Can an Aerobic Exercise Programme Improve the Response of the Growth Hormone in Fibromyalgia Patients? A Randomised Controlled Trial.

Downgrade alterations in the growth hormone (GH) might be involved in the development of some of the fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) symptoms. Our aim was to assess the effects of an aerobic exercise programme on the GH levels in patients with FMS. A randomised controlled trial was developed.

[Postural control in adults. Influence of age and aerobic training.].

Objective: The ability to control postural balance is essential to perform most of the activities of daily life, allowing you to maintain an active lifestyle, avoiding falls. However, aging-related changes in sensory systems, neural processing, information conduction, and musculoskeletal mechanics make postural control difficult in older adults. In the evaluation of posturo-graphic parameters, alterations are observed after physical exercise.

Atrial fibrillation in highly trained endurance athletes - Description of a syndrome.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common heart arrhythmia, the risk of which typically increases with age. This condition is commonly associated with major cardiovascular diseases and structural heart damage, while it is rarely observed in healthy young people. However, increasing evidence indicates that paroxysmal AF can also onset in young or middle-aged and otherwise healthy endurance athletes (e.

No evidence of adverse cardiac remodeling in former elite endurance athletes.

Background: The impact of high exercise loads on a previously healthy heart remains controversial. We examined the consequences of decades of strenuous endurance exercise at the highest competition level on heart dimensions and volumes as well as on serum biomarkers of cardiac fibrosis/remodeling.

Methods And Results: We compared echocardiographic measurements and serum biomarkers of cardiac fibrosis/remodeling [troponin I, galectin-3, matrix metallopeptidase-2 and -9, N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide, carboxy-terminal propeptide of type I procollagen, and soluble suppressor of tumorigenicity-2 (sST-2)/interleukin(IL)-1R4] in 53 male athletes [11 former professional ('elite') and 42 amateur-level ('sub-elite') cyclists or runners, aged 40-70years] and 18 aged-matched controls.

Impact of an endurance training program on exercise-induced cardiac biomarker release.

We evaluated the influence of a 14-wk endurance running program on the exercise-induced release of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) and NH2-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). Fifty-eight untrained participants were randomized to supervised endurance exercise (14 wk, 3-4 days/wk, 120-240 min/wk, 65-85% of maximum heart rate) or a control group. At baseline and after the training program, hs-cTnT and NT-proBNP were assessed before and 5 min, 1 h, 3 h, 6 h, 12 h, and 24 h after a 60-min maximal running test.

Post-exercise left ventricular dysfunction measured after a long-duration cycling event.

Background: In this research, an extension to our previous work published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine in 2009, we studied subjects that differed in terms of age and training status and assessed the impact of prolonged exercise on systolic and left ventricular diastolic function and cardiac biomarkers levels, recognized as identifiers of cardiac damage and dysfunction. We also assessed the possible influence of event duration, exercise intensity and weight loss (dehydration) on left ventricular diastolic function.

Findings: Ninety-one male cyclists were assessed by echocardiography and serum biomarkers before and after the 2005 Quebrantahuesos cycling event (206 km long and with an accumulated slope of 3800 m).

The impact of exercise intensity on the release of cardiac biomarkers in marathon runners.

We sought to determine the influence of exercise intensity on the release of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in amateur marathon runners. Fourteen runners completed three exercise trials of the same duration but at exercise intensities corresponding to: (a) a competitive marathon [mean ± SD: heart rate 159 ± 7 beat min(-1), finish time 202 ± 14 min]; (b) 95% of individual anaerobic threshold [heart rate 144 ± 6 beat min(-1)] and; (c) 85% of individual anaerobic threshold [heart rate 129 ± 5 beat min(-1)]. cTnI and NT-proBNP were assayed from blood samples collected before, 30 min and 3 h post-exercise for each trial.

A profile of the resistance training practices of elite Spanish club teams.

This study describes the results of a survey of the resistance training practices of the following Spanish sports teams: soccer and basketball professional leagues, and top-division leagues for handball, volleyball, indoor soccer, and field hockey. The response rate was 81.8% (77 of 94).

Cardiac biomarkers and exercise duration and intensity during a cycle-touring event.

Objective: To determine the influence of age, training status, race time, and exercise intensity on the appearance of cardiac biomarkers after a cycle-touring event.

Design: Pre-post exercise measurements.

Setting: University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.

[Evaluation of urinary cortisol levels in women with fibromyalgia].

Objective: We propose a comparative study of urinary cortisol in a controlled simple group of patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia (FM) during a minimum time frame (3 years) vs. a normal group with the same characteristics of age and gender. Our objective is to demonstrate if urinary cortisol at lower levels than those found in the normal population, as long as FM is regarded, could help to evaluate the fatigue.

Is there an association between fibromyalgia and below-normal levels of urinary cortisol?

Background: Adynamia in fibromyalgia (FM) may be an expression of a functional deficit of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and be associated with below-normal levels of urinary cortisol. Our aim was to demonstrate that urinary cortisol was lower in patients with FM than in healthy subjects.

Findings: We measured urinary cortisol levels for a sample of 47 women aged 29 to 64 years (mean age 53 years), diagnosed with FM 2-3 years previously, and compared the results with those for a control sample of 58 healthy women of a similar age.

Echocardiography to measure fitness of elite runners.

We evaluated the echocardiograms of 134 male and 54 female elite runners who competed over different distances to observe cardiac enlargement and differences among athletes engaged in different types of training, and to relate the echographic dimension with running performance. In male runners, left ventricular (LV) internal diameter at end diastole (LVIDd), LV mass, and left atrial diameter were increased by the length of distance ( P < .001) whereas right ventricular diameter was increased only in marathon runners.