Multiple Sclerosis: Improving Quality of Life with Yoga

Adaptive personal fitness and training classes are becoming more available in society. Incorporating modified classes allows for greater inclusion of individuals with disabilities. Personal fitness classes increase over health, muscle strength and decreases mental stressors. Unfortunately, personal trainers are taught modification for injuries, obesity, joint problems and not typically disabilities. Adhering toward generalized public and as inclusive towards individuals with disabilities. This leads to lack of knowledge in allowing individuals specifically with multiple sclerosis into training classes due to not knowing how to work with this specific disability. The purpose of this article is to describe what multiple sclerosis is and how yoga can be beneficial in enhancing everyday life and decreasing fatigue in individuals with Multiple Sclerosis.

Kidney Disease Symptoms Before and After Kidney Transplantation

Background and Objectives: Kidney failure patients report a high symptom burden, which likely increase while on dialysis due to physical and mental stressors and decrease after kidney transplantation due to restoration of kidney function. Design, Setting, Participants, and Measurements: We leveraged a 2-center prospective study of 1,298 kidney transplant candidates and 521 recipients (5/2014-3/2020). Symptom scores (0-100) at evaluation and admission for transplantation were calculated using KDQOL-SF, where lower scores represent greater burden, and burden was categorized as: very high: 0.0-71.0; high: 71.1-81.0; medium: 81.1-91.0; low: 91.1-100.0. We estimated adjusted waitlist mortality risk (competing risks regression), change in symptoms between evaluation and transplantation (n=190), and post-transplantation symptom score trajectories (mixed-effects models). Results: At evaluation, candidates reported being moderately to extremely bothered by fatigue (32%), xeroderma (27%), muscle soreness (26%), and pruritus (25%); 16% reported high and 21% reported very high symptom burden. Candidates with very high symptom burden were at greater waitlist mortality risk (aSHR=1.67, 95%CI:1.06,2.62). By transplantation, 34% experienced an increased symptom burden while 42% remained unchanged. The estimated overall symptom score was 82.3 points at transplantation, 90.6 points at 3 months (10% improvement); the score increased 2.75 points/month (95%CI:2.38,3.13) during 0-3 months, and plateaued (-0.06 points/month, 95%CI:-0.30,0.18) from 3 months through 12 months post-transplantation. There were early (first 3 months) improvements in 9 of 11 symptoms; pruritus (23% improvement) and fatigue (21% improvement) had the greatest improvements. Conclusions: Among candidates, very high symptom burden was associated with waitlist mortality, but for those surviving and undergoing kidney transplantation, symptoms improved.

SARS pandemic exposure impaired early childhood development in China

Social and mental stressors associated with the pandemic of a novel infectious disease, e.g., COVID-19 or SARS may promote long-term effects on child development. However, reports aimed at identifying the relationship between pandemics and child health are limited. A retrospective study was conducted to associate the SARS pandemic in 2003 with development milestones or physical examinations among longitudinal measurements of 14,647 children. Experiencing SARS during childhood was associated with delayed milestones, with hazard ratios of 3.17 (95% confidence intervals CI: 2.71, 3.70), 3.98 (3.50, 4.53), 4.96 (4.48, 5.49), or 5.57 (5.00, 6.20) for walking independently, saying a complete sentence, counting 0–10, and undressing him/herself for urination, respectively. These results suggest relevant impacts from COVID-19 on child development should be investigated.

A systematic review of mental stressors in the construction industry

PurposeStressors emanated from construction projects are causative factors for occupational stress inherent in the construction industry. Concomitant implications of stressors ignite a burst of empirical evidence, which necessitates a systematic review to capture the state of art of the extant literature. Therefore, this paper addresses this significant gap by conducting a systematic review of mental stressors.Design/methodology/approachA three-stage screening and data extraction method were employed to retrieve 38 papers that met the inclusion criteria for the study.FindingsThe annual publication trends and contributions of selected journals were elucidated. Moreover, this review identified 49 stressors from 38 selected peer-reviewed journals between 1997 and 2020. The most frequently reported mental stressors include work overload, home-work conflict, poor working environment, role ambiguity and poor working relationships. The 49 stressors could be classified into five main categories, namely; organizational stressors, task stressors, personal stressors, physical stressors and gender-related stressors.Originality/valueThe findings of the study broaden the understanding of the practitioners and policymakers on the dynamics of stressors for the development of stress interventions. Future research should focus on exploration of mental stressors specific to construction projects and different occupational trades.

Computational Psychometrics Using Psychophysiological Measures for the Assessment of Acute Mental Stress

The goal of this study was to provide reliable quantitative analyses of psycho-physiological measures during acute mental stress. Acute, time-limited stressors are used extensively as experimental stimuli in psychophysiological research. In particular, the Stroop Color Word Task and the Arithmetical Task have been widely used in several settings as effective mental stressors. We collected psychophysiological data on blood volume pulse, thoracic respiration, and skin conductance from 60 participants at rest and during stressful situations. Subsequently, we used statistical univariate tests and multivariate computational approaches to conduct comprehensive studies on the discriminative properties of each condition in relation to psychophysiological correlates. The results showed evidence of a greater discrimination capability of the Arithmetical Task compared to the Stroop test. The best predictors were the short time Heart Rate Variability (HRV) indices, in particular, the Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia index, which in turn could be predicted by other HRV and respiratory indices in a hierarchical, multi-level regression analysis. Thus, computational psychometrics analyses proved to be an effective tool for studying such complex variables. They could represent the first step in developing complex platforms for the automatic detection of mental stress, which could improve the treatment.

Salivary cortisol and nitrite concentrations in school teachers: A longitudinal pilot study

Objective. Occupational/mental stressors, which may be evaluated with measurements of salivary cortisol concentrations, affect the endothelial function and has implications on cardiovascular health. Nitric oxide (NO) is known to have an important role in cardiac function and may also be assessed in the saliva, but its participation in physiological responses to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis stimulation is still not completely understood. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that salivary NO (as nitrite) and cortisol concentrations in school teachers vary throughout the academic year.Methods. Saliva samples were collected from 13 teachers distributed across five secondary schools. The samples were collected at 6:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., and 5:30 p.m. in the months of March, July, and December. Salivary cortisol levels were measured by enzyme immunoassay (EIA), and salivary NO concentration was determined by the quantification of nitrite. The area under the curve in relation to ground (AUC) was calculated to assess the cortisol and nitrite concentrations throughout the day.Results. No significant changes were observed in cortisol or nitrite concentrations across the three periods of the school year, while cortisol and nitrite levels showed a low positive and significant correlation (r=0.3455, p=0.0336).Conclusion. The results suggest that changes in salivary cortisol levels are accompanied by changes in salivary nitrite levels. This is the first time that such association has been demonstrated. These results encourage further studies aimed to confirm the importance of salivary NO measurement in relation to occupational stress and cardiovascular health.

Physical Activity and Stress Reactivity

Cardiovascular disease has been estimated to be responsible for over 30% of deaths worldwide. The traditional cardiovascular risk factors of smoking, obesity, diabetes, physical inactivity, and family history predict about 50% of the variance of new cardiovascular disease cases; therefore, a number of other risk factors must contribute to cardiovascular disease development. One such factor is psychological stress, which has been identified as playing a role in the development of cardiovascular disease. The major research strategy for assessing the impact of psychological stress on cardiovascular disease development is to measure cardiovascular reactivity to laboratory mental stressors. Exaggerated mental stress-induced cardiovascular reactivity and slow stressor recovery have been associated with the development of cardiovascular disease. In contrast to exposure to psychological stress, there is strong evidence that participation in aerobic exercise leads to a reduction in cardiovascular disease. Participation in regular aerobic exercise generally reduces the cardiovascular response to acute exercise; therefore, researchers have hypothesized that the ability of aerobic exercise to enhance cardiovascular health works partly by modifying the cardiovascular reactivity response to mental stressors. There is mixed evidence to suggest that chronic aerobic exercise decreases or increases cardiovascular reactivity to mental challenge in normotensive, healthy individuals. A decrease in reactivity, however, has been found in those studies that have examined individuals at risk of disease or diseased adults. The optimal volume and intensity of aerobic exercise that brings about maximum decreases in cardiovascular reactivity has yet to be determined. The impact of other forms of exercise on reactivity such as resistance exercise and interval sprinting exercise is starting to be assessed. The challenge for researchers in this area is to identify the mode of exercise that takes the least amount of time but brings about the greatest reduction of levels of stress-induced cardiovascular disease.