“Exercise Is Medicine”: Curbing the Burden of Chronic Disease and Physical Inactivity.
“Exercise Is Medicine”: Curbing the Burden of Chronic Disease and Physical Inactivity.
Asia Pac J Public Health. 2013 Apr 9;
Coombes JS, Law J, Lancashire B, Fassett RG
An exercise program designed to improve fitness is essential for most adults. Exercise decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, depression, and anxiety. Most fail to achieve recommended exercise levels. Only 1.3% of Australian general practice (GP) consultations provide exercise counseling and advice. Australia provides Medicare reimbursement for consultations with Accredited Exercise Physiologists through allied health care plans initiated through primary care. Exercise Is Medicine is an initiative to equip primary care providers with resources, education, and strategies to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior. The objective of Exercise Is Medicine is to improve the health and well-being of our nation. We describe Exercise Is Medicine and encourage primary care providers to discuss physical activity and exercise with their patients and provide them with resources to encourage this activity and referral pathways to train exercise professionals. This will assist primary care providers in treating their patients. HubMed – depression
Playing “Duck Duck Goose” With Neurons: Change Detection Through Connectivity Reduction.
Psychol Sci. 2013 Apr 9;
Tian X, Huber DE
Reduced connectivity between sending and receiving neurons (i.e., synaptic depression) may facilitate change detection by reducing responses for recently viewed objects so new objects can be highlighted. In the experiment reported here, we investigated high-level change detection following semantic satiation, which is the loss of meaning following repetition of a word. A computer simulation of a word-reading neural network with synaptic depression identified key predictions of connectivity reduction. A dynamic-causal-modeling analysis of magnetoencephalography (MEG) responses collected during a category-matching task identified connectivity reduction between a cortical region related to orthography and a cortical region related to semantics as the cause of the reduced MEG response to a repeated word. As predicted, prior repetitions of a category-matching word presented immediately after the repeated word enhanced semantic novelty, as measured with the M400 component. These results demonstrate that a combination of neural-network modeling and connectivity analyses can reveal the manner in which connectivity fluctuations underlie cognitive functions. HubMed – depression
Common polymorphisms in nitric oxide synthase (NOS) genes influence quality of aging and longevity in humans.
Biogerontology. 2013 Apr 10;
Montesanto A, Crocco P, Tallaro F, Pisani F, Mazzei B, Mari V, Corsonello A, Lattanzio F, Passarino G, Rose G
Nitric oxide (NO) triggers multiple signal transduction pathways and contributes to the control of numerous cellular functions. Previous studies have shown in model organisms that the alteration of NO production has important effects on aging and lifespan. We studied in a large sample (763 subjects, age range 19-107 years) the variability of the three human genes (NOS1, -2, -3) coding for the three isoforms of the NADPH-dependent enzymes named NO synthases (NOS) which are responsible of NO synthesis. We have then verified if the variability of these genes is associated with longevity, and with a number of geriatric parameters. We found that gene variation of NOS1 and NOS2 was associated with longevity. In addition NOS1 rs1879417 was also found to be associated with a lower cognitive performance, while NOS2 rs2297518 polymorphism showed to be associated with physical performance. Moreover, SNPs in the NOS1 and NOS3 genes were respectively associated with the presence of depression symptoms and disability, two of the main factors affecting quality of life in older individuals. On the whole, our study shows that genetic variability of NOS genes has an effect on common age related phenotypes and longevity in humans as well as previously reported for model organisms. HubMed – depression
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