The effects of ice vest pre-cooling on skin blood flow at rest and during exercise in the heat

© 2015 The Authors. Published by BMC. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1186/2046-7648-4-S1-A127Ice vest pre-cooling has been show to lower rectal temperature during intermittent exercise in hot conditions but only after 40 min of exercise [1]. The authors suggested that the ice vest may have initiated a strong local cutaneous vasoconstrictor response reducing skin blood flow [2] and thus the cooling potential, until increases in body temperature and skin blood flow occurred later in exercise. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether ice vest pre-cooling reduces skin blood flow during intermittent exercise in the heat compared to a no cooling control.Published versio

Comparison of stimulation patterns for FES-cycling using measures of oxygen cost and stimulation cost

<b>Aim</b><p></p> The energy efficiency of FES-cycling in spinal cord injured subjects is very much lower than that of normal cycling, and efficiency is dependent upon the parameters of muscle stimulation. We investigated measures which can be used to evaluate the effect on cycling performance of changes in stimulation parameters, and which might therefore be used to optimise them. We aimed to determine whether oxygen cost and stimulation cost measurements are sensitive enough to allow discrimination between the efficacy of different activation ranges for stimulation of each muscle group during constant-power cycling. <p></p> <b>Methods</b><p></p> We employed a custom FES-cycling ergometer system, with accurate control of cadence and stimulated exercise workrate. Two sets of muscle activation angles (“stimulation patterns”), denoted “P1” and “P2”, were applied repeatedly (eight times each) during constant-power cycling, in a repeated measures design with a single paraplegic subject. Pulmonary oxygen uptake was measured in real time and used to determine the oxygen cost of the exercise. A new measure of stimulation cost of the exercise is proposed, which represents the total rate of stimulation charge applied to the stimulated muscle groups during cycling. A number of energy-efficiency measures were also estimated. <p></p> <b>Results</b><p></p> Average oxygen cost and stimulation cost of P1 were found to be significantly lower than those for P2 (paired <i>t</i>-test, <i>p</i> < 0.05): oxygen costs were 0.56 ± 0.03 l min<sup>−1</sup> and 0.61 ± 0.04 l min<sup>−1</sup>(mean ± S.D.), respectively; stimulation costs were 74.91 ± 12.15 mC min<sup>−1</sup> and 100.30 ± 14.78 mC min<sup>−1</sup> (mean ± S.D.), respectively. Correspondingly, all efficiency estimates for P1 were greater than those for P2. <p></p> <b>Conclusion</b><p></p> Oxygen cost and stimulation cost measures both allow discrimination between the efficacy of different muscle activation patterns during constant-power FES-cycling. However, stimulation cost is more easily determined in real time, and responds more rapidly and with greatly improved signal-to-noise properties than the ventilatory oxygen uptake measurements required for estimation of oxygen cost. These measures may find utility in the adjustment of stimulation patterns for achievement of optimal cycling performance. <p></p&gt

The Effect of an 8-Minute Yoga Breathing Program on Fitness, Weight Loss and Breathing Capacity

This was a single blinded randomized study with an intervention group and a control group to examine a modification in lifestyle and an 8-minute exercise session each day to lose weight. Fifty-seven female subjects participated. Subjects underwent girth measurements at the umbilicus, hips, thigh and upper arm; weight, height (for BMI), body fat, heart rate, blood pressure, abdominal strength, leg strength, arm strength, sedentary O2 saturation, treadmill challenged O2 saturation, resting metabolism (which includes fat metabolism), and lung capacity. Measures were repeated at baseline and the end of the 6-week period. During the 6-week period, they followed a healthy recommended diet with high volumes of vegetables and fruit and 8 minutes of exercise each day. In the investigational group, the average weight loss was 4.85 KG over the 6-week period, BMI was reduced 1.79 at the end of the 6 weeks, a significant loss (p\u3c0.01). Body fat in this group was reduced by 5.87 percent, the average girth at the showed an average loss in circumference of 5.9 cm over the 6-week period. For the hip, the average loss in circumference was 6.28 cm, for the thigh the average loss in circumference in the investigational group was 5.0 cm, and for the upper arm reduced girth by 2.61 cm. For strength for the investigational group, for the abdominals the increase was 11.3 Kg, for the leg it was 6.0 kg and for the arm it was 4.8 kg. All of these increases were significant (p\u3c0.01). The basal metabolic rate, in the investigational group after the 6 weeks increased to 31.1 cc/kg lean body mass. The fat burning doubled in the investigational group. In conclusion, subjects slept better, had high oxygen saturation and better strength and excellent weight and fat loss with this program

The Influence of Autonomic Dysfunction Associated with Aging and Type 2 Diabetes on Daily Life Activities

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and ageing have well documented effects on every organ in the body. In T2D the autonomic nervous system is impaired due to damage to neurons, sensory receptors, synapses and the blood vessels. This paper will concentrate on how autonomic impairment alters normal daily activities. Impairments include the response of the blood vessels to heat, sweating, heat transfer, whole body heating, orthostatic intolerance, balance, and gait. Because diabetes is more prevalent in older individuals, the effects of ageing will be examined. Beginning with endothelial dysfunction, blood vessels have impairment in their ability to vasodilate. With this and synaptic damage, the autonomic nervous system cannot compensate for effectors such as pressure on and heating of the skin. This and reduced ability of the heart to respond to stress, reduces autonomic orthostatic compensation. Diminished sweating causes the skin and core temperature to be high during whole body heating. Impaired orthostatic tolerance, impaired vision and vestibular sensing, causes poor balance and impaired gait. Overall, people with T2D must be made aware and counseled relative to the potential consequence of these impairments

Brief Note: The Influence of the Menstrual Cycle on the Blood Flow Through Muscle During Isometric Exercise

Author Institution: Departments of Engineering and Physiology, Wright State Universit

Effects of aging and type 2 diabetes on resting and post occlusive hyperemia of the forearm; the impact of rosiglitazone

BACKGROUND: Both Diabetes and ageing are associated with reduced vascular endothelial function. The exact relationship between the 2 and any improvements from the insulin sensitizer rosiglitazone have not been explored. METHODS: Thirty controls and sixteen subjects with type 2 diabetes participated in a series of experiments to examine the interrelationships between age, diabetes and endothelial cell function. In subjects with diabetes, the insulin sensitizer rosiglitazone (RSG), a drug also known to improve vascular function, was administered for 3 months to see how it altered these relationships. Resting forearm flows (RF) and blood flows after 4 min of vascular occlusion (PF) were measured as an index of endothelial cell function. RESULTS: RF, measured by venous occlusion plethysmography, was negatively correlated to both age and diabetes. Administration of RSG for 3 months was associated with an increase in the blood flow response to venous occlusion so that it was not significantly different than that of age matched controls. Total PF in control subjects, compared to subjects with diabetes, averaged 56.58 +/- 12.57 and 13.6 +/- 8.01 cc/100 cc tissue per min respectively, and were significantly different (p < 0.01). After 3 months on RSG, differences between PF in the two groups were no longer evident. CONCLUSION: These studies suggest a different mechanism causing a reduction in vascular reactivity with aging and diabetes

Facilitating Knowledge Sharing

What is a good choice? Ideally it is a choice made deliberately and consciously based upon a full spectrum of reliable information, sound reasoning and with a firm commitment to action by all interested stakeholders. However, years of studies in group communication and performance, from a wide range of academic disciplines, have shown that groups of people working together often do not realize their potential to perform better than individuals.One critical aspect of why these deficiencies occur was highlighted by Stasser &Titus in 1985. They demonstrated that meeting participants have a bias toward sharing information that is held in common rather than the unique knowledge that each individual holds. Meeting participants also showed a preference for only sharing information that supported their preexisting preferences. When a group is discussing and sharing data that they already all know, opportunities for innovation, new ideas for products, services or experiences are lost. Group participantsare making decisions on incomplete and potentially inaccurate information thus leading to a sub-optimal group performance. For a designer, how a group performs, especially in the information gathering stage is integral to the success of the final product, whether it be a business or service plan or a product. As Kees Dorst mentions in his book, Understanding Design, he says that design is now a “social process” because designers rarely design alone. As the Design profession continues the trend toward user-centered, participatory design, all the way to co-creating and co-design, the role of the designer has expanded to include the role of facilitator. The designer (as facilitator) now has a “need to facilitate conversations across broad groups to grapple with the questions of desirability, possibility and viability. The answers to these questions do not exist in one mind.” (64) The designer as facilitator is “the broker of an extended conversation.” (Body)This research explores the intersection of social and psychological factors related to information sharing and the new role of designer as facilitator. By understanding how individual thought processes can lead to biases such as the shared information bias and preference bias in group meetings, the designer, who brings their own unique skills to the facilitation role can use this knowledge to help mitigate these dysfunctional tendencies in group interactions. While there have been repeated studies that prove the existence of dysfunctional group performances, there are also numerous studies that show groups, when nudged with the right structure and tools, can outperform individuals. Through combining these three areas of knowledge, this research study proposes a new framework for group meeting structures that future designers as facilitators can use to enhance communication and thus enable good choices

Active Material Properties of the Myocardium: Correlation With Left Ventricular Function in Man

Author Institution: Department of Engineering and Physiology, Wright State UniversityThe effects of anisotrophy and nonhomogeneity of the ventricular myocardium as represented by a linear increase in the midwall effective modulus of elasticity were investigated in the present study, specifically as they effect the circumferential stress distribution. Various studies are presented suggesting a linear increase in the effective modulus of elasticity from endocardium to epicardium. In our study, this increase in the effective modulus was constrained by the approximation that stress per unit sarcomere length is constant. We evaluated 12 functionally normal cases and 9 functionally abnormal cases. The stress distribution for the 9 functionally abnormal cases was calculated, first with the normal and secondly with the abnormal variation in the modulus of elasticity. Assuming the myocardium has constant material properties that do not change with functional decomposition, the stress distributions in the first calculations indicated higher stresses through the inner half of the myocardium and lower stresses through the outer half of the myocardium as compared to the second. This finding suggests that the inner fibers are overloaded and the outer fibers are underloaded in left ventricular decompensation. The difference between the first and second stress distributions averaged 26% (range: 11% to 48%). A useful, clinical, and quantitative measure of stress loading of the sarcomeres in functionally normal and abnormal left ventricles is proposed

The Effect of Continuous Heat Wraps on Balance and Gait in the Elderly

Background: In an ageing geriatric population, tremor and poor balance become more pronounced and can lead to falls. Falls are the leading cause of mortality in this population. Continuous heat wraps have been shown to increase tissue flexibility. It was the purpose of this study to examine the effects of heat on balance and gait in the elderly with impaired mobility. Subjects: Twenty people with impaired mobility (assessed as a score of more than 4 on the “Stepping On” questionnaire) were tested with a balance platform after using ThermaCare continuous heat wraps on their legs and knees for 6 days. Data was collected at day 0 (before heat) and day 7. The average age was 60.3+/-8.3 years. The loss in mobility could not be due to pain killers or other drugs the person was taking that may reduce mobility. Half of the subjects started with a week of heat treatment and half were no heat controls. At the end of the first arm, there was a one week washout and the groups were reversed. Methods: Balance was assessed on a custom made balance platform during 8 different balance tasks lasting 10 seconds each and presented at random. Tremor was measured during the balance tasks at 8 and 24 Hertz. Gait was assessed by the “timed up and go” test. Results: Muscle tremor was reduced; balance and gait were significantly improved, after 6 sessions of heat application on the legs. Conclusion: As per the literature, this improvement in balance should reduce the chance of falls in this population