Exercise

Two U of T faculties join forces to boost mental and physical health of local seniors

siddiq22 — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 16:45:47 +0000

Two U of T faculties join forces to boost mental and physical health of local seniors

siddiq22 Fri, 07/28/2023 - 12:45

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Participants in the Work it Out, Talk it Out program, jointly created and run by U of T social work and kinesiology professors and students, stretch in their chairs at the Jane/Finch Centre (photo courtesy Work it Out, Talk it Out)

Bruce Grierson

Topic

Our Community

Community Engagement

Counselling

Exercise

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Mental Health

Subheadline

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education partner with community centre

Two University of Toronto faculties are teaming up on a new pilot project that aims to improve the physical and mental health of local seniors through a combination of exercise and talk therapy.

Partnering with the Jane/Finch Centre in northwest Toronto – a multi-service community centre focusing on poverty reduction – the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education developed the Talk It Out, Work It Out program for the centre’s clients, particularly seniors.

Graduate students from each faculty also contributed to the program’s curriculum.

Kinesiology students focused on the “Work It Out” section of the program, where participants do some basic exercise before moving on to the “Talk It Out” part, where trained Master of Social Work students shepherd the clients into small groups so they can share their thoughts and concerns to the degree and depth they choose.

Over seven 1.5-hour sessions, the participants’ anxieties are soothed and their comfort level rises through the combination of physical stress release and expert peer support.

Catherine Sabiston and Lin Fang

“We planned it this way so that seniors could first get activated through exercise,” says Lin Fang, associate professor of social work and Factor-Inwentash Chair in Children’s Mental Health at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.

“Later on, as seniors were used to the Talk It Out section and needed more time for it, we switched it around so that they could have time to speak first. The program was designed to be fully integrated.”

The Talk It Out program was inspired by the growing mental health crisis during the pandemic, which hit marginalized communities hard.

Social work students were trained to provide free counselling sessions online or by phone, but Fang knew some seniors would remain resistant to the idea of counselling – even if it was free.

So she joined forces with Catherine Sabiston, a professor of exercise and sport psychology at the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education who holds a Canada Research Chair in physical activity and mental health. Sabiston had led a similar initiative called MoveU.HappyU – an exercise and mental-health coaching program overseen by KPE students from her lab to help U of T students.

Both sets of graduate students partnered on adapting their programming to meet the needs of the senior clients Fang had in mind.

They’ve since seen real progress during the sessions at the Jane/Finch Centre, where many of the seniors initially lamented the lack of social support in their lives. Not only do they now have the support of the Talk It Out, Work It Out facilitators, but participants have been coming together themselves – making new walking buddies and friendships beyond the sessions.

“That’s the best part of ‘talking it out,’” says Jane/Finch Centre program worker Sandra Anderson.

“Everyone has a story. Your story reflects what you’re going through, but I can identify with it, too. By talking, we’ve helped each other make it through another day.”

Read the full story at the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Read the full story at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Tips from an exercise physiologist on how to stay fit safely when air quality is poor

siddiq22 — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 15:26:22 +0000

Tips from an exercise physiologist on how to stay fit safely when air quality is poor

siddiq22 Thu, 06/08/2023 - 11:26

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(photo by Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Topic

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Subheadline

With wildfires causing air pollution in the GTA and across North America, is it safe to exercise outdoors? Professor Ira Jacobs offers his expert advice

The air in Toronto and across parts of North America has become so polluted due to forest fires in Quebec and Ontario that Environment Canada recently issued an air-quality advisory, suggesting people with asthma or heart disease, older adults and children wear a face mask when outside to reduce exposure to smoke particles. In response, many organizations have decided to reschedule outdoor activities or move them indoors.

Ira Jacobs

Ira Jacobs, a professor of exercise physiology in the University of Toronto's Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education and the director of the Tanenbaum Institute for Science in Sport, spoke with faculty writer Jelena Damjanovic about how everyday fitness and exercise routines can be modified to suit such conditions. Jacobs’ area of expertise includes physiological responses and adaptations to environmental extremes.

Should we exercise outside when the air is smoky from wildfires? What are the risks?

The short answer is no. The main issues of concern are the absolute amount and size of the particles in the air that are associated with both acute respiratory health risks, as well as accumulating increases in those risks with repeated exposures.

The other important aspect is our body’s ventilation rate – how much air is being drawn into our lungs. When it comes to the effects of the forest fires on our outdoor air quality during the last few days … the news is actually fairly bad. Reports indicate that over 90 percent of the air particulate content of forest fire smoke consists of very fine particles that are about less than 2.5 microns in size (about 40-50 times smaller than a grain of sand). The smaller the particulate size, the deeper down into our lungs that those particles can be drawn and deposited. And the deeper they go, the greater the pulmonary/respiratory health risks.

The health risks are compounded because most of us become primarily “mouth breathers” when we exercise, so some of the body’s natural particulate trapping and filtering mechanisms in the nasal cavity become ineffective at the high ventilation rates that we generate during exercise – at least 10 times the normal resting ventilation rates, and much higher for athletes who are training or competing.

What’s a good alternative?

Much of the problem is avoided – or significantly reduced – by exercising indoors, particularly in more recently constructed buildings that are well sealed and where the indoor air is recirculated and cooled as part of the recirculation process. Some large older buildings draw in outdoor air continuously and cool it after it has been drawn into the building – so given today's air-quality challenges, it’s good to know what the status of the air circulation is wherever you’re exercising indoors.

Even in this worst-case scenario, appropriate filters can be installed to trap the particulate matter of concern. In summary, for now and until the air quality index improves, exercise in a air-conditioned building or at home.

For those not easily dissuaded, are there any adjustments they can make to reduce the risks of exercising outdoors?

Reducing the duration of exercise at high ventilation rates will commensurately reduce the risk.

And wearing a respirator like a N95 that traps particulate matter that is less than 2.5 microns in size is also effective, but admittedly not very pleasant on a warm day. And some people find that a respirator or any face mask seriously impedes the ability to maintain the kind of exercise intensities that high-performance athletes need to maintain their training effects.

Activity 'snacks’ following meals may help maintain muscle mass: Study

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 16:11:35 +0000

Activity 'snacks’ following meals may help maintain muscle mass: Study

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 10/20/2022 - 12:11

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(Photo by Lacheev/iStock)

Jelena Damjanovic

Topic

Breaking Research

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Exercise

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Graduate Students

Health

Research & Innovation

University Health Network

Interrupting prolonged sitting with periodic activity “snacks” may help maintain muscle mass and quality, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Toronto.

Daniel Moore, an associate professor of muscle physiology at the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Eduction (KPE) who led the study, found that short bouts of activity, such as two minutes of walking or body weight sit-to-stand squats, allow the body to use more amino acids from meals to build muscle proteins.

Daniel Moore

The research was recently published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

“We know that prolonged sedentary periods impair the body's ability to filter sugar from the blood following a meal,” says Moore, who heads the Iovate/Muscletech Metabolism & Sports Science Lab at KPE.

“However, breaking up this sedentary period with brief bouts of activity such as two minutes of moderate intensity walking or rising and lowering 15 times from a chair (i.e. body weight squats), can improve the way our body clears sugar from our meals.”

In this instance, the researchers wanted to understand whether breaking up prolonged periods of sitting, a common occurrence in many workplace settings, would increase the ability of our muscles to use the building blocks of protein, called amino acids, from food to help them repair or replace old or damaged proteins.

“This is critical to ensure the body has an adequate quantity and quality of muscle,” says Moore, who co-authored the study with KPE’s Eric Williamson, a recent PhD graduate, Nathan Hodson, a post-doctoral researcher, Stephanie Estafanos, PhD student, Michael Mazzulla, PhD graduate, Jenna Gillen, an assistant professor of exercise physiology, and Dinesh Kumbhare, a scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network, and an associate professor in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

They studied 12 people (seven men, five women) across three trials for seven and a half hours each. Participants were subjected to prolonged sitting interrupted every 30 minutes by short bouts of walking or body weight squatting. The activity helped improve the efficiency of dietary amino acids used for muscle protein synthesis – the process to repair or replace old or damaged proteins.

“This is significant because prolonged periods of low muscle activity – from sitting, wearing a cast or bed rest – is associated with a loss of muscle mass that occurs in parallel with, or because of, an inability of our muscle to build new proteins after we eat a protein-containing meal,” says Moore.

“Our results highlight the importance of breaking up prolonged sedentary periods with brief activity snacks. We believe they also highlight that moving after we eat can make our nutrition better and could allow more dietary amino acids from smaller meals or lower quality types of protein to be used more efficiently.”

The study was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the American College of Sports Medicine, among others.

Read how exercise ’snacks’ can also improve blood regulation

U of T experts weigh in on whether to mix intermittent fasting and exercise

geoff.vendeville — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 18:02:05 +0000

U of T experts weigh in on whether to mix intermittent fasting and exercise

geoff.vendeville Mon, 02/07/2022 - 13:02

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(Photo by Kiwis/Getty Images)

Jelena Damjanovic

Topic

Breaking Research

Exercise

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Health

Fans of intermittent fasting say consuming fewers calories by skipping meals helps lose weight and leads to other health benefits.

But what happens to your body when you add exercise to the mix?

Matthew Lees and Eric Williamson, both of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, have studied the effects of intermittent fasting on muscle health in the general population and older adults. Lees, a postdoctoral researcher, and Williamson a PhD student and registered dietician, conducted the research with Associate Professor Daniel Moore.

“Finding ways to lose weight that are as simple as skipping a meal is very difficult because many people find it hard to manage their hunger while being in a caloric deficit,” Williamson says. “But, if they find that their hunger is well managed with intermittent fasting and they plan to exercise at the same time, then it can be an effective tool for losing fat.”

Lees and Willamson spoke to writer Jelena Damjanovic about the benefits of complementing intermittent fasting with exercise.

What is intermittent fasting?

Eric Williamson: Intermittent fasting means going without food for an intentional period of time. There's no real strict definition of how long that time has to be, but for the most part, it's at least 12 hours. Most people will practice intermittent fasting with the intention of losing weight. The thinking behind this is that intermittent fasting will keep your insulin levels lower and by lowering insulin, which is known as the fat-storing hormone, you will lose body fat.

What does the science say about it?

EW: Research in this area provides ample evidence that the majority of people who practice intermittent fasting will typically lose weight, but not for the purported reason of lowering insulin levels. Rather, evidence shows that skipping meals does not typically lead to compensatory eating. So, if you skip breakfast, you will typically eat a little bit more at lunch, but you won't eat as much as if you had eaten breakfast. That ends up putting you into a caloric deficit and, by the laws of physics, it is what leads to the loss of mass overtime.

What’s the appeal of intermittent fasting?

EW: Finding ways to lose weight that are as simple as skipping a meal is very difficult because many people find it hard to manage their hunger while being in a caloric deficit. But, if they find that their hunger is well managed with intermittent fasting and they plan to exercise at the same time, then it can be an effective tool for losing fat.

What’s the benefit of combining intermittent fasting and exercise?

EW: Research indicates that if you are going to practice intermittent fasting, you should combine it with exercise – in particular resistance training. The reason for that has to do primarily with protein metabolism. We know that having our protein intake in multiple feedings throughout the day is better for our lean mass and for lean mass retention over time. Muscle is a significant component of lean mass, so if you are fasting, you are skipping these opportunities for the effects of a protein intake on your muscle metabolism and risking muscle atrophy.

Put simply, when people practice intermittent fasting without exercising, they are losing weight, but much of it often comes from the muscle in the lean mass. If they are exercising, then that shifts from a loss of muscle mass to a loss fat mass, so that’s a large benefit.

Are certain types of exercises better paired with intermittent fasting than others?

EW: Yes, the effects of resistance exercise in particular are so potent that you would likely still be able to preserve muscle, or at least not lose it as quickly, if you're practicing intermittent fasting at the same time. On the other hand, if somebody was looking to gain as much muscle and strength as possible, like a powerlifter or bodybuilder, they may want to avoid intermittent fasting, because they’ll need both the stimulus of resistance training and protein feedings throughout the day. Some may find they still gain muscle while practicing intermittent fasting, but it likely won’t be as quickly as with regular meals and snacks.

Athletes who are trying to maximize performance should also be cautioned as they have very high energy needs; meaning, they’ll need a lot of food. If they're practicing intermittent fasting, they're limiting their opportunities to gain that energy. By missing protein feedings, they may not be at as high of a risk of atrophy, but they are risking maximizing their potential. Athletes who are eating more regularly throughout the day are going to be more likely to meet their energy needs, recover better and adapt to their training better.

Does it matter what time of day you choose to fast?

EW: There are potential benefits to practising intermittent fasting later in the day. Most people skip breakfast because it's easy – you’re in a rush, you’re not that hungry because our appetites decrease as we sleep. But, from a metabolic perspective, you’re better off skipping your evening snack or dinner rather than breakfast.

There are a couple of reasons for that. One is that we’re more metabolically primed in the morning, not necessarily for protein intake, but for other nutrients. We tend to metabolize nutrients better in the morning. Secondly, nighttime is usually when the junk foods come out. So, if somebody says I'm not going to eat after eight, for example, they're probably eliminating some of these calorically dense, low nutrient foods.

How does age factor in?

Matthew Lees: As we get older, we’re at an even higher risk of muscle atrophy. The body becomes less efficient at using the protein that we consume in the diet and that process, known as anabolic resistance, is made worse by being sedentary.

You see it happen with people after a hip fracture, for example. Even short periods of bed rest tend to lead to anabolic resistance. If you’re also truncating all of your meals within, say, an eight-hour timeframe within the day, you have long periods when you’re not feeding. There's no anabolism occurring during that period, because there's no feeding and without exercise that's made even worse.

So, would you advise against intermittent fasting in older adults?

ML: From the perspective of muscle health, it’s just not ideal for an older person to engage in the practice of intermittent fasting, because it's counterintuitive towards what's best for muscle in an aging population. They need regular stimulation of the processes that build muscle and that’s what feeding and exercise do. Having a long period where you don't consume any dietary protein is just not conducive to skeletal muscle health in an older population.

If your main goal is weight loss, then it can be a useful tool in younger populations if it fits into their lifestyle. But, for older people, weight loss is not always the principal goal and oftentimes it can be counterproductive. There are studies showing that a little bit of extra weight in older people is actually beneficial.

Is there anything else people should know about intermittent fasting?

EW: Intermittent fasting can be a useful tool for younger populations, who have a lower risk of atrophy. But, no matter the tool, I always recommend speaking with a professional before attempting to lose weight. There are some minor physical risks to weight loss, but the mental health concerns can be great. There's mounting evidence to suggest that food relationship issues can present for some individuals who intentionally skip meals. For the reason of maintaining a positive relationship with food and body as well as to preserve or enhance physical health, I suggest that nobody attempt weight loss without speaking to a professional.

How exercise and the simple act of moving your body can improve mental health

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 19:36:39 +0000

How exercise and the simple act of moving your body can improve mental health

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 04/23/2021 - 15:36

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(Photo by Boana via Getty Images)

Topic

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Mental Health

Whether running around a track or simply stretching in your living room, physical activity can go a long way toward making you happier.

Catherine Sabiston, a professor in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education, says the positive impact of exercise on mental health is well-documented.

“There is uncontested evidence that physical activity is conducive to mental health,” she says.

For example, Sabiston co-authored a study in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology that adolescents who consistently participated in team sports during high school reported lower depression levels in early adulthood.

A Canada Research Chair in physical activity and mental health, Sabiston directs a lab that studies the connections between physical activity and mental health, developing and evaluating interventions to promote physical activity and mental wellness among people who are at risk of inactivity and mental health problems.

The lab also runs a six-week program called MoveU.HappyU that provides customized coaching and training aimed at reducing the stress and anxiety of students in the lab through physical movement.

She recently spoke with U of T News about why it’s important to stay active during the pandemic – and how to feel good doing it.

How closely connected are physical activity and mental health?

Symptoms of mental illness such as anxiety and depression can impede physical activity and vice versa. When you are experiencing symptoms, you may also encounter feelings of low self-worth and an inability to be motivated. It’s very hard to find a type of physical activity that you can engage in when you lack interest in most things. Many of the symptoms tied to mental illness are also barriers to physical activity.

On the flip side, there is uncontested evidence that physical activity is conducive to mental health. Physical activity prevents some forms of mental illness, and, for individuals who have been diagnosed with mental illness, physical activity can help reduce those symptoms and improve their quality of life. It holds its own weight in comparison to all other forms of treatment for mental illness, including psychotherapy and even medication.

Physical activity is a potential adjunct to any other form of preventative or treatment-focused therapy.

How exactly does exercise lift our mood?

There are a number of mechanisms at play, including physical activity effects that are tied to our brain activity and brain chemistry. Physical activity increases our body temperature. When we are warmer, we are given the sense that we are comfortable and cared for. Also, from a historical perspective, we know that humans were naturally much more active in the past than we are now. So, physical activity brings us closer to that core level of movement that human bodies are meant to be.

Moreover, physical activity can mimic mental health symptoms such as anxiety. When you exercise, you may sweat or feel your heart racing. That mimics the feeling of panic, so by engaging in exercise, you are producing a similar physical effect that can make you more accustomed to those symptoms. Exercise also provides you with an opportunity, whether for two minutes or 20, to break away from your usual routines or worries. This escape can help people better cope with their symptoms while experiencing a sense of purpose or accomplishment. In fact, feelings of mastery and accomplishment are also specific ways that physical activity impacts mental health. Small goals and activities inherent to physical activity offer plenty of opportunities for positive feedback, feeling successful and achieving, which helps stave off symptoms of mental illness.

Finally, physical activity is something you can partake in outdoors, which has a potentiating effect on mental health. That allows you to see other people, even if you are not interacting with them, and feel a sense of connectedness.

What are some ways people can stay active and motivated during the pandemic?

We want to dispel the myth that physical activity is just running, biking and lifting weights.

Physical activity can be any movement where your heart is increasing its work capacity and your body is moving. In “MoveU.HappyU,” we coach students on day-to-day strategies for how to maintain a level of physical activity. Because the program is virtual now, we have trained students who are currently all over the world. Some students who had never spoken to their families about their mental health struggles are now actually having their whole families join in on the physical activities.

The physical activity you are doing should be something that you enjoy. If you don’t enjoy it, you’re not going to continue to do it.

We also want people to engage in physical activity to improve function rather than appearance. It’s important to uncouple the relationship between physical activity for weight and body-size reasons and move towards physical activity for enjoyment and fun reasons. If it’s fun, you are more likely to do it, and more likely to do it leads to more benefits.

Do you have any tips for people looking to boost physical activity at home?

There are many ways you can innovate physical activity to make it more varied, even when you are stuck in the same place. The best part of physical activity is thinking about the endless possibilities of ways your body can move. If you are purposeful about it, physical activity can be integrated into your everyday routines:

Set aside time as you would if you were going to the gym or commuting. Mark it in your calendar or set an alarm to give you an actual reminder.
Use your phone or a pedometer to measure your step count. Having something that measures how many steps you’re taking gives you a baseline: If you know you walked a certain number of steps on day one, you can add five additional steps on day two. That way you’ll have a tangible goal for increasing movement.
Consciously link items or places in your home to short bouts of movement. For example, if you use the toaster oven every morning, make a habit of doing squats while you’re waiting for your bread. Or when you are wheeling from one room to another, add some extra distance.
When you’re outside, use aspects of your environment to change up your physical activity. You can change the intensity of your walking or wheeling, for instance, each time that you pass a lamppost or see a blue car. Make it fun to change up the intensity, type, and timing of your activities.
Create movement challenges for yourself and your friends, family, colleagues, or students. Set goals for taking a certain number of steps or finishing a certain number of arm raises each day. Making physical activity more like a game is a proven strategy for increasing movement – and enjoying it.

Outpacing cancer with exercise: An interview with U of T's Linda Trinh

noreen.rasbach — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Outpacing cancer with exercise: An interview with U of T's Linda Trinh

noreen.rasbach Fri, 10/25/2019 - 00:00

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U of T's Linda Trinh in the Mental Health and Physical Activity Research Centre lab at the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education (photo by Arnold Lan)

Topic

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Research & Innovation

The American College of Sports Medicine, the American Cancer Society and 15 other international organizations recently issued new exercise guidelines that focus on how exercise affects cancer outcomes. The key message: Even a little exercise may help people avoid and survive many types of cancer.

Linda Trinh, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education, spoke to Jelena Damjanovic about the new guidelines. Trinh specializes in exercise and cancer survivorship.

We know that cancer treatments, while often effective, can leave people feeling ill, anxious, exhausted and frail. How can exercise help?

The evidence supporting the use of exercise for cancer prevention and survivorship has grown tremendously in the past decade. Exercise is beneficial at all phases of the cancer care trajectory, including prevention, treatment, recovery and improved survival. There is strong evidence that exercising during and after cancer treatment improves fatigue, anxiety, depression, physical function, and quality of life, and does not exacerbate lymphedema, a swelling of the arms or legs most commonly caused by the removal or damage to lymph nodes as part of cancer treatment.

Exercise is a safe and helpful way for individuals living with and beyond cancer to lessen the impact of cancer treatment on their physical and mental health. Cancer survivors should be moving throughout their cancer therapy and survivorship as tolerated.

Can exercise change the trajectory of cancer once it begins?

In addition to addressing a number of cancer-related health outcomes, exercise can prevent recurrence and improve survival outcomes. In terms of prevention, there is now strong evidence that physical activity lowers risk of seven types of cancer, including colon, breast, kidney, endometrium, bladder, stomach cancer and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

After a cancer diagnosis, exercise is associated with improved survival outcomes in patients with breast, colon and prostate cancer. Specifically, post-diagnosis physical activity seems to have a greater effect on cancer outcomes compared with pre-diagnosis physical activity.

What stands in the way of more people with cancer exercising?

The barriers to physical activity participation are multi-faceted. Research shows that the most common barriers include lack of time, fatigue, treatment-related side effects and knowledge regarding exercise and its benefits during cancer treatment. This highlights a gap in what we know in research and how we can integrate exercise into the standard of care for cancer.

Part of the new guidelines suggest a ‘call to action’ for oncology clinicians to assess, advise and refer patients to appropriate exercise programs – clinical, community or self-directed.

What are some tried and tested methods of motivating cancer patients to exercise?

Research has employed a variety of methods to motivate cancer patients to exercise – highly supervised exercise programs, home-based programs, a combination of supervised and home-based programs, community-based physical activity programming, hospital-based physical activity programs, print-based physical activity materials, oncologist referrals to exercise, [as well as] technology-delivered physical activity programming such as tailored websites, apps and activity trackers.

We know that when cancer survivors adopt an exercise program, they can achieve long-term health benefits, but that only happens when exercise is maintained. As a behavioural researcher in exercise psychology, my research focuses on how we can design interventions that promote regular physical activity in cancer survivors. In addition to providing an exercise prescription tailored to the needs and preferences of the individual, it is important to incorporate behaviour-change strategies needed for maintenance. We set the cancer survivor up for success, which includes identifying the survivors’ personal benefits for participating in exercise, how to anticipate and overcome barriers to exercise, creating concrete action plans for exercise, how to self-monitor exercise, and goal setting as examples. We work with cancer survivors to make exercise a part of their regular lifestyle.

According to the new guidelines, how much and what types of exercise may be the most needed, helpful and tolerable for anyone facing a cancer diagnosis?

Experts now recommend that cancer patients and survivors perform aerobic and resistance training for approximately 30 minutes per session, three times a week, to achieve health benefits.

Examples of moderate activity exercise include brisk walking, light biking, water exercise and dancing. You can exercise for any length of time to build up to 30 minutes a day. For strength training, you can lift dumbbells, use elastic bands, or do body weight exercises such as chair sit-to-stands to build strength.

How are these recommendations different from the recommendations on exercise and cancer first published by the American College of Sports Medicine in 2010?

In the past, the precise type and amount of exercise to treat the many different cancer treatment related health outcomes were not clear. In the absence of this information, cancer survivors were recommended to achieve the general public health guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

Over time it was acknowledged that these guidelines were unachievable for cancer survivors with physical limitations. It was recognized that benefits may come from less exercise and experts in the field set out to develop more refined exercise prescriptions for distinct cancer-related health outcomes resulting in the updated guidelines.

How much exercise do you need? Not much if you're diligent, U of T researcher says

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 15:33:28 +0000

How much exercise do you need? Not much if you're diligent, U of T researcher says

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 02/27/2019 - 10:33

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Jenna Gillen, who recently joined U of T's Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education as an assistant professor, says breaking up prolonged periods of sitting with exercise "snacks" can lower blood sugar (photo by Makeda Marc-Ali)

Topic

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Health

Research & Innovation

Jenna Gillen is helping change the way we think about exercise.

A recently appointed assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education (KPE), Gillen has been interested in exercise and nutrition for as long as she can remember.

Her research is helping to answer several important questions, including: How much exercise is required to improve health?

A surprisingly small amount, if you’re willing to work hard, she says.

“Breaking up prolonged periods of sitting with short – less than five minutes – repeated exercise ‘snacks’ can lower blood sugar throughout the day,” says Gillen.

Examples for healthy adults include: walking for two minutes every 30 minutes and brief bouts of stair-climbing.

“Similarly, performing one structured exercise session after a meal can immediately lower the rise in blood sugar from breakfast, lunch and dinner,” says Gillen. “Best of all, once regular exercise becomes a normal part of your weekly routine, muscle becomes more sensitive to blood sugar and is capable of consuming more of it – even on days when you’re not exercising.”

On March 5, Gillen will be sharing her expertise at the faculty’s annual free public symposium Optimizing Nutrition through Exercise. Other speakers include Daniel Moore, an assistant professor at KPE, and Jennifer Sygo, a nutritionist for the Toronto Raptors.

Gillen recently spoke to KPE’s Elaine Evans about her research interests and findings.

Tell us about your research.

I am interested in understanding how exercise and nutrition impact carbohydrate and fat metabolism, and identifying lifestyle strategies to improve metabolic health. This ranges from conducting studies in healthy adults to those at risk for, or afflicted with, metabolic disease. We are interested in practical questions relating to the importance of exercise dose (intensity vs. duration), mode (aerobic vs. resistance), and timing (before vs. after a meal) on key measures of health and performance.

What do you hope to achieve?

I hope to contribute to our understanding of how different exercise and nutritional strategies impact metabolism, health and performance. We know regular exercise reduces your risk for many chronic diseases, but there are still many unanswered questions regarding the best strategy. I am particularly interested in optimizing guidelines for women, and also hope to test some of our strategies in a community setting to determine their effectiveness in the real world.

Your research is challenging some norms in the world of exercise.

My research has questioned some ideas regarding the amount of exercise required to improve health. We’ve shown that brief but intense exercise – known as high-intensity interval training –can lead to many health benefits that we normally associate with longer durations of moderate-intensity exercise. Many individuals cite a lack of time as a barrier to regular exercise, so it’s important to identify time-efficient options that are still effective. Our work shows that if you’re willing to work hard, you can get away with a surprisingly small amount of total exercise.

Why did you want to be part of the KPE faculty?

We have such a multidisciplinary faculty with a wide range of expertise. I see many opportunities to build on existing collaborations with exercise physiologists, and also to develop new connections with researchers interested in psychosocial aspects of physical activity. I think we are able to better address important research questions with the collective expertise we have in this faculty.

What will you be teaching?

I will be teaching a new course called Lifestyle and Metabolic Disease. A major focus is for students to learn how lifestyle strategies incorporating exercise and nutrition can help to prevent and/or treat metabolic disease. By learning the underlying physiology, students will be able to critically evaluate health claims that we are often presented with for scientific accuracy.

'The solutions aren’t complicated': U of T expert on Canada's failing grade in children's physical activity

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 18:38:56 +0000

'The solutions aren’t complicated': U of T expert on Canada's failing grade in children's physical activity

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 07/10/2018 - 14:38

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The University of Toronto's John Cairney, a professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education, contributed to an expert statement that accompanied ParticipAction's report card for children and youth (photo by Seednine photography)

Topic

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Youth

The recent 2018 ParticipAction report card on physical activity for children and youth isn't something to brag about. The non-profit organization's report found only 35 per cent of children aged five to seven, and 62 per cent of children aged three to four, are achieving the recommended physical activity levels for their age group, earning them a D-plus for overall physical activity.

John Cairney, a professor in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education, believes there are a number of reasons for the low grade, despite growing awareness about the benefits of physical activity to overall health.

“Children and youth spend too much time on their tablets and smart phones and a lot less time playing active games and moving. They are not engaging in active transport like riding or walking to school like we used to see in the past,” he says.

“When I was a child, I used to play outside with my friends all day without parental supervision. Concerns over safety have significantly reduced that kind of play. Free play and risky play in general have declined. Finally, many children lack the skills, competence and confidence to be physically active – what we call collectively physical literacy.”

Cairney, whose research interests include pediatric exercise science and mental health, was an expert panel member for the physical activity and brain health supplement for the report card, which found that all children and youth need to be physically active on a regular basis for better brain health.

“There is no question that physical activity is key to child and youth health and development. Evidence in the report shows this is not only true for heart, muscles and bone, but also for the brain,” he says.

“Physical activity improves learning, mental processing and mental health and well-being for typically developing children and for those with disabilities,” says Cairney.

The researchers found that children and youth who participate in physical activity have more focused and longer attention spans, compared to their less active peers. They are less stressed and have improved self-esteem, which may lead to better moods. And regular physical activity was found to improve cognitive function in children and youth who have brain-based disabilities, such as autism spectrum disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

“This is critical information for parents, educators and everyone who works with or cares for children and youth,” says Cairney.

The report advises parents to be active as a family and to encourage daily activity. It recommends health-care professionals prescribe physical activity to complement any prescribed medical course of treatment for anxiety, depression and focus-related conditions, such as ADHD. Educators are encouraged to teach an active curriculum and not take away play time as a form of punishment, and the government is urged to make physical activity more accessible for low-income families and families with children with disabilities.

“The solutions aren’t complicated. I am optimistic that the message is getting through. We need to work together to make positive changes,” says Cairney.

“Certainly at U of T KPE, we are committed to working with parents, schools and the community to use the knowledge we have to make a difference.”

U of T research raises question: could running when young help protect the aging brain?

rasbachn — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 14:43:00 +0000

U of T research raises question: could running when young help protect the aging brain?

rasbachn Tue, 08/22/2017 - 10:43

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The research findings suggest that early-life exercise does indeed improve the performance of adult-born cells in the hippocampus, the part of the brain where long-term memories are stored (photo by Nate Pesce via Flickr)

Heidi Singer

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Heidi Singer

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University of Toronto researchers have discovered that rats who run a great deal in youth have better memories in old age, a finding that could shed light on why exercise – both physical and cognitive – seems to protect against Alzheimer’s disease in people.

“We found that for these rats, exercise was a very strong stimulus for the formation of new neurons in the adult brain, or neurogenesis,” says Professor Martin Wojtowicz, a neuroscience researcher in the department of physiology and the Faculty of Medicine. “Most of our cells are formed in the fetus. The running benefit occurred with a small group of adult-born cells. The more we understand why an intervention works on memory, whether it's crossword puzzles, exercise or learning a language, the closer we get to an effective treatment for dementia and Alzheimer's.”

Wojtowicz published his findings Aug. 14 in the journal eNeuro, along with postdoctoral fellows Olga Shevtsova and Christina Merkely, Gordon Winocur, a professor of geriatric psychiatry at U of T, and colleague Yao-Fang Tan.

Read about the research in the New York Times

The phenomenon of ‘cognitive reserve’ has been known in humans for decades. Stimulating environments early in life appear to have a protective effect on people as they age, whether helping to prevent Alzheimer’s and dementia, or lessening the symptoms of these diseases. This was demonstrated in a landmark study of elderly nuns in the 1980s. Nuns who had the highest levels of education when they took their vows had fewer memory and cognitive problems – even though all of the study subjects lived the same lifestyles in the convent.

But scientists don't understand why stimulation at such a young age helps memory cells to perform better in old age. The rats in Wojtowicz’s study ran far longer than most people would run – five to 10 kilometres per day. But his findings suggest that early-life exercise does indeed improve the performance of adult-born cells in the hippocampus, the part of the brain where long-term memories are stored.

Next, the researchers hope to discover how much exercise is needed to grow cognitive reserve and improve memory.

The research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Read about the research in the Guardian

Declining dementia rates: U of T's Carmela Tartaglia talks about a new U.S. study

ullahnor — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 15:20:53 +0000

Declining dementia rates: U of T's Carmela Tartaglia talks about a new U.S. study

ullahnor Mon, 11/28/2016 - 10:20

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Professor Carmela Tartaglia talks about what types of exercise help protect against dementia (photo by Dan Haves)

Jim Oldfield

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Jim Oldfield

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A U.S. study released last week found that dementia rates in America dropped sharply for a decade after 2002 – from about 12 to 9 per cent. That means roughly 1.5 million fewer cases of dementia today among people over 65.

Carmela Tartaglia is an assistant professor in U of T's Faculty of Medicine and the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases.

She spoke with U of T's Jim Oldfield about the University of Michigan study, and what Canadians can take away from it.

What do you make of this study?

Well, it’s really good news. People tend to think they have no control over whether they get sick, but here we have more evidence that what you do in mid-life impacts later life.

Studies from Scandinavian countries and the UK have made similar findings but in smaller groups that were less representative of the population at large. They found that by controlling cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar, and by making lifestyle changes around smoking, drinking and exercise, you can make a big dent in the incidence of dementia.

What factors might explain the drop in this study?

The researchers do point to control of cardiovascular risk factors among people with diabetes as a possible factor along with better management of diabetes. But they also found that higher levels of education were associated with lower rates of dementia, which is consistent with other studies.

A leading theory on this connection is the idea of “cognitive reserve.” Basically, education may improve brain function in a way that allows you to live later with preserved cognition. It’s not completely protective, but it can delay the onset of disease and enable people to better compensate for neurodegeneration.

That said, other factors can confound that link – more education is also associated with exercise, eating well, access to health care and mentally demanding employment, all of which may protect against dementia.

Do we have data on declining rates in Canada?

I’m not aware of any studies that show a decline in Canadian dementia rates although because we’re seeing a drop in some other developed countries, it’s reasonable to think it may be happening here. But we’re still worried about a ‘tsunami’ of dementia.

The total number of people with dementia is still rising. That’s a function of age, and more and more people are living longer.

There’s no doubt that it will be a very expensive problem. The annual cost of caring for dementia patients in Canada today is about $10 billion, and we expect that will rise to more than $16 billion by 2031. So we really need a more targeted approach.

This current study speaks well to prevention, but we’re not seeing much investment in prevention in this country, especially as it relates to exercise. ‘Participaction’ activities for kids and access to gyms has been cut in many places. Sports are expensive. We’re not doing a good job on that front.

What type of exercise is most protective against dementia?

It looks like aerobic activity is best. Other types of activity are good, such as weight training and stretching. But there is growing evidence in favour of aerobic activity.

In animal studies it stimulates release of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), a protein that’s good for brain function. In research on the human brain, BDNF has been shown to stimulate formation of new blood vessels, new cells and synaptic connections. In my lab we’re studying the effects of aerobic activity in people with established Alzheimer’s disease. We’re using MRI to evaluate the structure of the brain and the connections within it, and our preliminary results on exercise are very encouraging.

In my clinical practice, I feel we’re making progress with exercise as well – more families are trying to engage family members to be active. It can be a hard sell at times, but we try to stress that this is effective therapy without side-effects, and I think we’re making headway.

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U of T research raises question: could running when young help protect the aging brain?

​Read about the research in the New York Times

Read about the research in the Guardian

Read more about the research in the journal eNeuro

Declining dementia rates: U of T's Carmela Tartaglia talks about a new U.S. study

Read about the research in the New York Times