integrating field-based measurements, resulting in more ecologically valid evidence for efficacy and personalized prescriptions, are all future key opportunities to further advance the field of sports nutrition

Do we need to change the guideline values for determining low bone mineral density in athletes? [Viewpoint]

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Leucine rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) GLY2019SER mutation is absent in a second cohort of Nigerian Africans with Parkinson disease

To date the LRRK2 p.G2019S mutation remains the most common genetic cause of Parkinson disease (PD) worldwide. It accounts for up to 6% of familial and approximately 1.5% of sporadic cases. LRRK2 has a kinase enzymatic domain which provides an attractive potential target for drug therapies and LRRK2 kinase inhibitors are in development. Prevalence of the p.G2019S has a variable ethnic and geographic distribution, the highest reported among Ashkenazi Jews (30% in patients with familial PD, 14% in sporadic PD, 2.0% in controls) and North African Berbers (37% in patients with familial PD, 41% in sporadic PD, and 1% in controls). Little is known about the frequency of the LRRK2 p.G2019S among populations in sub-Saharan Africa. Our group and others previously reported that the p.G2019S is absent in a small cohort of Nigerian PD patients and controls. Here we used Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) assay to screen for the p.G2019S in a larger cohort of Black African PD patients (n = 126) and healthy controls (n = 54) from Nigeria. Our analysis confirmed that all patients and controls are negative for the p.G2019S mutation. This report provides further evidence that the LRRK2 p.G2019S is not implicated in PD in black populations from Nigeria and support the notion that p.G2019S mutation originated after the early human dispersal from sub-Saharan Africa. Further studies using larger cohorts and advance sequencing technology are required to underpin the genetic causes of PD in this region

Mitochondrial DNA analysis from exome sequencing data improves the diagnostic yield in neurological diseases

A rapidly expanding catalogue of neurogenetic disorders has encouraged a diagnostic shift towards early clinical whole exome sequencing (WES). Adult primary mitochondrial diseases (PMDs) frequently exhibit neurological manifestations that overlap with other nervous system disorders. However, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is not routinely analyzed in standard clinical WES bioinformatic pipelines. We reanalyzed 11,424 exomes, enriched with neurological diseases, for pathogenic mtDNA variants. Twenty‐four different mtDNA mutations were detected in 64 exomes, 11 of which were considered disease causing based on the associated clinical phenotypes. These findings highlight the diagnostic uplifts gained by analyzing mtDNA from WES data in neurological diseases

Truncating mutations in SPAST patients are associated with a high rate of psychiatric comorbidities in hereditary spastic paraplegia.

BACKGROUND: The hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs) are a rare and heterogeneous group of neurodegenerative disorders that are clinically characterised by progressive lower limb spasticity. They are classified as either 'pure' or 'complex' where spastic paraplegia is complicated with additional neurological features. Mutations in the spastin gene (SPAST) are the most common cause of HSP and typically present with a pure form. METHODS: We assessed in detail the phenotypic and genetic spectrum of SPAST-related HSP focused on 118 patients carrying SPAST mutations. RESULTS: This study, one of the largest cohorts of genetically confirmed spastin patients to date, contributes with the discovery of a significant number of novel SPAST mutations. Our data reveal a high rate of complex cases (25%), with psychiatric disorders among the most common comorbidity (10% of all SPASTpatients). Further, we identify a genotype-phenotype correlation between patients carrying loss-of-function mutations in SPAST and the presence of psychiatric disorders

Rocket science: a review of phytochemical & health-related research in Eruca & Diplotaxis species

Rocket species (Eruca spp. and Diplotaxis spp.) are becoming increasingly important leafy salad crops across the world. Numerous scientific research papers have been published in recent years surrounding the potential health benefits associated with phytochemicals contained in leaves, such as flavonoids and isothiocyanates. Other research of note has also been conducted into the unique taste and flavour properties of leaves, which can be hot, peppery, bitter, and sweet depending upon the genotype and phytochemical composition. While research into these aspects is increasing, some studies lack cohesion and in-depth knowledge of commercial breeding and cultivation practices that makes interpretation and application of results difficult. This review draws together all significant research findings in these crops over the last five years, and highlights areas that require further exploration and/or resolution. We also advise on experimental considerations for these species to allow for more meaningful utilisation of findings in the commercial sector