Low muscle glycogen content has been demonstrated to enhance transcription of a number of genes involved in training adaptation. These results made us speculate that training at a low muscle glycogen content would enhance training adaptation. We therefore performed a study in which seven healthy untrained men performed knee extensor exercise with one leg trained in a low-glycogen (Low) protocol and the other leg trained at a high-glycogen (High) protocol. Both legs were trained equally regarding workload and training amount. On day 1, both legs (Low and High) were trained for 1 h followed by 2 h of rest at a fasting state, after which one leg (Low) was trained for an additional 1 h. On day 2, only one leg (High) trained for 1 h. Days 1 and 2 were repeated for 10 wk. As an effect of training, the increase in maximal workload was identical for the two legs. However, time until exhaustion at 90% was markedly more increased in the Low leg compared with the High leg. Resting muscle glycogen and the activity of the mitochondrial enzyme 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase increased with training, but only significantly so in Low, whereas citrate synthase activity increased in both Low and High. There was a more pronounced increase in citrate synthase activity when Low was compared with High. In conclusion, the present study suggests that training twice every second day may be superior to daily training.

Contracting skeletal muscle expresses large amounts of IL-6. Because 1) IL-6 mRNA expression in contracting skeletal muscle is enhanced by low muscle glycogen content, and 2) IL-6 increases lipolysis and oxidation of fatty acids, we hypothesized that regular exercise training, associated with increased levels of resting muscle glycogen and enhanced capacity to oxidize fatty acids, would lead to a less-pronounced increase of skeletal muscle IL-6 mRNA in response to acute exercise. Thus, before and after 10 wk of knee extensor endurance training, skeletal muscle IL-6 mRNA expression was determined in young healthy men ( n = 7) in response to 3 h of dynamic knee extensor exercise, using the same relative workload. Maximal power output, time to exhaustion during submaximal exercise, resting muscle glycogen content, and citrate synthase and 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase enzyme activity were all significantly enhanced by training. IL-6 mRNA expression in resting skeletal muscle did not change in response to training. However, although absolute workload during acute exercise was 44% higher ( P < 0.05) after the training period, skeletal muscle IL-6 mRNA content increased 76-fold ( P < 0.05) in response to exercise before the training period, but only 8-fold ( P < 0.05, relative to rest and pretraining) in response to exercise after training. Furthermore, the exercise-induced increase of plasma IL-6 ( P < 0.05, pre- and posttraining) was not higher after training despite higher absolute work intensity. In conclusion, the magnitude of the exercise-induced IL-6 mRNA expression in contracting human skeletal muscle was markedly reduced by 10 wk of training.

The cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) exerts it actions via the IL-6 receptor (IL-6R) in conjunction with the ubiquitously expressed gp130 receptor. IL-6 is tightly regulated in response to exercise, being affected by factors such as exercise intensity and duration, as well as energy availability. Although the IL-6 response to exercise has been extensively studied, little is known about the regulation of the IL-6R response. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the effect of exercise, training, and glycogen availability, factors known to affect IL-6, on the regulation of gene expression of the IL-6R in human skeletal muscle. Human subjects performed either 10 wk of training with an acute exercise bout before and after the training period, or a low-glycogen vs. normal-glycogen acute exercise trial. The IL-6R mRNA response was evaluated in both trials. In response to acute exercise, an increase in IL-6R mRNA levels was observed. Neither training nor intramuscular glycogen levels had an effect on the IL-6R mRNA response to exercise. However, after 10 wk of training, the skeletal muscle expressed a higher mRNA level of IL-6R compared with before training. The present study demonstrated that the IL-6R gene expression levels in skeletal muscle are increased in response to acute exercise, a response that is very well conserved, being affected by neither training status nor intramuscular glycogen levels, as opposed to IL-6. However, after the training period, IL-6R mRNA production was increased in skeletal muscle, suggesting a sensitization of skeletal muscle to IL-6 at rest.

Mortensen OH, Plomgaard P, Fischer CP, Hansen AK, Pilegaard H, Pedersen BK. PGC-1␤ is downregulated by training in human skeletal muscle: no effect of training twice every second day vs. once daily on expression of the PGC-1 family. J Appl Physiol

Objective To assess the effect of a participatory group-based education programme for individuals with type 2 diabetes, Next Education. Method In a quasi-experimental study, individuals with type 2 diabetes were recruited from 14 Danish municipalities with a patient education programme. Eight municipalities using Next Education were intervention sites; six control sites used usual group-based education programmes. Data were collected through questionnaires at baseline and at 3 and 12 months after programmes ended. Changes in quality of life (EQ-5D-5L), diabetes-related emotional distress (PAID-5), physical activity, diet, foot care and sense of coherence (SOC-13) were assessed in generalised linear mixed models. Results At baseline, 310 participants (52.6% females, mean age 62.5 years [SD = 10.7] and a mean duration of type 2 diabetes of 6.9 years [SD = 8.4]) participated in Next Education ( n = 234) or group-based education ( n = 76) at control sites. Compared with participants at control sites, participants at intervention sites had significantly larger sense of coherence scores at 3 (9.4%, p = 0.03) and 12 (9.8%, p = 0.02) months of follow-up. Other measures did not differ significantly between groups. Discussion It is likely that person-centeredness and high degrees of user participation at the intervention sites improved sense of coherence among Danes with type 2 diabetes.

In 2013, the American Medical Association (AMA) decided to recognize obesity as a disease. One of the main arguments presented in favor of this was broadly 'utilitarian': the disease label would, it was claimed, provide more benefits than harms and thereby serve the general good. Several individuals and groups have argued that this reasoning is just as powerful in the European context. Drawing mainly on a review of relevant social science research, we discuss the validity of this argument. Our conclusion is that in a Western European welfare state, defining obesity as a disease will not on balance serve the general good, and that it is therefore more appropriate to continue to treat obesity as a risk factor. The main reasons presented in favor of this conclusion are: It is debatable whether a disease label would lead to better access to care and preventive measures and provide better legal protection in Europe. Medicalization and overtreatment are possible negative effects of a disease label. There is no evidence to support the claim that declaring obesity a disease would reduce discrimination or stigmatization. In fact, the contrary is more likely, since a disease label would categorically define the obese body as deviant.

Human biomonitoring (HBM) is an important tool, increasingly used for measuring true levels of the body burdens of environmental chemicals in the general population. In Europe, a harmonized HBM program was needed to open the possibility to compare levels across borders. To explore the prospect of a harmonized European HBM project, DEMOCOPHES (DEMOnstration of a study to COordinate and Perform Human biomonitoring on a European Scale) was completed in 17 European countries. The basic measurements performed in all implemented countries of DEMOCOPHES included cadmium, cotinine and phthalate metabolites in urine and mercury in hair. In the Danish participants, significant correlations between mothers and children for mercury in hair and cotinine in urine were found. Mercury in hair was further significantly associated with intake of fish and area of residence. Cadmium was positively associated with BMI in mothers and an association between cadmium and cotinine was also found. As expected high cotinine levels were found in smoking mothers. For both mercury and cadmium significantly higher concentrations were found in the mothers compared to their children. In Denmark, the DEMOCOPHES project was co-financed by the Danish ministries of health, environment and food safety. The co-financing ministries agreed to finance a number of supplementary measurements of substances of current toxicological, public and regulatory interest. This also included blood sampling from the participants. The collected urine and blood samples were analyzed for a range of other persistent and non-persistent environmental chemicals as well as two biomarkers of effect. The variety of supplementary measurements gives the researchers further information on the exposure status of the participants and creates a basis for valuable knowledge on the pattern of exposure to various chemicals.

The recent rise of computation-based methods in social science has opened new opportunities for exploring qualitative questions through analysis of large amounts of text. This article uses a mixed-methods design that incorporates machine reading, network analysis, semantic analysis, and qualitative analysis of 414 highly cited publications on obesogenic environments between 2001 and 2015. The method produces an elaborate network map exhibiting five distinct notions of environment, all of which are currently active in the field of obesity research. The five notions are institutional, built, food, family, and bodily environments. The network map is proposed as a navigational tool both for policy actors who wish to coordinate efforts between a variety of stakeholders and for researchers who wish to understand their own research and research plans in light of different positions in the field. The final part of the article explores how the network map may also initiate a broader set of reflections on the configuration, differentiation, and coherence of the field of obesity research.