Medicine and science in sports and exercise
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Med Sci Sports Exerc · Mar 2007
ReviewAmerican College of Sports Medicine position stand. Exertional heat illness during training and competition.
Exertional heat illness can affect athletes during high-intensity or long-duration exercise and result in withdrawal from activity or collapse during or soon after activity. These maladies include exercise associated muscle cramping, heat exhaustion, or exertional heatstroke. While certain individuals are more prone to collapse from exhaustion in the heat (i.e., not acclimatized, using certain medications, dehydrated, or recently ill), exertional heatstroke (EHS) can affect seemingly healthy athletes even when the environment is relatively cool. ⋯ Exercise associated muscle cramping can occur with exhaustive work in any temperature range, but appears to be more prevalent in hot and humid conditions. Muscle cramping usually responds to rest and replacement of fluid and salt (sodium). Prevention strategies are essential to reducing the incidence of EHS, heat exhaustion, and exercise associated muscle cramping.
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Med Sci Sports Exerc · Sep 2006
Exercise-induced systemic effects in muscle-wasted patients with COPD.
Physical exercise is known to induce an acute inflammatory response and oxidative stress in healthy subjects and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Increasing evidence associates systemic inflammation and oxidative stress with muscle wasting and muscle dysfunction in COPD. In the present study, it was hypothesized that exercise-induced systemic inflammatory and oxidative responses in muscle-wasted COPD patients are increased compared with non-muscle-wasted patients and healthy subjects. ⋯ These data indicate that both maximal and submaximal exercise induce increased systemic inflammatory and oxidative responses in muscle-wasted COPD patients compared with non-muscle-wasted patients and healthy subjects.
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Med Sci Sports Exerc · Aug 2006
Pedometer-determined physical activity and body composition in New Zealand children.
The objectives of this study were to examine current levels of pedometer-determined physical activity in a multiethnic sample of New Zealand children and to investigate associations among weekday and weekend step counts, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and percentage body fat (%BF). ⋯ This study provides evidence of a link between daily step counts and body fatness in children. Our results also suggest that the promotion of physical activity during the weekend is a key priority for young New Zealanders.
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Med Sci Sports Exerc · Jul 2006
Autonomic recovery from peak arm exercise in fit and unfit individuals with paraplegia.
Altered autonomic cardiovascular control in persons with paraplegia may reflect peripheral sympathetic denervation caused by the injury or deconditioning due to skeletal muscle paralysis. Parameters of autonomic cardiovascular control may be improved in fit persons with paraplegia similar to effects reported in the noninjured population. ⋯ These data suggest that fit individuals with paraplegia have improved cardiac autonomic control during the postexercise recovery period compared with their unfit counterparts.
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Med Sci Sports Exerc · Jul 2006
A 10-yr study of smokeless tobacco use in a professional baseball organization.
Professional baseball players frequently use smokeless tobacco and are at risk of oral leukoplakia. There are limited long-term data on current trends in tobacco use and resultant oral health in this high-risk group. The purpose of this study was to monitor the prevalence of smokeless tobacco use in a professional baseball organization over a 10-yr period, looking for changes in the patterns of use and resultant changes in the incidence of oral leukoplakia. ⋯ The prevalence of smokeless tobacco use showed a steady decline in this professional baseball organization over the 10 yr of the study, with a concomitant decline in the prevalence of oral leukoplakia in this population. We postulate that changes in league rules regarding tobacco use and regular education and support for tobacco cessation might explain the declining use.