eSports Medicine

May 6, 2023May 6, 2023

Boxing can take the fight to Parkinson’s Disease

Press release:

When we think of boxing, it’s understandable many of us wouldn’t associate it with being ‘good’ for our brains.

However, new Edith Cowan University (ECU) research undertaken in partnership with The Perron Institute and boxer Rai Fazio has shown the sport — without an opponent — could be a valuable way for people suffering Parkinson’s Disease (PD) to improve their quality of life.

Also collaborating with Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and the University of Western Australia, ECU researchers had 10 people with early-stage PD perform three one-hour boxing sessions per week, over 15 weeks.

April 16, 2023May 17, 2023

Rigid Inserts to Treat Turf Toe

Turf toe is a common term used to describe a sprain or injury to the joint at the base of the big toe. It often occurs in athletes who play on artificial turf surfaces, hence the name “turf toe.” However, it can also occur on other playing surfaces or in everyday activities.

Turf toe typically happens when the big toe is hyperextended, or bent too far backward, beyond its normal range of motion. This can happen when a person lands on the foot awkwardly or with too much force, causing damage to the ligaments, tendons, and joint capsule of the big toe.

Symptoms of turf toe may include pain, swelling, and stiffness in the big toe joint, difficulty bending or moving the toe, and tenderness around the base of the toe.

July 15, 2022July 15, 2022

Federal Trade Commission Sues Gravity Defyer for Making Baseless Pain-Relief Claims

Press Release:

The Federal Trade Commission is taking action against California-based Gravity Defyer Medical Technology Corporation and its owner Alexander Elnekaveh, filing a complaint in federal district court to permanently stop their allegedly deceptive pain-relief claims for Gravity Defyer footwear.

In a complaint filed in federal district court, the FTC alleged that Elnekaveh violated a 2001 order barring him from such allegedly deceptive advertising by making scientifically unsupported claims and using misleading consumer testimonials to sell Gravity Defyer products. The FTC claimed that the company’s advertisements often targeted older Americans suffering from pain-related conditions like arthritis.

June 11, 2022June 11, 2022

Male runners who are energy deficient may be at higher risk for fractures

Press Release:

Male runners who do not receive enough energy from their diet may be at risk for stress fractures, according to a new study presented Saturday, June 11 at ENDO 2022, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Atlanta, Ga.

“Our findings indicate that male runners, including recreational runners, should be counseled on the importance of adequate nutrition and caloric intake to optimize hormones, body composition, and bone health and to prevent stress fractures,” said lead researcher Melanie S. Haines, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mass.

Female athletes with undernutrition are at risk for low bone density and stress fractures, Haines noted. “However, it is unclear whether a similar process occurs in male athletes,” she added.

May 30, 2022May 30, 2022

The Bauer’s Bump in Ice Hockey Skates

There one thing that lots of ice hockey athletes complain regarding which is a thing that has become known as the Bauer Bump. Bauer are one of the leading brands of ice hockey skates, therefore the condition is called after them, even though the problem may happen in every make of ice hockey skate. The problem is usually exactly what is recognized as Haglund’s deformity or possibly a retrocalcaneal bursitis. In addition, it may get called the pump bump. This is where there is an swelling on the calcaneus bone behind that any hard footwear just like an ice hockey skate is going to irritate and trigger an inflammatory reaction of the bursa there. It is not something that is exclusive in ice hockey and Haglund’s problems could happen to anybody in any shoes if the shoes irritates an swelling at the back of the calcaneus bone.

Typically, the enlargement is visible at the rear of the heel bone and it is clear to understand just how any boot or footwear will almost certainly inflame this enlargement. Any continuing irritation will inflame a bursa that is above the calcaneus at the back of the heel and it will become red and enlarged from this. That inflammation can sometimes become so painful that anti-inflammatory prescription drugs may be required to relieve the pain and the inflammation.

July 12, 2021July 12, 2021

Want to avoid running overuse injuries? Don’t lean forward so much, says CU Denver study

Press release:

The ubiquitous overuse injuries that nag runners may stem from an unlikely culprit: how far you lean forward.

Trunk flexion, the angle at which a runner bends forward from the hip, can range wildly–runners have self-reported angles of approximately -2 degrees to upward of 25. A new study from the University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver) found that greater trunk flexion has significant impact on stride length, joint movements, and ground reaction forces. How you lean may be one of the contributors to your knee pain, medial tibial stress syndrome, or back pain.

“This was a pet peeve turned into a study,” said Anna Warrener, PhD, lead author and assistant professor of anthropology at CU Denver. Warrener worked on the initial research during her postdoc fellowship with Daniel Liberman, PhD, in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. “When [Lieberman] was out preparing for his marathons, he noticed other people leaning too far forward as they ran, which had so many implications for their lower limbs. Our study was built to find out what they were.”

June 16, 2021May 6, 2023

Lies to hide doping in professional sport

Press release:

How do top athletes talk about doping when they themselves are using performance-enhancing drugs? Or do they just avoid the issue? A new study by the University of Göttingen reveals that any decision to use drugs almost inevitably means the decision to engage in deceptive communication such as lying or omitting information. Those using drugs, for example, regularly describe anti-doping policies as being more intense than ever or overly restrictive, play down the extent of the doping problem, or portray themselves as victims. The results were published in the European Journal for Sport and Society.

Dr Marcel Reinold, Head of Sport and Health Sociology at the Institute of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Göttingen University, analysed autobiographies of professional cyclists for the study. All of these autobiographies were written at a time before the cyclists were exposed as having used performance-enhancing drugs. The best-known examples are the two best-selling autobiographies by Lance Armstrong, former seven-time Tour de France winner, written in the early 2000s. In them, Armstrong portrays himself as “clean”, although investigations by the US Anti-Doping Agency some ten years later revealed otherwise. “The main goal of this research is to identify the techniques of deceptive communication about doping – that is, typical communication strategies and statements that drug-users routinely employ to manipulate information and conceal doping,” says Reinold.

June 15, 2021June 15, 2021

High genetic running capacity promotes efficient metabolism with aging

Press release:

High running capacity is associated with health and longevity. However, whether high genetic running capacity promotes more efficient metabolism with aging is not known. A new study conducted in collaboration between the universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China) and Jyväskylä (Finland) investigated the effects of genetic running capacity and aging on tissue metabolism. The study reveals that adipose tissue may have a key role in healthy aging.

Running capacity, expressed as aerobic capacity, refers to an individual’s capacity to utilize oxygen and is known to decrease with age, thereby affecting the whole body metabolism and health.

“We currently lack the information whether high genetic aerobic capacity promotes healthier metabolism in different tissues as we age,” explains Academy of Finland postdoctoral researcher Sira Karvinen from the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

To study the question, animal models of high-capacity runners (HCR) and low-capacity runners (LCR) were utilized. These rodent lines differ in their aerobic capacity genetically. Samples of serum, muscle and adipose tissue were harvested from young and aged animals to explore the tissue metabolites.

“According to our results, high genetic running capacity was associated with more efficient amino acid metabolism in skeletal muscle. Inefficient amino acid metabolism is linked to increased adiposity and risk of metabolic diseases,” says Karvinen.

High genetic running capacity and aging interactively affected lipid metabolism in muscle and adipose tissue, possibly contributing to healthier metabolism with aging.

The results suggest that adipose tissue may have a more significant role in promoting healthy aging than previously thought. According to the current literature, around 50% of an individual’s aerobic capacity is genetically inherited and the other 50% can be gained via physical activity.

“Regular exercise promotes health whether you have genetically high or low aerobic capacity. Hence, it is highly recommended to promote one’s metabolism with exercise especially at older age, when aerobic capacity as well as other health parameters decline,” says the principal investigator, Professor Heikki Kainulainen from the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

May 27, 2021May 6, 2023

New research may explain why some people derive more benefits from exercise than others

Press release:

Although everyone can benefit from exercise, the mechanistic links between physical fitness and overall health are not fully understood, nor are the reasons why the same exercise can have different effects in different people. Now a study published in Nature Metabolism led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) provides insights related to these unanswered questions. The results could be helpful for determining the specific types of exercise most likely to benefit a particular individual and for identifying new therapeutic targets for diseases related to metabolism.

“While groups as a whole benefit from exercise, the variability in responses between any two individuals undergoing the very same exercise regimen is actually quite striking. For example, some may experience improved endurance while others will see improved blood sugar levels,” said senior corresponding author Robert E. Gerszten, MD, Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at BIDMC. “To date, no aspects of an individual’s baseline clinical profile allow us to predict beforehand who is most likely to derive a significant cardiorespiratory fitness benefit from exercise training.”

May 26, 2021May 6, 2023

Finally, an excuse for pregnant women to eat bacon and eggs

Press release:

If you’re pregnant and looking for an excuse to eat bacon and eggs, now you’ve got one: a new research study published in the January 2010 print issue of the FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) by a team of University of North Carolina researchers shows that choline plays a critical role in helping fetal brains develop regions associated with memory. Choline is found in meats, including pork, as well as chicken eggs.

“Our study in mice indicates that the diet of a pregnant mother, especially choline in that diet, can change the epigenetic switches that control brain development in the fetus” said Steven Zeisel, the senior scientist involved in the work and a senior member of the FASEB Journal‘s editorial board. “Understanding more about how diet modifies our genes could be very important for assuring optimal development.”