Overweight and Lack of Exercise Linked to Meningioma

Sue Hughes

September 22, 2015
Individuals who are overweight or obese and those who do not engage in physical activity have an increased risk for meningioma, a new systematic review of the literature suggests.
But the review, published online in Neurology on September 16, did not find any evidence of a link between obesity/overweight or physical activity with glioma.
“These data are not proof for a causal relationship between being overweight or physical inactivity and the development of meningioma as they come from observational studies,” coauthor of the new review, Gundula Behrens, PhD, University of Regensburg, Germany, commented to Medscape Medical News. “But there is a biological mechanism which would support a causal relationship and our results add weight to this hypothesis.”
“This is an important finding since there are few known risk factors for meningioma and the ones we do know about are not things a person can change,” Dr Behrens said.
Another Benefit of Losing Weight and Taking Exercise
Meningiomas occur at a rate of about 5 to 8 cases per 100,000 people per year. The 5-year survival rate for meningioma is 63%, the authors note.
“Given the high prevalence of obesity and the unfavorable prognosis for this type of tumor, our findings may be relevant for strategies aimed at reducing the risk of meningioma,” Dr Behrens stated. “So we believe a lower risk of meningioma could be another benefit of losing weight and taking regular exercise,” she added.
She explained that many previous studies have shown a link between obesity and cancer, but it does not appear to apply to every cancer type. “We wanted to investigate whether this association was evident in brain tumors.”
For the study, the researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI) and physical activity in relation to meningioma and glioma — the most common primary brain tumors in adults — using cohort and case-control studies published through February 2015.
They included 12 studies of body mass index (BMI) and 6 studies of physical activity, comprising up to 2982 meningioma cases and 3057 glioma cases.
With normal weight used as the reference group, being overweight (BMI, 25 to 29.9) was associated with a 20% increased risk for meningioma, and obesity (BMI, 30 or more) was associated with a 50% increased risk. In contrast, being overweight or obese was not related to glioma.
When looking at physical activity, the researchers used a comparison between the highest and the lowest categories of physical activity in each study. This analysis suggested a modest protective effect of high levels of exercise on meningioma and a weak effect on glioma.
Table. Risk for Meningioma and Glioma Related to BMI and Physical Activity

Group	Relative Risk for Meningioma (95% Confidence Interval)	Relative Risk for Glioma (95% Confidence Interval)
Overweight	1.21 (1.01 – 1.43)	1.06 (0.94 – 1.20)
Obese	1.54 (1.32 – 1.79)	1.11 (0.98 – 1.27)
High vs low physical activity level	0.73 (0.61 – 0.88)	0.86 (0.76 – 0.97)

The associations persisted when the data were restricted to prospective studies, except for the association between physical activity and glioma, which became statistically no-significant.
Dr Behrens described the results as “interesting and convincing.” She added: “It is interesting that both the high BMI and low physical activity levels were related to meningioma but not to glioma.”
She said the results were consistent with mechanistic studies showing that adipose tissue releases estrogen and insulin, which may promote growth of certain cancers, and that meningiomas have higher levels of binding sites for these hormones than gliomas. In addition, physical activity is associated with reduced insulin levels.
The study received institutional funding. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Neurology. Published online September 16, 2015. Abstract

Even a Little Exercise May Reduce Mortality in Elders

Laird Harrison

August 04, 2015Official guidelines should set lower exercise targets for people older than 60 years than for younger adults, a meta-analysis shows. This population can reduce its risk for death by about 22% with only half the recommended 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity exercise, according to the new report.
“Based on these results, we believe that the target for physical activity in the current recommendations might be too high for older adults and may discourage some of them,” write David Hupin, MD, from the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint-Étienne, Hôpital Nord, Service de Physiologie Clinique et de l’Exercice, Saint-Étienne, France, and colleagues.
They published their findings online August 3 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The physical activity guidelines of the US Department of Health and Human Services do not distinguish between older and middle-aged adults, except to say that older adults limited by “chronic conditions” should “be as physically active as their abilities and conditions allow,” the researchers note.
More than 60% of older adults find 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous exercise too demanding, the researchers write. Examples of moderate to vigorous activities include brisk walking, cycling, swimming, and gymnastics.
The researchers wanted to know whether people older than60 years could benefit from aiming at a lower target, so they searched the published literature to find out what levels of activity produced the most benefits in this population. Of a total of 835 relevant studies, they found nine suitable for analysis. These studies involved a total of 122,417 participants who were monitored for an average of around 10 years. During this period, 18,122 patients died.
The researchers translated findings in the different studies to metabolic equivalent of task (MET) minutes, which express the amount of calories expended per minute of physical activity. One MET minute is equal to the energy equivalent of just sitting.
Moderate-intensity activity ranges between 3 and 5.9 MET minutes, whereas vigorous-intensity activity is classified as 6 MET minutes or more. The current US Health and Human Services recommendation is for 500 to 1000 or more MET minutes every week.
After pooling the data from the studies, the researchers found that the more active people were, the lower their risk for death.
Relative to totally inactive people, participants getting 1 to 499 MET minutes of exercise per week cut their risk for death by 22%, those getting 500 to 999 MET minutes cut their risk by 28%, and those getting 1000 MET minutes or more cut their risk by 35%.
Reduced rates of heart disease and stroke accounted for most of the improvements in lifespan, although deaths from cancer were lower as well.
The greatest benefit seemed to accrue to those who went from doing nothing, or only a minimal amount of physical activity, to doing more.
Older women appeared to benefit more than older men from exercise, but the researchers speculate that this finding could stem from men overestimating their physical activity and women underestimating it.
From these findings, the researchers conclude that 250 MET minutes, which corresponds to 75 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity, was a more reasonable goal for adults older than 60 years. That is only 15 minutes per day 5 days a week, they note.
“The widespread diffusion of this message will encourage more older adults to include even low doses of [moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity] in their usual daily activities, without experiencing high levels of fatigue or of pain,” the researchers conclude. “This message should be relayed by general practitioners who play a key and essential role in promoting physical acidity behaviour in older adults.”
The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Br J Sports Med. Published online August 3, 2015. Full text

El sedentarismo, culpable de la obesidad infantil – DiarioMedico.com

El sedentarismo, culpable de la obesidad infantil

Vicente Martínez Vizcaíno, investigador principal del Estudio de Cuenca, de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, afirma que la epidemia de obesidad infantil en España parece haber remitido, pero no ha cesado.

Isabel Gallardo. Madrid | igallardo@diariomedico.com
| 25/02/2015 13:57

El sedentarismo, culpable de la obesidad infantil – DiarioMedico.com

La epidemia de obesidad infantil en España parece haber remitido pero no ha cesado. Así lo ha afirmado Vicente Martínez Vizcaíno, investigador principal del Estudio de Cuenca, de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, en la presentación de los últimos resultados del trabajo, presentados hoy en Madrid.
Entre las conclusiones, Martínez ha destacado que la principal causa tras el sobrepeso es el sedentarismo. “Tenemos niños que hacen una hora diaria de actividad moderada o vigorosa. Por tanto, cumplen con las recomendaciones de todos los organismos pero el resto del día lo pasan sin moverse. Son siños sedentariamente activos”.
Los investigadores analizaron los datos de 3.000 niños nacidos entre 1999 y 2000 y entre 2007 y 2008. “Hemos observado que en 1992 el 2,7 por ciento de los niños tenían bajo peso, en 2004 el 9,7 por ciento y ahora entre el 20 y el 22 por ciento”. Estas cifras se asemejan a las de sobrepeso del 20 por ciento. No obstante, los niños con bajo peso ingieren hasta 200 calorías más diarias de media que los niños con sobrepeso. Si se miden las calorías ingeridas por cada kilo de peso corporal, las diferencias son aún mayores.
Asimismo, los datos muestran que el bajo peso es más frecuente en las familias con nivel socioeconómico más bajo pero también que miden 4 centímetros menos que los niños de la misma edad de niveles más altos, quieenes tienen más obesidad.

Hacer poco ejercicio también tiene beneficios sobre la salud – DiarioMedico.com

Hacer poco ejercicio también tiene beneficios sobre la salud

Incrementar poco a poco la actividad física en las personas sedentarias más que centrarse en las recomendaciones de realizar 150 minutos semanales de ejercicio moderado ayudaría a reducir el riesgo de desarrollar patologías crónicas. Es la principal conclusión de dos estudios que se publican en el último número de British Medical Journal.
Según los investigadores, más de un tercio de la población adulta mundial no sigue la recomendación, especialmente los mayores, a quienes se debe animar a progresar poco a poco. Philipe Souto Barreto, del Hospital Universitario de Toulouse, en Francia, afirma que los estudios recientes muestran que “pueden apreciarse beneficios para la salud haciendo menos de 150 minutos semanales de ejercicio. Se debe promocionar más la actividad física, especialmente enfocado hacia personas muy sedentarias, cumpliendo pequeñas metas diarias que estén por debajo de la recomendación general”.
En un segundo artículo Phillip Sparling, del Instituto Tecnológico de Georgia en Estados Unidos, reconoce que a los mayores les suele costar hacer ejercicio semanalmente. Según él, los beneficios de hacer algo de ejercicio “se pasan por alto”, y recuerda que lo importante es marcar las bases para reducir el sedentarismo. Lo cual no significa olvidar la recomendación, sino tener una perspectiva más amplia que sirva de guía para aumentar la actividad de los pacientes mayores.

Too Much Sitting Increases Mortality Risk Despite Exercise

Jenni Laidman

January 20, 2015Prolonged sitting was associated with higher mortality from all causes, as well as increased incidence of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes, even among people who exercise regularly, according to a meta-analysis published in the January 20 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
However, the analysis of 47 previously published articles also shows that the association between all-cause mortality and sedentary behavior is greatest among people who exercise the least.
Aviroop Biswas, BSc, from the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues analyzed 14 studies on cardiovascular disease and diabetes, 14 studies on cancer, and 13 studies on all-cause mortality, all but three of which were prospective cohort designs. All but one of the studies used participant self-reporting to track sedentary time.
Sedentary lifestyle was linked to a hazard ratio (HR) for all-cause mortality of 1.240 in the meta-analysis (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.090 – 1.410). Further, sedentary behavior was associated with an increase in cardiovascular disease mortality (HR, 1.179; 95% CI, 1.106 – 1.257), cardiovascular disease incidence (HR, 1.143; 95% CI, 1.002 – 1.729), cancer mortality (HR, 1.173; 95% CI, 1.108 – 1.242), cancer incidence (HR, 1.130; 95% CI, 1.053 – 1.213), and type 2 diabetes incidence (HR, 1.910; 95% CI, 1.642 – 2.222).
The increased risk for all-cause mortality was most pronounced among people with lower levels of physical activity, the authors found. The relative risk for sedentary behavior for all-cause mortality among those with high levels of physical activity was 30% lower than for those with low levels of physical activity. The hazard ratio for those who exercised frequently was 1.16 (95% CI, 0.84 – 1.59) compared with a HR of 1.46 (95% CI, 1.22 – 1.75) for those who did not.
“[T]he deleterious outcome effects associated with sedentary time generally decreased in magnitude among persons who participated in higher levels of physical activity compared with lower levels,” the authors write.
First uncovered in the 1950s, when researchers discovered a twofold increase in myocardial infarction among bus drivers in London, United Kingdom, compared with among bus conductors, evidence for the damage done by sedentary behavior has accumulated sharply in recent years, although the effect of exercise in a sedentary life is unsettled.
Earlier this month, a large European study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that inactivity contributed to twice as many deaths as obesity. In that study of 300,000 men and women, participants benefited from as little as 20 minutes of exercise daily, or a little more than 2 hours per week.
However, a study of 71,000 women aged 50 to 79 years published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that low or moderate exercise levels failed to ameliorate the effect of sitting for long periods every day. Moderate exercise was defined as participating in 2 to 2.5 hours of exercise weekly. However, women who walked 7 hours each week or ran or jogged for 5 hours each week did not experience increased risk from an otherwise sedentary lifestyle, the study showed. The hazard ratio for cardiovascular events was calculated to be 1.02 per hour of time spent sitting each day (95% CI, 1.01 – 1.03).
Authors of an editorial that accompanied the recent Annals of Internal Medicine study said research about sedentary behavior still has not led to specific guidelines about how to best modify sitting practices.
“Although the scientific activity in this new field is considerable, our understanding of sedentary behavior as a risk factor for chronic disease and death remains rudimentary,” write Brigid M. Lynch, PhD, from the Cancer Epidemiology Centre, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, and Neville Owen, PhD, from the Behavioral & Generational Change Program, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne. Most study conclusions are limited by the lack of uniform methods and reliance on self-reporting, the editorial authors write. As a result, “research findings do not yet allow precise identification of the duration of sedentary behavior that puts persons at risk for chronic disease,” the authors write.
The editorialists also note that associations between sitting and chronic disease are “significant but weak,” yet the risk for sedentary behavior is unlikely to be uniform across population subgroups. They ask, “Are there specific subgroups of the population, who may be characterized by demographic attributes, the nature of their work, their commuting patterns, indices of social disadvantage, or genetic profiles, for whom sedentary behavior is most hazardous?”
They conclude, “Understanding the mechanisms by which sedentary behavior increases risk for disease and the precise amounts of sitting that generate risk may enable us to more effectively characterize the most at-risk groups within the population. The potential for innovative approaches to reduce health risks of too much sitting, particularly for primary prevention, is considerable, but such approaches should be based on strong evidence. In this context, the new synthesis of evidence provided by Biswas and colleagues is most welcome.”
Ann Intern Med. 2015;162:123-132, 146-147.

Empezar a caminar 20 minutos al día reduce la mortalidad en sedentarios – DiarioMedico.com

Empezar a caminar 20 minutos al día reduce la mortalidad en sedentarios

Empezar a caminar 20 minutos al día reduce la mortalidad en sedentarios – DiarioMedico.com

Un sencillo cambio en la rutina diaria puede suponer una mejora a grandes rasgos en la salud. Para una persona inactiva pasear durante 20 minutos puede reducir el riesgo de una muerte temprana entre un 16 y un 30 por ciento.
Los expertos calculan que 337.000 de los 9,2 millones de europeos que mueren al año lo hacen por causas asociadas a la obesidad; sin embargo, la falta de ejercicio duplicaría estas cifras, es decir hasta 676.000 personas. Los investigadores, coordinados por Ulf Ekelund, de la Unidad de Epidemiología del Medical Research Council (MRC) en la Universidad de Cambridge, utilizaron los datos de 334.161 europeos que participaron en European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Se evaluó la altura, peso y grosor de la cintura, además de autoevaluar los niveles de actividad física en cada sujeto.
“Se trata de un mensaje simple: un poco de actividad física diaria puede tener beneficios sustanciales sobre la salud de las personas sedentarias. Aunque sólo 20 minutos ya marcan la diferencia, se debería hacer mucho más “.

Inactivity More Deadly Than Obesity, Large New Study Finds

Lisa Nainggolan

January 15, 2015Fresh evidence that just a little bit of exercise, such as 20 minutes walking a day, is extremely beneficial — regardless of whether people are overweight/obese or not — has emerged from a large European study.
In fact, the most pronounced reduction in premature death risk was observed among individuals who were normal weight/abdominally lean and “moderately inactive,” compared with those of the same build who were completely inactive, which was defined as having a sedentary job with no reported recreational physical activity.
Looking at this another way, the study — in more than 330,000 men and women — showed that twice as many premature deaths may be attributable to lack of physical activity compared with the number of deaths attributable to obesity, the researchers say.
The results are published online January 14 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by Dr Ulf Ekelund (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom), Dr Heather A Ward (Imperial College London, United Kingdom), and a long list of collaborators on the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).
“This is a simple message: just a small amount of physical activity each day could have substantial health benefits for people who are physically inactive,” said Dr Ekelund in a statement. “Although we found that just 20 minutes would make a difference, we should really be looking to do more than this — physical activity has many proven health benefits and should be an important part of our daily life,” he added.
Another of the authors stressed that encouraging movement is something that doctors can easily do, especially in light of research published earlier this week, which showed that primary-care physicians, at least in the United Kingdom, seldom provide access to weight-management interventions.
“Helping people to lose weight can be a real challenge, and while we should continue to aim at reducing population levels of obesity, public-health interventions that encourage people to make small but achievable changes in physical activity can have significant health benefits and may be easier to achieve and maintain,” commented Dr Nick Wareham (Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge).
Is Effect of Physical Activity Independent of BMI, Waist Circumference?
In their paper, Dr Ekelund and colleagues note that physical inactivity has consistently been associated with an increased risk for all-cause mortality independent of general adiposity as defined by body mass index (BMI).
And prior research that has examined associations between physical activity, BMI, and mortality suggests that activity protects against premature death but does not eliminate the increased risk associated with high BMI.
But these studies had numerous limitations, they observe, and while it may seem logical that physical activity exerts its influence on mortality indirectly through reducing adiposity, this is by no means clear.
So they set out to examine the relationship between physical activity and all-cause mortality and to look at whether BMI and waist circumference modified these associations in a large sample of 334,161 men and women followed for more than 12 years from the EPIC study, in which both BMI and waist circumference were measured at baseline.
As a secondary aim, they estimated how many deaths could theoretically be avoided if inactive or obese individuals were active or nonobese, respectively, and calculated the years of gain in life expectancy from avoiding physical inactivity, high BMI (>30 kg/m²), and high waist circumference (> 88 cm in women and > 102 cm in men), separately and combined in the cohort.
Physical activity was measured using self-assessment. Just under a quarter (22.7%) of participants were categorized as inactive, reporting no recreational activity in combination with a sedentary occupation.
Impact of Physical Activity Greatest Among Those of Normal Weight
Over the 12 years of follow-up, 21,438 participants died.
The greatest reduction in risk for premature death occurred in the comparison between inactive and moderately inactive groups.
All-cause mortality was reduced by 16% to 30% in the moderately inactive group compared with those categorized as inactive, across all strata of BMI and waist circumference.
The authors estimate that doing exercise equivalent to just a 20-minute brisk walk each day — burning between 90 and 110 kcal — would take an individual from the inactive to moderately inactive group and thereby reduce the risk for premature death by this same amount (ie, between 16% and 30%).
The impact was greatest among normal-weight individuals, but even those with higher BMI saw a benefit of physical activity.
The researchers say that data from the United States have suggested that physical activity reduces but does not eliminate the increased risk of adiposity on all-cause mortality when cross-classifying activity and BMI groups.

Emerging evidence is accumulating indicating that substantial health benefits may be achieved by fairly small increases in physical activity.

Other research has shown that exercising for 15 minutes per day is associated with a 14% reduction in risk of all-cause mortality compared with inactivity in an Asian population.
“Our results extend these previous observations to also include European men and women and suggest that, within each strata for BMI and waist circumference, the hazard of all-cause mortality was substantially reduced when the inactive group was compared with the moderately inactive group,” they state.
“Thus, emerging evidence is accumulating indicating that substantial health benefits may be achieved by fairly small increases in physical activity.”
Using the most recent available data on deaths in Europe, the researchers estimate that 337,000 of the 9.2 million deaths among European men and women were attributable to obesity: however, double this number of deaths (676,000) could be attributed to physical inactivity.
Simply moving from one category to another (eg, inactive to moderately inactive) would be sufficient to dramatically reduce premature deaths, they stress. “Efforts to encourage even small increases in activity in inactive individuals may be of public-health benefit,” they conclude.
The authors have reported no relevant financial relationships.
Am J Clin Nutr. Published online January 24, 2015. Article

Beetroot Juice ups Exercise Capacity in Heart Failure

By David Douglas

January 09, 2015NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Inorganic nitrate administration via beetroot juice improves exercise capacity in patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), according to findings from a single-dose study.
The inorganic nitrate “increased exercise capacity in patients with HFpEF by targeting peripheral abnormalities, specifically, enhancing the vasodilatory response during exercise (with a consequent increase in the cardiac output during exercise) and reducing the late systolic load of the left ventricle, which has deleterious consequences on the LV,” Dr. Julio A. Chirinos, a cardiologist at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia, told Reuters Health by email.
“These findings,” he continued, “have implications for our understanding of the disease and probably for its treatment. In particular, it provides proof of concept that inorganic nitrate may represent a viable therapeutic approach for HFpEF. However, this remains to be tested in larger trials with sustained (chronic) administration, which we hope to accomplish in the new few years.”
As reported December 22 online in Circulation, Dr. Chirinos and colleagues conducted a randomized, double-blind, crossover study with 17 subjects.
Following a single dose of beetroot juice or nitrate-depleted placebo, the subjects performed supine-cycle, maximal-effort cardiopulmonary exercise tests.
Supplementation increased median plasma NO-metabolites from 10 to 326 micromoles (p=0.003). Peak oxygen volume was also significantly increased (12.6 versus 11.6 micromoles p=0.005) as was total work performed (55.6 vs 49.2 kilojoules, p=0.04). There was, however, no change in efficiency.
Supplementation also increased exercise vasodilatory and cardiac output reserves and reduced arterial wave reflections, which are linked to left ventricular diastolic dysfunction and remodeling, the investigators said.
Commenting by email, Dr. Mark T. Gladwin, co-author of an editorial, told Reuters Health that “Nitrate and nitrite have historically been considered toxic elements of our diet but over the last decade it has become clear that they are metabolized to form nitric oxide, a very important vasodilator, that regulates cardiovascular functions, like blood pressure and blood flow.”
“Nitrate that is present in food like beets,” continued Dr. Gladwin, “is converted by bacteria in our mouths to form nitrite and then nitrite is then absorbed into the blood and converted in our bodies to nitric oxide.”
“The current study,” he added, “addresses a major challenge in medicine, the treatment of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. This type of heart failure is common with increasing age and is often associated with high blood pressure, exercise intolerance and diabetes. There are currently no therapies for this very common form of heart failure. In the present study, a single drink of beet root juice with nitrate, increased exercise duration by one minute and improved blood flow to skeletal muscles, suggesting a potential role in treating this condition.”
“However,” concluded Dr. Gladwin of the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, “More studies are needed with longer courses of therapy before we should all start drinking beetroot juice.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1Axsw02 and http://bit.ly/1DqyQrd
Circulation 2014.

Exercise Helps Menopause Symptoms and Quality of Life

Beth Skwarecki

December 29, 2014Middle-aged women who exercise regularly report a higher quality of life and reduced symptoms of menopause, according to a population-based study published in the January 2015 issue of Maturitas.
“Women with the recommended level of physical activity had a higher self-perceived health level, better relative health, and better global quality of life in relation to other women their age,” write Kirsi Mansikkamäki, MSc, from the UKK Institute for Health Promotion, Tampere, Finland, and colleagues.
The investigators surveyed 2606 women from Finland’s population registry, representing a 52% response rate from an original random sample of 5000 women. All were born in 1963, making them 49 years old at the time of the study. Of those, 28% were still menstruating regularly, 31% were perimenopausal, and 23% had not menstruated in the past 12 months. The menopausal status of the other 18% could not be determined because they were taking hormone replacement therapy.
The questionnaire, delivered by mail, included a shortened form of the Women’s Health Questionnaire with questions about quality of life and perceived health, body mass index, education, and physical activity. Half had a body mass index below 25 kg/m² and were considered to be of normal weight.
The researchers considered women to be physically active if they met the recommended 2.5 hours per week of moderate activity (eg, fast-paced walking) or 1.25 hours of vigorous activity (such as jogging or running), and if they also did any strength or balance training at least twice a week. Just more than half of the participants (51%) met the definition of being physically active.
The less-active women were more likely to score highly for anxiety or depressed mood (proportional odds ratio [POR], 1.44; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.26 – 1.65), somatic symptoms not counting vasomotor symptoms (POR, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.40 – 1.85), and memory and concentration problems (POR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.29 – 1.70). Vasomotor symptoms, or hot flashes, were more common in less-active women before adjusting for body mass index and education, but after these calculations, they were not statistically significant.
Overall, the more active women had greater self-perceived health (adjusted POR, 3.22; 95% CI, 2.76 – 3.74) and global quality of life (adjusted POR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.65 – 2.20) compared with other women their age.
Writing in an accompanying editorial, Debra Anderson, PhD, and Charlotte Seib, PhD, both from the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, note that studies on the effects of exercise on symptoms of menopause have been inconsistent. They suggest several possibilities. One is that some women who engage in less than the recommended amount of exercise may still see some benefits, causing the observed effect of exercise to be smaller than it really is. Another is that women experiencing more severe symptoms, whether physical or mental, may be less likely to engage in exercise.
Still, they write, “[t]he emerging evidence that exercise may now be seen as a useful intervention strategy for the alleviation of menopausal symptoms provides health professionals, with a new intervention for use in the care of menopausal women.”

La solución contra la obesidad no es comer menos sino moverse más – correofarmacéutico.com

ESTUDIO ‘ANIBES’

La solución contra la obesidad no es comer menos sino moverse más

Los españoles ingieren menos kilocalorías pero hay más exceso de peso. Los expertos aconsejan aumentar el gasto energético con más actividad física y sugieren el reajuste de ingestas recomendadas.
La solución contra la obesidad no es comer menos sino moverse más – correofarmacéutico.com

La media de kilocalorías (kcal) ingeridas por la población española es de 1.820 (cerca de 800 menos que hace 4 años y 1.200 menos que hace medio siglo). Sin embargo, el nivel de obesidad es más alto que entonces. Esta conclusión da que pensar. ¿Es lógico? La razón podría estar en que se gasta muy poca energía, sugiere a CF Gregorio Varela-Moreiras, presidente de la Fundación Española de Nutrición (FEN) y catedrático de Nutrición y Bromatología de la Universidad CEU San Pablo, de Madrid. El experto presentó la pasada semana el estudio Anibes (Antropometría, Ingesta y Balance Energético en España), realizado por la FEN y un comité científico de expertos en 2.009 individuos de entre 9 y 75 años de edad que residen en 128 puntos de nuestro país (salvo en Ceuta y Melilla).
“Si comparamos los resultados de ingesta de este estudio con los índices de referencia de la Autoridad Europea de Seguridad Alimentaria (EFSA, por sus siglas inglesas), sólo el grupo de niños y niñas entre 9 y 12 años tiene una ingesta de energía media acorde con lo recomendado para su edad (2.078 kcal/día en niños y 1.973 kcal/día en niñas)”, comenta Varela-Moreiras. “Los niveles actuales de ingesta de energía no se pueden reducir más sin poner en riesgo la ingesta adecuada de algunos nutrientes, especialmente vitaminas y minerales, por lo que debemos modificar las estrategias de forma que aumente el gasto energético”, destaca el catedrático.
¿Cómo gastar más? “Las recomendaciones internacionales para mantener el peso dicen que hay que dar, como mínimo, 6.000 pasos diarios, intentando llegar a los 10.000”, resume Marcela González-Gross, responsable del Grupo de Investigación imFine y catedrática de Nutrición Deportiva y Fisiología del Ejercicio de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
Pero no sólo eso, “los adultos deben practicar a diario una actividad física intensa durante 30 minutos, practicando algún deporte, un tiempo que para los niños debe ser de 60 minutos -saltando a la comba, por ejemplo-. En los adultos se recomienda levantarse un minuto cada 30, y en niños se dice que estén menos de 2 horas sentados frente a las pantallas electrónicas”.

HIDRATOS DE CARBONO A LA BAJA

Según el Anibes, el perfil calórico de la población española está desequilibrado, ya que hay un excesivo consumo de grasas y proteínas, pero a la vez una ingesta de hidratos de carbono menor a la recomendada. Mientras que la EFSA propone que entre el 45 por ciento y el 60 por ciento de la ingesta total de nutrientes se componga de hidratos de carbono, en el Anibes se ha mostrado que el consumo medio es de 41,5 por ciento, siendo la contribución más baja en los varones de edad avanzada (39,8 por ciento) y la mayor en los grupos más jóvenes (44,8 por ciento).
Al respecto, Ángel Gil, presidente de la Sociedad Española de Nutrición (SEN), que también ha participado en este trabajo, comenta: “Tenemos una aproximación de la ingesta de energía y macronutrientes, pero todavía queda mucha tela que cortar en cuanto al análisis de los datos de calidad de la dieta que llevan los españoles”. Varela-Moreiras añade que “conocer con exactitud los hábitos alimentarios y de actividad física reales de la población permitirá establecer recomendaciones, así como guías alimentarias y de hábitos y estilos de vida más ajustados a la realidad, y, por tanto, más eficaces en la prevención del sobrepeso y obesidad”. Para empezar, como explica el catedrático del CEU, “es imprescindible la actualización de las ingestas de energía recomendadas puesto que ahora el nivel de actividad física en España es moderado/bajo”.
La metodología con la que se ha elaborado esta investigación aporta novedades, como el uso de tabletas para registrar, durante tres días, los datos relativos a la ingesta de alimentos y bebidas. Además, los encuestados disponían de acelerómetros para ver la intensidad y frecuencia de su actividad física.
Tanto es así que se publicará próximamente en Nutrients. “En España no se había hecho ningún gran estudio de seguimiento como el Anibes”, indica González-Gross. El nivel de actividad física -cuyos resultados se presentarán el próximo enero- se ha estudiado en cuatro ámbitos: trabajo o colegio, transportes, ocio y tareas domésticas. Y se le añade un quinto: el sedentarismo. Porque, según dice la experta, “puedo jugar una hora al tenis pero estar el resto del día sentado”.

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