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Exercise & the Endocannabinoid System
Widely distributed throughout the body and central nervous system, the endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a significant modulator of health. This intricate, cellular signaling network is pivotal for governing homeostasis across the body’s systems. A growing body of research underscores the role the ECS has in maintaining health, with emerging findings demonstrating the impact exercise has…
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How Exercise Affects Your Gut
Though it is well known that diet can certainly modulate the composition of the gut microbiota, we are only just beginning to understand how exercise affects your gut and gut microbiome. However, considering the many roles of the gut in the development and maintenance of overall health, it is not surprising that there is great…
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Physical Activity & CVD Risk
A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology provides some mechanistic insight into the benefits of physical activity for cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk reduction, helping to explain why some individuals may have larger benefits than others. This study examined records from over 50,000 individuals who completed a survey regarding their…
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Beetroot Juice & Exercise
Three recently published controlled clinical trials all indicate favorable effects of beetroot juice (BRJ) on exercise-related outcomes. The first of these, found in the European Respiratory Journal, evaluated the use of BRJ by people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who also had hypertension. This randomized and placebo-controlled double-blinded trial enrolled 81 participants, 70 of…
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Exercise & BP
Results of a systematic review and network analysis of the relationship between exercise and blood pressure were recently published in BMJ. The final analysis included data from 270 randomized and controlled trials, including nearly 16,000 total participants over a 33-year period of review. This analysis was conducted to update existing guidelines that primarily promote only…
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Light Exercise Protects Against Childhood Obesity
Results of a study with over 13 years of follow-up were recently published in Nature Communications, detailing many of the associations between physical activity and fat accumulation in children aged 11 to 24. Data from the UK-based Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) birth cohort provided a longitudinal analysis of accelerometer-assessed movement and…
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Is There an Optimal Number of Steps Per Day?
A recently published meta-analysis has tried to quantify the dose-response relationship between the number of steps taken per day and both all-cause mortality and incident cardiovascular disease (CVD). Published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, this meta-analysis started quite broadly, initially with over 5,000 potential studies to include, but weaned it down…
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Exercise & Glycemic Control
An excellent review of the importance of exercise for people with type 2 diabetes was recently published in the American Journal of Medicine Open, and highlights not only the benefits of exercise but also points to the optimal type, dosing, and timing for maximum impact. As noted in the article, 10.4% of adults in the…
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Sleep, Exercise & Cognitive Function
The results of a 10-year longitudinal study were recently published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, detailing the associations between the cognitive trajectories of healthy adults and both sleep and physical activity. Nearly 9,000 participants between the ages of 50-95, part of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), were followed every 2 years and self-reported…
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Sleep & Adherence to Diet & Exercise Goals
Recent preliminary research has shown that individuals with higher scores for sleep health during a 12-month weight loss program were more likely to stick to the calorific and exercise goals in the program in comparison with those who scored lower for sleep health.