Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a 4-week low-carbohydrate diet (LC) with or without exercise training on cardiometabolic health-related profiles in overweight/obese women. Methods: Fifty overweight/obese Chinese women (age: 22.2 ± 3.3 years, body mass index (BMI): 25.1 ± 3.1 kg·m−2) were randomized to either a LC control group (LC-CON, n = 16), a LC and high-intensity interval training group (LC-HIIT, n = 17), or a LC and moderate-intensity continuous training group (LC-MICT, n = 17). All groups consumed LC for 4 weeks, while the LC-HIIT and LC-MICT groups followed an additional five sessions of HIIT (10 × 6 s cycling sprints and 9 s rest intervals, 2.5 min in total) or MICT (cycling continuously at 50–60% of peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) for 30 min) weekly. Blood pressure, fasting glucose, insulin sensitivity, and several metabolic or appetite regulating hormones were measured before and after intervention. Results: Significant reductions in body weight (− ~2.5 kg, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.772) and BMI (− ~1 unit, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.782) were found in all groups. Systolic blood pressure was reduced by 5–6 mmHg (p < 0.001, η2 = 0.370); fasting insulin, leptin, and ghrelin levels were also significantly decreased (p < 0.05), while insulin sensitivity was improved. However, there were no significant changes in fasting glucose, glucagon, and gastric inhibitory peptide levels. Furthermore, no group differences were found among the three groups, suggesting that extra training (i.e., LC-HIIT and LC-MICT) failed to trigger additional effects on these cardiometabolic profiles. Conclusions: The short-term carbohydrate restriction diet caused significant weight loss and improved blood pressure and insulin sensitivity in the overweight/obese women, although the combination with exercise training had no additional benefits on the examined cardiometabolic profiles. Moreover, the long-term safety and effectiveness of LC needs further study.

Background The efficacy of exercise interventions in the treatment of mental health disorders is well known, but research is lacking on the most efficient exercise type for specific mental health disorders. Objective The present study aimed to compare and rank the effectiveness of various exercise types in the treatment of mental health disorders. Methods The PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus, CINAHL databases, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials as well as Google Scholar were searched up to December 2021. We performed pairwise and network meta-analyses as well as meta-regression analyses for mental health disorders in general and each type of mental health disorder, with alterations in symptom severity as the primary outcome. Results A total of 6456 participants from 117 randomized controlled trials were surveyed. The multimodal exercise (71%) had the highest probability of being the most efficient exercise for relieving depressive symptoms. While resistance exercise (60%) was more likely to be the most effective treatment for anxiety disorder, patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) benefited more from mind–body exercise (52%). Furthermore, resistance exercise (31%) and multimodal exercise (37%) had more beneficial effects in the treatment of the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, respectively. The length of intervention and exercise frequency independently moderated the effects of mind–body exercise on depressive (coefficient = 0.14, p = .03) and negative schizophrenia (coefficient = 0.96, p = .04) symptoms. Conclusion Multimodal exercise ranked best for treating depressive and negative schizophrenic symptoms, while resistance exercise seemed to be more beneficial for those with anxiety-related and positive schizophrenic symptoms. Mind–body exercise was recommended as the most promising exercise type in the treatment of PTSD. However, the findings should be treated with caution due to potential risk of bias in at least one dimension of assessment and low-to-moderate certainty of evidence. Trial Registration This systematic review was registered in the PROSPERO international prospective register of systematic reviews (CRD42022310237).

Objective: The aim of our study was to examine cognition response to sprint interval exercise (SIE) against different levels of hypoxia. Research design and methods: 26 recreational active males performed SIE (20 × 6 s of all-out cycling bouts, 15 s of passive recovery) under normoxia (FIO2: 0.209), moderate hypoxia (FIO2: 0.154), and severe hypoxia (FIO2: 0.112) in a single-blinded crossover design. Cognitive function and blood glucose were assessed before and after 0, 10, 30, and 60 min of the SIE. Heart rate (HR), peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2), and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE, the Borg 6–20-point scale) during each SIE trial were recorded before and immediately after every five cycling bouts, and after 0, 10, 30, and 60 min of the SIE. Results: All the three SIE trials had a significantly faster overall reaction time in the Stroop test at 10 min after exercise as compared to that of the baseline value (p = 0.003, ƞ2 = 0.606), and returned to normal after 60 min. The congruent RT at 10 min after SIE was significantly shorter than that of the baseline (p < 0.05, ƞ2 = 0.633), while the incongruent RT at both 10 min and 30 min were significantly shorter than that measured at baseline (p < 0.05, ƞ2 = 0.633). No significant differences in terms of accuracy were found across the three trials at any time points (p = 0.446, ƞ2 = 0.415). Blood glucose was significantly reduced at 10 min and was sustained for at least 60 min after SIE when compared to pre-exercise in all trials (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Acute SIE improved cognitive function regardless of oxygen conditions, and the sustained improvement following SIE could last for at least 10–30 min and was unaffected by the altered blood glucose level.