Earticle

Factors associated with increased body mass, including dyslipidemia, hypertension, insulin resistance, vascular endothelial dysfunction and sleep disorders, may contribute to the exacerbation of cardiovascular disease. These health problems associated with obesity are caused by accumulated metabolism and physical and emotional stress. Lifestyle, especially exercise, is a major therapeutic strategy for the treatment and management of obesity-induced metabolic problems. Metabolic disease often co-occurs with abdominal obesity. Exercise is necessary for the treatment of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. A potential benefit of exercise is to promote fat burning and energy use increases both during exercise itself and in the post-exercise period. Exercise suppresses basal metabolic rate and also has many health benefits. Why should we exercise to lose weight? Does physical activity help lower blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and blood sugar? In this article, we review the positive effects of physical exercise on weight maintenance and weight loss, and the effectiveness of physical exercise on the treatment and prevention of metabolic syndrome.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of whole body vibration (WBV) on the sensory and motor nerve components with sciatic nerve injury model rats. Surgery was performed on 21 female Wister rats (6–8 weeks) under intraperitoneal anesthesia. The nerve-crush injuries for the left sciatic nerve were inflicted using a Sugita aneurysm clip. The sciatic nerve model rats were randomly divided into two groups (n=9; control group, n=12; WBV group). The rats in the WBV group walked in the cage with a vibratory stimulus (frequency 50 Hz, 20 min/day, 5 times/wk), while those in the control group walked in the cage without any vibrato-ry stimulus. We used heat stimulation-induced sensory threshold and lumbar magnetic stimulation-induced motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) to measure the sensory and motor nerve components, respectively. Further, morphological measurements, bilateral hind-limb dimension, bilateral gastrocnemius dimension, and weight were evaluated. Conse-quently, there were no significant differences in the sensory threshold at the injury side between the control and WBV groups. However, at 4 and 6 weeks postoperatively, MEPs latencies in the WBV group were significantly shorter than those in the control group. Furthermore, both sides of the hind-limb dimension at 6 weeks postoperatively, the left side of the gastrocnemius dimension, and both sides of the gastrocne-mius weight significantly increased. In conclusion, WBV especially ac-celerates the functional recovery of motor nerve components in sciatic nerve-crush injury model rats.

The talk test (TT) is subjective method to measure exercise intensity in costless and feasible manner, compared to sophisticated laboratory equipment. We attempted to investigate whether the TT was a valid method for evaluation of exercise intensity, by comparing with values derived from various physiologic markers during cardiopulmonary ex-ercise testing on treadmill in healthy population. A total of 17 healthy subjects (12 males and 5 females) participated in this study. The TT was applied, which consisted of 3-stages difficulties demanding respiratory load while they performed the cardiopulmonary exercise testing on treadmill. In each of the TT stages, ergospirometric and psychophysio-logic response marker were collected such as heart rate, oxygen con-sumption, respiratory exchange ratio, minute ventilation, carbon dioxide output, tidal volume, respiratory rate, and rating of perceived exertion of breathing. Statistical analyses revealed a significant difference of all dependent variables in each of three TT stages, comparing with the resting phase before the TT. The TT showed strong correlation coeffi-cient with all variables except for rating of perceived exertion during the resting phase before the TT. According to increase of exercise in-tensity, all dependent variables showed a linear tendency with the stages of the TT. Our findings indicated that each of the TT stages was strongly correlated with ergospirometric variables as well as psycho-physiologic response during cardiopulmonary exercise testing on treadmill. We suggested that the TT can be used to evaluate and pre-scribe exercise intensity of aerobic activity in cardiovascular and pul-monary rehabilitation settings.

This study aimed to identify neuroendocrine substances and natural killer (NK) cells, including their subsets and receptors, to determine whether phytoncides scented in an urban hospital could help improve stress in cancer survivors. Fifty-five gynecological cancer survivors were assigned to either the control group (CG, n= 28) or phytoncide group (PTG, n= 27). The PTG meditated by lying down in a space scented with phytoncide for 1 hr a day, 5 days a week for 8 weeks. Stress levels in both groups were high prior to the experiment and decreased by 9.31%± 45.98% (P= 0.003) only in the PTG after the experiment. Although the parasympathetic nerve activity of the PTG increased, the epinephrine and cortisol levels were significantly (P< 0.001) decreased by 5.29%± 25.5% and by 24.94%± 11.62%. Moreover, the PTG showed a significant increase in the levels of NK cell subsets after 8 weeks, whereas there was no improvement in the CG. In conclusion, phytoncide fragrance reduces stress, increases the number of NK cells and their family even in a nonforest environment, and improves innate immunocytes in gynecological cancer survivors; parasympathetic nerve activity and cortisol hormones play critical roles in this process. That is, a phytoncide essential oil helps to stimulate changes in immunocytes’ mobility by affecting the human nervous and endocrine systems, thereby providing relief for psychological stress among cancer survivors who previously had cancer cells.

To examine the effect of 10-week interval training (IT) at varying intensi-ties on serum muscle damage indicators and antioxidant capacity and determine its effect on the 800-m records of adolescent middle-dis-tance runners. Twenty male high-school middle-distance runners were randomized between the high-intensity IT (HIIT; n=10) and the medi-um-intensity IT (MIIT; n=10) groups. Three sessions/week for 10 weeks (total of 30 sessions) were performed; one session of IT was for 60 min. The high and medium exercise intensities were set at 90%–95% and 60%–70% heart rate reserve (HRR), respectively. Intensity at rest was 40% HRR for both groups. Weight training was performed at 60%–70% of one repetition maximum for two sessions/week. The changes in se-rum muscle damage indicators and antioxidant capacity in the two groups were measured, and their effects on the 800-m records were analyzed. The 10-week training reduced serum muscle damage indica-tors in middle-distance runners, but only the HIIT group displayed a de-crease in creatine kinase. For the change in antioxidant capacity, the two groups demonstrated no significant change in malondialdehyde (MDA), whereas the HIIT group exhibited a significant increase in super-oxide dismutase (SOD). IT also reduced the 800-m records in middle-dis-tance running, and the effect was stronger in the HIIT group. In conclu-sion, 10-week HIIT can have a positive effect on muscle damage indi-cators, showed a significant increase in SOD as a key indicator of anti-oxidant capacity, and improved the 800-m records in middle-distance runners.