(Press-News.org) The obesity epidemic has massive socio-economic consequences, and decades of health campaigns have not made significant headway. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen are therefore pursuing the development of new, interdisciplinary methods for preventing and treating this widespread problem.
The subjects in the test group that exercised the least talk about increased energy levels and a higher motivation for exercising and pursuing a healthy everyday life.
"Obesity is a complex social problem requiring a multidisciplinary approach. In a new scientific article we combine data from biomedical studies of the subjects' bodies with ethnological data on their experiences during the 13-week trial period. This enables us to explain the background for the surprising fact that 30 minutes of daily exercise is just as beneficial as a full hour of hard fitness training. The 'lightweight' group of exercisers appear to get more energy and be more motivated in relation to pursuing a healthy lifestyle," says Professor Bente Stallknecht from the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.
A number of qualitative interviews with exercising subjects have been analysed by PhD student Anne Sofie Gram and have just been published in Scandinavian Journal of Public Health.
Trials markedly impacting everyday life
Last year, a research team monitored just over sixty moderately overweight -- but healthy -- Danish men for 13 weeks in their efforts to get in better shape. The men who exercised 30 minutes a day lost an average of 3.6 kg. during the three months, while weight loss was 2.7 kg. for those exercising for a full hour. By means of qualitative interviews based on ethnological expertise, the researchers have now approximated the test subjects by, e.g., identifying the cultural barriers in relation to training and change of entrenched habits.
"The qualitative data offer a possible explanation for the surprising biological data. The subjects in the test group that exercised the least talk about increased energy levels and a higher motivation for exercising and pursuing a healthy everyday life. They take the stairs, take the dog for an extra walk or cycle to work. In contrast, the men who exercised for one hour a day, after training, felt exhausted, demotivated and less open to making a healthy change. We are thus seeing that a moderate amount of exercise will significantly impact the subjects' daily practices," says Astrid Jespersen, ethnologist and associate professor at the Faculty of Humanities.
Interdisciplinarity boosting motivation
The fruitful cooperation is now generating additional joint research projects -- among other things the Governing Obesity initiative which through interdisciplinary approaches aims to develop new methods for handling the obesity epidemic -- both at individual and societal level.
"When addressing a complex problem such as obesity, several disciplines must be employed, and the research must be viewed from a holistic perspective. Decades of health campaigns have proven insufficiently effective because we have been unable to incorporate the significance of, e.g., psychology, culture and social structures," says Associate Professor Astrid Jespersen.
A long life
The FINE project is an interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers from three faculties at the University of Copenhagen and two hospitals in Greater Copenhagen. In time, the knowledge gained by the project can prove significant for diagnostics and therapy in connection with preventing and treating lifestyle diseases and can lead to the development of better drugs.
###
The project received financial support from the UNIK initiative Food, Fitness & Pharma, the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Center for Healthy Aging at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen.
Quotes
60 minutes
"At first, I thought it was really great and it gave me tons of energy, but by the end, I felt tired because I thought it was too much -- too much exercise"
"It's been like that with a lot of it -- like with the cross-trainer. I really liked it for about two weeks, and then I thought -- 'I'm not getting on that thing EVER again'"
30 minutes
"It's kind of trite to say that you get more energy, but you do. You feel less fatigued and . . . ehh . . . it kind of feels like there's more fuel in the tank"
"The best thing has been the positive impact it's had on me -- I'm happier and more energetic"
Contact:
Associate Professor Astrid Jespersen
Mobile: +45 51 29 90 84
Professor Bente Stallknecht
Mobile: +45 28 75 75 40
Moderate exercising encourages a healthier lifestyle
2013-09-18
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Signal gradients in 3-D guide stem cell behavior
2013-09-18
Scientists know that physical and biochemical signals can guide cells to make, for example, muscle, blood vessels or bone. But the exact recipes to produce the desired tissues have proved elusive.
Now, researchers at Case Western Reserve University have taken a step toward identifying that mix by developing an easy and versatile way of forming physical and biochemical gradients in three dimensions.
Ultimately, one of their goals is to engineer systems to manipulate stem cells to repair or replace damaged tissues and organs.
"If we can control the spatial presentation ...
Services lacking for young gay black men
2013-09-18
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Physical, sexual and emotional abuse among young gay black men is a pervasive problem, yet there remains a lack of social services and resources available to help them, a Michigan State University scholar argues in a new study.
The trauma they experience -- often at a young age -- is related to depression, substance abuse and high-risk sexual behavior, said Robin Lin Miller, professor of psychology.
"Young black men who are gay and bisexual have few resources available to them that are tailored to their specific needs and concerns, despite how ...
Study: Different hormone therapy formulations may pose different risks for heart attack and stroke
2013-09-18
LOS ANGELES (Embargoed Until 9 a.m. EDT/6 a.m. PDT on Sept. 18, 2013) – Post-menopausal women whose doctors prescribe hormone replacement therapy for severe hot flashes and other menopause symptoms may want to consider taking low doses of Food and Drug Administration-approved bioidentical forms of estrogen or getting their hormones via a transdermal patch. A new observational study shows bioidentical hormones in transdermal patches may be associated with a lower risk of heart attack and FDA-approved products -- not compounded hormones -- may be associated with a slightly ...
4 new species of 'legless lizards' discovered living on the edge
2013-09-18
California biologists have discovered four new species of reclusive legless lizards living in some of the most marginal habitat in the state: a vacant lot in downtown Bakersfield, among oil derricks in the lower San Joaquin Valley, on the margins of the Mojave desert, and at the end of one of the runways at LAX.
"This shows that there is a lot of undocumented biodiversity within California," said Theodore Papenfuss, a reptile and amphibian expert, or herpetologist, with UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, who discovered and identified the new species with James ...
Southern Ocean sampling reveals travels of marine microbes
2013-09-18
SYDNEY: By collecting water samples up to six kilometres below the surface of the Southern Ocean, UNSW researchers have shown for the first time the impact of ocean currents on the distribution and abundance of marine micro-organisms.
The sampling was the deepest ever undertaken from the Australian icebreaker, RSV Aurora Australis.
Microbes are so tiny they are invisible to the naked eye, but they are vital to sustaining life on earth, producing most of the oxygen we breathe, soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and recycling nutrients.
"Microbes form the bulk ...
Shining light on neurodegenerative pathway
2013-09-18
University of Adelaide researchers have identified a likely molecular pathway that causes a group of untreatable neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington's disease and Lou Gehrig's disease.
The group of about 20 diseases, which show overlapping symptoms that typically include nerve cell death, share a similar genetic mutation mechanism ‒ but how this form of mutation causes these diseases has remained a mystery.
"Despite the genes for some of these diseases having been identified 20 years ago, we still haven't understood the underlying mechanisms that ...
Novel treatment for gonorrhea acts like a 'live vaccine,' prevents reinfection, animal study shows
2013-09-18
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A new gonorrhea treatment, based on an anti-cancer therapy developed by a Buffalo startup company, has successfully eliminated gonococcal infection from female mice and prevented reinfection, according to research published today by University at Buffalo scientists in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Through TherapyX Inc., an early stage biotech company in Buffalo, the UB researchers have a $300,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant to develop the technology to treat and prevent gonorrhea infection. UB's Office for Science, Technology Transfer ...
Modeling and managing schizophrenia
2013-09-18
Schizophrenia is a potentially debilitating mental illness affecting a person's thought processes, perception, language and sense of oneself. Globally, 7 out of every 1000 are affected, accounting for 24 million patients. Significant risk factors for the illness in males is serious problems during birth or fetal hypoxia while increased cerebral ventricular size in both infancy and adulthood due to embryological defects can underlie the condition in other patients. However, it is a multifaceted illness that occurs through a combination of biological factors as well as socioeconomic ...
UCLA doctors successfully 'vacuum' 2-foot blood clot out of patient's heart
2013-09-18
Todd Dunlap, 62, arrived at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center's emergency room on Aug. 8 suffering from shortness of breath, fatigue and extreme cold. When a CT scan revealed a 24-inch clot stretching from his legs into his heart, doctors feared the mass could break loose and lodge in his lungs, blocking oxygen and killing him instantly.
Dr. John Moriarty gave his patient a choice. Dunlap could have open-heart surgery or undergo a new minimally invasive procedure using a device called AngioVac to vacuum the massive clot out of his heart. The catch? The procedure had ...
Personality differences
2013-09-18
Energy budget adjustments
Energy is the currency of life, and a central topic of wildlife ecological research is to understand how animals regulate their energy budgets with respect to its limited supply in the environment. Chris Turbill and colleagues set out to test the hypothesis that high rank, i.e. social dominance might be associated with higher metabolic rate. They measured heart rate and body temperature (proxy indicators for metabolic rate) using minimally invasive rumen transmitters in a herd of female red deer (Cervus elaphus) during winter. Red deer have a ...