Positive nutrition: shifting the focus from nutrients to diet for a healthy lifestyle.

Purpose And Methods: This summary is based on a scientific symposium organized by the Mediterranean Diet Roundtable and the American Italian Food Coalition titled, 'Positive Nutrition: shifting focus from nutrients to diet for a healthy lifestyle.' It was held at the Embassy of Italy in Washington DC in September of 2022. The panel of experts discussed how science can inform policy, what insights may be gleaned from different countries' approaches to healthy eating and what principles of the Mediterranean diet will inform strategies for a healthy future.

Design and preliminary validation of the barriers to sports coaching questionnaire for women in South Africa: An application of the ecological model.

The purpose of this study was to develop and preliminarily validate a questionnaire to examine barriers to coaching that are encountered by women sports coaches in South Africa. Two series of studies were conducted to assess content and face validity, factorial structure, and reliability of a new questionnaire. In study one, 40 items were developed based on LaVoi and Dutove's ecological model of barriers and supports for female coaches and a thorough literature review.

Heat Adaptation in Military Personnel: Mitigating Risk, Maximizing Performance.

The study of heat adaptation in military personnel offers generalizable insights into a variety of sporting, recreational and occupational populations. Conversely, certain characteristics of military employment have few parallels in civilian life, such as the imperative to achieve mission objectives during deployed operations, the opportunity to undergo training and selection for elite units or the requirement to fulfill essential duties under prolonged thermal stress. In such settings, achieving peak individual performance can be critical to organizational success.

Variation in renal responses to exercise in the heat with progressive acclimatisation.

Objectives: To investigate changes in renal status from exercise in the heat with acclimatisation and to evaluate surrogates markers of Acute Kidney Injury.

Design: Prospective observational cohort study.

Methods: 20 male volunteers performed 60 min standardised exercise in the heat, at baseline and on four subsequent occasions during a 23-day acclimatisation regimen.

Heat acclimatization blunts copeptin responses to hypertonicity from dehydrating exercise in humans.

Acclimatization favors greater extracellular tonicity from lower sweat sodium, yet hyperosmolality may impair thermoregulation during heat stress. Enhanced secretion or action of vasopressin could mitigate this through increased free water retention. Aims were to determine responses of the vasopressin surrogate copeptin to dehydrating exercise and investigate its relationships with tonicity during short and long-term acclimatization.

Heart rate variability and plasma nephrines in the evaluation of heat acclimatisation status.

Purpose: Heat adaptation (HA) is critical to performance and health in a hot environment. Transition from short-term heat acclimatisation (STHA) to long-term heat acclimatisation (LTHA) is characterised by decreased autonomic disturbance and increased protection from thermal injury. A standard heat tolerance test (HTT) is recommended for validating exercise performance status, but any role in distinguishing STHA from LTHA is unreported.

Copeptin reflects physiological strain during thermal stress.

Purpose: To prevent heat-related illnesses, guidelines recommend limiting core body temperature (T ) ≤ 38 °C during thermal stress. Copeptin, a surrogate for arginine vasopressin secretion, could provide useful information about fluid balance, thermal strain and health risks. It was hypothesised that plasma copeptin would rise with dehydration from occupational heat stress, concurrent with sympathoadrenal activation and reduced glomerular filtration, and that these changes would reflect T responses.

Development and initial validation of an instrument to assess stressors among South African sports coaches.

The aim of this series of studies was to develop and initially validate an instrument to assess stressors among South African sports coaches. In study one, a preliminary pool of 45 items was developed based on existing literature and an expert panel was employed to assess the content validity and applicability of these items. In study two, the 32 items that were retained after study one were analysed using principal component analysis (PCA).

The antecedents and outcomes of dyadic coping in close personal relationships: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.

Background And Objectives: Theories of dyadic coping and empirical literature have intermittently and inconsistently highlighted antecedents and outcomes of dyadic coping. The purpose of this review was to systematically identify the antecedents and outcomes of dyadic coping in close personal relationships.

Design: A PRISMA-guided systematic review and narrative synthesis.

Measurement of muscle health in aging.

Muscle health is a critical component in the struggle against physical frailty and the efforts to maintain metabolic health until the limit of chronological age. Consensus opinion is to evaluate muscle health in terms of muscle mass, strength and functional capability. There has been considerable variability in the components of muscle health which have been investigated in addition to variability in the tools of assessment and protocol for measurement.

Total and Visceral Adiposity Are Associated With Prevalent Vertebral Fracture in Women but Not Men at Age 62 Years: The Newcastle Thousand Families Study.

Low body weight is an established risk factor for osteoporosis and fracture, but the skeletal risks of higher adiposity are unclear and appear sex-specific and site-dependent. The aim of this study was to investigate associations of total fat mass (TFM), visceral adipose tissue (VAT), and C-reactive protein (CRP) with bone mineral density (BMD) and prevalent vertebral fracture (VF) in men and women aged 62 years. A total of 352 men and women aged 62.

Gut microbiota of Type 1 diabetes patients with good glycaemic control and high physical fitness is similar to people without diabetes: an observational study.

Aim: Type 1 diabetes is the product of a complex interplay between genetic susceptibility and exposure to environmental factors. Existing bacterial profiling studies focus on people who are most at risk at the time of diagnosis; there are limited data on the gut microbiota of people with long-standing Type 1 diabetes. This study compared the gut microbiota of patients with Type 1 diabetes and good glycaemic control and high levels of physical-fitness with that of matched controls without diabetes.

Resonant cavity perturbation: a promising new method for the assessment of total body water in children.

The accurate measurement of total body water (TBW) in children has important clinical and nutritional applications. Resonant cavity perturbation (RCP) is a new method for estimating TBW. This method measures the dielectric properties of the body which are related to body water.

Phaeochromocytoma and ACTH-dependent cushing's syndrome: tumour crf secretion can mimic pituitary cushing's disease.

Introduction: 10% of corticotrophin (ACTH)-dependent Cushing's syndrome arises from secretion by extrapituitary tumours, with phaeochromocytoma implicated in a few cases. Ectopic secretion by phaeochromocytoma of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRF), with secondary corticotroph hyperplasia, is even rarer, with only five cases in the literature hitherto. However, such cases may be classified as 'ectopic ACTH' due to incomplete verification.

Risk factors for heat illness among British soldiers in the hot Collective Training Environment.

Background: Heat illness is a preventable disorder in military populations. Measures that protect vulnerable individuals and contribute to effective Immediate Treatment may reduce the impact of heat illness, but depend upon adequate understanding and awareness among Commanders and their troops.

Objective: To assess risk factors for heat illness in British soldiers deployed to the hot Collective Training Environment (CTE) and to explore awareness of Immediate Treatment responses.

Mouth Rinsing With Carbohydrate Solutions at the Postprandial State Fail to Improve Performance During Simulated Cycling Time Trials.

Mouth rinsing with carbohydrate (CHO) solutions during cycling time trials results in performance enhancements; however, most studies have used approximately 6% CHO solutions. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of mouth rinsing with 4, 6, and 8% CHO solutions on 1-hour simulated cycling time trial performance. On 4 occasions, 7 trained male cyclists completed at the postprandial period, a set amount of work as fast as possible in a randomized counterbalanced order.

Case ascertainment of heat illness in the British Army: evidence of under-reporting from analysis of Medical and Command notifications, 2009-2013.

Background: Heat illness in the Armed Forces is considered preventable. The UK military relies upon dual Command and Medical reporting for case ascertainment, investigation of serious incidents and improvement of preventive practices and policy. This process could be vulnerable to under-reporting.

Developing Interventions for Children's Exercise (DICE): a pilot evaluation of school-based exercise interventions for primary school children aged 7 to 8 years.

Background: Developing Interventions for Children's Exercise (DICE) is an initiative aimed at determining effective school-based exercise programs. To assess feasibility, we conducted a pilot study of exercise sessions which varied in duration and frequency.

Methods: Exercise interventions were delivered to Year 3 pupils (age 7-8 years; n = 73) in primary schools within Yorkshire, UK.

Complex regional pain syndrome in a competitive athlete and regional osteoporosis assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry: a case report.

Introduction: Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry is rarely utilized in the clinical care of patients with complex regional pain syndrome, but may be useful for the non-invasive determination of regional bone fragility and fracture risk, as well as muscular atrophy and regional body composition. This is the first report in the literature of complex regional pain syndrome and musculoskeletal co-morbidities in an athlete, and is the first to focus on dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry for the clinical assessment of complex regional pain syndrome.

Case Presentation: In this report, we describe the case of a 29-year-old Caucasian man with type 1 complex regional pain syndrome.

Prevalent morphometric vertebral fractures in professional male rugby players.

There is an ongoing concern about the risk of injury to the spine in professional rugby players. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of vertebral fracture using vertebral fracture assessment (VFA) dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) imaging in professional male rugby players. Ninety five professional rugby league (n = 52) and union (n = 43) players (n = 95; age 25.