Purpose
This study aimed to test the effects of a circuit training (CT; aerobic + strength training) program, with and without motivational interviewing (MI) behavioral therapy, on reducing adiposity and type 2 diabetes risk factors in Latina teenagers.
Methods
Thirty-eight Latina adolescents (15.8 ± 1.1 yr) who are overweight/obese were randomly assigned to control (C; n = 12), CT (n = 14), or CT + MI (n = 12). The CT classes were held twice a week (60–90 min) for 16 wk. The CT + MI group also received individual or group MI sessions every other week. The following were measured before and after intervention: strength by one-repetition maximum; cardiorespiratory fitness (V̇O2max) by submaximal treadmill test; physical activity by accelerometry; dietary intake by records; height, weight, waist circumference; total body composition by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry; visceral adipose tissue, subcutaneous adipose tissue, and hepatic fat fraction by magnetic resonance imaging; and glucose/insulin indices by fasting blood draw. Across-intervention group effects were tested using repeated-measures ANOVA with post hoc pairwise comparisons.
Results
CT and CT + MI participants, compared with controls, significantly increased fitness (+16% and +15% vs −6%, P = 0.03) and leg press (+40% vs +20%, P = 0.007). Compared with controls, CT participants also decreased waist circumference (−3% vs +3%; P < 0.001), subcutaneous adipose tissue (−10% vs 8%, P = 0.04), visceral adipose tissue (−10% vs +6%, P = 0.05), fasting insulin (−24% vs +6%, P = 0.03), and insulin resistance (−21% vs −4%, P = 0.05).
Conclusions
CT may be an effective starter program to reduce fat depots and improve insulin resistance in Latino youth who are overweight/obese, whereas the additional MI therapy showed no additive effect on these health outcomes.
Objective
To test the effects of emotionally expressive writing in a randomized controlled trial of metastatic breast cancer patients and to determine whether effects of the intervention varied as a function of perceived social support or time since metastatic diagnosis.
Design
Women (N = 62) living with Stage IV breast cancer were randomly assigned to write about cancer-related emotions (EMO; n = 31) or the facts of their diagnosis and treatment (CTL; n = 31). Participants wrote at home for four 20-min sessions within a 3-week interval.
Main Outcome Measures
Depressive symptoms, cancer-related intrusive thoughts, somatic symptoms, and sleep quality at 3 months postintervention.
Results
No significant main effects of experimental condition were observed. A significant condition × social support interaction emerged on intrusive thoughts; EMO writing was associated with reduced intrusive thoughts for women reporting low emotional support (η2 = .15). Significant condition × time since metastatic diagnosis interactions were also observed for somatic symptoms and sleep disturbances. Relative to CTL, EMO participants who were more recently diagnosed had fewer somatic symptoms (η2 = .10), whereas EMO participants with longer diagnosis duration exhibited increases in sleep disturbances (η2 = .09).
Conclusion
Although there was no main effect of expressive writing on health among the current metastatic breast cancer sample, expressive writing may be beneficial for a subset of metastatic patients (including women with low levels of emotional support or who have been recently diagnosed) and contraindicated for others (i.e., those who have been living with the diagnosis for years).
Research on mechanisms underlying the phenomenon of developmental programming of health and disease has focused primarily on processes that are specific to cell types, organs and phenotypes of interest. However, the observation that exposure to suboptimal or adverse developmental conditions
concomitantly
influences a broad range of phenotypes suggests that these exposures may additionally exert effects through cellular mechanisms that are common, or shared, across these different cell and tissue types. It is in this context that we focus on cellular bioenergetics and propose that mitochondria, bioenergetic and signalling organelles, may represent a key cellular target underlying developmental programming. In this review, we discuss empirical findings in animals and humans that suggest that key structural and functional features of mitochondrial biology exhibit developmental plasticity, and are influenced by the same physiological pathways that are implicated in susceptibility for complex, common age-related disorders, and that these targets of mitochondrial developmental programming exhibit long-term temporal stability. We conclude by articulating current knowledge gaps and propose future research directions to bridge these gaps.
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