Book now on the Itunes Bookstore

Big surprise today, I found out the book I edited with my colleagues Rob Newton and Ken Nosaka is also on the Itunes Bookstore.

So, if you want the ebook edition, it sounds like you can now buy such format.

Epidermal Electronics

I have been recently reading a lot about epidermal electronics. Pretty soon patients in hospitals (and sports people) should be able to wear skin mounted electrodes to be able to measure a variety of physiological indicators in real time for a prolonged period of time.

The latest innovation comes from the University of Illinois. A new device looking like a tattoo, has been developed and proposed as an innovative smart skin solution. Researchers at the University of Illinois who came up with this device made circuits with a wide array of components, to prove it could work: sensors, LEDs, transistors, radio frequency capacitors and wireless antennas. The devices can draw power from induction or even from mini solar cells!

Inventors say they could be used for various medical applications, especially sensors that monitor heart and muscle activity, which currently require conductive gels and/or relatively bulky equipment. To prove it, they measured electrical activity produced by the heart, brain, and skeletal muscles, some data are reported in Science.

You can also see a video of the technology below. Pretty impressive technology which will be hopefully available soon!

This is impressive technology, pushing the boundaries of wearable sensors and providing incredible possibilities for studying human movement.

(Example of a sensor setup for EEG and other measurements. Photo courtesy of Prof. John Rogers)

(Easy removal of the skin mounted electrode. Photo courtesy of Prof. John Rogers)

You can learn more about this and other technologies developed by Professor Rogers’ group here.

Muscle oxygenation in-vivo

Our paper on the possibility of using Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) to measure muscle oxygenation in-vivo in elite athletes has now been published ahead of print by Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

This study is the first of a series of studies constituting the PhD studentship funded by the BOA to study the possibility of using NIRS in the field as a tool to understand performance demands and adaptations to training as well as developing innovative portable integrated brain and muscle devices. The research programme is a collaboration between ourselves, the University of Essex with Professor Chris Cooper and Professor Clare Elwell at University College London.

The main author of this work is Catherine Hesford and you can find more info and contact details here.

More work will be published in the next months and I will write more about this fascinating technique soon on this blog.

The abstracts is available below.

Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011 Sep 3. [Epub ahead of print]

Asymmetry of Quadriceps Muscle Oxygenation During Elite Short-Track Speed Skating.

Hesford CM, Laing S, Cardinale M, Cooper CE.

Source

1 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Essex, UK; 2 British Olympic Medical Institute, University College London, UK; 3 University of Aberdeen, School of Medical Sciences, Aberdeen, Scotland (UK), 4 School of Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences, Bangor University, UK.

Abstract

PURPOSE:

It has been suggested that due to the low sitting position in short track speed skating, muscle blood flow is restricted, leading to decreases in tissue oxygenation. Therefore wearable wireless-enabled Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) technology was used to monitor changes in quadriceps muscle blood volume and oxygenation during 500m race simulation in short-track speed skaters.

METHODS:

6 elite skaters, all of Olympic standard (age = 23 ± 1.8 years, height 1.8 ± 0.1m, mass = 80.1 ± 5.7kg, mid-thigh skin fold thickness = 6.8 ± 2.2mm) were studied. Subjects completed a 500m race simulation time trial (TT). Whole body oxygen consumption was simultaneously measured with muscle oxygenation in right and left vastus lateralis as measured by NIRS.

RESULTS:

Mean time for race completion was 44.8 ± 0.4 s. VO peaked 20 s into the race. In contrast, muscle tissue oxygen saturation (TSI %) decreased, and plateaued after 8s. Linear regression analysis showed that right leg TSI% remained constant throughout the rest of the TT (slope value = 0.01), whereas left leg TSI% increased steadily (slope value = 0.16), leading to a significant asymmetry (p<0.05) in the final lap. Total muscle blood volume decreased equally in both legs at the start of the simulation. However, during the course of subsequent laps there was a strong asymmetry during cornering; when skaters travelled solely on the right leg there was a decrease in its muscle blood volume whereas an increase was seen in the left leg.

CONCLUSION:

NIRS was shown to be a viable tool for wireless monitoring of muscle oxygenation. The asymmetry in muscle desaturation observed on the two legs in short-track speed skating has implications for training and performance.

Free reference manager and PDF organiser

I have not had much time to write on the Blog recently. London Olympics are approaching fast and there are too many things to do and too little time!

Anyway, I will write a short article to praise a recent addition to my software tools. Of course this is another freeware. All of us continuously struggle to organise all the PDFs of the scientific articles we read and also make sure we can site while we write articles. Commercial software packages are of course available, however I came across a great freeware solution: Mendeley. If you want to look at a short video to explain how it works, have a look at this video:

http://vimeo.com/user5499963/what-is-mendeley

I have downloaded and used the software for few days now, and it has been very easy to create specific folders and import PDF files arranging my references by topics.

The folder syncs with server space, so it is possible to keep all the documents and libraries if your computer crashes or if you lose it, as well as push the content to other devices.

It is also possible to annotate, highlight and share comments with others.

 

Also, it is possible to create shared libraries so everyone can add and share comments as well as share the PDF contents. Finally, it is possible to create an online group to share knowledge on a particular area.

A great tool for anyone to use. The free version provides 500MB of space free and 500MB to be shared as well as the possibility to have 5 private groups ad 10 users. More space and more options are available for reasonable fees.

Curious? Download the software and find out more about Mendeley here:

Free online issue of Biomedical Basis of Elite Performance

In anticipation of the London 2012 Olympics and as a build-up to the opening of registration for The Biomedical Basis of Elite Performance Meeting, The Journal of Physiology and Experimental Physiology have just launched a free online issue on The Biomedical Basis of Elite Performance.




Experimental Physiology: http://ep.physoc.org/site/misc/virtualissue.xhtml
The Journal of Physiology: http://jp.physoc.org/site/misc/virtualissue.xhtml

Papers selected for this special online issue draw attention to exercise and training as extreme physiological variants. A considerable breadth of physiology is covered, including genes and human performance, the regulation of muscle protein and collagen turnover, tendon responses to exercise, fatigue (local and central), age and sex differences in response to training, vasodilator function, oxygen transport and oxygen demand, motor drive and motor unit recruitment, respiratory fatigue and mitochondrial and fuel metabolism.

Papers were selected by Paul Greenhaff (JP) and Michael White (EP).



Interesting things at the ACSM

I promised to write something about the ACSM conference in Denver and then lack of time did the rest….and never got around writing anything.

So, with a bit of time available I will write few reflections about the conference.

The topics covered in the sessions were quite diverse as usual, ranging from obesity to military medicine to sport performance and there were loads of parallel sessions which makes it impossible to follow everything happening. I will provide few notes on the ones I attended, but my overall impression of the conference was that sport performance research is becoming more and more rare and there is a lot of emphasis on exercise science clearly due to funding opportunities. Also, I sense a bit of staleness in the scientific community as I keep seeing a lot of experiments repeated over and over again and few innovative approaches/ideas. I have discussed this topic on my article on “the Leader” newsletter, and will not replicate it here, but I sense that the disconnect between the lab and the field is getting bigger.

Nutrition in rehabilitation

Professor Kevin Tipton from Stirling University (http://www.sports.stir.ac.uk/staff/kevin-tipton.php) provided a good overview for the use of protein for muscle remodelling. Kevin wrote a great chapter in my book on strength and conditioning and presented his work in a very elegant manner.

Some good evidence was provided on the negative effects of a reduction in energy intake when injured. This in fact, may be bad news as it might slow down muscle recovery. So nutritional advice for athletes in rehab should be carefully planned as while it is true that excess energy intake will lead to weight gain and alterations in body composition, it is also true that reducing energy intake too much might slow down muscle remodelling.

He also suggested the use of Omega 3 Fatty acids to facilitate recovery as indicated in recent papers from Bettina Mittendofer’s Lab (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21501117)

Professor Stuart Phillips gave also a good talk on protein metabolism and suggested the Omega 3 FA approach as well (4g of FDA approved Lovaza http://www.lovaza.com/). I am sure more research will be published soon on the use of Mega 3 FAs for muscle remodelling.

Dr. Ferrando talked about a “Cocktail” of supplements showing great promise (so not a single product) in his very-applied talk on how to speed up recovery following hip replacement. He suggested that in the real world we want to use all we know from research and apply it for our patients/clients. Showed some data of reduced day in hospital using a drink made of all compounds suggested to have beneficial effects on muscle remodelling (e.g. creatine, proteins, Omega 3, etc etc).

New Techniques

Some very interesting work was presented by Dr. Minoru Shinonara’s Lab. Dr. Shinonara is doing some work with a new ultrasound technique able to quantify muscle stiffness http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Shinohara%20M%22%5BAuthor%5D%20and%20muscle%20stiffness

A very interesting technique as you can see here: http://www.supersonicimagine.fr/product_0_1_shearwave-elastography,en.htm

Overtraining

There was an entire afternoon session on overtraining.Consensus is that there is not a single marker, but a variety of things which can be measured to assess if an individual is at risk of overtraining or already overtrained. It was pretty much a series of presentations of data already available in the literature.

The most interesting talk was from Dr. Bradley Nindl. In particular some new techniques and some data recently published:

Some practical data showing the effects of extreme physical training in army recruits. This  interesting transdermal method to measure IGF-1 following exercise. As well as blood spots technique to measure IGF-1.

Dr.Nindl talked about the concept of “fit to fight” which is very similar to the sport concept of readiness to train or compete.

Creatine

There was a good update on the status of research on creatine, which still is perceived to be a “bad supplement” in the media. However, the recent work from Kley et al 2011 clearly showed there are no issues with creatine supplementation.

Recent data show also a reduction in pain in muscle dystrophy with creatine and also that brain creatine can be increased from 4 to 9% with supplementation.

We do not know well if it works in older adults; however basal brain creatine seems to be inversely related to uptake. So the more you have, the less you are likely to gain with supplementation. Recent work suggests the potential use of creatine supplementation for a variety of pathological conditions indicating that more work on its effects on the central nervous system will shed more light on other potential uses.

Very interesting recent work from my dear colleague and friend Dr. Christian Cook has shown the potential for creatine to counteract the negative effects of sleep deprivation.

Recent work on creatine safety from Dr. Gualano was also mentioned here.

One of the speakers in this session mentioned the IOWA accident (http://www.businessinsider.com/exertional-rhabdomyolysis-iowa-football-players-hospitalized-after-their-workout-2011-1), with reference to the public health report showing that Creatine had nothing to do with what happened to the athletes. However, creatine was mentioned causing the media to then speculate about the possible influence of creatine intake on the health of the athletes.

Muscle atrophy and sarcopenia

Good tutorial lecture from Professor Marco Narici from Manchester Met. University (http://www.shs.mmu.ac.uk/staff_list/staffbiog/?StaffID=740). Marco gave a good overview of what happens to muscle and tendon with immobilisation. He also showed data on concentric vs. eccentric loading and the effects on muscle fascicles and tendon stiffness.

He showed that with immobilisation, muscle size decreased 0.4% per day! And you can lose about 2700 sarcomeres after 10 days of immobilisation. Some good data to keep in mind next time an athlete is in a cast!

Barefoot running

Possibly the most interesting session of the conference. Some great speakers and great arguments/data to support barefoot running.

It was all generated by recent work from Lieberman (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20111000). However when you look at the data carefully the obvious conclusions is that it needs to be introduced slowly with athletes as there are some risks of injury. But, if the technique is mastered could potentially be a great methods to strengthen the muscles controlling the foot and the ankle and eventually also lead to performance as well as reduction of injuries.

One of the most interesting data was the actual lack of evidence of effectiveness of running shoes in reducing injury risk. That is, there is not a single study that has shown that shoes reduce the risk of injury. In fact, there is now evidence that the risk of injury is unchanged, maybe even higher in the expensive shoes. Injury rates haven't come down even a little bit since the 1970s, the period which has seen the explosion in the running shoe industry. Back in the 70s, the shoes resemble today's minimalist shoes, but about 70% of runners were getting injured, the same rate as today.

Russ Tucker has written a good review of the session on his blog if you want to know more about this issue:

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2011/06/barefoot-running-shoes-and-born-to-run.html

Pacing and fatigue

Dr. Ross Tucker gave an elegant talk on how the brain controls how hard you go during a time trial and how it controls your pacing. More details on www.sportsscientists.com

I really enjoyed the excellent work done by Dr. Markus Amman. I really like his model to study fatigue and if you want to know more you should really read some recent work published from his lab:

Amann M, Secher NH. (2010). Afferent feedback from fatigued locomotor muscles is an important determinant of endurance exercise performance. J Appl Physiol, 108, 452-454.

Amann M, Secher NH. (2010). Point: Afferent feedback from fatigued locomotor muscles is an important determinant of endurance exercise performance. J Appl Physiol, 108(2), 452-4; discussion 457; author reply 470

Prof. Romain Meeusen provided a good overview of the central aspects of fatigue using human and animal models.

However the highlight for me was Dr. Schneider from Germany.He presented some interesting data on a new approach to EEG to study human performance in a variety of settings. His recent work on music and exercise is quite amusing http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20845211 as well as the link between exercising and neurocognitive function with astronauts http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21654620.

There was a lot more going on with more than 6000 delegates attending the conference. But the above is what made it interesting for me. It was of course a great opportunity to catch up with old colleagues and friends as well as meet new people and learn more about the fascinating work they are doing and the challenges currently faced by academics in this field struggling to attract significant funding to conduct research projects.

Unfortunately I will not be able to attend next years’ conference in San Francisco, but I hope to be able to make the 2013 annual conference in Indianapolis.

New visualisations of interesting data

I just came across the wonderful infographics of the Cure Together blog. Alexandra Carmichael and Daniel Reda launched CureTogether in July 2008 to help the people they knew and the millions they didn’t who live in daily chronic pain. Starting with 3 conditions, it quickly expanded as people wrote in to request that their conditions be added to this ongoing study. CureTogether is currently funded by its founders and angel investment, and has partnered with several universities and research organizations.

They provide some excellent infographics on common conditions. The graphic below shows the most effective treatments for chronic fatigue expressed by popularity and effectiveness. A really nice way to express findings. It should be said that the findings are generated by people filling in questionnaires online.

Below is the result of a questionnaire aimed at understanding the effectiveness of various common colds remedies. Here are the results:

TO generate the data above, at CureTogether, 139 people who have experienced the Common Cold have come together to share 1,079 data points about treatments they had tried and how well they worked or didn’t work.

Last but not least, David McCandless and his team have updated the snake oil infographic. And the results are of course very interesting, showing some more supplements with potential.