Effect of aerobic exercise on cognition in younger adults: A randomized clinical trial.

Objective: To determine efficacy of aerobic exercise for cognitive function in younger healthy adults.

Methods: In a randomized, parallel-group, observer-masked, community-based clinical trial, 132 cognitively normal individuals aged 20-67 with below median aerobic capacity were randomly assigned to one of two 6-month, 4-times-weekly conditions: aerobic exercise and stretching/toning. Efficacy measures included aerobic capacity; cognitive function in several domains (executive function, episodic memory, processing speed, language, and attention), everyday function, body mass index (BMI), and cortical thickness.

Preference option randomized design (PORD) for comparative effectiveness research: Statistical power for testing comparative effect, preference effect, selection effect, intent-to-treat effect, and overall effect.

Comparative effectiveness research trials in real-world settings may require participants to choose between preferred intervention options. A randomized clinical trial with parallel experimental and control arms is straightforward and regarded as a gold standard design, but by design it forces and anticipates the participants to comply with a randomly assigned intervention regardless of their preference. Therefore, the randomized clinical trial may impose impractical limitations when planning comparative effectiveness research trials.

The Association of Cigarette Smoking With High-Frequency Heart Rate Variability: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

Objective: Evidence from both laboratory and observational studies suggests that acute and chronic smoking leads to reduced high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), a measure of cardiac vagal regulation. We used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to study the effect of smoking on concurrent HF-HRV in a trial measuring the effects of hostility reduction and compared 24-hour HF-HRV in smokers and nonsmokers.

Method: Ambulatory electrocardiogram data were collected before randomization from 149 healthy individuals with high hostility levels (20-45 years, body mass index ≤ 32 kg/m) and paired with concurrent EMA ratings of smoking and physical position during waking hours.

Vagally-mediated heart rate variability and indices of well-being: Results of a nationally representative study.

Objective: High frequency (HF) heart rate variability (HRV) has long been accepted as an index of cardiac vagal control. Recent studies report relationships between HF-HRV and indices of positive and negative affect, personality traits and well-being but these studies generally are based on small and selective samples.

Method: These relationships were examined using data from 967 participants in the second Midlife in the U.

Linking Daily Stress Processes and Laboratory-Based Heart Rate Variability in a National Sample of Midlife and Older Adults.

Objective: This study evaluates the associations between people's trait-like patterns of stress in daily life (stressor frequency, perceived stressor severity, affective reactivity to stressors, and negative affect) and laboratory-assessed heart rate variability (HRV).

Methods: Data were collected from 909 participants aged 35 to 85 years in the Midlife in the United States Study. Participants reported negative affect and minor stressful events during telephone interviews on 8 consecutive evenings.

The Effect of Hostility Reduction on Autonomic Control of the Heart and Vasculature: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: Hostility is associated with coronary artery disease. One candidate mechanism may be autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysregulation. In this study, we report the effect of cognitive behavioral treatment on ANS regulation.

Vagal Recovery From Cognitive Challenge Moderates Age-Related Deficits in Executive Functioning.

Decline in executive functioning (EF) is a hallmark of cognitive aging. We have previously reported that faster vagal recovery from cognitive challenge is associated with better EF. This study examined the association between vagal recovery from cognitive challenge and age-related differences in EF among 817 participants in the Midlife in the U.

Beat-to-beat heart rate and blood pressure variability and hypertensive disease in pregnancy.

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between heart rate and/or blood pressure variability, measured at 28 weeks' gestation, and the incidence of pregnancy-induced hypertension or preeclampsia.

Study Design: Secondary analysis of data from a prospectively enrolled cohort of 385 active military women in whom spectral analysis of continuous heart rate and variability was measured at 28 weeks' gestation. The primary outcome was the predictive value of spectral analysis of heart rate and blood pressure for hypertensive diseases of pregnancy.

Heart rate variability predicts levels of inflammatory markers: Evidence for the vagal anti-inflammatory pathway.

Evidence from numerous animal models shows that vagal activity regulates inflammatory responses by decreasing cytokine release. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a reliable index of cardiac vagal regulation and should be inversely related to levels of inflammatory markers. Inflammation is also regulated by sympathetic inputs, but only one previous paper controlled for this.

A longitudinal study of depression, fatigue, and sleep disturbances as a symptom cluster in women with breast cancer.

Context: Depression, fatigue, and sleep disturbances have been identified as a symptom cluster among breast cancer patients. However, few longitudinal studies have examined the temporal relations between these symptoms surrounding diagnosis and treatment.

Objectives: The present study investigated the co-occurrence of and interrelations between nonsomatic depressive symptoms, fatigue, and sleep disturbances in breast cancer patients at three time points: before, after, and six to eight months following adjuvant chemotherapy treatment.

Race differences in age-trends of autonomic nervous system functioning.

Objective: The objective of this study was to consider race differences in age-trends of autonomic nervous system functioning, using a national data set with a broad age range.

Methods: Measures of baseline heart rate variability (HRV) and HRV reactivity were derived from electrocardiograph (ECG) recordings taken at rest and during cognitive stress tasks. Age-trends in HRV and HRV reactivity were compared among 204 African Americans and 833 Whites ages 34 to 83 years (M = 53.

Aerobic exercise and strength training effects on cardiovascular sympathetic function in healthy adults: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Exercise has widely documented cardioprotective effects, but the mechanisms underlying these effects are not entirely known. Previously, we demonstrated that aerobic but not strength training lowered resting heart rate and increased cardiac vagal regulation, changes that were reversed by sedentary deconditioning. Here, we focus on the sympathetic nervous system and test whether aerobic training lowers levels of cardiovascular sympathetic activity in rest and that deconditioning would reverse this effect.

A pilot randomized controlled trial of a commercial diet and exercise weight loss program in minority breast cancer survivors.

Objective: Obesity is associated with poorer breast cancer outcomes and losing weight postdiagnosis may improve survival. As Hispanic and black women have poorer breast cancer prognosis than non-Hispanic whites diagnosed at similar age and stage, and have higher rates of obesity, effective weight loss strategies are needed. We piloted a randomized, waitlist-controlled, crossover study to examine the effects and feasibility of the commercial Curves weight loss program among Hispanic, African American and Afro-Caribbean breast cancer survivors.

The interactive effect of change in perceived stress and trait anxiety on vagal recovery from cognitive challenge.

The present study tested the hypothesis that the change in state negative affect (measured as perceived stress) after cognitive challenge moderates the relationship of trait anxiety and anger to vagal recovery from that challenge. Cardiac vagal control (assessed using heart rate variability) and respiratory rate were measured in a sample of 905 participants from the Midlife in the United States Study. Cognitive challenges consisted of computerized mental arithmetic and Stroop color-word matching tasks.

Impact of aerobic training on cardiovascular reactivity to and recovery from challenge.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that aerobic, but not strength, training would lead to attenuated reactivity to and more rapid recovery from cognitive and orthostatic challenge and that deconditioning would reverse this effect.

Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled trial contrasting the effects of aerobic versus strength training on heart rate, four indices of RR interval variability, and blood pressure reactivity to and recovery from psychological and orthostatic challenge in 149 healthy, young, sedentary adults. Subjects were randomized to 12-week aerobic or strength training programs and studied before and after training and again after 4 weeks of sedentary deconditioning.

Cardiac autonomic control and treatment of hostility: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To test whether reduction in hostility increases autonomic regulation of the heart.

Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, participants were 158 healthy adults, aged 20 years to 45 years, who were 1 standard deviation (SD) above national norms on the Cook-Medley Hostility and the Spielberger Trait Anger Indices. Participants also were interviewed, using the Interpersonal Hostility Assessment Technique (IHAT).

Heart rate recovery after cognitive challenge is preserved with age.

Objective: To investigate the effect of age on heart rate recovery (HRR) from cognitive challenge.

Background: Aging is an independent risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease. HRR from exercise is an established predictor of cardiac morbidity and mortality, and evidence suggests that HRR from cognitive challenge is predictive of cardiac morbidity as well.

The cognitive effects of chemotherapy in post-menopausal breast cancer patients: a controlled longitudinal study.

Studies suggest that adjuvant chemotherapy for early stage breast cancer (BC) is associated with cognitive impairment related to attention, memory, and visuospatial functioning. However, other studies have failed to confirm that relationship. We report one of the first longitudinal, controlled studies of cognitive effects of chemotherapy in older post-menopausal women.

The impact of menstrual cycle phase on cardiac autonomic regulation.

This study investigated menstrual cycle phase differences in heart rate (HR) and RR interval variability (RRV) in 49 healthy, premenopausal, eumenorrheic women (age 30.2+/-6.2 years).

The effect of aerobic training and cardiac autonomic regulation in young adults.

Objectives: We tested the effect of aerobic exercise on autonomic regulation of the heart in healthy young adults.

Methods: Healthy, sedentary young adults (n = 149; age = 30.4 +/- 7.

Aerobic exercise attenuates inducible TNF production in humans.

Aerobic exercise reduces coronary heart disease risk, but the mechanisms of this protection are not fully understood. Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease mediated by monocyte-derived macrophages, which accumulate in arterial plaques and become activated to release factors, including cytokines, that cause damage. Here we studied the effects of aerobic training on monocyte production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) in whole blood ex vivo.

Cultural differences in conceptual models of everyday fatigue: a vignette study.

The present study used a qualitative methodology to examine cultural differences in representations of everyday fatigue. Thirty-seven European American women and 36 South Asian immigrant women responded to a vignette describing fatigue. A dimensional model of illness representation was used to develop a coding scheme and analyze the data.