Fitness: death

Wednesday, 19 December 2012

Low muscle strength in adolescence linked to increased risk of early death

Nov. 20, 2012 — Low muscle strength in adolescence is strongly associated with a greater risk of early death from several major causes, suggests a large study published on the British Medical Journal website.

The effect is similar to well established risk factors for early death like being overweight or having high blood pressure, leading the authors to call for young people, particularly those with very low strength, to engage in regular physical activity to boost their muscular fitness.

High body mass index (BMI) and high blood pressure at a young age are known risk factors for premature death, but whether muscular strength in childhood or adolescence can predict mortality is unclear.

So a team of researchers, led by Professor Finn Rasmussen at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, tracked more than one million Swedish male adolescents aged 16 to 19 years over a period of 24 years.

Participants underwent three reliable muscular strength tests at the start of the study (knee extension strength, handgrip strength and elbow flexion strength). BMI and blood pressure were also measured. Premature death was defined as death before age 55 years.

During the follow-up period, 26,145 participants (2.3% of the group) died. Suicide was the most common cause of death (22.3%) compared with cardiovascular diseases (7.8%) or cancer (14.9%).

High muscular strength was associated with a 20-35% lower risk of early death from any cause and also from cardiovascular diseases, independently of BMI or blood pressure. No association was seen with cancer deaths.

Stronger adolescents also had a 20-30% lower risk of early death from suicide and were up to 65% less likely to have any psychiatric diagnosis, such as schizophrenia and mood disorders. These results suggest that physically weaker individuals might be more mentally vulnerable, say the authors.

In contrast, male adolescents with the lowest level of muscular strength showed the greatest all-cause mortality and also the greatest mortality in cardiovascular disease and suicide before age 55 years.

Death rates from any cause (per 100,000 person years) ranged between 122.3 and 86.9 for weakest and strongest adolescents respectively. Rates for cardiovascular diseases were 9.5 and 5.6 and for suicide were 24.6 and 16.9.

The authors say that low muscular strength in adolescents "is an emerging risk factor for major causes of death in young adulthood, such as suicide and cardiovascular diseases." The effect sizes of these associations "are similar to classic risk factors such as body mass index and blood pressure," they add.

They suggest that muscular strength tests, in particular handgrip strength, could be assessed with good reliability in almost any place, including clinical settings, schools and workplaces.

They also support the need for regular physical activity in childhood and adolescence, saying: "People at increased risk of long term mortality, because of lower muscular strength, should be encouraged to engage in exercise programmes and other forms of physical activity."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

F. B. Ortega, K. Silventoinen, P. Tynelius, F. Rasmussen. Muscular strength in male adolescents and premature death: cohort study of one million participants. BMJ, 2012; 345 (nov20 3): e7279 DOI: 10.1136/bmj.e7279

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Meditation may reduce death, heart attack and stroke in heart patients

Nov. 13, 2012 — African Americans with heart disease who practiced Transcendental Meditation regularly were 48 percent less likely to have a heart attack , stroke or die from all causes compared with African Americans who attended a health education class over more than five years, according to new research published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Those practicing meditation also lowered their blood pressure and reported less stress and anger. And the more regularly patients meditated, the greater their survival, said researchers who conducted the study at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

"We hypothesized that reducing stress by managing the mind-body connection would help improve rates of this epidemic disease," said Robert Schneider, M.D., lead researcher and director of the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention in Fairfield, Iowa. "It appears that Transcendental Meditation is a technique that turns on the body's own pharmacy -- to repair and maintain itself."

For the study, researchers randomly assigned 201 people to participate in a Transcendental Meditation stress-reducing program or a health education class about lifestyle modification for diet and exercise.

Forty-two percent of the participants were women, average age 59, and half reported earning less than $10,000 per year.Average body mass index was about 32, which is clinically obese.Nearly 60 percent in both treatment groups took cholesterol-lowering drugs; 41 percent of the meditation group and 31 percent of the health education group took aspirin; and 38 percent of the meditation group and 43 percent of the health education group smoked.

Those in the meditation program sat with eyes closed for about 20 minutes twice a day practicing the technique, allowing their minds and bodies to rest deeply while remaining alert.

Participants in the health education group were advised, under the instruction of professional health educators, to spend at least 20 minutes a day at home practicing heart-healthy behaviors such as exercise, healthy meal preparation and nonspecific relaxation.

Researchers evaluated participants at the start of the study, at three months and every six months thereafter for body mass index, diet, program adherence, blood pressure and cardiovascular hospitalizations.They found:

There were 52 primary end point events, which included death, heart attack or stroke. Of these, 20 events occurred in the meditation group and 32 in the health education group.Blood pressure was reduced by 5 mm Hg and anger decreased significantly among Transcendental Meditation participants compared to controls.Both groups showed beneficial changes in exercise and alcohol consumption, and the meditation group showed a trend towards reduced smoking. Although, there were no significant differences between the groups in weight, exercise or diet.Regular meditation was correlated with reduced death, heart attack and stroke.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Death from heart disease is about 50 percent higher in black adults compared to whites in the United States. Researchers focused on African Americans because of health disparities in America.

"Transcendental Meditation may reduce heart disease risks for both healthy people and those with diagnosed heart conditions," said Schneider, who is also dean of Maharishi College of Perfect Health in Fairfield, Iowa.

"The research on Transcendental Meditation and cardiovascular disease is established well enough that physicians may safely and routinely prescribe stress reduction for their patients with this easy to implement, standardized and practical program,"he said.