Featured Presentations

2010 Southeast Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine Meeting

 

Keynote Address:

“The Biological Basis to Fear Physical Inactivity”

 

Dr. Frank W. Booth

Dr. Frank W. Booth, Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia, received his Bachelor of Science degree from Denison University in Granville, OH in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1970. Dr. Booth is currently interested in the determining how exercise signals are sensed, transduced, and effect the expression of genes in skeletal muscle. To this end, multiple animal models of exercise and physical inactivity are employed. The end point of such investigations is to provide on the molecular level of evidence-based medicine for why sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of many unhealthy conditions. Skeletal muscle affects the health of other organs (heart, adipose tissue, brain, etc.) by altering insulin resistance, blood hypertriglyceridemia, blood HDL levels, and neuro-integrative pathways. Thus, all molecular events to decreased contractile activity must be integrated into models of how inactive skeletal muscle diminishes the expression of putative "health" genes. Dr. Booth has received multiple awards and formal recognition for his outstanding research, including an NIH Merit Award, an ACSM Citation Award “…for bringing the discipline of exercise physiology into the realm of molecular biology”, Honor Awards from the International Conference on the Biochemistry of Exercise and the Environmental and Exercise Section of American Physiological Society. Dr. Booth currently serves on the editorial boards for: the Journal of Applied Physiology, the American Journal of Physiology: Cell Physiology, Physiological Genomics, and CardioMetabolic Syndrome. Visit http://www.dbms.missouri.edu/BoothF.htm for additional information on Dr. Frank W. Booth.

 

 

Presidential Lecture:

“Physical Activity During Pregnancy and Postpartum: so What's Old, and What's New?”

 

Dr. Jim Pivarnik

James Pivarnik, Professor of Kinesiology and Epidemiology, is the Director of the Center for Physical Activity and Health at Michigan State University. Dr. Pivarnik received his Bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in 1973, Master’s degrees in Physical and Health Education from James Madison University and in Epidemiology from Michigan State, and his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1982. As an exercise physiologist and epidemiologist, he studies the exercise responses of females, particularly during pregnancy, and children, both healthy and those with chronic diseases. His focus is on the role of physical activity in reducing the risk factors for chronic disease development (e.g., cardiovascular disease) and the morbidity and mortality of those suffering from such conditions. Dr. Pivarnik helped write federal guidelines on physical activity during pregnancy. Dr. Pivarnik, who has studied physical activity and pregnancy for more than 20 years, is currently keeping track of the offspring of women he studied several years ago to determine how the children's development - in terms of growth, body fat, fitness and blood pressure, among other factors -have been affected. Dr. Pivarnk now serves as the President of the American College of Sports Medicine. Visit http://www.epi.msu.edu/faculty/pivarnik. htm for more on Dr. Jim Pivarnik.

 

Basic Science Lecture:

"Coupling of Old Age-Induced Cardiovascular Dysfunction and Osteoporosis."

 

Dr. Michael D. Delp

Michael D. Delp, Ph.D., FACSM, is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology at the University of Florida. The primary focus of Dr. Delp’s research is understanding the effects of physical activity on the cardiovascular system. Work from the Delp laboratory has used exercise training to investigate the effects of high levels of physical activity on cardiovascular function, and microgravity (simulated and actual), aging and type II diabetes as models where low levels of physical activity are a key component of the condition. According to the American Heart Association, physical inactivity is a major risk factor for developing coronary artery disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disorders. It also contributes to other risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure, low levels of HDL cholesterol, and diabetes. Specific areas of Dr. Delp’s research include: 1. The effects of aging and exercise training on vascular control mechanisms in skeletal muscle. (Delp et al. Ageing diminishes endothelium-dependent vasodilatation and tetrahydrobiopterin content in rat skeletal muscle arterioles. J. Physiol. 586: 1161-1168, 2008.) 2. The effects of simulated microgravity on microvascular control mechanisms in the brain, splanchnic tissue and skeletal muscle, and how these alterations contribute to the incidence of orthostatic hypotension. (Colleran et al. Simulated microgravity alters rat mesenteric artery vasoconstrictor dynamics through an intracellular Ca²⁺ release mechanism. Am. J. Physiol. Reg. Int. Comp. Physiol. 294: R1577-R1585, 2008.) 3. The possible coupling of diminished blood flow and microvascular endothelial function to bone loss associated with old age, disuse and type II diabetes. (Prisby et al. Aging reduces skeletal blood flow, endothelium-dependent vasodilation and nitric oxide bioavailability in rats. J. Bone Min. Res. 22: 1280-1288, 2007.) Dr. Delp’s research has been supported by grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Space and Biomedical Research Institute, the National Institutes of Health, and the American Heart Association-Texas Affiliate. He has authored or co-authored over 75 refereed research articles and 12 invited reviews, book chapters and symposium proceedings. Visit http://www.hhp.ufl.edu/ dir/links/delpM.php for more information on Dr. Michael Delp.

 

 

Luncheon Presentation:

"Physical Activity as a Strategic Business Priority: Implications for Leadership, Workforce, and Policy"

 

Dr. Nicolass P. Pronk

Nicolaas P. Pronk, Ph.D., FACSM is the vice president and Health Science Officer for JourneyWell at HealthPartners, a large non-profit, member-governed integrated health system in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is also a Senior Research Investigator at the HealthPartners Research Foundation where he conducts research in the area of health behavior change and population health.

Dr. Pronk is widely published in both the scientific and practice literature and is currently an Editorial Board member for several scientific journals. He is the founding president of the International Association for Worksite Health Promotion (IAWHP). Some of his current activities include being a member of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services which publishes the Guide to Community Preventive Services, the Clinical Obesity Research Panel at the National Institutes of Health, and a faculty member of the World Health Organization Non-Communicable Disease Prevention course. He is a former member of the Defense Health Board (Armed Forces Epidemiological Board), ACSM’s Behavioral Strategies Committee, and the Institute of Medicine’s Committee to Assess Health Promotion Programs at NASA. Dr. Pronk is the author of the National Physical Activity Plan for Business and Industry white paper and the Senior Editor of ACSM’s Worksite Health Handbook, Second Edition. Dr. Pronk received his doctorate degree in exercise physiology at Texas A&M University and completed his post-doctoral studies in Behavioral Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Visit http://www.keepitoff-hprf.org/KIO/Nicolaas.html for more information on Dr. Nicolaas Pronk’s work.