Revista de Medicina Desportiva (English) September 2018 | Page 29

Routine Assessment and
Promotion of Physical Activity in
Healthcare Settings
A Scientific Statement from the
American Heart Association
“Summary: Physical inactivity
is one of the major risk factors
most prevalent in health, where 8
out of 10 American adults do not
meet the guidelines for perform-
ing aerobic exercise and muscular
conditioning and is associated
with the high prevalence of cardi-
ovascular disease. Improving and
maintaining the recommended
levels of physical activity leads
to the reduction of metabolic risk
factors, improved hemodynamic,
functional, body composition
and epigenetic for chronic non-
communicable diseases. Physical
activity also has a significant role,
in many cases comparable to or
superior to interventions with
medications, for the prevention
and management of more than
40 conditions, such as diabetes
mellitus, cancer, cardiovascular
disease, obesity, depression, Alz-
heimer’s and arthritis. Although
most of the modifiable risk fac-
tors of cardiovascular disease
included in the American Heart
Association’s My Life Check – Life’s
Simple 7 are routinely evaluated in
clinical practice (glucose and lipid
profiles, blood pressure, obesity
and smoking), physical activity
is not typically evaluated. The
purpose of this statement is to
provide a comprehensive review
of evidence of the feasibility,
validity and efficacy of evalua-
tion and promotion of physical
activity in health environments
for adult patients”. Full text on
the magazine’s website (www.
revdesportiva.pt).
Traffic. 2018; 137:00–00. DOI: 10.1161/
CIR.0000000000000559
Mary Kapsokefalou, from the Agricul-
tural University of Athens (Human
Nutrition), Greece, published a text
in the Newsletter of the International
Chair for Advanced Studies of Hydra-
tion (CIEAH), October 2017 edition,
in which she presents the benefits of
tea for health. It starts mentioning
that beverages with more content of
favorable nutrients or bioactive com-
pounds or lower energy content are
positively associated with the risk of
chronic diseases, such as reducing the
risk of developing coronary pathology,
type 2 diabetes, cancer, while improv-
ing bone and dental health. She says
that tea has unique properties and if it
is not added sugar its caloric content
is minimal. To document her conclu-
sions, she presents a Cochrane review
(Santesso & Manheimer, Global Adv
Health With. 2014; 3 (2): 66-67) and
discusses several studies. On a meta-
analysis (Williamson, Nutr Bull. 2017;
42(3):226-235) the intake is associated
with the prevention of type 2 diabe-
tes. In another, with 16 studies that
included 138523 patients (Guo M et al.,
Nutr Res. 2017; 42:1-10), the associa-
tion was related to the improvement of
bone density, and still in another one
(Huang et al., Nutrition. 2016; 32:3-8),
with 9 studies and 465274 participants,
it was verified the preventive effect
of green tea over the liver cancer in
Asian women. About the mechanisms
of action, Kapsokefalou indicates the
polyphenols, especially the catequi-
nas, that have a relationship with the
intestinal microflora and with some
cardiovascular biomarkers, indicating
the antioxidant state of plasma, vaso-
dilation, coagulation or inflammation
parameters. She refers a revision study
published last year (Saeed et al. Bio-
medicine & Pharmacotherapy. 2017;
95:1260-1275), in which the “galato
epigalocatequina was associated with
antioxidant properties, anti-aging,
anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antidi-
abetic, hypolipidemias, antivirus, anti-
microbial, anti-parasitic and memory
improvement”. The tea seems to be too
good and “is useful for everything”, but
the conclusions should be addressed
with high critical caution. But, in the
meanwhile, tea is still a good drink for
the needed hydration. Basil Ribeiro
Revista de Medicina Desportiva informa september 2018 · 27