exercise tagged posts

Microbes under a microscope. Credit: NIAID

The research indicates that there may be a window of opportunity during early human development to optimize the chances of better lifelong health.
“Exercise affects many aspects of health, both metabolic and mental, and people are only now starting to look at the plasticity of these gut microbes,” said Prof Monika Fleshner. Microbes take up residence within human intestines shortly after birth and are vital to the development of the immune system and various neural functions. These microbes can add as many 5 million genes to a person’s overall genetic profile and thus have tremendous power to influence aspects of human physiology.

While this diverse microbial community remains somewhat malleable throughout adult life and can be influenced by envir...

A new University of Iowa study in mice indicates that exercise causes muscle to release a peptide that improves energy production and endurance. Credit: Ekaterina Subbotina

The study shows that Musclin, is an “exercise factor” – a hormone-like substance made by skeletal muscle in response to exercise and released into the bloodstream. The study shows that increased levels of circulating musclin trigger a signaling cascade that improves muscle performance and promotes production of mitochondria in muscle cells.

“Exercise is an extremely powerful way to improve people’s health, but unfortunately, increasing physical activity can be really difficult in many circumstances,” says Assoc. Prof. L Zingman, MD...

Doctors have shown the benefits of a healthy diet and exercise in patients with heart failure. The annual congress of the Mexican Society of Cardiology is being held in Acapulco from 21 to 25 November 2015. Experts from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) will present a special programme

In Mexico there are 750,000 patients living with heart failure and the problem is growing. It is estimated that 75,000 more patients will get heart failure each year. “Just 25% of men and 38% of women with heart failure in Mexico will be alive after 5 years,” said Dr Arturo Orea...

Stroop-interference-related cortical activation patterns. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Tsukuba

Neuroimaging studies, in which the activity of different parts of the brain can be visualized, have provided some clues. Until now, however, no study has directly linked brain activation with both mental and physical performance. They found that the fitter men performed better mentally than the less fit men, by using parts of their brains in the same way as in their youth.

As we age, we use different parts of our brain compared to our younger selves. Eg when young, we mainly use the left side of our prefrontal cortex (PFC) for mental tasks involving short term memory, understanding the meaning of words and the ability to recognize previously encountered events, objects, or people...