[Resting metabolic rate and body composition in postmenopausal women]

The aging influence on cardiorespiratory, metabolic, and energy expenditure adaptations in head-out aquatic exercises: Differences between young and elderly women

The purpose of this study was to: (1) establish the relationship between acute physiological responses and musical cadence; and (2) compare physiologic responses between young and older women. Eighteen older (mean = 65.06 ± 5.77 years) and 19 young (mean = 22.16 ± 2.63 years) women underwent an intermittent and progressive protocol performing the head-out aquatic exercise the "rocking horse." Results showed that older women demonstrated lower mean heart rate, blood lactate concentration (bLa), and oxygen uptake (VO₂) at rest. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that variations in the rating of perceived effort and individual metabolic equivalent of task did not differ significantly by age group. However, during exercise, physiological responses of younger women were significantly different than for older women: in mean values, for each increased musical beat per minute, mean bLa was 0.003 mmol/l, VO₂ was 0.024 ml/kg/min, and energy expenditure was 0.0001 kcal/kg/min higher for younger women. This study shows that increases in musical cadence increased the cardiorespiratory, metabolic, and energy expenditure responses. However, these responses during increasing intensity seemed to differ between young and older women, with lower values for the elderly group, when performing head-out aquatic exercises.

Predictive equations overestimate the resting metabolic rate in postmenopausal women

The resting energetic dispenses on postmenopausal stage should be well known in order to elaborate obesity prevention programs.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to compare the resting metabolic rate (RMR) measured by indirect calorimetry (RMRmeasured) with predictive equations (RMRestimated) and verify which preexisting equation is more indicated for this population, in inactive, postmenopausal women.

DESIGN

43 postmenopausal women volunteered for the present study.

MEASUREMENTS

RMRestimated value was achieved by indirect calorimetry. The predictive equations used were: Harris-Benedict equation (HB), Henry e Ree (HR), Mifflin-St Jeor equation (MSJ), World Health Organization equation (WHO) and Female Brazilian Population (FBP). Body composition was obtained through skinfolds method.

RESULTS

All equations showed significant difference values for kcal/day (p<0.00001) (HB 1313.07±73.46; HR 1310.95±81.41; MSJ 1207.93±93.17; WHO 1375.73±61.01 and FBP 1250.05±73.54 kcal/day) in relation to RMRestimated (1063.79±157.82). The WHO equation was the one which most overestimated the RMR values with a difference of more than 300 kcal/day.

CONCLUSION

None of the equations to approach, in this study showed precision in the estimative of RMR, all prediction equations overestimated RMR values in Brazilians' postmenopausal women, although the MSJ predictive equation showed the greater approximation of RMRmeasured for this population.

Metabolic and infectious pathologies in Brazilian medical literature: a review

OBJECTIVE

This review of original reports on metabolic and infectious diseases that were recently published in Brazilian journals is designed to inform the readership of CLINICS about their content.

METHODS

I conducted a search in PubMed for original research articles (clinical or basic research) recently published (2008-2009) by Brazilian medical and biological periodicals. Papers on metabolic pathologies were retrieved by searching for appropriate keywords such as metabolic syndrome and obesity. Papers on infectious disease were obtained by entering 15 different keywords for the most commonly occurring pathologies. Review articles, editorials, letters to the editor, and case reports were manually excluded. Selected titles were then categorized into appropriate sub-categories.

RESULTS

This search produced a total of 123 articles, which filtered down to 72 articles after eliminating editorials, review articles, letters to the Editor and case reports. Reviewed periodicals were Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia, Arquivos Brasileiros de Endocrinologia e Metabologia, Brazilian Journal of Biological and Medical Research, Brazilian Journal of Infectious Diseases, Jornal de Pediatria, Jornal de Pneumologia, Revista da Associação Médica Brasileira, Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da Universidade de São Paulo, and São Paulo Medical Journal. The articles were then briefly summarized.