Muscle strength cut-offs for the detection of metabolic syndrome in a nonrepresentative sample of collegiate students from Colombia

Background: Evidence shows an association between grip strength and health;however, grip strength cut-offs for the detection of metabolic syndrome(MetS) in Latin American populations are scarce. The purpose of this study was to determine cut-offs of normalized grip strength(NGS)for the detection of MetS in a large nonrepresentative sample of a collegiate student population from Colombia.Methods: A total of 1795 volunteers(61.4% female;age = 20.68 ± 3.10 years, mean ± SD), ranging between 18 and 30 years of age participated in the study. Strength was estimated using a handheld dynamometer and normalized to body mass(handgrip strength(kg)/body mass(kg)). Anthropometrics, serum lipids indices, blood pressure, and fasting plasma glucose were measured. Body composition was measured by bioelectrical impedance analysis. MetS was defined as including ≥3 of the 5 metabolic abnormalities according to the International Diabetes Federation definition. A metabolic risk score was computed from the following components: waist circumference, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, glucose, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure.Results: Receiver operating curve analysis showed significant discriminatory accuracy of NGS in identifying the thresholds and risk categories.Lower strength was associated with increased prevalence of MetS. In males, weak, intermediate, and strong NGS values at these points were<0.466, 0.466-0.615, >0.615, respectively. In females, these cut-off points were <0.332, 0.332-0.437, >0.437, respectively.Conclusion: Our sex-specific cut-offs of NGS could be incorporated into a clinical setting for identifying college students at cardiometabolic disease risk.     

Older Adult Compendium of Physical Activities:Energy costs of human activities in adults aged 60 and older

Purpose:To describe the development of a Compendium for estimating the energy costs of activities in adults>60 years(OA Compendium).Methods:Physical activities(PAs) and their metabolic equivalent of task(MET) values were obtained from a systematic search of studies published in 4 sport and exercise databases(PubMed,Embase,SPORTDiscus(EBSCOhost),and Scopus) and a review of articles included in the 2011 Adult Compendium that measured PA in older adults.MET values were computed as the oxygen cos...     

Impact of age on host responses to diet-induced obesity:Development of joint damage and metabolic set points

Background:Osteoarthritis is one of the leading causes of pain and disability worldwide,and a large percentage of patients with osteoarthritis are individuals who are also obese.In recent years,a series of animal models have demonstrated that obesity-inducing diets can result in synovial joint damage(both with and without the superimposition of trauma),which may be related to changes in percentage of body fat and a series of low-level systemic inflammatory mediators.Of note,there is a disparity between whether the dietary challenges commence at weaning,representing a weanling onset,or at skeletal maturity,representing an adult onset of obesity.We wished to evaluate the effect ofthe dietary exposure time and the age at which animals are exposed to a high-fat and high-sucrose(HFS) diet to determine whether these factors may result in disparate outcomes,as there is evidence suggesting that these factors result in differential metabolic disturbances.Based on dietary exposure time,we hypothesized that rats fed an HFS diet for 14 weeks from weaning(HFS Weanling) would demonstrate an increase in knee joint damage scores,whereas rats exposed to the HFS diet for 4 weeks,starting at 12 weeks of age(HFS Adult) and rats exposed to a standard chow diet(Chow)would not display an increase in knee joint damage scores.Methods:Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed either an HFS diet for 14 weeks from weaning(HFS Weanling) or an HFS diet for 4 weeks,starting at 12 weeks of age(HFS Adult).At sacrifice,joints were scored using the modified Mankin Criteria,and serum was analyzed for a defined subset of inflammatory markers(Interleukin-6,leptin,monocyte chemoattractant protein-1,and tumor necrosis factorα).Results:When the HFS Weanling and HFS Adult groups were compared,both groups had a similar percent of body fat,although the HFS Weanling group had a significantly greater body mass than the HFS Adult group.The HFS Weanling and HFS Adult animals had a significant increase in body mass and percentage of body fat when compared to the Chow group.Although knee joint damage scores were low in all 3 groups,we found,contrary to our hypothesis,that the HFS Adult group had statistically significant greater knee joint damage scores than the Chow and HFS Weanling groups.Furthermore,we observed that the HFS Weanling group did not have significant differences in knee joint damage scores relative to the Chow group.Conclusion:These findings indicate that the HFS Weanling animals were better able to cope with the dietary challenge of an HFS diet than the HFS Adult group.Interestingly,when assessing various serum proinflammatory markers,no significant differences were detected between the HTS Adult and HFS Weanling groups.Although details regarding the mechanisms underlying an increase in knee joint damage scores in the HFS Adult group remain to be elucidated,these findings indicate that dietary exposure time maybe less important than the age at which an HFS diet is introduced.Moreover,increases in serum proinflammatory mediators do not appear to be directly linked to knee joint damage scores in the HFS Weanling group animals but may be partially responsible for the observed knee joint damage in the adults over the very short time of exposure to the HFS diet.     

Effects of a school-based karate intervention on academic achievement,psychosocial functioning,and physical fitness:A multi-country cluster randomized controlled trial

Purpose:To examine the effects of a school-based karate intervention on academic achievement,psychosocial functioning,and physical fitness in children aged 7-8 years.Methods:Twenty schools in 5 different European countries(2 second-grade classrooms per school) participated in a cluster randomized controlled trial(Sport at School trial).Participants were assigned to either a control group,which continued with their habitual physical education lessons,or to an intervention group,which replaced the...     

Social correlates of sedentary behavior in young people:The UP&DOWN study

Purpose:The aim of the present study was to analyze the associations of youths' sedentary behavior(SB) with parents' and siblings' SB and physical activity(PA),as well as the associations of youths' coparticipation with parents,siblings,and friends in PA and SB with youths' SB.Methods:The sample consisted of 1543 youths(12.02±2.51 years;788 boys) enrolled in the baseline cohort of the UP&DOWN study.SB was assessed by accelerometry and questionnaire.Participants reported the time spent by their parents and siblings watching television,playing videogames,surfing the Internet,sitting/resting,and doing PA.Further,participants reported coparticipation with parents,siblings,and friends in these activities.Linear mixed models,including school and city as random effects,were performed.Results:Parents' television time was positively associated with youths' screen-based SB.Coparticipation with friends in playing videogames(in boys) and in surfing the Internet(in girls) showed a positive association with screen-based SB and a negative association with educational-based SB.Moreover,coparticipation with siblings and friends in PA was inversely associated with accelerometer-based SB in boys and girls.Conclusion:Our results emphasize the important role of social modeling in the development of sedentary lifestyles in youths.Interventions aimed at reducing health risk behaviors in youths could be more effective if they are oriented from a social perspective that involves their families and networks of their closest friends.     

Sensitive ages for physical fitness development

Physical fitness testing in Singapore is mandatory from age 9 years old till 18 years old in schools. Time and effort are spent annually in training for these tests as schools are ranked according to the test results and pupil obesity rate. There are natural rhythms and tempos for the development of physical capabilities but these remain unexplained in the Singaporean context. Identification of these ＂sensitive time periods＂ for fitness development will help PE teachers be more realistic about young people＇ s physical fitness and allow for a more balanced approach in the conduct of PE in schools.     

Inter-individual differences in the responses to aerobic exercise in Alzheimer’s disease: Findings from the FIT-AD trial

Background:Despite the strong evidence of aerobic exercise as a disease-modifying treatment for Alzheimer’s disease(AD)in animal models,its effects on cognition are inconsistent in human studies.A major contributor to these findings is inter-individual differences in the responses to aerobic exercise,which was well documented in the general population but not in those with AD.The purpose of this study was to examine inter-individual differences in aerobic fitness and cognitive responses to a 6-month aerobic exercise intervention in community-dwelling older adults with mild-to-moderate dementia due to AD.Methods:This study was a secondary analysis of the Effects of Aerobic Exercise for Treating Alzheimer’s Disease(FIT-AD)trial data.Aerobic fitness was measured by the shuttle walk test(SWT),the 6-min walk test(6MWT),and the maximal oxygen consumption(VO2max)test,and cognition by the AD Assessment Scale-Cognition(ADAS-Cog).Inter-individual differences were calculated as the differences in the standard deviation of 6-month change(SDR)in the SWT,6MWT,VO2max,and ADAS-Cog between the intervention and control groups.Results:Seventy-eight participants were included in this study(77.4±6.3 years old,mean±SD;15.7±2.8 years of education;41%were female).VO2max was available for 26 participants(77.7±7.1 years old;14.8±2.6 years of education;35%were female).The SDR was 37.0,121.1,1.7,and 2.3 for SWT,6MWT,VO2max,and ADAS-Cog,respectively.Conclusion:There are true inter-individual differences in aerobic fitness and cognitive responses to aerobic exercise in older adults with mild-tomoderate dementia due to AD.These inter-individual differences likely underline the inconsistent cognitive benefits in human studies.     

奥运短讯

Beijing to Add Second GreenBelt by 2008 Beijing expects to add an area of412 square kilometers to its green beltsby 2008, with half of the city thencovered by trees, lawns and gardens. Work on Beijing's second green loopwill be completed within six years, saidBeijing top official Liu Qi at a ceremonyto mark the opening of the secondphase in the city's green program. Beijing, preparing for hosting the2008 Olympic Games, built its first loopof green belt around the downtown,covering…     

女足世界杯:把目光投向中国(英文)

Some of the world's top women footballers will compete in the Olympic tournament in Beijing at the XXIXth Summer Games in 2008 but the sport's very best will be in China a whole year before that as it hosts football's premier event, the World Cup. As the national teams around the globe are busily sharpening their skills for this ultimate competition, we visited the Los Angeles training camp of the American squad where their head coach and a few players shared their seasoned outlook and perspectives on what to expect at the Vth Women's World Cup.     

Olympic Education and Cross-Cultural Communication

In recent years, Olympic education has received increasingly greater attention. It is not just Olympic host cities that have established specialized Olympic education prograrnmes across the board, but also non-host cities are developing Olympic education activities to different degrees. Olympic education has also become an important project in the Olympic preparatory work, and has been an important project in the preparations for the Beijing Olympics. How to understand Olympic education? There are many different ways of looking at it. This essay attempts to take the unique characteristics of Olympic education as a starting point to explore the important role played by issues of cross-cultural communication in Olympic education.     

Olympic Education and Cross-Cultural Communication

In recent years,Olympic education has received increasingly greater attention.It is not just Olympic host cities that have established specialized Olympic education programmes across the board,but also non-host cities are developing Olympic education activities to different degrees.Olympic education has also become an important project in the Olympic preparatory work,and has been an important project in the preparations for the Beijing Olympics.How to understand Olympic education? There are many different ways of looking at it.This essay attempts to take the unique characteristics of Olympic education as a starting point to explore the important role played by issues of cross-cultural communication in Olympic education.     

奥林匹克“五”知道

The Olympic flag has a plain white background with no border. In the centre are five rings forming two rows of three rings above and two below. The rings of the upper row are, from left to right, blue, black and red. The rings of the lower row are yellow and green.The rings are thought to symbolise the five continents; Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and America. It is widely believed that the colours of the rings were chosen because at least one of them can be found in the flag of every nation, though this has never been confirmed as the intention of the designer.The flag was presented by Games founder Baron de Coubertin at the 1914 Olympic Congress, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the founding of the IOC. It was first flown in Alexandria, Greece, but made its Olympic debut at the 1920 Antwerp Games. This well-worn flag was finally retired after the 1984 Games, and a new one flown at the 1988 Seoul Games.     

Transition to forefoot strike reduces load rates more effectively than altered cadence

Background: Excessive vertical impacts at landing are associated with common running injuries. Two primary gait-retraining interventions aimed at reducing impact forces are transition to forefoot strike and increasing cadence. The objective of this study was to compare the shortand long-term effects of 2 gait-retraining interventions aimed at reducing landing impacts.Methods: A total of 39 healthy recreational runners using a rearfoot strike and a cadence of 170 steps/min were randomized into cadence(CAD) or forefoot strike(FFS) groups. All participants performed 4 weeks of strengthening followed by 8 sessions of gait-retraining using auditory feedback. Vertical average load rates(VALR) and vertical instantaneous load rates(VILR) were calculated from the vertical ground reaction force curve. Both cadence and foot strike angle were measured using 3D motion analysis and an instrumented treadmill at baseline and at 1 week,1 month, and 6 months post retraining.Results: ANOVA revealed that the FFS group had significant reductions in VALR(49.7%) and VILR(41.7%), and changes were maintained long term. Foot strike angle in the FFS group changed from 14.2° dorsiflexion at baseline to 3.4° plantarflexion, with changes maintained long term. The CAD group exhibited significant reduction only in VALR(16%) and only at 6 months. Both groups had significant and similar increases in cadence at all follow-ups(CAD, +7.2% to 173 steps/min;and FFS, +6.1% to 172 steps/min).Conclusion: Forefoot strike gait-retraining resulted in significantly greater reductions in VALR and similar increases in cadence compared to cadence gait-retraining in the short and long term. Cadence gait-retraining resulted in small reductions in VALR at only the 6-month follow-up.     

小社区大体育

Experts predict five major changes to happen in recreational sports in China in the next 20 years.1. Most recreational sports activities will take place in communities;2. Sports instructor will be a respectable job;3. Sports competition and sports travel will be major parts of community sports.4. Sports expenditure within community will increase;5. Size and quality of sports and entertainment facilities will be a major element in the pricing ofhousing.     

赛场回眸亚运会上的世界纪录

北岛康介(日本):男子200米蛙泳-2分2秒97Kosuke Kitajima of Japan became the first Asian tohold a men's swimming world record for 30 years,the first man ever to swim below 2:10:00 in the 200mbreaststroke. His 2:09.97 at the Asian Games toppledthe 2:10.16 set bythe legendary American MikeBarrowman at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.     

不同提重负荷对躯干屈伸过程中下腰力学指标影响的研究

In this study,surface EMG signals from bilateral erector spine as well as kinematic variables of lumbar spine of 20 male adult subjects were recorded and analyzed synchronically during their performances of trunk flexion-extension with 7 different lift loads. The results showed that different lifting load has no effect on both inclination angle and flexion angle at the time of EMG-off or EMG-on ,and flexion relaxation phenomenon of erector spine either. With the increase of lifting load,the maximum low back moment,the low back moment at the time of EMG-off and that at the time of EMG-on be－ came significantly larger. In the load-sharing relationship,the passive tissue could not significantly get a compensation from muscular activation of erector spine,which is a highly risk situation of injury for passive tissues in low back area especially when lifting with a greater load.     

奥运短讯

1 The inaugural Olympic Cultural Festival opened on Sept. 21 at the Millennium Monument, where 2,008 children used red scarves and paintings to form a huge 2008 Olympic emblem. The festival, which lasted through Sept. 30, featured exhibitions of the Olympic emblems and posters and a series of mass activities in the Chinese capital city.     

体育清华

Since the mid-1990 Tsinghua University has shaken offits image as a drab science and engineering university byadding news schools and departments. Inclusion of worldknown coaches and athletes such as Yu Fen and FuMingxia in 1997 injected vigor and glamor into theprestigious university. Tsinghua, which first raised the slogan "Let's stay healthyand work for the nation for 50 years", has become abreeding ground for top Chinese athletes since theuniversity designed a model of mixing competit…     

Ancient City Athens

Athens is an ancient city and it has anenormous amount to offer both touristsand business travelers alike. The city hasmild winters and hot summers and isworth a visit whatever time of the year. Plaka is the old town of Athens and hasbeen populated for over 5,000 years.Situated on the north and east slopes ofthe Acropolis, it is rich with historic sites,su ch a s a ncie nt monu men ts a ndchurches, and Plaka in Athens is wellworth exploring. Within Athens there areeight large hills, includi…     

Costs resulting from nonprofessional soccer injuries in Switzerland:A detailed analysis

Background:Soccer injuries constitute an important public health problem and cause a high economic burden.Nevertheless,comprehensive data regarding injury costs in nonprofessional soccer are missing.The aim of this study was to determine which groups of nonprofessional soccer athletes,injury types,and injury situations caused high injury costs.Methods:A cross-sectional,retrospective telephone survey was carried out with a random sample of persons who had sustained a soccer injury between July 2013 and June 2014 and who had reported this accident to the Swiss National Accident Insurance Fund(Suva).One year after the corresponding accident,every injury was linked to its costs and to the answers obtained in the interview about injury setting,injury characteristics,and injury causes.Finally,the costs of 702 injuries were analyzed.Results:The average cost of an injury in nonprofessional soccer amounted to€4030(bias-corrected and accelerated 95%confidence interval(BCa 95%CI):3427-4719).Persons aged 30 years and older experienced 35%of soccer injuries but accounted for 49%of all costs.A total of58%of all costs were the result of injuries that occurred during amateur games.In particular,game injuries sustained by players in separate leagues for players aged 30+/40+years led to high average costs of€8190(BCa 95%CI:5036-11,645).Knee injuries accounted for 25%of all injuries and were responsible for 53%of all costs.Although contact and foul play did not lead to above-average costs,twisting or turning situations were highly cost relevant,leading to an average sum of€7710(BCa 95%CI:5376-10,466)per injury.Conclusion:Nonprofessional soccer players aged 30 years and older and particularly players in 30+/40+leagues had above-average injury costs.Furthermore,the prevention of knee injuries,noncontact and nonfoul play injuries,and injuries caused by twisting and turning should be of highest priority in decreasing health care costs.