Anita Mantri, B.S.Osteoporosis afflicts roughly 8 million American women (13). Exercise is often prescribed as a measure of preventing osteoporosis due to its ability to increase bone formation. This eventually increases bone mineral density thus providing a reserve of bone to protect against losses due to estrogen deficiency from menopause. According to CDC reports, from 2011-2013, roughly 26% of American women between the ages of 15 and 44 used oral contraceptives (OCs) as their primary form o...

Jiling Liu, M. EdRegular physical activity (PA) is important for children’s health and development. Exercising daily can reduce heart disease, obesity, and bone problems. Regular PA burns out stress and makes people feel good. Children’s academic learning can also improve through habitual exercises.Recently, PA opportunities for children are becoming fewer. One reason is that schools have focused more on students’ academic performances. At the same time, schools have cut down t...

Majid Koozehchian, MSL-Carnitine and Weight Loss:L-carnitine (CARN) is a trimethylamine molecule being synthesized in mammals from essential amino acids lysine and methionine in the kidney, liver, and brain or ingested through diet. CARN is a cofactor of carnitine palmitoyl transferase and serves as a transporter of long-chain fatty acids such as triglycerides across the mitochondria for β-oxidation (1, 2); therefore, CARN supplementation may increase lipid metabolism and promotes a decreas...

Taewon Kim, MSIt is well recognized that sequential movement skills are a fundamental to our daily life. We may think of driving a vehicle, typing a computer keyboard, texting with smart phone, and playing many sports. These daily behaviors require some kind of sequence movement skills. Thus, learning these skills allows people to live more efficiently. For example, typing a keyboard, which requires sequential finger movements to press the keyboard with while typing words or something. A fast ty...

Adam Kieffer, MSIf you’ve visited your doctor for a check-up and had your blood cholesterol checked, chances are you were told about “good” and “bad” cholesterol. If your numbers weren’t the best, or you have a family history of heart disease, your doctor may have recommended that you decrease your “bad” cholesterol and increase your “good” cholesterol. Your “bad” cholesterol, or low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol del...

Jessica Cardin, MSThe regulation of protein assembly and disassembly (protein flux) within the body has been a topic that has been studied extensively for the last 60 years. However, the majority of the research has been mostly focused on the rates of assembly (synthesis) and the related methodologies. Protein disassembly (degradation) is an equally viable research endeavor, as it is the other half of protein flux within tissues and whole body systems.The body has many protein pools that ar...

Vincent Chen, B.S.The leaner you are, the easier to keep lean! A recent study in our lab (Human Countermeasures Laboratory, Texas A&M University) revealed that participants with less percent body fat increased more fat-­burning protein, PPAR-­delta, after performing just a single bout of whole body resistance exercise. Furthermore, no matter how much your percent body fat is, PPAR-­delta content increases after 10 weeks of resistance exercise training. PPAR-­de...

Rihana Bokhari, BSYou have probably heard someone tell you exercise is good for you and maybe you have even heard that exercise can help prevent a lot of diseases like diabetes and heart disease. But did you know that exercise does far more than helping you shape up for summer or feel better on a daily basis? Exercise might be able to protect you from radiation. Radiation is well known to cause harmful effects on the human body. This study seeks to use exercise as a non-invasive and safe me...

Erin SimmonsRecently, coconut oil has exploded in popularity: it is added to coffee, used in cooking, and even consumed by the spoonful. This begs the question of what exactly makes coconut such a “miracle food”? A number of organizations advise against the consumption of coconut oil because of its high saturated fat (SF) content, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and American Heart Association.  Indeed, coconut oil is appr...

Kyle Levers, MS, CSCSDespite all of the trophies and accomplishments hanging on the bedroom walls of today’s best youth athletes, many fail to make it through high school or collegiate athletics.  The culture of youth sports has drastically changed from previous generations in which young athletes are inundated with select, travel, and club teams that cultivate an intensely competitive environment among all that are involved.  The intense competition of youth sport as well as the...