Longitudinal changes in psychological, physiological, and nutritional measures and predictors of success in Special Forces training.

The mentally and physically challenging 19-20 day, multi-stressor US Army Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS) course selects soldiers for Army Special Forces (SF) training. If selected, candidates enroll for advanced training in the 2-year Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) to qualify for the SF. This longitudinal study examined physiological, psychological, and nutritional status of soldiers before (pre-SFAS) and after SFAS (post-SFAS), and post-SFQC, to identify predictors of graduation from SFQC.

Improved Diet Quality in Elite and Entry-Level Military Women Compared With Civilian-Matched Counterparts.

Background: Dietary intake is a modifiable factor linked to short-term and long-term health. The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) is an objective measure to assess diet quality and population-level comparisons, like military to civilian.

Objectives: This study aimed to characterize diet quality of early-career and mid-career female soldiers compared with that of age-matches and sex-matched civilians and to link indicators of cardiometabolic disease risk to dietary outcomes and health status.

Discontinuation of Cardiac Devices at or Near an Adult Patient's End of Life.

Advances in medical technology have begun to blur the lines between life and death as well as the lines between appropriate and inappropriate therapy. This review addresses the charged issue of the management of cardiac devices at or near the end of a patient's life, provides a summary of prior and current opinion with some historical context, and attempts to provide some modest guidance as to how to approach the various options to the patient's best advantage. Modalities to be addressed include indwelling electronic devices, the left ventricular assistance device, and extracorporeal mechanical oxygenation, and includes available outcome data as well as ethical analysis from a number of commentators.

Strenuous training combined with erythropoietin induces red cell volume expansion-mediated hypervolemia and alters systemic and skeletal muscle iron homeostasis.

Strenuous physical training increases total blood volume (BV) through expansion of plasma volume (PV) and red cell volume (RCV). In contrast, exogenous erythropoietin (EPO) treatment increases RCV but decreases PV, rendering BV stable or slightly decreased. This study aimed to determine the combined effects of strenuous training and EPO treatment on BV and markers of systemic and muscle iron homeostasis.

The minor allele of the serotonin transporter gene variant rs4251417 is associated with increased resilience in soldiers experiencing acute stress during survival training: preliminary findings.

Background: Variation in cognitive, emotional and physical performance in response to stress is attributable to environmental and genetic factors. Ability to adapt to stress is resilience.

Objectives: This study investigated genetic factors associated with resilience in soldiers exposed to severe stress due to intense physical and mental demands at Survive, Evade, Resist and Escape school, a unique environment to study acute stress and resiliency in real-world circumstances.

Nutrition as a military capability to deliver human advantage: more people, more ready, more of the time.

Soldiers must achieve high-level mission-preparedness to endure extended periods of physical and cognitive activity, with unpredictable recovery, in all environments. Nutrition provides the foundation for health and performance. Militaries have not maximised the strategic and financial value that considering nutrition as a military capability could deliver.

Dietary supplement use among military personnel: international patterns and motivations for use.

Dietary supplements, products that contain one or more dietary ingredients, or their components, typically in a concentrated form, are often consumed for purported health and performance benefits. The frequency, forms and motivations for dietary supplement use may differ between civilian and military populations. The objective of this manuscript is to review patterns and trends in dietary supplement use in military personnel from the USA, France, the UK and Slovenia.

Exogenous erythropoietin increases hematological status, fat oxidation, and aerobic performance in males following prolonged strenuous training.

This study investigated the effects of EPO on hemoglobin (Hgb) and hematocrit (Hct), time trial (TT) performance, substrate oxidation, and skeletal muscle phenotype throughout 28 days of strenuous exercise. Eight males completed this longitudinal controlled exercise and feeding study using EPO (50 IU/kg body mass) 3×/week for 28 days. Hgb, Hct, and TT performance were assessed PRE and on Days 7, 14, 21, and 27 of EPO.

Load carriage exercise increases calcium absorption and retention in healthy young women.

Aerobic exercise reduces circulating ionized Ca (iCa) and increases parathyroid hormone (PTH), but the cause and consequences on Ca handling are unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of strenuous exercise on Ca kinetics using dual stable Ca isotopes. Twenty-one healthy women (26.

The Role of Palliative Care in Cardiovascular Disease.

The American Heart Association has recommended that palliative care be integrated into the care of all patients with advanced cardiac illnesses. Notwithstanding, the number of patients receiving specialist palliative intervention worldwide remains extremely small. This review examines the nature of palliative care and what is known about its delivery to patients with cardiac illness.

Replacement of dietary carbohydrate with protein increases fat mass and reduces hepatic triglyceride synthesis and content in female obese Zucker rats.

Previous studies have demonstrated both energy restriction (ER) and higher protein (HP), lower carbohydrate (LC) diets downregulate hepatic de novo lipogenesis. Little is known about the independent and combined impact of ER and HP/LC diets on tissue-specific lipid kinetics in leptin receptor-deficient, obese rodents. This study investigated the effects of ER and dietary macronutrient content on body composition; hepatic, subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), and visceral AT (VAT) lipid metabolic flux ( H O-labeling); and blood and liver measures of cardiometabolic health in six-week-old female obese Zucker rats (Lepr ).

Physical Health and Well-being: Updates and the Way Ahead.

Introduction: The Women in Combat Summit 2021 "Forging the Future: How Women Enhance the Fighting Force" took place during February 9-11, 2021, via a virtual conference platform. The third and final day of the Summit regarded the physical health and well-being of military women and included the topics of urogenital health, nutrition and iron-deficiency anemia, unintended pregnancy and contraception, and traumatic brain injury.

Materials And Methods: After presentations on the topics earlier, interested conference attendees were invited to participate in focus groups to discuss and review policy recommendations for physical health and well-being in military women.

Assessing the physiological basis for resilience in military personnel.

Military personnel experience training and operational demands that are different from civilian populations, including frequent deployment, exposure to austere environments, and dislocation from family. These unique occupational demands may result in negative impacts on health, performance, and career success. As such, resilience, defined as a system's capacity to resist, recover, recover better, or adapt, to perturbation from a challenge or stressor, is a critical factor in assuring the health and safety of military personnel.

Effects of weight loss and weight loss maintenance on cardiac autonomic function in obesity: a randomized controlled trial.

Caloric restriction and exercise exert significant improvements in cardiac autonomic function as measured by HRV in overweight and obesity. Aerobic exercise training, within recommended guidelines coupled with weight loss maintenance, retains cardiac autonomic function benefits from weight loss in previously obese individuals.

Hypoxia Resistance Is an Inherent Phenotype of the Mouse Flexor Digitorum Brevis Skeletal Muscle.

The various functions of skeletal muscle (movement, respiration, thermogenesis, etc.) require the presence of oxygen (O). Inadequate O bioavailability (ie, hypoxia) is detrimental to muscle function and, in chronic cases, can result in muscle wasting.

Biomarkers of oxidative stress, diet and exercise distinguish soldiers selected and non-selected for special forces training.

Introduction: The metabolomic profiles of Soldiers entering the U.S. Special Forces Assessment and Selection course (SFAS) have not been evaluated.

Collagen matricryptin promotes cardiac function by mediating scar formation.

Aims: A peptide mimetic of a collagen-derived matricryptin (p1159) was shown to reduce left ventricular (LV) dilation and fibrosis after 7 days delivery in a mouse model of myocardial infarction (MI). This suggested p1159 long-term treatment post-MI could have beneficial effects and reduce/prevent adverse LV remodeling. This study aimed to test the potential of p1159 to reduce adverse cardiac remodeling in a chronic MI model and to elucidate p1159 mode-of-action.

Muscle progenitor cells are required for skeletal muscle regeneration and prevention of adipogenesis after limb ischemia.

Skeletal muscle injury in peripheral artery disease (PAD) has been attributed to vascular insufficiency, however evidence has demonstrated that muscle cell responses play a role in determining outcomes in limb ischemia. Here, we demonstrate that genetic ablation of Pax7 muscle progenitor cells (MPCs) in a model of hindlimb ischemia (HLI) inhibited muscle regeneration following ischemic injury, despite a lack of morphological or physiological changes in resting muscle. Compared to control mice (Pax7), the ischemic limb of Pax7-deficient mice (Pax7) was unable to generate significant force 7 or 28 days after HLI.

Changes in Immune Function during Initial Military Training.

Purpose: Initial military training (IMT) is a transitionary period wherein immune function may be suppressed and infection risk heightened due to physical and psychological stress, communal living, and sleep deprivation. This study characterized changes in biomarkers of innate and adaptive immune function, and potential modulators of those changes, in military recruits during IMT.

Methods: Peripheral leukocyte distribution and mitogen-stimulated cytokine profiles were measured in fasted blood samples, Epstein-Barr (EBV), varicella zoster (VZV), and herpes simplex 1 (HSV1) DNA was measured in saliva by quantitative polymerase chain reaction as an indicator of latent herpesvirus reactivation, and diet quality was determined using the healthy eating index measured by food frequency questionnaire in 61 US Army recruits (97% male) at the beginning (PRE) and end (POST) of 22-wk IMT.

Effects of energy balance on cognitive performance, risk-taking, ambulatory vigilance and mood during simulated military sustained operations (SUSOPS).

Unlabelled: Sustained operations (SUSOPS) require military personnel to conduct combat and training operations while experiencing physical and cognitive stress and limited sleep. These operations are often conducted in a state of negative energy balance and are associated with degraded cognitive performance and mood. Whether maintaining energy balance can mitigate these declines is unclear.

Isometric skeletal muscle contractile properties in common strains of male laboratory mice.

Assessing contractile function of skeletal muscle in murine models is a commonly employed laboratory technique that investigators utilize to measure the impact of genetic manipulations, drug efficacy, or other therapeutic interventions. Often overlooked is the potential for the strain of the mouse to influence the functional properties of the skeletal muscle. Thus, we sought to characterize commonly assessed isometric force measures in the hindlimb muscles across a variety of mouse strains.