Médecine sportive

According to the latest thinking, eating healthily and taking more exercise are not enough by themselves to combat the nation's rising obesity levels. Instead we need a better understanding of the issues underpinning compulsive eating so that psychological help can be successfully targeted.

Eating a "heart healthy" diet and maintaining or increasing participation in moderate physical activity may help preserve our memory and thinking abilities as we age, according to new research reported today at the Alzheimer's Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna.

A large and long term study of Frenchmen suggests there may be a simple way to establish if apparently healthy people have an elevated risk of sudden cardiac death by looking at how their heart responds under conditions of mild mental stress and during peak exercise.

A study published this week in the open access journal PLoS Medicine has found that of six interventions promoting exercise in adults in Australia, encouraging the use of pedometers - simple step counting devices that can be used as a motivational tool - and promoting physical activity through mass media campaigns are the most cost-effective in terms of the money spent for the health benefits they result in.

Knee injuries are a common problem in collegiate and professional football, often hindering an individual's career length and future. A study presented at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's Annual Meeting in Keystone, Colorado suggests that anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction versus a simple meniscus repair may predict a longer professional career in those that have suffered knee injuries.