A fittség (m)értéke. A fizikai inaktivitás nemzetgazdasági terhei Magyarországon (The value (degree) of fitness. The national economic costs of physical inactivity in Hungary)

Az elmúlt években Magyarországon is fokozatosan nőtt az érdeklődés az életminőség vizsgálata iránt. A 2004-2006 közötti időszakra készült első Nemzeti Fejlesztési Terv fő célkitűzése a lakosság életminőségének javítása volt, de célját nem érte el, mivel a WHO 2010 májusában közzétett statisztikája szerint a magyarországi életminőség-mutatók az európai rangsor végén találhatók. Elszomorító az Eurobarométer 2010. évi reprezentatív kutatásának eredménye: a népesség 77 százalékának életmódja mozgásszegény, fizikailag inaktív. Kutatásunk során azt a ténylegesen hiánypótló célt kívántuk elérni, hogy meghatározzuk és számszerűsítsük a mozgásszegény életmódból adódó nemzetgazdasági terheket, valamint megbecsüljük a fizikai inaktivitás csökkentésével elérhető megtakarítások számszerűsíthető mértékét. Az Országos Egészségbiztosítási Pénztár (OEP) és egy saját országos kérdőíves kutatás (n = 1158) adataira támaszkodtunk. A fizikai inaktivitás betegségeire vonatkozó megtakarítási lehetőségeket tételesen határoztuk meg, majd megállapítottuk az inaktivitásból származó gazdasági terheket, aminek alapján a döntéshozók elkészíthetik a fizikai inaktivitás csökkentésre alkalmas akcióterveiket. Ezzel nemcsak a lakosság "közérzete" javulhat számottevően, de komolyabb költségeket is meg lehet takarítani közép- és hosszú távon. / === / Interest in examining the quality of life has increased steadily in Hungary in recent years. Improving it was the main objective of the first National Development Plan, for the 2004-6 period, but it failed to do so, for Hungary's indices for quality of life were at the bottom of the European list according to figures published by the WHO in May 2010. The results of the representative research Furobarometer 2010 are saddening: 77 per cent of the population pursue a low-exercise, physically inactive lifestyle. The authors' researches sought to fill a gap by measuring and quantifying the national economic costs of a low-exercise lifestyle and to estimate quantitatively the savings to be made by reducing such physical inactivity. The paper relics on the data of the National Health Insurance Fund and on an authors' questionnaire (n = 1158). The potential savings on illness relating to physical activity are listed one by one. to arrive at the economic costs of such inactivity, based on which it is possible for decision-makers to prepare adequate action plans for reducing physical inactivity. This will improve the "morale" of the public and bring appreciable savings in the medium and long term

Research of economic burdens linked to physical inactivity

Interest in monitoring living standards has gradually risen in our country in recent years. The National Development Plan’s main goal was to increase living standards for the domestic population in the period between 2004 and 2006. Unfortunately, it couldn’t reach its goal, and the Hungarian indicators’ scores fall at the end of European ranking list, according to the WHO report of May 2010. The result of Eurobarometer’s representative case of 2010 is depressing, showing that 77% of the population is physically inactive. This paper’s objective was to produce numerical data of the economic burdens in sick-pay, furthermore to measure the costs could be saved in sick-pay with a decrease in physical inactivity. We have used national and international studies, reports, and methodologies in our research. We have accessed sources in the database of the National Health Insurance Fund Administration, and created our own questionnaire (n=1158). Our conclusions indicate that it is the responsibility of the decision-makers to take action to decrease physical inactivity so as to spare drastic expenses every year. Keywords: physical inactivity, lifestyle, economic burdens, sick-pay allowance

Radical-Initiated Lipid Peroxidation in Low Density Lipoproteins: Insights Obtained from Kinetic Modeling

We present kinetic models of various complexity for radical-initiated lipid peroxidation in low density lipoproteins (LDL). The models, comprised of simultaneous differential equations programmed in Mathematica, were used to evaluate the concentration profiles of the reactants of interest. Single-phase reaction schemes describing lipid peroxidation and antioxidation according to the “conventional” and tocopherol-mediated peroxidation (TMP) model were simulated for conditions of low and high radical fluxes produced by thermolabile azo initiators. The results show that the particular dependencies of the rates of lipid peroxidation (R_p) on the rates of initiation (R_i) for the two reaction schemes were accurately predicted by the simulations. Both models qualitatively predicted inhibition of lipid peroxidation in the presence of α-tocopherol (α-TOH) under high radical flux conditions, suggesting that both can describe inhibited lipid peroxidation in solution under these conditions. TMP, but not the conventional model, could also predict the experimentally observed complex behavior of LDL lipid peroxidation induced with different concentrations of azo initiators. Specifically, TMP faithfully reproduced the observed kinetic chain length of lipid peroxidation of » 1 at low and « 1 at high concentration of the initiator (i.e., 0.2 and 10 mM, respectively for LDL at 1 µmol apoB-100/L) during the α-TOH-containing period of oxidation. It also demonstrated the experimentally observed nondependence of R_p^(TMP) on R_i. Kinetic analysis of radical generation and initiation of lipid peroxidation in an extended, two-compartment model of TMP showed that phase separation of bimolecular reactions in a suspension of LDL particles can lead to a �~400-fold increase in the rate of lipid hydroperoxide formation. The experimentally observed coantioxidant action of water-soluble ascorbate and lipid-soluble ubiquinol-10 were verified using this model. A simple biophysical model constituting the reactions of TMP and incorporating the compartmental nature of an LDL suspension is proposed. Together, the results demonstrate that TMP is the only model that fits the experimental data describing the early stages of LDL lipid peroxidation under various oxidizing conditions. The implications of our findings are discussed in relation to atherogenesis and a recently proposed alternative model of LDL lipid peroxidation (Abuja and Esterbauer (1995) Chem. Res. Toxicol. 8, 753)

Qualität im Berufsfeld Sportpsychologie in der Schweiz. Ergebnisse einer Online-Umfrage

Einleitung: Die Sportpsychologie entwickelt sich zunehmend zu einem attraktiven Berufsfeld, das von unterschiedlichen Personengruppen ins Blickfeld genommen wird. Es interessiert, inwieweit die verschiedenen Personengruppen Qualitätsanforderungen, die an den Beruf gestellt werden, erfüllen (Birrer & Seiler, 1999; Seiler, 2011). Im Einzelnen geht es um die Frage der Aus- und Weiterbildung, sowie der Qualitätssicherung durch Intervision und Supervision. Methode: In Anlehnung an die Erhebung von Ehrlenspiel, Droste und Beckmann (2011) wurde ein Online-Survey konzipiert und ein Link zur Teilnahme an alle Mitglieder der Swiss Association of Sport Psychology (SASP) sowie Absolventinnen und Absolventen der bisherigen Weiterbildungsstudiengänge für Sportpsychologie in der Schweiz verschickt (N=136). Die Rücklaufquote betrug 59% (N=80), wobei von 50% aller angeschriebenen Personen (N=68) vollständige Datensätze vorliegen. 41% der Teilnehmenden sind weiblich, die Altersspanne reicht von 27 bis 76 Jahren. Rund ein Viertel der Befragten ist neu in das Berufsfeld Sportpsychologie eingestiegen, die Hälfte verfügt über eine Berufserfahrung zwischen 5 und 15 Jahren. Ergebnisse. 87% der Teilnehmenden verfügen über einen Universitäts- oder Fachhochschulabschluss, 71% in Psychologie. 21% gehören der Sektion Mentaltrainer an. 38% haben eine postgraduale Weiterbildung in Sportpsychologie absolviert, 14% in Mentalem Training. 25% geben an, sich mindestens monatlich in strukturierten Intervisionssitzungen auszutauschen, während ein Drittel sich nicht an Intervision beteiligt. Supervision wird von 22% der Befragten nie in Anspruch genommen, von 20% mindestens einmal im Monat. Gut die Hälfte begibt sich mindestens einmal pro Jahr in Supervision. Die jeweiligen Supervisoren sind zur Hälfte Fachpsychologen für Sportpsychologie oder für Psychotherapie sowie zu einem geringen Anteil diplomierte Supervisoren. Diskussion: Das Bewusstsein, dass Intervision und Supervision wichtige Elemente zur Erhöhung der Qualität sportpsychologischer Dienstleistungen sind, ist noch nicht ausreichend entwickelt

Pharmacology and clinical drug candidates in redox medicine

SIGNIFICANCE Oxidative stress is suggested to be a disease mechanism common to a wide range of disorders affecting human health. However, so far, the pharmacotherapeutic exploitation of this, for example, based on chemical scavenging of pro-oxidant molecules, has been unsuccessful. Recent Advances: An alternative emerging approach is to target the enzymatic sources of disease-relevant oxidative stress. Several such enzymes and isoforms have been identified and linked to different pathologies. For some targets, the respective pharmacology is quite advanced, that is, up to late-stage clinical development or even on the market; for others, drugs are already in clinical use, although not for indications based on oxidative stress, and repurposing seems to be a viable option. CRITICAL ISSUES For all other targets, reliable preclinical validation and drug ability are key factors for any translation into the clinic. In this study, specific pharmacological agents with optimal pharmacokinetic profiles are still lacking. Moreover, these enzymes also serve largely unknown physiological functions and their inhibition may lead to unwanted side effects. FUTURE DIRECTIONS The current promising data based on new targets, drugs, and drug repurposing are mainly a result of academic efforts. With the availability of optimized compounds and coordinated efforts from academia and industry scientists, unambiguous validation and translation into proof-of-principle studies seem achievable in the very near future, possibly leading towards a new era of redox medicine

Reaction dynamics in Pb+Pb at the CERN/SPS: from partonic degrees of freedom to freeze-out

We analyze the reaction dynamics of central Pb+Pb collisions at 160 GeV/nucleon. First we estimate the energy density pile-up at mid-rapidity and calculate its excitation function: The energy density is decomposed into hadronic and partonic contributions. A detailed analysis of the collision dynamics in the framework of a microscopic transport model shows the importance of partonic degrees of freedom and rescattering of leading (di)quarks in the early phase of the reaction for E > 30 GeV/nucleon. The energy density reaches up to 4 GeV/fm^3, 95% of which are contained in partonic degrees of freedom. It is shown that cells of hadronic matter, after the early reaction phase, can be viewed as nearly chemically equilibrated. This matter never exceeds energy densities of 0.4 GeV/fm^3, i.e. a density above which the notion of separated hadrons loses its meaning. The final reaction stage is analyzed in terms of hadron ratios, freeze-out distributions and a source analysis for final state pions.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Proceedings of the Erice School on Nuclear Physics in Erice, Sicily, Italy, September 17 -25 1998; to be published in Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics Vol. 4

Oral vitamin C and endothelial function in smokers: short-term improvement, but no sustained beneficial effect

AbstractOBJECTIVESTo test the hypothesis that antioxidant therapy would improve endothelial function in smokers.BACKGROUNDSeveral studies have documented a beneficial effect of short-term oral or parenteral vitamin C on endothelial physiology in subjects with early arterial dysfunction. Possible long-term effects of vitamin C on endothelial function, however, are not known.METHODSWe studied the effects of short- and long-term oral vitamin C therapy on endothelial function in 20 healthy young adult smokers (age 36 ± 6 years, 8 male subjects, 21 ± 10 pack-years). Each subject was studied at baseline, 2 h after a single dose of 2 g vitamin C and 8 weeks after taking 1 g vitamin C daily, and after placebo, in a randomized double-blind crossover study. Blood samples were analyzed for plasma ascorbate levels and endothelial function was measured as flow-mediated dilation of the brachial artery, using high resolution ultrasound. Nitroglycerin-mediated dilation (endothelium-independent) was also measured at each visit.RESULTSAt baseline, plasma ascorbate level was low in the smokers (42 ± 21 μmol/liter; normal range, 50 to 150 μmol/liter), increased with vitamin C therapy after 2 h to 120 ± 54 μmol/liter (p < 0.001) and remained elevated after eight weeks of supplementation at 92 ± 32 μmol/liter (p < 0.001, compared with placebo). Flow-mediated dilation, however, increased at 2 h (from 2.8 ± 2.0% to 6.3 ± 2.8%, p < 0.001), but there was no sustained beneficial effect after eight weeks (3.9 ± 3.2%, p = 0.26). Nitroglycerin-mediated dilation was unchanged throughout.CONCLUSIONOral vitamin C therapy improves endothelial dysfunction in the short term in healthy young smokers, but it has no beneficial long-term effect, despite sustained elevation of plasma ascorbate levels

Research of Economic Burdens Linked to Physical Inactivity

Interest in monitoring the living standards has gradually risen in our country in recent years. The National Development Plan’s main goal was to increase living standards for the domestic population in the period between 2004 and 2006. Unfortunately, it couldn’t reach its goal, and the Hungarian indicators’ scores fall at the end of European ranking list, according to the WHO report of May 2010. The result of Eurobarometer’s representative case of 2010 is depressing, showing that 77% of the population is physically inactive. This paper’s objective was to produce numerical data of the economic burdens in sick-pay, furthermore to measure the costs could be saved in sick-pay with a decrease of physical inactivity. We have used national and international studies, reports, and methodologies in our research. We have accessed sources in the database of National Health Insurance Fund Administration, and created our own questionnaire (n=1158). On conclusions indicate that it is the responsibility of the decision-makers, to take action to decreasing the physical inactivity so as to spare drastic expenses every year. Keywords: physical inactivity, lifestyle, economic burdens, sick-pay allowances

Heme Oxygenase-1: A Critical Link between Iron Metabolism, Erythropoiesis, and Development

The first mature cells to arise in the developing mammalian embryo belong to the erythroid lineage. This highlights the immediacy of the need for red blood cells during embryogenesis and for survival. Linked with this pressure is the necessity of the embryo to obtain and transport iron, synthesize hemoglobin, and then dispose of the potentially toxic heme via the stress-induced protein heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1, encoded by Hmox1 in the mouse). Null mutation of Hmox1 results in significant embryonic mortality as well as anemia and defective iron recycling. Here, we discuss the interrelated nature of this critical enzyme with iron trafficking, erythroid cell function, and embryonic survival