Relationship of stress response, coping and lifestyle with premenstrual syndrome in female university athletes: A structural equation modeling / 体力科学

To date, there has been no comprehensive study on the relationship of stress response, coping and lifestyle (e.g., diet, exercise habits, and sleeping habits) with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) for female athletes. This study aimed to examine this relationship. We used a web questionnaire to acquire the required data from Japanese female university athletes. Based on structural equation modeling, we used the PMS score as an outcome and examined its relationship to stress response, emotion-focused coping, dietary intake, amount of exercise in club activities surveyed by club unit, and sleeping time. Our study included 257 subjects (average age, 20 years). The results showed that the stress response was a direct factor in the PMS score (standardized coefficient: .63). Emotion-focused coping and dietary intake were associated with PMS scores through stress response (-.26 and -.27, respectively). Emotion-focused coping was also associated with the dietary intake (.19). Factors associated with emotion-focused coping were amount of exercise (.22) and sleeping time (.27). The amount of exercise was associated with sleeping time (-.26). These results suggest that avoiding stressors, enhancing emotion-focused coping, reducing the stress response by maintaining a balanced and sufficient diet, performing an appropriate amount of exercise, and improving sleep habits may be effective in managing PMS.

Association of serum BDNF concentration with high-intensity interval training / 体力科学

To evaluate the association of serum BDNF concentration with high-intensity interval training, 12 healthy male volunteers, aged 28-48 years, completed 16-week high-intensity interval training (HIIT) using ergometer. Training program consisted of >90% VO₂ peak for 60 sec separated by 60 sec active rest period for 8-12 sets twice weekly for 16-week. Maximal exercise tolerance tests were performed before (0-week), 4-week, and 16-week after the intervention program. VO₂ peak as well as peak watt was linearly increased after 4-week (9% for both VO₂ peak and peak watt) and 16-week HIIT training (15% for VO₂ peak and 18% for peak watt, p<0.01). However, there was no change in serum BDNF concentration by HIIT. On the other hand, there was a positive association of serum BDNF concentration at baseline with % increase in peak watt after the intervention (ρ=0.60, p<0.05). The association between BDNF and exercise training is still unclear, and more studies are needed to clarify the above positive association.