Exercise

Posted on Exercise, Multiple Sclerosis

Walking can improve cognitive processing speed in folks with multiple sclerosis

Promising results support the development of large-scale randomized controlled trials of remote aerobic exercise training in individuals with MS-related cognitive impairment.

Promising results support development of large-scale randomized controlled trial of remote aerobic exercise training in individuals with MS-related cognitive impairment

Results of a pilot study funded by Kessler Foundation showed that remote aerobic walking exercise training is a feasible and highly promising method for improving cognitive processing speed impairment in fully ambulatory persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). The findings of this single-blind randomized control trial support the design of a randomized, controlled trial in large sample of persons with MS

The study, titled “Feasibility of Remotely Delivered and Supported Aerobic Walking Exercise Training for Cognitive Processing Speed Impairment in Fully Ambulatory Persons with Multiple Sclerosis,” (doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2023.104709) was published online by Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders on April 07, 2023. The authors are Brian M. Sandroff, PhD, Carly L.A. Wender, PhD, Erica Weber, PhD, and Grace Wells, BS, of Kessler Foundation, and Robert W. Motl, PhD, of the University of Illinois Chicago.

Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2211034823002134?via%3Dihub

The research team followed a group of 25 fully ambulatory persons with MS who were prescreened for deficits in cognitive processing speed; 19 completed the study as prescribed. The researchers employed the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), a widely used neuropsychological test for assessing information processing speed in individuals with MS, and the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT-II) as a widely used test of verbal learning and memory. Evaluations were conducted at baseline and after 16 weeks.

Participants were randomly assigned to 16 weeks of either remotely delivered and supported aerobic walking exercise training (intervention condition), or remotely delivered and supported stretching and range-of-motion activities (control condition). Participants were provided with wearable fitness trackers and weekly video consultations with an exercise specialist to ensure proper technique, safety, and adherence to the prescribed exercise regimen.

The results of the study were promising. Participants who were randomly assigned into the intervention condition demonstrated strong improvements in their SDMT scores after the 16-week study period relative to participants who were randomly assigned into the stretching condition, indicating that the remotely delivered aerobic walking exercise training had a positive impact on their cognitive processing speed. Additionally, the study showed that the participants had high adherence rates to the exercise program, with an average of 80% of the prescribed sessions being completed.

These findings are particularly significant because cognitive processing speed impairment is a common symptom of MS, affecting up to 70% of patients. Impairment is associated with reduced quality of life, increased unemployment, and decreased social functioning. With limited effective treatments available, this study is promising for individuals with this disabling symptom.

The remote delivery and support of the aerobic walking exercise training program also has major implications for the accessibility and convenience of care for individuals with MS. Many patients face barriers to attending in-person exercise programs, such as transportation issues or financial constraints. This study demonstrates that remotely delivered exercise programs can be just as effective as traditional in-person interventions, providing a more inclusive solution for persons with MS.

The researchers are optimistic about the potential applications of their findings. “Our study shows that remote aerobic walking exercise training is not only feasible but also might be efficacious for treating cognitive processing speed impairment in persons with MS,” said lead author Dr. Sandroff, senior research scientist in the Center for Neuropsychology and Neuroscience Research. “We anticipate that these findings will encourage the development of more accessible, convenient, and broad-scale exercise interventions, ultimately leading to improved quality of life for those affected by this challenging disease.”

Posted on Exercise

How many STEPS should I walk per day to stay HEALTHY?

How many STEPS should I walk per day to stay HEALTHY? - YouTube


How many steps should I walk per day to stay healthy? This video will summarize the major health benefits of daily walking and how many steps you need to maximize those effects. Benefits include improved mortality, decreased cardiovascular risk, improved cognition, better immune response, and more robust mental health.

Physical activity is crucial to living a healthy lifestyle. It improves our heart and lung function. It lowers our cholesterol and blood sugar. It increases metabolism to help us lose weight. It improves our sleep and mental health. And it helps us learn and concentrate. Daily step counts are an easy indirect measure of physical activity. Increased step counts have been shown to decrease mortality and decrease cardiovascular risk. More daily steps help with cognition especially with better attention, executive function, language, and memory. Increased daily walking helps boost our immune system and prevent dying from serious infections such as pneumonia. More step counts also improve mental health and decrease stress, anxiety, and depression.

Posted on Exercise, Mental health

Exercise is more effective than medicines in managing mental health

Exercise more effective than medicines to manage mental health
Exercise more effective than medicines to manage mental health


University of South Australia researchers are calling for exercise to be a mainstay approach for managing depression as a new study shows that physical activity is 1.5 times more effective than counselling or the leading medications.

Published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the review is the most comprehensive to date, encompassing 97 reviews, 1039 trials and 128,119 participants. It shows that physical activity is extremely beneficial for improving symptoms of depression, anxiety, and distress.

Specifically, the review showed that exercise interventions that were 12 weeks or shorter were most the effective at reducing mental health symptoms, highlighting the speed at which physical activity can make a change.

The largest benefits were seen among people with depression, pregnant and postpartum women, healthy individuals, and people diagnosed with HIV or kidney disease.

According to the World Health Organization, one in every eight people worldwide (970 million people) live with a mental disorder. Poor mental health costs the world economy approximately $2.5 trillion each year, a cost projected to rise to $6 trillion by 2030. In Australia, an estimated one in five people (aged 16–85) have experienced a mental disorder in the past 12 months. 

Lead UniSA researcher, Dr Ben Singh, says physical activity must be prioritised to better manage the growing cases of mental health conditions.

“Physical activity is known to help improve mental health. Yet despite the evidence, it has not been widely adopted as a first-choice treatment,” Dr Singh says.

“Our review shows that physical activity interventions can significantly reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety in all clinical populations, with some groups showing even greater signs of improvement.

“Higher intensity exercise had greater improvements for depression and anxiety, while longer durations had smaller effects when compared to short and mid-duration bursts.

“We also found that all types of physical activity and exercise were beneficial, including aerobic exercise such as walking, resistance training, Pilates, and yoga.

“Importantly, the research shows that it doesn’t take much for exercise to make a positive change to your mental health.”

Senior researcher, UniSA’s Prof Carol Maher, says the study is the first to evaluate the effects of all types of physical activity on depression, anxiety, and psychological distress in all adult populations.

“Examining these studies as a whole is an effective way to for clinicians to easily understand the body of evidence that supports physical activity in managing mental health disorders.

“We hope this review will underscore the need for physical activity, including structured exercise interventions, as a mainstay approach for managing depression and anxiety.”

Posted on Exercise

Using running to escape everyday stresses may lead to exercise dependence instead of mental wellbeing

Scientists find that using running to escape from negative experiences rather than to escape to positive ones may lead to exercise dependence among runners
Scientists find that using running to escape from negative experiences rather than to escape to positive ones may lead to exercise dependence among runners

Recreational running offers a lot of physical and mental health benefits – but some people can develop exercise dependence, a form of addiction to physical activity which can cause health issues. Shockingly, signs of exercise dependence are common even in recreational runners. A study published in Frontiers in Psychology investigated whether the concept of escapism can help us understand the relationship between running, wellbeing, and exercise dependence.

“Escapism is an everyday phenomenon among humans, but little is known regarding its motivational underpinnings, how it affects experiences, and the psychological outcomes from it,” said Dr Frode Stenseng of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, lead author of the paper.

Running to explore or to evade?

“Escapism is often defined as ‘an activity, a form of entertainment, etc. that helps you avoid or forget unpleasant or boring things’. In other words, many of our everyday activities may be interpreted as escapism,” said Stenseng. “The psychological reward from escapism is reduced self-awareness, less rumination, and a relief from one’s most pressing, or stressing, thoughts and emotions.”

Escapism can restore perspective, or it can act as a distraction from problems that need to be tackled. Escapism which is adaptive, seeking out positive experiences, is referred to as self-expansion. Meanwhile maladaptive escapism, avoiding negative experiences, is called self-suppression. Effectively, running as exploration or as evasion.

“These two forms of escapism are stemming from two different mindsets, to promote a positive mood, or prevent a negative mood,” said Stenseng.

Escapist activities used for self-expansion have more positive effects but also more long-term benefits. Self-suppression, by contrast, tends to suppress positive feelings as well as negative ones and lead to avoidance.

Self-suppression associated with exercise dependence

The team recruited 227 recreational runners, half men and half women, with widely varying running practices. They were asked to fill out questionnaires which investigated three different aspects of escapism and exercise dependence: an escapism scale which measured preference for self-expansion or self-suppression, an exercise dependence scale, and a satisfaction with life scale designed to measure the participants’ subjective wellbeing.

The scientists found that there was very little overlap between runners who favored self-expansion and runners who preferred self-suppression modes of escapism. Self-expansion was positively related with wellbeing, while self-suppression was negatively related to wellbeing. Self-suppression and self-expansion were both linked to exercise dependence, but self-suppression was much more strongly linked to it. Neither escapism mode was linked to age, gender, or amount of time a person spent running, but both affected the relationship between wellbeing and exercise dependence. Whether or not a person fulfilled criteria for exercise dependence, a preference for self-expansion would still be linked to a more positive sense of their own wellbeing.

Although exercise dependence corrodes the potential wellbeing gains from exercise, it seems that perceiving lower wellbeing may be both a cause and an outcome of exercise dependency: the dependency might be driven by lower wellbeing as well as promoting it.

Similarly, experiencing positive self-expansion might be a psychological motive that promotes exercise dependence.

“More studies using longitudinal research designs are necessary to unravel more of the motivational dynamics and outcomes in escapism,” said Stenseng. “But these findings may enlighten people in understanding their own motivation, and be used for therapeutical reasons for individuals striving with a maladaptive engagement in their activity.”

Posted on Exercise

Rx for prolonged sitting: A five-minute stroll every half hour


Mounting evidence suggests prolonged sitting—a staple of modern-day life—is hazardous to your health, even if you exercise regularly. Based on these findings, doctors advise all adults to sit less and move more.

But how often do we need to get up from our chairs? And for how long? 

Few studies have compared multiple options to determine the answer most office workers want: What is the least amount of activity needed to counteract the health impact of a workday filled with sitting?

A study by Columbia University exercise physiologists has an answer: just five minutes of walking every half hour during prolonged sitting can offset some of the most harmful effects.

The study, led by Keith Diaz, PhD, associate professor of behavioural medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, was published online in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.

Unlike other studies that test one or two activity options, Diaz’s study tested five different exercise “snacks”: one minute of walking after every 30 minutes of sitting, one minute after 60 minutes; five minutes every 30; five minutes every 60; and no walking. 

“If we hadn’t compared multiple options and varied the frequency and duration of the exercise, we would have only been able to provide people with our best guesses of the optimal routine,” Diaz says.

Each of the 11 adults who participated in the study came to Diaz’s laboratory. Participants sat in an ergonomic chair for eight hours, rising only for their prescribed exercise snack of treadmill walking or a bathroom break. Researchers kept an eye on each participant to ensure they did not over- or under-exercise and periodically measured their blood pressure and blood sugar (key indicators of cardiovascular health). Participants were allowed to work on a laptop, read, and use their phones during the sessions and were provided standardized meals.

The optimal amount of movement, the researchers found, was five minutes of walking every 30 minutes. This was the only amount that significantly lowered blood sugar and blood pressure. In addition, this walking regimen dramatically affected how the participants responded to large meals, reducing blood sugar spikes by 58% compared with sitting all day.

Taking a walking break every 30 minutes for one minute also provided modest benefits for blood sugar levels throughout the day, while walking every 60 minutes (either for one minute or five minutes) provided no benefit.

All walking significantly reduced blood pressure by 4 to 5 mmHg compared with sitting all day. “This is a sizeable decrease, comparable to the reduction you would expect from exercising daily for six months,” says Diaz.

The researchers also periodically measured participants’ mood, fatigue, and cognitive performance levels during the testing. All walking regimens, except walking one minute every hour, led to significant decreases in fatigue and significant improvements in mood. None of the walking regimens influenced cognition.

“The effects on mood and fatigue are important,” Diaz says. “People tend to repeat behaviours that make them feel good and enjoyable.”

The Columbia researchers are currently testing 25 different doses of walking on health outcomes and testing a wider variety of people: Participants in the current study were in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and most did not have diabetes or high blood pressure. 

“What we know now is that for optimal health, you need to move regularly at work, in addition to a daily exercise routine,” says Diaz. “While that may sound impractical, our findings show that even small amounts of walking spread through the workday can significantly lower your risk of heart disease and other chronic illnesses.”