Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Exercise Helps Teens Overcome 'Obesity Gene'

Does carrying a gene tied to obesity doom a teenager to becoming obese? Not if that teen stays physically active, a new study shows.

Among genes related to obesity, mutations in the so-called fat mass-and-obesity-associated gene (FTO) appear to be particularly important. In fact, each copy of a mutation in this gene has been tied to an average jump in weight of about 3.3 pounds, the researchers say.

However, an hour of physical activity a day largely negated the gene's effect, the new study found.

"These findings have important public health implications, and indicate that meeting the physical activity recommendations may offset the genetic predisposition to obesity associated with the FTO [gene variant] in adolescents," said lead researcher Jonatan R. Ruiz, a scientist in physical activity and fitness epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute in Huddinge, Sweden.

The report is published in the April issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

For teens who got at least an hour of physical activity each day, the effect of the obesity-linked gene mutation on weight was much smaller, Ruiz said.

Exercise also helped trim back gene-linked increases in body fat mass and waist circumference, the study found.

Ruiz' advice to teens worried about excessive weight gain? "Be active. Try to do at least 60 minutes of moderate and vigorous physical activity every day -- like playing sports," he said.

Source: US News & World Report
http://www.usnews.com/health/diet-fitness/fitness/articles/2010/04/05/exercise-helps-teens-overcome-obesity-gene.html

Olympic Village Secret: Cold Days, Hot Nights

Ughhh. Athletes staying at the Olympic Village for the Vancouver games also get the equivalent of 14 condoms per person. Wow. Perhaps Olympic athletes should receive some abstinence training along with their athletic training...

It may be the most exclusive neighborhood in the world. Money can’t buy a room there: The only currency accepted is supreme athletic talent.

It’s the Olympic Village, and its residents are the strongest, fastest, most competitive and most confident men and women in the world. Scattered among this population of athletic heroes are the greatest champions from across the globe, people who have won multiple Olympic medals and world titles and dominate their sports.

The citizens of the village are young, remarkably healthy, and the definition of physically attractive. In such an environment, flirting is as natural as breathing.

Inevitably, some athletes get beyond flirting. That’s why the Vancouver organizers have laid in a stock of 100,000 condoms, which works out to 14 for each of the 7,000 athletes, coaches, trainers and officials housed in the Games’ two villages. (Apparently, skiing, skating and sliding aren’t the only activities at which Olympians excel.)

Too many perhaps? Lots of leftover surplus stock? Apparently not. The distribution of free condoms at the Olympics goes back at least to 1992 and Barcelona. In 2000, Sydney organizers thought that 70,000 would be enough. They were wrong and had to send out for 20,000 more.

Source: Today / MSNBC
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35439222/ns/today-today_in_vancouver

Concussions Extra Dangerous to Teen Brains

While the outcome was not typical of most concussions suffered by high school athletes, this CNN report looks at the devastating impact a concussion had upon one teenage football player, Max Conradt. It provides a cautionary tale and waves the flag, calling for clearer rules for identifying and treating adolescent concussions.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 4 million sports and recreation-related concussions occur each year. Experts say the vast majority are suffered at the high school level, but few schools have rules governing how concussion is treated -- and few coaches are trained to identify it.

"It's the group we need to worry about most," said Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, chairman of the American Academy of Neurology Sports Neurology Section, adding that fewer than half of high schools have access to athletic trainers.

"If there is any suggestion of a concussion, we need to take kids out of the game," said Dr. Stan Herring, team physician for the Seattle Seahawks. "The consequences [of not doing so] can be devastating or even fatal."

Source: CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/03/concussions.teen.brains/index.html

New Study: Teen Obesity Caused By Eating Too Much Food

I kid you not.

The new study by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health was conducted to investigate the role of exercise in teen obesity. The researchers found that the amount of teen exercise has remained stable over the past two decades, and thus concluded that the lack of exercise hasn't been the cause of the increase of obesity. Food consumption is the culprit. Except when you also take into account that the study found in 2007, only 34.7% of teens met federal physical activity recommendations, which call for activity strenuous enough to cause heavy breathing for a total of an hour a day for five or more days a week.

So, the study suggests that increased food consumption and lack of adequate exercise might both interact to contribute to teen obesity.

Wow. Aren't you glad we have scientific research to explain this?

It's no surprise that obesity rates among U.S. youngsters have skyrocketed, tripling from 1976 to 2004. Public-health experts and obesity researchers attribute the trend in part to kids' increasingly sedentary lifestyles. As teens spend more and more time anchored before a screen — burning fewer and fewer calories each day — they're storing more of that unused energy as fat. Hence, the ballooning rates of obesity.

That's precisely why the findings of a new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health came as such a surprise. The report, published last week in the journal Obesity Reviews, finds that the amount of physical activity among U.S. teens has not in fact changed significantly over the past two decades, even while that population has gotten heavier. "On the one hand, we have seen the obesity-prevalence increase, but we don't see a decrease in physical activity," says Dr. Youfa Wang, an associate professor at the Center for Human Nutrition at Hopkins and lead author of the study. "This suggests that physical activity is not a good explanation for the increase in prevalence of obesity."

In simple terms, body weight is a reflection of the balance between two variables: the calories a body takes in and the calories it burns off. As far as the average U.S. teen is concerned, the study suggests, the culprit behind weight gain is not a decrease in exercise but an increase in consumption. Of course, that doesn't mean teens are getting adequate exercise: Wang analyzed data from nearly 16,000 high school students between the ages of 15 and 18, who took part in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's longitudinal Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey, about their physical activity. He and his team found that in 2007, only 34.7% of teens met federal physical activity recommendations, which call for activity strenuous enough to cause heavy breathing for a total of an hour a day for five or more days a week.

But the survey also found that teens' overall rate of daily exercise had not changed much since 1991, when the study sample was first asked to report their participation in gym classes in school and their level of physical activity at home.

So does this mean that exercise isn't important in controlling weight? As tempting as that conclusion might be, Wang and other health experts say that's not exactly what the new data show. The findings may say less about the role of exercise by itself than about the other variable in the weight equation — diet — and the interaction of the two.

Source: Time
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1936777,00.html

Teens Benefit From Exercise, Both Asleep and Awake

Adults tend to sleep better when they exercise regularly, as several studies have shown. But does the same hold true for teens?

Yes, according to a new study that compared sleep quality, daytime performance and depression levels among adolescents who exercised at high levels and teens who did lower amounts of exercise.

The study, conducted in Switzerland, included 434 adolescents; 258 took part in Swiss Olympic classes, which provide intense levels of training for high school students. They averaged about 18 hours of exercise per week. The other participants, recruited from Swiss high schools, averaged about five hours of exercise per week. Students kept a log for seven days, noting how much they exercised, how much sleep they got, the quality of that sleep, how tired they were during the day, how well they were able to concentrate, and how tired they were at bedtime.

Overall, athletes scored higher in sleep quality and mood and woke fewer times after falling asleep. They also had better daytime concentration and less fatigue. Athletes also scored lower for depressive symptoms. No substantial differences were seen in total sleep time between the two groups.

Source: Los Angeles Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/08/teens-sleep-exercise.html