Little is known regarding the effects of mineral-containing supplemention on oxidative stress markers, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism in response to an acute bout of exercise in humans. The present study investigated whether prior mineral-containing supplemention can improve oxidative stress status and how this supplementation influences on carbohydrate and lipid metabolism after a single bout of cycling in young men. Twelve, healthy young men (aged 22.5 ± 2.4 years, mean ± SD) underwent two, 150-min trials in a random order. Each participant received oral administration of mineral supplement containing 13.4 mg of sulphur or placebo one minute before exercise. In both trials, participants cycled at 75% of heart rate reserve for 60 minutes and then rested for 90 minutes. Blood samples were collected pre-exercise supplementation, immediately after exercise, 30 minutes after exercise, 60 minutes after exercise and 90 minutes after exercise. Circulating concentrations of derivatives of reactive oxygen metabolites, biological antioxidant potential, glucose and insulin did not differ between trials. Elevated circulating concentrations of non-esterified fatty acids were observed immediately after exercise in the supplementation trial compared with the placebo trial (mean ± SD: 1.1 ± 0.5 and 0.9 ± 0.3 mmol/L, respectively: trial × time interaction, p = 0.036). The present study showed that acute mineral-containing antioxidant supplemention appears to have no effect on improving oxidative stress markers in response to a single bout of cycling in healthy young men. In addition, the findings of this study suggested that mineral-containing supplemention may influence lipids metabolism during exercise.

Increasing light-intensity physical activity (LPA) or moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and decreasing sedentary behavior (SB) are important to maintain cognitive function in older adults. However, there is a lack of studies examining the influence of replacing time spent in SB, LPA and MVPA on cognitive function. Therefore, this study applied an isotemporal substitution (IS) model approach to examine the associations of objectively measured SB, LPA, and MVPA on multiple cognitive functions in older adults. We analyzed data from 145 older persons (mean age, 75.1 ± 4.5 years; 61.4% women) in Kasama City, Japan. We assessed SB, LPA, and MVPA for seven consecutive days with a triaxial accelerometer. To evaluate the cognitive function, we used the Five-Cog test (character position referencing task, category cued recall task, clock drawing task, animal name listing task, and analogy task). The IS model of the multiple regression analysis was used to examine the effects of replacing time spent on one activity type with 30 minutes per day of SB, LPA, and MVPA on multiple cognitive functions, adjusting for age, gender, body mass index, education, smoking, sleep duration, history of stroke, medication for hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes and accelerometer wear time. The results showed that reallocation from SB to LPA was significantly related to the category cued recall task score (B = 0.69, 95% confidence interval 0.07 - 1.31). In contrast, other reallocations were not associated with any cognitive tasks. The results suggest that substituting SB with LPA is positively associated with verbal episode memory among older Japanese adults.

The present study was performed to ascertain the annual changes in the number and nature of traumatic head injuries that occur in high-school rugby matches, and as an exploratory investigation of approaches to improve safety in the future. It was based on injury reports submitted at the time of injury to the Kansai Rugby Football Union between Apr. 2009 and Mar. 2016. The finding was that the mean number of reported cases of traumatic head injury per year during the three pre-amendment years from Apr. 2009 to Mar. 2011 was 18.0, whereas that during the five post-amendment years from Apr. 2012 to Mar. 2016 was 36.2. Of all the traumatic head injuries, those with the highest numbers and proportions of cases for each of the four factors were as follows: (i) occasion of injury: during a match, 115 (48.9%); (ii) condition of the pitch: grass, 105 (44.7%); (iii) school grade: 2, 104 (44.3%); and (iv) cause of injury: tackling, 115 (48.9%). In addition, the odds ratios (ORs) for brain concussion at post-amendment as compared with pre-amendment and for occurrence on grass as compared with on soil were significant 2.83. An exploratory investigation was conducted to clarify whether different factors are associated with the severity of pre- and post-amendment injuries, but no significant ORs were found. In conclusion, the establishment of guidelines related to brain concussion in 2012 increased the number of reports of injuries due to high-school rugby and had a definite effect on prompt treatment of brain concussions.

The purpose of this study was to examine epidemiology of injury in a male collegiate volleyball team in Japan during 2019 season. Thirty-six collegiate male volleyball players were followed during 2019 season. Injuries that required more than 24 hours to recover were classified as Time Loss (TL) injury, and those that required less than 24 hours were classified as Non-Time Loss (NTL) injury. Exposure was calculated by total number of players and hours of participation. Then, we computed injury rate per 1000 Player Hour (PH) and 1000 Athlete Exposure (AE) as outcome measures. A chi-square test was utilized to statistically compare. Eighteen injuries occurred and the overall injury rate was 1.28/1000PH and 2.05/1000AE, respectively. Of which, 11 cases were NTL injuries (0.78/1000PH, 1.26/1000AE) and 7 cases were TL injuries (0.50/1000PH, 0.80/1000AE). Within the 7 TL injuries, 5 (0.36/1000PH, 0.57/1000AE) were of minor severity. Most TL injury were classified as chronic in nature (n=5, 0.36/1000PH, 0.57/1000AE). There was no statistically significant difference between injury rate of match (n=2, 1.33/1000PH, 2.88/1000AE) and training (n=16, 1.27/1000PH, 1.98/1000AE). The most frequently injured body part in training was lower back (n=7, 0.56/1000PH, 0.87/1000AE). In match, highest injury rate was observed in ankle (n=2, 1.33/1000PH, 2.88/1000AE). In conclusion, our results showed relatively low injury rate, and majority of reported injuries were categorized as minor severity. Our study also demonstrated injury characteristics of Japanese male collegiate players that lower back injuries were prevalent in training, and acute ankle injury rate was highest in match.

Novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spread worldwide. In Japan, From April 16 to May 25, 2020, a state of emergency was declared and people were “strongly requested to refrain from going out unnecessarily and thoroughly reduce contact with others.” As a result, the number of steps of all generations was expected to be lower than usual due to the novel coronavirus disease pandemic. This study investigated the weather walking steps decrease in the collegiate student due to COVID-19. A total of 221 collegiate students used their smartphones to enter the average number of steps taken every month from January to May. The number of steps taken by all students was 4,988±2,345 steps in January, 5182±2,516 steps in February, 5,118±2,291 steps in March, 3,281±1,689 steps in April, and 2,834±1,676 steps in May. A comparison between sex groups showed that the number of steps in April and May was significantly different (p<0.05), which means that the steps of women group was lower than that of men. These results suggest that the number of steps taken by students decreased with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of the Rohrer index and physical activity on motor function. The subjects were 143 elementary school children in the 5th and 6th grades. Motor function was measured based on musculoskeletal examination. The Rohrer index was calculated from height and weight, and ≥140 was defined as a tendency to be overweight. Physical activity was investigated using a self-reported questionnaire, the WHO Health Behaviour in School-aged Children in Japanese version (HBSC-J). A total of 130 students and their parents agreed to participate in this study, and the data of 127 students were analyzed. The main results were as follows: 26 students had a Rohrer index ≥140, and 60 students (47.2%) had abnormalities in one or more items of motor function. In particular, there were many who reported “Impossible to fully squat” and “Limitation of standing forward flexion”. When compared by sex, “Impossible to fully squat”, “Limitation of standing forward flexion”, and “Pain in shoulder” were particularly frequent in boys. The Rohrer index was particularly high in those who reported that it was “Impossible to fully squat”, but it was not associated with HBSC-J. “Impossible to fully squat” was particularly low in HBSC-J (days of Moderate to vigorous Physical Activity and frequency of Vigorous Physical Activity). The results suggested that children of impossible to fully squat is a lot of low activity and obesity. In conclusion, children who are unable to squat should be followed up to promote physical activity and improve obesity.