"This study provides important new evidence that higher levels of sitting time have a deleterious impact on insulin resistance and chronic low-grade inflammation in women but not men and that this effect is seen regardless of how much exercise is undertaken. This suggests that women who meet the national recommendations of 30 minutes of exercise a day may still be compromising their health if they are seated for the rest of the day.
Vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide epidemic, with well known impacts on calcium metabolism and bone health, but increasingly recognized associations with chronic health problems such as bowel and colonic cancer, arthritis, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In recent years in the Sports Medicine literature, there has been an increased focus on the potential impact that inadequate Vitamin D levels may have on athletic performance.
In the early 20th Century, athletes and coaches felt that ultraviolet rays had a positive impact on athletic performance, and while remaining limited, evidence is accumulating to support this view. Muscle structure and function is recognised to play a key role in athletic performance, and both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies allude to a functional role for Vitamin D in muscle. The identification of the Vitamin D receptor in muscle tissue provides a direct pathway for Vitamin D to impact upon Skeletal Muscle structure and function. This review focuses on the current understanding of the action of Vitamin D within skeletal muscle tissue, and the potential impact on performance.
• Athletes should have their (25-Hydroxy) Vitamin D levels measured regularly throughout the year.
• Vitamin D deficient or depleted Athletes should be advised on appropriate UVB exposure or supplemented as required.
• Optimal levels of Vitamin D remain controversial, but levels of 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D of 30ng/ml may be considered safe.
"No one can deny that the human body was meant to move, and to move often," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal, "but the reality is that many of us don't move enough, whether because of disease, injury, or simply a busy schedule. This discovery is another important step towards the treatment of muscle wasting in cancer, severe infection or aging – or to maintain our muscle mass to help face the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."
Average miles run per week in the last 3 years, a marker of total training experience, encompassing training volume and duration, was negatively associated with post-marathon cTnI release (p<0.001).
