1,721,354 research outputs found
Preface to “health promotion in children and adolescents through sport and physical activities—2nd edition”
Full text linkThe second edition of the Special Issue entitled "Health Promotion in Children and Adolescents through Sport and Physical Activities" has been successfully completed, as expected [...]
A teacher-led motor programme to enhance pre-literacy and motor skills in kindergarten children
No full textStructured motor tasks may affect cognitive development by creating a cognitively challenging “enriched environment’, giving opportunity for social cooperation, increasing the joy to learn through play, improving the sense of mastery and competence. The study investigated the association between motor and cognitive exercises, through a teacher-led programme, to provide kindergarten children with the skills necessary for school literacy. Using a cluster-randomized trial design with an intervention group (N = 110) and a control group (N = 64), we examined the effects of a 3-month teacher-led motor programme enriched by executive function tasks. In the intervention group, significant gains were found from pre-test to post-test in scores on general literacy prerequisites subscales such as behaviour, motor, linguistic comprehension, oral expression, metacognition. Results suggest the need to implement new and enjoyable ways of teaching to enhance children’s school readiness through motor activities
Ketogenic Diet in Therapy and Rehabilitation
No full textThe ketogenic diet (KD), long established as an effective medical nutrition therapy for drug-resistant epilepsy, has recently re-emerged as a versatile intervention across multiple therapeutic and rehabilitative domains [...
What Is Fitness Training? Definitions and Implications: A Systematic Review Article
Full text linkBACKGROUND: This review based upon studies searched from the major scientific
libraries has the objective of clarifying what is fitness training in modern
days, the implications that it has on health in both youth and elderly and
finally discuss fitness training practical implications.
METHODS: The PRISMA statement was partially adopted and a number of 92 items were
selected, according to the inclusion criteria. Results were discussed in 4 main
sections: 1. Children and adolescents fitness levels; 2. Fitness training in the
elderly; 3. Pathology prevention through fitness training; 4. Training through
Fitness activities.
RESULTS: This review pointed out the fact that nowadays there is a large variety
of fitness activities available within gyms and fitness centers. Even though they
significantly differ with each other, the common aim they have is the wellbeing
of the people through the improvement of the physical fitness components and the
psychological balance.
CONCLUSION: Fitness instructors' recommendations should be followed in gym
context and should be contingent upon an individual's objectives, physical
capacity, physical characteristics and experience
The Influence of Meal Frequency and Timing on Health in Humans: The Role of Fasting
Full text linkThe influence of meal frequency and timing on health and disease has been a topic of interest for many years. While epidemiological evidence indicates an association between higher meal frequencies and lower disease risk, experimental trials have shown conflicting results. Furthermore, recent prospective research has demonstrated a significant increase in disease risk with a high meal frequency (≥6 meals/day) as compared to a low meal frequency (1−2 meals/day). Apart from meal frequency and timing we also have to consider breakfast consumption and the distribution of daily energy intake, caloric restriction, and night-time eating. A central role in this complex scenario is played by the fasting period length between two meals. The physiological underpinning of these interconnected variables may be through internal circadian clocks, and food consumption that is asynchronous with natural circadian rhythms may exert adverse health effects and increase disease risk. Additionally, alterations in meal frequency and meal timing have the potential to influence energy and macronutrient intake.A regular meal pattern including breakfast consumption, consuming a higher proportion of energy early in the day, reduced meal frequency (i.e., 2−3 meals/day), and regular fasting periods may provide physiological benefits such as reduced inflammation, improved circadian rhythmicity, increased autophagy and stress resistance, and modulation of the gut microbiota
Expression Pattern of Angiogenic Factors in Healthy Heart in Response to Physical Exercise Intensity
Full text linkRecently, many studies showing the regeneration potential of both cardiac and hematopoietic stem cells in adult heart following injury were definitively retracted by the literature. Therefore, stimulating myocardial angiogenesis becomes to be important for preventing cardiovascular diseases. Regular endurance exercise has been reported to induce capillary growth in healthy and diseased myocardium resulting in cardioprotective phenotype. Previously, we demonstrated a significantly increased capillary proliferation in mouse hearts following 30 and 45 days of endurance training. In the present study, we examined the localization and expression pattern of vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFR-1/Flt-1 and VEGFR-2/Flk-1), hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in heart neocapillarization in response to a mild, moderate, and high intensity of endurance training. Sixty-three Swiss male mice were divided into four untrained control groups and three groups trained for 15 (T15), 30 (T30), and 45 (T45) days with a gradually increasing intensity on a treadmill. We observed the localization of studied proteins with immunostaining and their expression level with Western blot analyses. We found that VEGFR-2/Flk-1 expression progressively increased in trained groups compared with controls, while VEGFR-1/Flt-1 and HIF-1α were higher in T15 than in controls, T30, and T45 animals. Differently, iNOS levels enhanced after 15 and 30 days of exercise. The localization of these factors was not altered by exercise. The results showed that the expression of VEGFR-1/Flt-1, VEGFR-2/Flk-1, HIF-1α, and iNOS is differently regulated in cardiac angiogenesis according to the exercise intensity. VEGFR-1/Flt-1 and HIF-1α are upregulated by a mild intensity exercise, while VEGFR-2/Flk-1 progressively enhances with increasing workload. Differently, iNOS protein is modulated by a moderate intensity exercise. VEGF pathway appears to be involved in exercise-related angiogenesis in heart and VEGF might act in a paracrine and endocrine manner. Understanding this relationship is important for developing exercise strategies to protect the heart by insults
The Relation Between Stretching Typology and Stretching Duration: The Effects on Range of Motion
No full textDifferent stretching strategies and protocols are widely used to improve flexibility or maintain health, acting on the muscle tendon-unit, in order to improve the range of motion (ROM) of the joints. This review aims to evaluate the current body of literature in order to understand the relation between stretching typology and ROM, and secondly to evaluate if a relation exists between stretching volume (either as a single training session, weekly training and weekly frequency) and ROM, after long-term stretching. Twenty-three articles were considered eligible and included in the quantitative synthesis. All stretching typologies showed ROM improvements over a long-term period, however the static protocols showed significant gains (p<0.05) when compared to the ballistic or PNF protocols. Time spent stretching per week seems fundamental to elicit range of movement improvements when stretches are applied for at least or more than 5min, whereas the time spent stretching within a single session does not seem to have significant effects for ROM gains. Weekly frequency is positively associated to ROM. Evaluated data indicates that performing stretching at least 5 days a week for at least 5min per week using static stretching may be beneficial to promote ROM improvements
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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