FES Training in Aging: interim results show statistically significant improvements in mobility and muscle fiber size

Aging is a multifactorial process that is characterized by decline in muscle mass and performance. Several factors, including reduced exercise, poor nutrition and modified hormonal metabolism, are responsible for changes in the rates of protein synthesis and degradation that drive skeletal muscle mass reduction with a consequent decline of force generation and mobility functional performances. Seniors with normal life style were enrolled: two groups in Vienna (n=32) and two groups in Bratislava: (n=19). All subjects were healthy and declared not to have any specific physical/disease problems. The two Vienna groups of seniors exercised for 10 weeks with two different types of training (leg press at the hospital or home-based functional electrical stimulation, h-b FES). Demografic data (age, height and weight) were recorded before and after the training period and before and after the training period the patients were submitted to mobility functional analyses and muscle biopsies. The mobility functional analyses were: 1. gait speed (10m test fastest speed, in m/s); 2. time which the subject needed to rise from a chair for five times (5x Chair-Rise, in s); 3. Timed –Up-Go- Test, in s; 4. Stair-Test, in s; 5. isometric measurement of quadriceps force (Torque/kg, in Nm/kg); and 6. Dynamic Balance in mm. Preliminary analyses of muscle biopsies from quadriceps in some of the Vienna and Bratislava patients present morphometric results consistent with their functional behaviors. The statistically significant improvements in functional testings here reported demonstrates the effectiveness of h-b FES, and strongly support h-b FES, as a safe home-based method to improve contractility and performances of ageing muscles

Combination treatment of physical modalities in the treatment of musculoskeletal pain syndromes: a prospective-controlled study

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of combinations of several physical therapies in the treatment of musculoskeletal pain syndromes by a prospective, controlled study. Forty patients (5 men and 35 women, 18-80 years) with musculoskeletal pain syndrome were included. Thirty patients were assigned to the intervention group and 10 patients to the control group. The intervention group received a combination of physical therapies according to the clinical needs (electrotherapy, fango packs, mud packs, ultrasound, massage, exercise therapy). Treatment consisted of 10 sessions. The control group did not receive any physical therapy in the waiting period. The intervention group was examined at the beginning and the end of the treatment period. The control group was evaluated at the beginning and the end of the waiting period (before their physical therapy treatment started). Main outcome measurements were: Visual analogue scale for pain (VAS); Timed Get up and Go Test (TUG); Functional Reach Test (FRT). In addition bodily, emotional and social functioning was accessed by selected ICF-Items and items of the SF-36 health survey (SF-36). The main outcome measures showed significant improvement in the intervention group compared to the control group. Furthermore, ICF- and SF-36-Items also improved. In conclusion significant pain relief and improvement of function was achieved by a combination treatment of physical therapies in patients with musculoskeletal pain syndromes

Reinnervation of Vastus lateralis is increased significantly in seniors (70-years old) with a lifelong history of high-level exercise

It has long been recognized that histological changes observed in aging muscle suggest that denervation contributes to muscle deterioration and that disuse accelerates the process while running activity, sustained for decades, protects against age-related loss of motor units. Here we show at the histological level that lifelong increased physical activity promotes reinnervation of muscle fibers. In muscle biopsies from 70-year old men with a lifelong history of high-level physical activity, we observed a considerable increase in fiber-type groupings (almost exclusively of the slow type) in comparison to sedentary seniors, revealing a large population of reinnervated muscle fibers in the sportsmen. Slow-type transformation by reinnervation in senior sportsmen seems to be a clinically relevant mechanism: the muscle biopsies fluctuate from those with scarce fiber-type transformation and groupings to almost fully transformed muscle, going through a process in which isolated fibers co-expressing fast and slow MHCs seems to fill the gaps. Taken together, our results suggest that, beyond the direct effects of aging on the muscle fibers, changes occurring in skeletal muscle tissue appear to be largely, although not solely, a result of sparse denervation. Our data suggest that lifelong exercise allows the body to adapt to the consequences of the age-related denervation and to preserve muscle structure and function by saving otherwise lost muscle fibers through recruitment to different, mainly slow, motor units. These beneficial effects on motoneurons and, subsequently on muscle fibers, serve to maintain size, structure and function of muscle fibers, delaying the functional decline and loss of independence that are commonly seen in late aging