National Posture Institute News Story: UT study: Students who are more physically fit perform better academically
KNOXVILLE—Middle school students who are more physically fit make better grades and outperform their classmates on standardized tests, according to a newly published study from a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The study is among the first to examine how academic achievement relates to all aspects of physical fitness including endurance, muscular strength, flexibility and body fat.
It appears in this month's issue of the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness.
"Not only does improving fitness have physical health implications for the child, it also has implications for their academic achievement," said Dawn Coe, assistant professor in the UT Department of Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies, and the lead researcher on the study.
"We know a lot of schools are cutting out physical education classes and physical activity opportunities throughout the day. Some of my previous research showed that if kids have one hour of physical education during the day instead of an academic class, they did not show a decrease in academic achievement compared with students who received an extra hour of academic instruction per day. By being active, they could potentially raise their grades."
Coe, who conducted the study while a doctoral student at Michigan State University, examined 312 sixth- through eighth-graders from a single public school in western Michigan. She conducted a series of assessments on the students including shuttle runs, curl-ups and push-ups. She then measured the children's academic achievement in four core classes over the course of one school year as well as their performance on a standardized test.
She found that the students with the highest fitness levels performed better on the standardized exam and earned better grades.
"Youth who are engaged in a physically active lifestyle reap benefits not only in their physical health but also in other aspects of their well-being, such as mental health and academic performance," the report states.
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Great job by all the attendees and staff for our NPI Posture CEC workshop at the University of South Florida. Thank you everyone at USF for your assistance and help in organizing this event for professionals and your students!!!
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New Physical Therapy CEC Approvals for National Posture Institute's Certified Posture Specialist (CPS) Program for PT’s in California/Nevada: Onsite Posture Workshop: California Physical Therapy Association (0.7 CEUs) & Online CPS Program: Nevada Physical Therapy Board (1.5 CEUs) http://www.npionline.org/approvedcec.htm
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Happy first day of spring NPI fans! Even though it may still be cold in some areas, we are looking forward to warmer weather, sunshine, and a lot of outdoor activities!
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National Posture Institute Research Review: Comparison of Hamstring Strain Injury Rates Between Male and Female Intercollegiate Soccer Athletes
Abstract
Background: Hamstring strains are common among soccer athletes, and they have a high incidence of recurrence. Among American collegiate soccer players, men have an overall higher incidence rate of hamstring strains than women.
Purpose: This research compares the hamstring strain injury rates in event and athlete characteristics between male and female college soccer athletes.
Study Design: Descriptive epidemiology study.
Methods: Data describing partial and complete hamstring strains were obtained from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Injury Surveillance System (ISS) for men’s and women’s soccer from 2004 to 2009. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) comparing the incidence of hamstring strains between the sexes as well as during games versus practices and the preseason versus the in-season were calculated. χ2 tests were used to compare the occurrence of hamstring strains across different event and athlete characteristics.
Results: Men were 64% more likely than women to sustain a hamstring strain (IRR, 1.64; 95% CI, 1.37-1.96). Men had significantly higher rates of hamstring strains than women during both games (IRR, 2.42; 95% CI, 1.82-3.23) and practices (IRR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.06-1.68). There were no differences between men and women in injury rates during the preseason, but men were significantly more likely to sustain a hamstring strain during the in-season (IRR, 1.98; 95% CI, 1.56-2.52). Men had a significantly higher proportion of recurrent hamstring strains compared with women (men, 22%; women, 12%; P = .003). There were no significant differences in the distribution of strains in event or athlete characteristics between men and women for first-time or recurrent hamstring strains.
Conclusion: In collegiate soccer, men have significantly higher rates of hamstring strains than women, and regardless of the recurrence status, the event and athlete characteristics were similar for both sexes. Identifying common characteristics may assist in the targeted development of preventive and rehabilitative programs as well as continued research on hamstring strains among collegiate soccer players.
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Like nearly 4.6 million Americans, ancient hunter-gatherers also suffered from clogged arteries, revealing that the plaque build-up causing blood clots, heart attacks and strokes is not just a result of fatty diets or couch potato habits, according to new research in the journal The Lancet.
The researchers performed CT scans of 137 mummies from across four continents and found artery plaque in every single population studied, from preagricultual hunter-gatherers in the Aleutian Islands to the ancient Puebloans of southwestern United States.
Their findings provide an important twist to our understanding of atherosclerotic vascular disease, which is the leading cause of death in the developed world: while modern lifestyles can accelerate the development of plaque on our arteries, the prevalence of the disease across human history shows it may have a more basic connection to inflammation and aging.
"This is not a disease only of modern circumstance but a basic feature of human aging in all populations," said Caleb Finch, USC University Professor, ARCO/ Kieschnick Professor of Gerontology at the USC Davis School of Gerontology, and a senior author of the study. "Turns out even a Bronze Age guy from 5,000 years ago had calcified, carotid arteries," Finch said, referring to Otzi the Iceman, a natural mummy who lived around 3200 BCE and was discovered frozen in a glacier in the Italian Alps in 1991.
With Gregory Thomas of Long Beach Memorial, Finch was part of a team that previously showed Egyptian mummies had calcified patches on their arteries indicative of advanced atherosclerosis (from the Greek arthero, meaning "gruel" and scler, meaning "hard").
But ancient Egyptians tended to mummify only royalty or those who had privileged lives. The new study led by Thomas and Randall Thompson of Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute examined mummies from four drastically different climates and diets – and from cultures that mummified regular people, including ancient Peruvians, Ancestral Puebloans, the Unangans of the Aleutian Islands and ancient Egyptians.
"Our research shows that we are all at risk for atherosclerosis, the disease that causes heart attacks and strokes – all races, diets and lifestyles," said Thomas, medical director of the MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute, Long Beach Memorial. "Because of this we all need to be cautious of our diet, weight and exercise to minimize its impact. The data gathered about individuals from the pre-historic cultures of ancient Peru and the Native Americans living along the Colorado River and the Unangan of the Aleutian Islands is forcing us to think outside the box and look for other factors that may cause heart disease."
Overall, the researchers found probable or definite atherosclerosis in 34 percent of the mummies studied, with calcification of arteries more pronounced in the mummies that were older at time of death. Artherosclerosis was equally common in mummies identified as male or female.
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National Posture Institute News Story: Scientists find calcium is the initial trigger in our immune response to healing
For the first time scientists studying the cellular processes underlying the body's response to healing have revealed how a flash of calcium is the very first step in repairing damaged tissue. The findings, published in Current Biology, could lead to new therapies that speed up the healing process following injury or surgery.
Until recently, very little was known about how damaged tissue activates and attracts the first white blood cells to the wound — the first stage in the healing process. However, researchers from the University of Bristol's School of Biochemistry in collaboration with a team from the University of Bath, have shown that the very first trigger in this process is a flash of calcium which spreads like a wave back from the wound edge through gap junctions that connect all the cells.
This flash of calcium signal goes on to activate an enzyme known as DUOX that synthesises hydrogen peroxide, which, in turn, attracts the first white blood cells to the wound. This white blood cell invasion, which is initiated during our inflammatory responses, is needed to kill off invading microbes and stop the onset of septicaemia following tissue damage.
The findings indicate that the wound-induced calcium flash represents the earliest identified signal following wounding and might therefore orchestrate the rapid recruitment of immune cells.
To assess the impact of a reduced calcium flash upon the inflammatory response the team used Drosophila (fruit fly) embryos because they are translucent which makes it easy to image the inflammatory response and because of their simple genetics. The team found that blocking the calcium flash inhibited H2O2 release at the wound site leading to a reduction in the number of immune cells migrating to the wound.
Paul Martin, Professor of Cell Biology and an expert in wound healing at the University, said: "White blood cells are a little like 'Jeckyll and Hyde' in that they help us heal but are also the reason behind why we scar so we really need to know how they are regulated at wounds in order to learn how to control their behaviours for future therapeutic intervention."
Will Razzell, the lead PhD researcher on this study, added: "We are more than ever understanding the pathways that lead to immune cell attraction to wounds. As calcium represents the immediate inflammatory signal, we now have a good foundation to investigate this complicated process further."
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