Back in January, ultrarunning star Jim Walmsley eked out a qualifier for next Februarys Olympic Marathon Trials at the Houston half marathon, hitting the 1:04:00 entry standard right on the nose. The tantalizing prospect of mountain man Walmsley challenging for an Olympic berth on the roads stirred up yet another round of the long-running marathoner vs. ultramarathoner debate.

Of course, such comparisons depend on the details of the challenge. Even a truly world-class road specialist with a marathon best of 2:05, Walmsley told the Citius podcast, wouldnt be able to keep up with him on the long, mountainous trails he specializes in: The way I attack the downhills... I will break your quads and you wont be able to jog the flats anymore, he said. Find your 2:05 guy, give me a couple hours in the canyon, Ill be the first one out.

Bold words. But does he have a point? Marathons are generally thought to be a reasonably straightforward test of physiology: VO2max (how quickly you deliver oxygen for your muscles to use), running economy (how efficiently they use it), and lactate threshold (a proxy for how long you can sustain a hard effort). Ultramarathons, according to conventional wisdom, are different. Durability is more important than efficiency, which is why ultrarunners wear heavier shoes and take shorter strides. An iron stomach, to handle lots of eating and running, is more useful than a heart of steel. And the mind is the most important factor of all.

Few studies have actually tested these claims, though, and theres a countervailing school of thought that if a few second-tier Kenyan and Ethiopian marathoners dove into the trail ultra scene, theyd immediately mop up the competition. One of the most hilarious passages in Adharanand Finns recent book The Rise of the Ultra Runners follows his efforts to crowdfund Kenyan and Ethiopian runners to big ultra races in Britain and the United States. A series of mishaps, ranging from a sore toe to the raging wildfires that canceled the North Face 50-mile race in California last year, scuppers every attempt, so the question remains unanswered.

But with the growth of ultrarunning, researchers are becoming increasingly interested in the topic. At a recent conference on sport innovation, University of Guelph researcher and former elite triathlete Alexandra Coates presented some preliminary data from a study of runners at the Sulphur Springs Trail Race, an event in Ontario that includes 50K, 80K, and 160K distances around a course with 20K loops that gain and lose 620 meters each time. Coates and her colleagues put 42 runners (25 men, 17 women) through a series of baseline tests, including the usual physiology tests in the lab, and also assessed their training history and monitored their hydration status during the race. Then they asked a simple question: which variables best predict race performance?

When all the racers were grouped together, performance (quantified by percent of winning time) was best predicted by the highest speed the subjects reached in their treadmill VO2max test. By looking at the speed during the treadmill test, rather than just VO2max itself, you get a measure that reflects both your VO2max and your running economy. In other words, as Coates put it during her talk, those with the best running fitness notched the highest finishesnot a huge surprise, and the same thing youd expect to see in a regular road marathon.

The second-best predictor is perhaps a little more surprising: those who lost the most weight during the race tended to finish faster. Thats also consistent with previous findings from road marathons and other endurance races. What this means is up for debate. One possibility is that drinking too much slows you downby making you heavier, compared to simply drinking when youre thirsty and allowing yourself to get a bit dehydrated. Alternately, the causal arrow may be the other way around: faster and more experienced runners may be better at judging how much (or how little) fluid they need, while slower newbies tend to be overly cautious and drink more. Thats a debate for another time, but its interesting that this pattern once again shows up even in longer races.

Notably missing from the picture is anything related to training history. How much the subjects reported running each week, or over the past year, how much strength training they did, how many years theyd been running, how many previous marathons or ultramarathons theyd completednone of this had any significant impact on finishing performance. Now, dont misread this to imply that training doesnt matter for ultrarunning! But in this particular cohort of recreational runners training, on average, about eight hours per week, the differences between those doing a little more and those doing a little less werent what determined finishing place.

Another interesting detail is what happens when you break down the results by finishing distance. There were 21 runners in the 50K, 13 in the 80K, and just 8 in the 160K, so you have to take the sub-analyses with a big grain of salt. But for what its worth, heres what you find.

The 50K looks a lot like the marathon, with plenty of straightforward physiological predictors. Speed at VO2max is the best one for both men and women; when you combine the genders, percent change in body mass is the best. Other basic health measures like body massindex, age, resting heart rate, and blood pressure also have some predictive power.

But as you go to longer distances, the picture changes. At 80K, the only significant predictor is speed at VO2max. And at 160K, none of the variables measured had any relationship with the eventual performance of the runners. In a sense, this corroborates what ultrarunners like Jim Walmsley have been saying for years: the traits that make you a great marathoner wont necessarily make you a great ultramarathoner, and the differences get wider and wider as the distance gets longer.

I asked Coates what sorts of additional measurements she would add to her study if she were doing it again and wanted to get a better prediction of ultra success. She mentioned strength testing and neuromuscular fatigue resistance, to get a sense of how well your leg muscles can stand up to the prolonged pounding. In-race nutrition strategies is another big one, though its tricky to study in the field: some of the subjects were hallucinating from fatigue by the time they got to her research tent, which makes it hard to get reliable information on what they had eaten. And psychological characteristics are undoubtedly important: how well do you handle adversity and pain?

Of course, all of those ultra-specific traits are important to varying degrees even in shorter road races. Theyre not two different sports, just two ends of a spectrum. And thats what makes Walmsleys upcoming appearance at the Olympic Marathon Trials so much fun to contemplate. Even in the marathon, the standard physiological prediction equations dont always capture everything that matters.

My book, Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, with a foreword by Malcolm Gladwell, is now available. For more, join me on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for the Sweat Science email newsletter.

Read more here:
Why Ultrarunning Success Is Hard to Predict - Outside

DEERFIELD, Ill., Nov. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Mezzion Pharma Co. Ltd. (140410: KOSDAQ) today announces the presentation of data from its pivotal clinical trial for its new orphan drug for the treatment of adolescents with single ventricle heart disease.

Dr. David Goldberg, Pediatric Cardiologist, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia presented the top line results from the FUEL (Fontan Udenafil Exercise Longitudinal Trial) at the Annual Scientific Session of the American Heart Association (AHA) and in a Mezzion Sponsored scientific symposium titled "Fontan Physiology and Results of the FUEL Trial". The primary aim of the FUEL trial was to improve the exercise capacity in adolescents with congenital single ventricle heart disease who have undergone a series of surgeries to palliate the effect of a missing ventricle in their heart. The results of the 400 subject, double-blind, placebo-controlled study showed that the primary aim of improving exercise capacity in adolescents with congenital single ventricle heart disease (SVHD) was achieved.

The top line data from the FUEL trial, which was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of udenafil for the treatment of SVHD adolescents, showed that subjects taking udenafil over a 6-month period had a significant improvement in exercise capacity as measured by oxygen consumption at the ventilatory anerobic threshold (VO2 at VAT). Work rate at VAT and ventilatory equivalents of carbon dioxide at the VAT (VE/VCO2) were likewise improved. While peak VO2 also improved, the data did not reach statistical significance. VO2 at VAT measures the level of oxygen consumption at which one changes from aerobic to anaerobic activity, a clinically relevant level of exertion that is typical of what is encountered in routine exercise activity. Work rate measures the power (watts) generated at the VAT while VE/VCO2 is an index comparing the volume of CO2 with the total respiratory volume. All of these measures demonstrated statistically significant improvement in the udenafil treated group compared to the placebo treated group, as described later in this Press Release.

The FUEL trial was conducted in partnership with the Pediatric Heart Network (PHN) at a total of 30 Pediatric Heart Network [http://www.pediatricheartnetwork.org] and auxiliary sites throughout the U.S., Canada, and Korea. The PHN is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The Fontan Surgery

The Fontan operation is a palliative procedure for children born with functional single ventricle congenital heart disease. Following the Fontan operation there is no ventricular pump to propel blood into the pulmonary arteries. Instead the blood returns to the lungs via passive flow from the systemic veins. This results in a circulation characterized by elevated central venous pressure and a chronically low cardiac output. Over time, these inherent characteristics of Fontan physiology result in a predictable, persistent deterioration of cardiovascular efficiency, as marked by a progressive decline in exercise performance, a decline that accelerates after puberty. This decline in cardiovascular efficiency is associated with the development of substantial morbidities and a significantly shortened life expectancy.

The Fontan Physiology and Exercise Capacity: VO2at VAT is the appropriate measure in Fontan subjects

Exercise capacity of study participants was measured in an exercise lab using a special stationary exercise bicycle that is programmed to increase resistance so that their maximum effort can be assessed. The subject peddles the bicycle while wearing a special mask that allows for the measurement of oxygen consumption. The bicycle automatically increases in resistance requiring the subjects to increase their effort and consume increasingly more oxygen up to their maximum effort.

In the symposium, Dr. Stephen Paridon, Pediatric Cardiologist and Exercise Physiologist, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia explained that exercise capacity can be measured by evaluating the maximal oxygen consumption at the subject's maximal effort (peak VO2) or by measuring the oxygen consumption at the ventilatory anerobic threshold (VO2 at VAT). Peak VO2 is the classical measurement of oxygen capacity in those with two functional ventricles, and therefore was used as the primary outcome measurement in the FUEL trial. Dr. Paridon explained that the new finding from the FUEL trial and other relatively recent research suggest that peak VO2 is not the most appropriate measurement to assess exercise capacity due the unique physiology resulting from the Fontan palliation. Fontan subjects do not have a ventricle to pump the venous blood to the lung. Blood flow to the lung depends solely on the central venous pressure in the body. The central venous pressure in those who have undergone the Fontan operation is elevated at baseline, and typically rises to the degree needed to meet metabolic demands at high levels of exertion, thereby creating a limit to the amount of exercise that can be achieved. While peak VO2 demonstrated improvement of about 3.2% in the udenafil treated group vs 0% in the placebo group, statistical significance (p value=0.07) was not achieved.

Dr. Paridon further explained that VO2 at VAT, may be a more relevant measure of exercise capacity in the Fontan physiology because it occurs at a lower central venous pressure and appears to be less limited by this unique physiology. VO2 at VAT improved by 2.9% in the udenafil group versus a 1.0 % decline in the placebo group and was statistically significant (p value=0.009). Significant improvement also was achieved in two other key parameters which independently demonstrate the Fontan subjects' improved exercise capacity at the ventilatory anerobic threshold: work rate at VAT and ventilatory efficiency (VE/VCO2) at VAT. Dr. Paridon explained that any improvement in VO2 at VAT is clinically relevant to the SVHD patient population.

Regulatory Status

A meeting with the Cardiovascular and Renal Division (DCaRP) of the US FDA was held on October, 8, 2019 for the purpose of presenting the topline data from the FUEL trial and to reach a concurrence with the FDA on the path forward toward submitting a new drug application (NDA) for the approval of udenafil for improving the exercise capacity in subjects with SVHD.

The FDA provided very helpful and constructive guidance. Based on its initial review of the top line data from the FUEL trial, the FDA confirmed that Mezzion can proceed with the submission of the NDA for udenafil for improving the exercise capacity of SVHD subjects and that the submission would be "fileable" provided that the submission contained all of the required information.

Accordingly, in view of the positive results from the FUEL Trial and the safety data collected about udenafil, and in view of the constructive guidance by the FDA, Mezzion intends to expeditiously submit a New Drug Application to the FDA to seek approval for the use of udenafil to treat patients with SVHD who have undergone Fontan palliation.

Mezzion's Clinical Program

In addition to the pivotal FUEL trial, Mezzion continues forward in its clinical program in partnership with the PHN with a long-term study to evaluate the safety of udenafil (FUEL-OLE Study) ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03013751) and a study to evaluate the effect of treatment on Fontan-associated Liver Disease (FALD study). Because of the elevated central venous pressure, liver fibrosis, which can lead to liver cirrhosis, is prevalent in almost all Fontan subjects starting at a very early age. (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03430583).

Orphan Drug and Rare Pediatric Disease Status

On 31 August 2015, The Office of Orphan Products Development (OOPD) granted orphan drug status for udenafil in the treatment of single ventricle congenital heart disease with Fontan physiology [FDA Letter, OOPD, Designation Request #14-4497]. On 20 April 2017, OOPD designated udenafil for treatment of single ventricle congenital heart disease as a drug for "rare pediatric disease".

New Patents

Mezzion has submitted patent filings based on the new findings from the FUEL trial. The new patents, if the claims are allowed, should further strengthen the patent position for Mezzion in the United States and elsewhere. Mezzion is not only protected by different patent families, but its exclusivity is further enhanced by other forms of protection such as regulatory and proprietary know-how. We believe that this matrix of intellectual property provides Mezzion with a unique position to provide a much-needed new pharmacotherapy to Fontan patients.

Udenafil

Udenafil is a unique phosphodiesterase (PDE)-5 inhibitor being developed in the United States (US) to improve and maintain exercise capacity in adolescents with Fontan physiology. PDE5 inhibitors are a class of medications that have demonstrated utility in reducing pulmonary vascular resistance and improving ventricular performance in patients with pulmonary hypertension (Galie et al 2005; Humpl et al 2005; Behling et al 2008; Nagayama et al 2009; Guazzi et al 2011). Udenafil is a unique PDE5 inhibitor that that has undergone Phase III testing in adolescents with Fontan physiology and has demonstrated excellent safety and tolerability in this population, in which cardiac output and exercise are limited by the absence of a sub-pulmonary ventricle.

Mezzion Pharma Co. Ltd.

Mezzion Pharma is headquartered in South Korea. Mezzion Pharma and its wholly owned subsidiary, Mezzion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., have administrative offices in Deerfield, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida. Mezzion Pharma is an innovation-driven pharmaceutical company that is focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing novel therapeutics in the field of rare pediatric diseases. Mezzion Pharma is a publicly-listed pharmaceutical company in Korea on the Korean stock exchange under (140410:KOSDAQ).

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements contained in this press release regarding matters that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Because such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding: Mezzion Pharma's expectations regarding the potential benefits of udenafil; Mezzion Pharma's expectations regarding the anticipated timing of any future clinical trials; Mezzion Pharma's expectations on regulatory submissions for marketing approval of udenafil for the treatment of Fontan patients to improve exercise capacity in the United States, including the timing of these submissions; and Mezzion Pharma's expectations regarding the potential commercial launch of udenafil, including the timing of a potential approval of udenafil. Risks and uncertainties that contribute to the uncertain nature of the forward-looking statements include: the expectation that Mezzion Pharma will need additional funds to finance its operations; Mezzion Pharma's or any of its collaborative partners' ability to initiate and/or complete clinical trials; the unpredictability of the regulatory process; the possibility that Mezzion Pharma's or any of its clinical trials will not be successful; Mezzion Pharma's dependence on the success of udenafil; Mezzion Pharma's reliance on third parties for the manufacture of Mezzion Pharma's udenafil and udenafil tablets; possible regulatory developments in the United States and foreign countries; and Mezzion Pharma's ability to attract and retain senior management personnel.

These and other risks and uncertainties are described more fully in Mezzion Pharma's most recent filings with the Statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act: with the exception of the historical information contained in this release, the matters described herein contain forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties that may individually or mutually impact the matters herein described, including but not limited to FDA review and approval, product development and acceptance, manufacturing, competition, and/or other factors, which are outside the control of Mezzion Pharma. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date on which they were made. Mezzion undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.

Contact:

Dr. James YeagerTel: +1-847-2122679Email: james.yeager@mezzion.comDeerfield, Illinois, USA

Mr. YT SongTel: +82 2 560 8011Email:ytsong@mezzion.co.krSeoul, Korea

Go here to read the rest:
Mezzion Pharma announces the presentation of the FUEL Trial data at the American Heart Association Meeting in Philadelphia - The Courier-Express

From left are Southeast students Kevin Yaeger, Logan Page and Kory Kasper.

Three Southeast Missouri State University students in the Department of Kinesiology, Nutrition and Recreation captured first place for the second consecutive year in the Student Quiz Bowl at the Central States Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Conference Oct. 24-25 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The annual Student Quiz Bowl is a jeopardy-style competition amongst undergraduates from universities and colleges from Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. Each team of three students is given a question from science-based categories and has 15 seconds to determine an answer, said Dr. Jason Wagganer, professor and interim chair of the Department of Kinesiology, Nutrition and Recreation at Southeast.

The Southeast team was comprised of Logan Page, a senior general health sciences major from Malden, Missouri; Kory Kasper, a senior athletic training major from Springfield, Illinois; and Kevin Yaeger, a senior health sciences major, pre-physical therapy/occupation therapy option, from St. Louis, Missouri. The students were invited to compete based on their academic success in the core curriculum of the health sciences and health management programs.

Kasper plans to become a licensed athletic trainer, and Page aspires to become a perfusionist. Both were members of last years winning team. Yaeger, who plans to pursue a doctorate in physical therapy and work in an outpatient clinic, was a first-year member of the team.

The quiz bowl was the greatest part of the whole conference, said Yaeger. Just before the final question, I was very nervous. I did not want to blow our first place lead on the last question. However, when we found out the topic was anatomy, all nervousness went away. My team and I were calm and ready to take on the question.

In addition to questions on anatomy, students were asked questions about exercise physiology, kinesiology, exercise prescription, ergogenic aids, resistance training, cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology.

The team now advances to the National ACSM Student Quiz Bowl competition in San Francisco, California, next May. They will represent the Central States region as they compete against teams from the other 11 regions in the ACSM organization.

Wagganer said, Beating larger institutions at the regional Student Quiz Bowl competition is a true testament to the academic program and quality of faculty within the Department of Kinesiology, Nutrition and Recreation, Wagganer said

Originally posted here:
Southeast Health Sciences, Athletic Training Students Repeat as Winners of Regional ACSM Quiz Bowl - Southeast Missouri State University News

Our emphasis on boutique funding programs, rather than open discovery science, hampers our prospects.

For the 96th successive year, no Canadian-based discovery was deemed worthy of recognition for a Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine when this years winners were announced on October 7. Fully expecting this outcome, the organizers of a conference in Montreal on October 3 debated why Canada remains unsuccessful.

The conference, Beyond The Nobel Prize: Performing Scientific Excellence in Canada, began with a presentation from Urban Ahlin, the Swedish ambassador to Canada. Then, Nils Hansson from the University of Dusseldorf and Thomas Schlich from McGill University invited Gairdner Foundation president and scientific director Janet Rossant, Canadian Medical Hall of Fame laureate Jacalyn Duffin from Queens University, and the Lancet executive editor Jocalyn Clark from London, as the morning speakers. Although recognizing the noble aspects of awards, the data were clear with respect to the shockingly low level of nominations and awards for Canadians, and for women globally. The speakers acknowledged a lack of transparency, including with the nomination process itself, with the Gairdners being totally open and the Nobel Prizes restricted.

The afternoon session featured examples of specific nominees for the Nobel, with the conference organizers Drs. Hansson and Schlich documenting the highly exclusive networks that have evolved for Nobel nominations and the history of how this has happened. A consensus from the conference was that such awards were of value to science and any effort to improve on Canadas record was to be welcomed, as would an effort to increase radically gender equity for awards.

Today, Nobel Prizes in medicine or physiology are given to scientists who themselves have defined the problem to be solved, how to do it, and then went ahead to put in the hard work to solve the problem with experiments whose outcomes and importance have stood the test of time.

In the life sciences, rewarding scientific excellence in Canada has taken a different route. Boutique funding programs that largely exclude open science are preferred. The Canada First Excellence Research Fund goes to individual universities through the president or principal of that university, who have themselves selected a priority area to support. The Canada Excellence Research Chairs and Canada 150 Research Chairs, also funded by Canadian taxpayers, go to discoveries made outside of Canada, with the investigators who made these discoveries recruited to Canada through this funding mechanism.

By contrast, funding open science by Canadas own investigators has not been seen as a priority. For the life and health sciences, our national funding agency, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, is now reduced to supporting poorly funded project grants that have a 15 percent success rate and are male dominated. Multiple reports have been written and hand-wringing has ensued in the scientific community, but the priorities of our political decision-makers are elsewhere. The prospects for a future Nobel in physiology or medicine is therefore highly unlikely since discoveries come from open science and rarely from managed, unaccountable top-down decision-makers.

Canada is seen as important to the international network of award recognition for discoveries through the Gairdner Foundation. Ninety-two Gairdner award winners have gone on to win Nobel Prizes, including all three of this years wnners, who were recognized by the Gairdner Foundation in 2010. As the leading predictor of eventual Nobel Prizes in medicine, there is a clamour internationally for Gairdner recognition.

Gender equity is a priority for the Gairdner Foundation. However, the number of nominations and awards for women remains at less than 10 percent. The number of Canadians winning Gairdner International Awards has declined precipitously, regardless of gender, coincident with the lack of priority for funding open discovery research in Canada.

Scientists, especially in Canada, are generally not distracted by the glamour of award recognition. Go into any discovery lab in the life sciences in Canada; they are populated by a majority of women who are largely motivated by the satisfaction of having made discoveries that they themselves know benefit the foundation of knowledge and will impact our health and well-being. The science agenda, meanwhile, was absent from the recent Canadian federal election.

Perhaps as the 100th anniversary approaches to celebrate our one and only Nobel Prize in medicine (Frederick Banting in 1923), we will use that occasion to start a meaningful conversation about the importance of open discovery research in the life sciences.

See the original post here:
Beyond the Nobel Prize in medicine the Canada conundrum - University Affairs

A new study from researchers at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai shows that electronic nicotine delivery systems, including devices such as e-cigarettes, may be just as harmful to the heart, if not more, than traditional cigarettes. The findings were presented today at the annual American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2019.

What makes e-cigarettes so harmful to the heart and lungs is not just nicotine. It's the completely unknown bucket of manufactured products used to form vapors that is likely causing the most harm. This is what we believe is underlying the current public health problem."

Florian Rader, MD, MSc, senior author, medical director of the Human Physiology Laboratory and assistant director of the Non-Invasive Laboratory at the Smidt Heart Institute

These findings come at a crucial time, as reports of lung-related e-cigarette injuries are increasing, even while many distributors continue to claim that using e-cigarettes are safe and can help tobacco cigarette smokers kick the habit.

A recent study by the Food and Drug Administration found that 27.5% of high school students used e-cigarettes in 2019, compared to 20.8% in 2018. The same study also estimates 3.62 million middle and high school students were e-cigarette users in 2018.

In the Smidt Heart Institute study, the team of researchers compared healthy, young-adult smokers aged 18 to 38 who were regular users of e-cigarettes or tobacco cigarettes. The researchers then measured participants' blood flow to the heart muscle-focusing on a measure of coronary vascular function-before and after sessions of either e-cigarette use or cigarette smoking, while participants were at rest and also after they performed a handgrip exercise which simulates physiologic stress.

In smokers who used traditional cigarettes, blood flow increased modestly after traditional cigarette inhalation and then decreased with subsequent stress. However, in smokers who used e-cigarettes, blood flow decreased after both inhalation at rest and also after handgrip stress.

"Our results suggest that e-cigarette use is associated with coronary vascular dysfunction at rest, even in the absence of physiologic stress," said Susan Cheng, MD, MPH, MMsc, director of Public Health Research at the Smidt Heart Institute and director of Cardiovascular Population Sciences at the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center. "These findings indicate the opposite of what e-cigarette and vaping marketing is saying about their safety profile."

The original concept and design of this study was initiated by the late Ronald G. Victor, MD, a foundational pioneer in cardiovascular physiology studies.

"We have known for decades that smoking increases your risk for heart attack and dying from heart disease," said Christine Albert, MD, MPH, founding chair of the newly established Department of Cardiology at the Smidt Heart Institute. "Now, with this study, we have compelling evidence suggesting that newer methods of electronic nicotine delivery may be equally, or potentially more, harmful to your heart as traditional cigarettes."

Given that e-cigarettes represent a relatively new product on the market, Albert cautions users that there may be a number of unforeseen health effects.

To better understand the potentially dangerous consequences of e-cigarettes, Rader, Cheng and investigators in the Human Physiology Laboratory at the Smidt Heart Institute plan on studying the mechanisms underlying changes in heart and blood vessel flow seen in their work to-date, as well as the effects of e-cigarette use across a more diverse population of study participants including those with existing cardiovascular risk.

"What we are learning from our own research, along with the work of others, is that use of any electronic nicotine delivery system should be considered with a high degree of caution until more data can be gathered," said Rader.

View original post here:
E-cigarettes may be more harmful to the heart than traditional cigarettes, study shows - News-Medical.net

Europe's oldest kingdom Denmark is also one of the most space-minded countries. Its University of Copenhagen, Danish Aerospace Company in Odense and Ohmatex in Aarhus collaborate on a project involving smart workout clothes for astronauts

The Department of Biomedical Sciencesat the Copenhagen University has spent years with the project, validating intelligent sports tights that in the near future will be taken to the ISSto be tried out by astronauts.

The role of the Danish Aerospace Companyis to ascertain that the electronics in the smart clothing are suitable and safe to use.

The three organizations signed a DKK 7.75 million contract within the General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) that foresees collection of data, launch and development of various space appliances, tools and instruments manufactured in Denmarkover the next three years. The funding is provided by ESA.

The ESAintends to find out how astronaut exercise routine when in space can be improved, and what specific astronauts need to remain healthy throughout their missions. That's where automated mobile measurements Ohmatexsmart tights provide come in.

The ISScrew will test the development in space, and theUniversity of Copenhagenwill run control tests on Earthusing data the astronauts send.

Dr Lonnie Grove Petersen,both of theDepartment of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Copenhagenand at the University of CaliforniainSan Diego, explained that these smart tights intended to be used for regular workout for crew members will also provide an excellent opportunity for researchers to learn more about the connection between the presence or absence of gravity and human physiology.

The manufacturer of the workout suitsOhmatexprovides each of the items with six sensors to pick up electrical muscle activity, oxygen and blood flow data while the astronauts exercise.

Dr Petersenbelieves that the new development will allow researchers to improve astronaut training programs and monitor their health to a greater advantage, seeing that they stay in shape during their missions, for instance, to Mars and the Moon, and return to Earthin good health.

'Many of the changes we see in space are similar to an accelerated aging process and there are many parallels to specific diseases on Earth: Muscles atrophy, bones decalcify, and we see major effects on the cardiovascular system and the brain. Moreover, when the astronauts return, the opposite happens: A kind of regeneration process. In this way, physiology in space can teach us a lot about the development of diseases,' she explains.

See original article at the Copenhagen University website

Read more:
Smart Workout Clothes To Help Astronauts Stay Fit and Healthy on Missions - Asgardia Space News

Description of the following video:

[Video: Indiana University "Grand Challenge Responding to the Addictions Crisis" graphic fades in, in red on a white screen]

[Music: Music fades in]

[Video: Exterior wall of Indiana University Neurosciences Research Building fades in]

[Video: Exterior front entrance glass of IU Neurosciences Research Building School of Medicine]

Brady Atwood speaks in voiceover: I'm Brady Atwood; I'm an assistant professor ...

[Video: Atwood appears onscreen, sitting in some sort of laboratory, continuing to speak; graphic appears in the lower left of the screen showing his name and affiliation: ... in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

[Video: Slow motion of Atwood walking toward the camera as the lower-thirds graphic pushes toward camera and fades away to the left; video fades into next shot]

[Video: Atwood's lab team together, looking at the camera, as camera pushes in]

Atwood speaks in voiceover: So, my lab is very much interested in how drugs of abuse such as opioids affect how the brain functions.

[Video: Slow-motion pan of lab member using equipment]

[Video: Three brain images pan across the screen, fading into one another. The first two are tinted red; the third is green]

Atwood speaks in voiceover: Specifically looking at how it changes the way brain cells talk to one another and how that translates into changes of behavior ...

[Video: Two separate shots of computer monitors showing activity on screens]

Atwood speaks in voiceover: ... with hopes of someday being able to find ways to undo some of those changes as ways to treat drug abuse and addiction

[Video: Atwood is briefly shown speaking in the same lab environment, but it quickly switches to voiceover]

[Video: Lab member pipetting solution into a small tube]

Atwood speaks in voiceover: So we do have a project with the Grand Challenges Responding to the Addictions Crisis.

[Video: Lab member pouring substance into a clear large-mouthed bottle of clear liquid]

Atwood speaks in voiceover: Our project is very much focused on ...

[Video: Silhouette of mother holding baby in the air]

Atwood speaks in voiceover: ... children that are born to mothers that were dependent on opioids ...

[Video: Close up on a baby's face as it lies on its back, smiling]

Atwood speaks in voiceover: ... or mothers that used opioids during pregnancy.

[Video: Lab member handling lab materials]

Atwood speaks in voiceover: Increasingly in the news -- opioids have been abused for a long time, but there's an increasing number of children that are born to opioid-dependent mothers.

[Video: Lab member using lab equipment as Brady Atwood supervises]

[Video: Lab member handling a red-tinged solution in a test tube; a test tube with green liquid is in a holder nearby]

Atwood speaks in voiceover: And we don't quite know what the long-term outcomes for these children are.

[Video: Children playing in water spouts]

Atwood speaks in voiceover: We don't know how this will affect their ability to learn and develop and social interactions.

[Video: Young girl in chair interacting with an object and looking up]

[Video: A group of children at a table working on an assignment of some sort]

Atwood speaks in voiceover: We don't know how this will affect gene expression and how that will affect their long-term outcomes.

[Video: A child in a stroller drinking out of a bottle as other children play nearby

[Video: Lab member opening a door to lab equipment]

Atwood speaks in voiceover: So the Addictions Grand Challenge was a fantastic opportunity. We brought together nine different investigators for our project with a range of expertise from understanding pharmacology, understanding genetics, physiology ...

[Video: Male and female lab members working in lab]

[Video: Solution in glass tubes spinning]

[Video: Monitor showing ultrasound]

[Video: Atwood speaks on camera in the lab environment: ... and we all got together and brought our ... ]

Atwood speaks in voiceover: ... different expertises and are approaching this project from a lot of different angles to really capture every aspect that we can of ...

[Video: Lab team together, looking at camera as a group as camera pulls back

[Video: Atwood walking through lab, looking at what members are doing]

[Video: Atwood is shown speaking onscreen: ... how this in utero opioid overexposure affects children.]

[Video: Fade to Indiana University "Grand Challenge Responding to the Addictions Crisis" graphic, in red on white background, then fades out to black screen with red-and-white IU trident and "Indiana University" in white.]

[Music: Music fades out]

[Video: Indiana University fades out]

END OF TRANSCRIPT

The number of babies born exposed to opioids has increased fivefold since 2000. While medication-assisted therapies are recommended for treating opioid use disorder in pregnant women, the long-term consequences of in utero opioid exposure, including medication-assisted therapies, on health and the risk for substance abuse later in life are unknown.

Brady Atwood, assistant professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, is studying the effects of in utero exposure to opioids on neonatal, adolescent and adult physiology and behavior as part of the Responding to the Addictions Crisis Grand Challenge initiative.

Atwood's research reflects IU's extensive expertise and research regarding addictions. To build on this area of strength, IU President Michael A. McRobbie, along with Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and IU Health President and CEO Dennis Murphy, announced the Responding to the Addictions Crisis Grand Challenge initiative in October 2017.

April Toler is assistant director of communications in the Office of the Vice President for Research.

Continued here:
In utero opioid exposure is subject of IU School of Medicine research - IU Newsroom

Jobs in Karachi University: KU invites applications for post of Teaching Assistant, Teaching Associate

KARACHI: University of Karachi (KU) has invited applications for the post of Teaching Assistant/Teaching Associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Physiology.

Qualifications for Teaching Associate in Department of Chemical Engineering

Qualifications for Teaching Assistant in Department of Chemical Engineering

Required Qualifications for Teaching Associate/Teaching Assistant in Department of Physiology

Candidates are required to submit their applications along with attested documents by November 15, 2019.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for interview.

Appointment will be made for one semester only in Physiology Department

Go here to read the rest:
Jobs in Karachi University: KU invites applications for post of Teaching Assistant, Teaching Associate - The News International

The impact can feel immediate. Anecdotally, walking outside and into sunshine feels reinvigorating.

Science has long proven this to be true: Research shows that time spent outdoors can reduce stress, improve cognition and increase sleep quality. Now, a new study has put a dollar value on the improvement in well-being due to park visits.

Researchers at Griffith University in Australia suggest that national parks and protected areas save an approximate $6 trillion globally in mental health care costs. Lead study author Ralf Buckley said while that is a conservative estimate, its still 10 times greater than the global value of park tourism and 100 times greater than the global value of park agency budgets.

Researchers surveyed a population-representative sample of nearly 20,000 in the Australian states of Queensland and Victoria. Study participants described their own mental health and reported how often they visit parks both recently and over the span of their life. Buckley said his team then used a statistical regression technique to identify what proportion of their well-being was due to park visits, he added.

The researchers found that 2.5 to 3% of a persons mental health is based on how often they visit parks. While the percentage seems low, its about the same as the effect of additional income on a persons mental health, according to the study.

The researchers found that 2.5 to 3% of a persons mental health is based on how often they visit parks. While the percentage seems low, its about the same as the effect of additional income on a persons mental health.

Researchers calculated what they define as the "health services value" for Australia's national parks to be about $100 billion before extrapolating the figure to a global scale. Their findings suggest that national parks contribute about $6 billion to the global economy, though the figure ranges anywhere between $5-31 trillion per year. The big range is a reflection of the researchers caution in what the numbers mean exactly.

You can scale up by mental health factors; quality-adjusted life years; population. You can scale up by GDP. You can scale up by number of park visits, Buckley said. We dont know which will prove to be the best scaling factor. Depending which of those factors we use, we get a different number. And thats why we have that big range.

Ideally, Buckley said, he and his team would have identical studies in countries worldwide and added up the numbers.

The study adds to a growing body of research that quantifies the economic benefits of being outside. A 2016 study in England looked at green exercise, which include activities done outside, such as dog walking, running, horseback riding and mountain biking. Researchers estimated that these green activities can save around $2.7 billion per year.

But committing to a hiking trip every weekend is not necessary to reap these rewards. Previous research has shown that spending a mere 20 minutes in a park even if you sit on a bench and dont exercise is enough to improve a persons mental health.

Studies show that being outside is good for your physical health, as well. Research published in 2016 suggests nearly 10% of people with high blood pressure could regulate their levels by going outside for at least 30minutes every week.

Scientists have also found nature to have a psychological effect on humans well-being. Researchers at Chiba University in Japan pointed to the fact that of the 7 million years of human evolution, less than 0.01% of our species history has been spent in modern surroundings.

The gap between the natural setting, for which our physiological functions are adapted, and the highly urbanized and artificial setting that we inhabit is a contributing cause of the stress state in modern people, the 2016 Chiba University study said. In the future, the researchers added, long-term data over days, weeks, and months will be needed to clarify natures impact on humans physiology.

Considering the significance of quality of life in our modern stressful society, the importance of nature therapy will further increase. The therapeutic effects of natural stimulation suggest a simple, accessible, and cost-effective method to improve the quality of life and health of modern people, the study continued.

Some countries have long known about the healing effects of nature. One of the most long-standing nature therapies in transcontinental Japan and China is shinrin-yoku, or forest therapies. Chiba Universitys Miyazaki Yoshifumi is widely considered to be the father of shinrin-yoku.

Professor Emerita Margaret Hansen of the University of San Francisco, is a self-proclaimed nature enthusiast who learned about shinrin-yoku in 2015. Shinrin-yoku is an ancient Japanese practice that surfaced in the 1980s, when the Japanese government started to act on its citizens highly stressed state. The government began developing forest bathing areas throughout Japan, focusing efforts in urban areas where green space is more rare.

In 2017, she published a review of 63 scientific articles primarily out of Japan, Korea and China that studied forest bathing and nature therapys impact. Her mission was to educate health professionals in the United States about the therapy so they could contemplate using it in practice.

In 2018, Hansen traveled to Chiba University in Japan to meet with Yoshifumi. There, she walked the first-ever forest therapy path developed by the government. But, Hansen said, forest therapy is not just about being active; its about really slow movement through a forest.

The Japanese practice is using all of your five senses. Even cupping your ears to bring in more sound of nature. Or doing some exercises to enhance your peripheral vision when youre in nature, Hansen said. Smelling taking some leaves or pine cones and crunching them and putting them up to your nose.

The Japanese practice is using all of your five senses. Even cupping your ears to bring in more sound of nature. Or doing some exercises to enhance your peripheral vision when youre in nature. Smelling taking some leaves or pine cones and crunching them and putting them up to your nose.

Buckley said nature-based therapies should be designed, insured and prescribed more often. More and more providers are joining the trend.

Both Buckley and Hansen said its largely the governments responsibility to secure budgets for park agencies and protect natural lands, which often suffer from budgetary constraints, the researchers noted.

Chelsea Sullivan, public affairs specialist at the National Park Service, said in an emailed statement to The World that the improvements to visitor facilities, campgrounds, trails, and backbone infrastructure are essential to providing a world-class experience to our more than 300 million annual visitors. Addressing the $11.9 billion in backlogged maintenance in our national parks is critical to our core mission and remains a top priority.

Sullivan added that NPS supports the link the researchers identified between enjoyable recreation experiences and healthy landscapes, through programs like the Healthy Parks Healthy People initiative, noting that these needed to be balanced with preservation and conservation needs.

Now retired from teaching, Hansen is training to be a forest therapy guide through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy. She continues to research forest bathing, though, and is currently analyzing the tie between nature and a persons spirituality. While researchers continue to test the link between nature and well-being, Hansen said the connection is simple and it makes sense.

I cant get enough of nature, she said. Im not going to stop.

See the original post here:
Nature therapies can save trillions in health care costs - PRI

There are three major seasons in the life of a bear: the active season, beginning in May; a period of intense eating, in late September, and hibernation, from January into spring.

Physiologically, the hibernation period is the strangest, and the most compelling, to researchers. When a bear hibernates, its metabolic rate and heart rate drop significantly. It does not defecate or urinate. The amount of nitrogen in its blood rises sharply, without damaging the kidneys or liver. The animal becomes resistant to insulin but doesnt suffer from fluctuations in its blood sugar levels.

A human experiencing those conditions every year for several months at a time could easily end up with diabetes, obesity, bone loss, atrophied muscles or worse. But each spring the bear emerges no worse for wear, albeit a little groggy.

Even when they are very fat, its a healthy obesity, said Brian Barnes, who studies black bear hibernation in Alaska. They dont suffer from the same kinds of pathologies that occur in people.

Why not? A group of researchers at Washington State University published a study in Communications Biology in September that sought to better understand what goes on in the cells of hibernating grizzly bears. The university is home to the W.S.U. Bear Center, the only grizzly bear research center in the United States; it houses 11 bears that were either raised in captivity or relocated to the center after being identified as problem bears in the wild.

Researchers took samples from the liver, fat and muscle of six captive grizzly bears at three times during the year. In the lab, a team of researchers analyzed the DNA to understand the changes that occur in the cells over the course of the year.

The effect of hibernation on each tissue is different, said Joanna Kelley, an evolutionary biologist at Washington State University and one of the papers authors. Hibernation is not just as simple as hibernating and not hibernating. There are transitional things happening throughout the year.

The team found that the bears fatty tissues changed the most during hibernation, whereas the muscle tissue hardly changed at all. The muscle cells remained active through the hibernation period, which might help explain why those tissues do not atrophy.

Most surprising to Heiko Jansen, the studys lead author, was that the bears fat contained a large number of genes that change their level of expression over the course of the year. Its in the thousands, he said. In contrast, when dwarf lemurs in Madagascar hibernate, only a few hundred genes in their fat tissues change their level of expression seasonally.

Hibernation isnt a one-size-fits-all phenomenon, Dr. Jansen said. Different genes are utilized by different species.

In the early days of hibernation studies, researchers were on the lookout for a physiological trigger, something singular and obvious that set the process in motion something, perhaps, that scientists could isolate and inject into a non-hibernating animal, and have them fall over and go to sleep, said Charles Robbins, the director of the W.S.U. Bear Center. Now we realize that there are an enormous number of genes changing.

Other animals hibernate, too, like mountain pygmy possums in Australia, thirteen-lined ground squirrels in North American grasslands, and various species of bat. Their activity has long been of interest to researchers, who are eager to learn how a state of suspended animation might be applied to human health.

Matt Andrews, a molecular biologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, studied the biology of hibernating ground squirrels and later helped develop a treatment for hemorrhagic shock. In the early 2000s, during the military conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, Dr. Andrews learned that victims of roadside bombings were at high risk of death from blood loss. Such incidents are survivable if the patient has access to a tourniquet and transfusion, but in remote areas the victims could not reach help quickly enough.

Dr. Andrews noticed that hibernating squirrels use melatonin, a potent antioxidant, to protect the cells when blood flow increases after months of inactivity. His team put together a cocktail of melatonin and ketones that might be injected into a person experiencing hemorrhagic shock, to reduce damage to tissues when blood supply returns. The treatment so far has passed tests with rats and pigs, and the team has met with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to plan future clinical trials.

The physiology of hibernation might also be applicable to organ transplants. A waiting kidney or liver can be preserved in cold solutions for 24 hours, but after that it cant be used; a heart or a lung is only viable for four to six hours.

Transplantations have to be very well planned out, and theres no such thing as organ banks, Dr. Andrews said. Individuals in need must wait for a donation. But if organs could be induced to enter something like hibernation, with a lower metabolic rate, that might allow organ donation banks to exist.

Hibernation could also be handy during extraterrestrial travel. With current-day propulsion technology, a round trip to Mars takes about two and a half years and a lot of food, air, water and medical supplies for the astronauts. Induced torpor might be just what humans need to get us permanently off our Earthbound behinds.

Were a long way from that, Dr. Jansen said. But we know we can manipulate the energetic profiles of a cell in cell cultures.

Hibernation may yet be something that humans learn to master, fully or in part. In the meantime, wildlife researchers are keen to emphasize how important hibernation is to the survival of the animals that can already do it. We are all better off having these animals in the wild, Dr. Jansen said.

Read more from the original source:
Hibernation Works for Bears. Could It Work for Us, Too? - The New York Times