Physical inactivity is a disease synonymous for a non-permissive brain disorder

Sitting vs. standing: an urgent need to rebalance our world

During their activities of daily living, humans run, walk, stand, sit and lie down. Recent changes in our environment have favored sedentary behavior over more physically active behavior to such a degree that our health is in danger. Here, we sought to address the problem of excessive time spent seated from various theoretical viewpoints, including postural control, human factors engineering, human history and health psychology. If nothing is done now, the high prevalence of sitting will continue to increase. We make a case for the standing position by demonstrating that spending more time upright can mitigate the physiological and psychological problems associated with excessive sitting without lowering task performance and productivity. The psychological literature even highlights potential benefits of performing certain tasks in the standing position. We propose a number of recommendations on spending more time (but not too much) in the standing position and on more active, nonambulatory behaviors. There is a need to inform people about (i) harmful consequences of excessive sitting and (ii) benefits of spending more time performing active, nonambulatory behaviors. One clear benefit is to reduce detrimental health consequences of excessive sitting and to provide potential additional benefits in terms of productivity and performance.

Health Issues Due to the Global Prevalence of Sedentariness and Recommendations towards Achieving a Healthier Behaviour

Sedentariness has progressed in recent years. Here, we summarize the high prevalence of objectively measured sedentariness and the list of health problems associated with sedentariness. According to the literature, a minimum sedentary time of 8 h/d may avoid the harmful effects of sedentariness. Our review of the literature shows that many countries worldwide exceed this threshold. The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has increased the proportion of time spent seated in chairs and/or other types of furniture. Furthermore, prolonged sedentariness will continue to increase because it is assumed that people, at least those in desk jobs, perform their work better when sitting than when standing. Many practical solutions should be implemented to help people reduce their sedentary time. People need to be aware that prolonged sedentariness causes health problems. They need to measure the amount of time spent being sedentary to self-guide their behaviour. They should adopt a new lifestyle to avoid prolonged sedentariness and prolonged standing. In addition, we point out that they should frequently change their posture to avoid fatigue and health issues. For global public health, there is an urgent need to adopt an intermediate healthy/healthier behaviour between too much time spent in the sitting and standing positions.

Assessment of motivational interviewing with the VASE-(Mental) Healthcare: Mixed-methods study to examine feasibility and validity in the general practice setting

OBJECTIVE

The VASE-(M)HC is an instrument to evaluate Motivational Interviewing (MI) skills. We adjusted the previous version for use in the broader (mental) healthcare context, incorporated new MI insights, expanded the scoring system and created a parallel version. Feasibility and validity evidence in the general practice setting was explored.

METHODS

The teaching staff of the GP specialty-training, GP-, and PN-trainees (N = 156) completed the VASE-(M)HC. In this mixed-methods study, we examined psychometric characteristics, compared parallel versions, and interviewed assessors.

RESULTS

Our adjustments enable assessment of a wider range of MI skills, and allow differentiation of basic and advanced skills. Inter-rater reliability was excellent and internal consistency of the total scale was good for both versions. The parallel versions are comparable in terms of difficulty.

CONCLUSION

The VASE-(M)HC is improved by our revisions and adds multiple advantages to the domain of available MI assessment tools.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Due to the adjustments, the instrument can be used in the GP setting (instead of sole focus on substance abuse). The parallel version is useful for research (pretest/posttest) and selective assessment (retake of a test). It is promising to further explore its applicability in the broader (mental) healthcare context and as training material.

Intermittent living; the use of ancient challenges as a vaccine against the deleterious effects of modern life - A hypothesis

Chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCD) are the leading cause of mortality in developed countries. They ensue from the sum of modern anthropogenic risk factors, including high calorie nutrition, malnutrition, sedentary lifestyle, social stress, environmental toxins, politics and economic factors. Many of these factors are beyond the span of control of individuals, suggesting that CNCD are inevitable. However, various studies, ours included, show that the use of intermittent challenges with hormetic effects improve subjective and objective wellbeing of individuals with CNCD, while having favourable effects on immunological, metabolic and behavioural indices. Intermittent cold, heat, fasting and hypoxia, together with phytochemicals in multiple food products, have widespread influence on many pathways related with overall health. Until recently, most of the employed challenges with hormetic effects belonged to the usual transient live experiences of our ancestors. Our hypothesis; we conclude that, whereas the total inflammatory load of multi-metabolic and psychological risk factors causes low grade inflammation and aging, the use of intermittent challenges, united in a 7-10 days lasting hormetic intervention, might serve as a vaccine against the deleterious effects of chronic low grade inflammation and it's metabolic and (premature) aging consequences.

Brain activity during walking: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

This systematic review provides an overview of the literature deducing information about brain activation during (1) imagined walking using MRI/fMRI or (2) during real walking using measurement systems as fNIRS, EEG and PET.

METHODS

Three independent reviewers undertook an electronic database research browsing six databases. The search request consisted of three search fields. The first field comprised common methods to evaluate brain activity. The second search field comprised synonyms for brain responses to movements. The third search field comprised synonyms for walking.

RESULTS

48 of an initial yield of 1832 papers were reviewed. We found differences in cortical activity regarding young vs. old individuals, physically fit vs. physically unfit cohorts, healthy people vs. patients with neurological diseases, and between simple and complex walking tasks.

CONCLUSIONS

We summarize that the dimension of brain activity in different brain areas during walking is highly sensitive to task complexity, age and pathologies supporting previous assumptions underpinning the significance of cortical control. Many compensation mechanisms reflect the brain's plasticity which ensures stable walking.

Physical Activity Protects the Human Brain against Metabolic Stress Induced by a Postprandial and Chronic Inflammation

In recent years, it has become clear that chronic systemic low-grade inflammation is at the root of many, if not all, typically Western diseases associated with the metabolic syndrome. While much focus has been given to sedentary lifestyle as a cause of chronic inflammation, it is less often appreciated that chronic inflammation may also promote a sedentary lifestyle, which in turn causes chronic inflammation. Given that even minor increases in chronic inflammation reduce brain volume in otherwise healthy individuals, the bidirectional relationship between inflammation and sedentary behaviour may explain why humans have lost brain volume in the last 30,000 years and also intelligence in the last 30 years. We review evidence that lack of physical activity induces chronic low-grade inflammation and, consequently, an energy conflict between the selfish immune system and the selfish brain. Although the notion that increased physical activity would improve health in the modern world is widespread, here we provide a novel perspective on this truism by providing evidence that recovery of normal human behaviour, such as spontaneous physical activity, would calm proinflammatory activity, thereby allocating more energy to the brain and other organs, and by doing so would improve human health.

Physical (in)activity and depression in older people

BACKGROUND

Knowledge about characteristics explaining low level of physical activity in late-life depression is needed to develop specific interventions aimed at improving physical health in depressed people above the age of 60.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study used data from the Netherlands Study of Depression in Older Persons (NESDO), a longitudinal multi-site naturalistic cohort study. People aged 60 and over with current depression and a non-depressed comparison group were included, and total amount of PA per week was assessed with the short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Depression characteristics, socio-demographics, cognitive function, somatic condition, psycho-social, environment and other lifestyle factors were added in a multiple regression analysis.

RESULTS

Depressed persons >60y were less physically active in comparison with non-depressed subjects. The difference was determined by somatic condition (especially, functional limitations) and by psychosocial characteristics (especially sense of mastery). Within the depressed subgroup only, a lower degree of physical activity was associated with more functional limitations, being an inpatient, and the use of more medication, but not with the severity of the depression.

LIMITATION

This study is based on cross-sectional data, so no conclusions can be drawn regarding causality.

CONCLUSIONS

This study confirms that depression in people over 60 is associated with lower physical activity. Patient characteristics seem more important than the depression diagnosis itself or the severity of depression. Interventions aimed at improving physical activity in depressed persons aged 60 and over should take these characteristics into account.

Chronic inflammatory diseases are stimulated by current lifestyle: how diet, stress levels and medication prevent our body from recovering

Serhan and colleagues introduced the term "Resoleomics" in 1996 as the process of inflammation resolution. The major discovery of Serhan's work is that onset to conclusion of an inflammation is a controlled process of the immune system (IS) and not simply the consequence of an extinguished or "exhausted" immune reaction. Resoleomics can be considered as the evolutionary mechanism of restoring homeostatic balances after injury, inflammation and infection. Under normal circumstances, Resoleomics should be able to conclude inflammatory responses. Considering the modern pandemic increase of chronic medical and psychiatric illnesses involving chronic inflammation, it has become apparent that Resoleomics is not fulfilling its potential resolving capacity. We suggest that recent drastic changes in lifestyle, including diet and psycho-emotional stress, are responsible for inflammation and for disturbances in Resoleomics. In addition, current interventions, like chronic use of anti-inflammatory medication, suppress Resoleomics. These new lifestyle factors, including the use of medication, should be considered health hazards, as they are capable of long-term or chronic activation of the central stress axes. The IS is designed to produce solutions for fast, intensive hazards, not to cope with long-term, chronic stimulation. The never-ending stress factors of recent lifestyle changes have pushed the IS and the central stress system into a constant state of activity, leading to chronically unresolved inflammation and increased vulnerability for chronic disease. Our hypothesis is that modern diet, increased psycho-emotional stress and chronic use of anti-inflammatory medication disrupt the natural process of inflammation resolution ie Resoleomics.