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Mesothelioma: A Killer
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Regular stretching may improve sports performance
Last Updated: 2004-09-29 12:25:54 -0400 (Reuters Health)
By Charnicia E. Huggins
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Regular stretching over a few days or weeks before sports or exercise appears to improve performance, while performing stretches only just before these activities may actually decrease performance, according to a review of studies on the topic.
"Therefore, if one stretches, one should stretch after exercise, or at a time not related to exercise," writes study author Dr. Ian Shrier of Sir Mortimer B. Davis-Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Quebec.
Many clinicians and fitness instructors advise people to stretch before exercising to prevent injury, but recent reviews of studies examining the benefits of such stretching suggest it may not reduce one's injury risk. Some experts also believe that stretching may improve performance.
To investigate this claim, Shrier analyzed the results of studies on stretching and sport performance. His findings are published in the current issue of the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine.
The results of 22 of the 23 articles that looked at the benefits of stretching immediately before exercise showed that stretching did not improve the study participants' outcome in various measures, including a test of their jumping height - a skill that can definitely affect a basketball player's performance, Shrier found.
Of the four articles that examined whether pre-exercise stretching helps improve running speeds, one showed it to have a positive effect, while another showed it to be detrimental. The remaining two had ambiguous results.
Overall, Shrier writes, "an acute bout of stretching does not improve force or jump height, and the results for running speed are contradictory."
In contrast, seven of the nine studies involving regular stretching showed it to have a beneficial effect on performance, the report indicates. Repeated stretching was found to improve study participants' jump height, speed and force. None of the studies suggested that regular stretching hampered performance.
These findings are similar to those previously reported by researchers who found that regular stretching, rather than pre-exercise stretching, may reduce one's risk of injury, the author notes.
Commenting on the study, Dr. Mike Bracko, Calgary, Alberta- based spokesperson for the American College of Sports Medicine, noted that the value of stretching is a "huge" topic among researchers these days.
"There isn't as much benefit...as we once thought," he told Reuters Health. Previous research about the benefits of stretching was "based on the perceived notion that flexibility improves performance and reduces injury risk," he said.
"Flexibility is sport-dependent," he added, noting it has greater benefit for athletes such as gymnasts and figure skaters. But in ice hockey, for example, and some other sports, players "don't need a high level of flexibility," he said.
SOURCE: Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, September/October 2004.
Copyright © 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
Chiron promises US flu vaccine safe and available
Last Updated: 2004-09-28 15:32:49 -0400 (Reuters Health)
By Maggie Fox
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - This year's U.S. flu vaccine will be safe and will be distributed on time, Chiron Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer Howard Pien pledged on Tuesday.
Pien also said the company was working hard to develop a better and more efficient way to make influenza vaccine so it can adapt to epidemics that change as the virus mutates every year.
Last month Chiron said it would delay shipment of its FluVirin vaccine because lots containing 4 million doses of the vaccine did not meet sterility standards.
"We expect that in the next few days we can make shipment plans," Pien told a hearing of the Senate Committee on Aging.
He said 48 million doses of the company's vaccine, nearly half the total U.S. supply, would be shipped to distributors in October and November.
"This is only our second year as a supplier of flu vaccine to the United States but nonetheless we have increased output by 50 percent," Pien said.
Influenza typically kills 36,000 Americans a year and 500,000 worldwide.
Pien said a few batches of the company's vaccine being prepared for the upcoming flu season seemed to be contaminated, so the company halted production to check it out.
This created concern because last year there was a shortage of flu vaccine, but Pien said the checks were needed to guarantee that the vaccine was pure and safe.
"In our situation we determined that some small number of batches of product that were being made ... appeared to have contamination," Pien told the hearing.
"Testing procedures and protocol calls for a program to confirm this. The first thing is to retest all of the product that we have made. The second is to look at all possible hypotheses as to why there might have been contamination."
Then the root cause has to be found. Pien said the company was now working with the Food and Drug Administration to clear the vaccine for shipment.
"We hope that in due course, the next few days, we will make an announcement," he said.
The formula for the influenza vaccine is changed every year to include the most common strains circulating at the time. It then takes months to grow the three strains in specially prepared chicken eggs and prepare the vaccine.
Last year 83 million doses were made. This year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the companies that make flu vaccine will have 100 million doses available.
The CDC recommends that 185 million Americans get vaccinated against flu every year including the elderly, chronically ill, babies and their caregivers. But in reality not everyone does and often vaccine is thrown out at the end of the season.
Pien said Chiron was going to step up production.
"We will make the investment to the tune of about $100 million for this year and next to upgrade manufacturing capacity, to obtain more equipment and machinery, to train our work force even better," he said.
"It is our deep and ardent commitment that we are going to do better and be a reliable and consistent supplier."
Chiron shares were up 56 cents or 1.3 percent at $44.15 on the Nasdaq on Tuesday afternoon.
Copyright © 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
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