Newsbriefs: Power Cycling Increases Muscle Mass and Power; Colorful Produce May Reduce Alzheimer’s Risk; Blood Protein Signatures to Assess Wellness
Power Cycling Increases Muscle Mass and Power
Compared to slow velocity training, research has shown that training at fast velocities results in superior muscle gain of fast-twitch muscle fibers and greater improvements in maximal neuromuscular power. Given that many people complain that they do not like to exercise, researchers from the Human Performance Lab at the University of Texas at Austin wanted to know if very short training sessions could make a difference in otherwise sedentary adults. They tested 39 sedentary men and women ages 50 to 68 to investigate the effectiveness of maximal power cycling (PC) training using an inertial load cycle ergometer (a stationary bike with a weighted flywheel, such as those found in group cycling classes). Over the course of eight weeks, participants performed 15 minutes of interval training three times per week. Each session included repeated four-second sprints (with rest between) done at the person’s maximum ability. Rest periods were progressively shortened from 56 seconds to 26 seconds during the eight-week period. At the end of the study, researchers report that all participants showed significant improvements, especially in muscle power (as much as 12%), which is most relevant to functional tasks, according to the researchers. They further validated results by measuring how quickly participants could rise from a chair unassisted, and they also timed walking speed. Both of those tasks improved by the end of the eight-week study. The study appeared in Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise, Dec. 29, 2020.
Colorful Produce May Reduce Alzheimer’s Risk
The Rush Memory and Aging Project, conducted at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, is a long-term ongoing study funded by the National Institute on Aging that enrolls people in the Chicago area without dementia who agree to clinical evaluation and organ donation. A recent review of data analyzed food questionnaires filled out by 927 older individuals with no dementia at the start of the study. Those with the highest intakes of carotenoids were only half as likely to develop Alzheimer disease (AD) as those with the lowest intake. Carotenoids are colorful compounds that give plants yellow, orange and reddish hues. Lots of produce contain carotenoids, including pumpkin, squash, tomatoes, peas, kale, oranges and cantaloupes. During the study, 508 people died and underwent autopsy. Those who consumed more carotenoids were less likely to have tangles and plaques, which are hallmarks of AD. The study was published in the January 2021 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Blood Protein Signatures to Assess Wellness
The bloodstream touches all the tissues of the body. It carries nutrients to tissues and takes waste products away. Tissues also release proteins into the bloodstream that can communicate with other parts of the body, help mount an immune response to disease, and much more. Some blood tests measure specific proteins to help diagnose diseases (e.g., diabetes, heart disease, and kidney and liver problems). Scientists have been curious about whether blood proteins could be used to more broadly assess people’s health and wellness. To explore this idea researchers from Stanford University collected blood plasma samples from more than 4,000 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 95. They compared the levels of nearly 3,000 proteins in blood between people of different ages as well as between men and women within those age groups. The work was funded in part by the National Institute on Aging. Overall, about two-thirds of the proteins found to change with age differed between men and women. This supports the idea that men and women age differently—and highlights the need to include both sexes in clinical studies for a wide range of diseases. Participants who were predicted by their protein signature to be younger than they actually were performed better than their peers on cognitive and physical tests. Unexpectedly, deeper analyses showed that most protein changes seen with aging did not occur in a linear fashion. Instead, they occurred in waves, with three large peaks of change around the ages of 34, 60, and 78. These waves largely consisted of changes in different proteins and were associated with different biological functions. For example, proteins associated with cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease were found in the peaks at 60 and 78 years of age. More research is needed to understand which protein signatures might help identify people at greater risk of age-related diseases. The findings also may help identify potential targets for preventing and treating age-related diseases.
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