Science Weekly - 19th March 2021

The topics we brought you this week are quite specific to problems some of your personal training clients might have or have had in the past.

Highlights:

• Stress reduction as a path to eating less fast food
• Adding triglyceride-lowering Omega-3 based medication to statins may lower stroke risk
• Exercise during pregnancy may save kids from health problems as adults
• Pick up the pace! Slow walkers four times more likely to die from COVID-19, study finds
• Consumption of added sugar doubles fat production
• In women, higher body fat may protect against heart disease death, study shows
• The fitter you are the better you burn fat

Stress reduction as a path to eating less fast food

Intervention's effect of lowering stress linked to dietary improvement
Overweight low-income mothers of young kids ate fewer fast-food meals and high-fat snacks after participating in a study - not because researchers told them what not to eat, but because the lifestyle intervention being evaluated helped lower the moms' stress, research suggests.

Source: Ohio State University

Adding triglyceride-lowering Omega-3 based medication to statins may lower stroke risk

American Stroke Association International Stroke Conference -- presentation 57
Adding the triglyceride-lowering medication icosapent ethyl cut the risk of a first stroke by an additional 36% in patients already taking statin medications to treat high cholesterol. In previous research, icosapent ethyl reduced the risk of major cardiovascular events. The prescription medication is a highly purified form of an omega-3 fatty acid. The study's results do not apply to supplements available over-the-counter.

Source: American Heart Association

Exercise during pregnancy may save kids from health problems as adults

Parental obesity predisposes children to develop diabetes, metabolic issues
One day soon, a woman's first trip to the doctor after conceiving may include a prescription for an exercise program.

Source: University of Virginia Health System

Pick up the pace! Slow walkers four times more likely to die from COVID-19, study finds

Slow walkers are almost four times more likely to die from COVID-19, and have over twice the risk of contracting a severe version of the virus, according to researchers in a new study.

Source: University of Leicester

Consumption of added sugar doubles fat production

Too much sugar is unhealthy - that we know, but it's not just down to the many calories. Even moderate amounts of added fructose and sucrose double the body's own fat production in the liver, researchers have shown. In the long term, this contributes to the development of diabetes or a fatty liver.

Source: University of Zurich

In women, higher body fat may protect against heart disease death, study shows

A new study shows that while men and women who have high muscle mass are less likely to die from heart disease, it also appears that women who have higher levels of body fat -- regardless of their muscle mass -- have a greater degree of protection than women with less fat.

Source: University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences

The fitter you are the better you burn fat

Physiologists find that the biggest predictors of people's ability to burn fat are their biological sex and their fitness levels.+

Source: University of Bath