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Alzheimer's Society is delighted to announce that former world-leading rugby players, Shane Williams and Ben Kay, have signed up to a large-scale Alzheimer's Society funded study. The research will look at important and unanswered questions, such as whether elite rugby players show more early warning signs of dementia than the general population, and if so, why this is the case.

Taking regular physical activity cuts the risk of dying from infectious diseases, such as Covid-19, by 37% and reduces susceptibility to such viruses by 31%, finds a new global study involving UCL researchers. The research, published in Sports Medicine journal, also found that physical activity can boost the effectiveness of vaccines by up to 40%.

Researchers develop hybrid handbike for the disabled Unlike the classic bicycle, the handbike is powered by the arms and is one of the most popular pieces of sports equipment among paraplegics. But there's one major drawback: While on the go with a handbike, the rider has no wheelchair handy, for example to go shopping or go to a restroom.

A University of Birmingham-led study of top-flight UK rugby players - carried out in collaboration with the Rugby Football Union, Premiership Rugby, and Marker Diagnostics - has identified a method of accurately diagnosing concussion using saliva, paving the way for the first non-invasive clinical test for concussion for use in sport and other settings.

Two new studies from Bath physiologists find that the biggest predictors of people's ability to burn fat are their biological sex and fitness levels. Last updated on Tuesday 16 March 2021 Females who are fit and healthy tend to burn more fat when they exercise than men, according to new research from a team of sports nutritionists.

After winning six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, quarterback Tom Brady won an unprecedented seventh championship in 2021 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers-raising questions about how much he needed Patriots head coach Bill Belichick to win his six previous titles. In the business world, investors might be asking themselves something similar as Jeff Bezos transitions out of his role as Amazon's CEO.

Fans are not amused about decisions made by video assistants Since the 2019/20 season, controversial referee calls in the English Premier League may be technically reviewed and, if deemed necessary, corrected. Using a Twitter analysis of 129 games in the English Premier League, a research team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now determined how decisions made by video referees affect the mood of the fans.

Have you ever been amazed by a curveball goal scored by Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi or Christiano Ronaldo? Then you have - possibly without knowing it - been exposed to the Magnus effect: the fact that spinning objects tend to move along curved paths. In a new publication that appeared in Physical Review Letters this week, Robert Spreeuw shows that the same effect occurs to atoms moving through light - and that this effect has practical consequences.

Elite athletes can be persuaded not to take banned substances - either by appealing to their sense of morality or educating them about the risks of using performance-enhancing drugs, according to a new study. Researchers developed two separate intervention programmes - one targeting moral factors associated with doping likelihood, the other introducing doping and providing information about the health consequences of banned substances and the risks of sport supplements.

Athletes using legal performance enhancing and medical sport supplements are more likely to dope than those using sport foods and superfoods, a new study reveals. While some sport supplements may be necessary for an athlete's programme, taking ergogenic and medical sport supplements may inadvertently lead to sports people developing favourable attitudes towards doping Researchers at the University of Birmingham and Canterbury Christ Church University are calling for bespoke anti-doping education for athletes using such supplements to prevent them turning to banned substances.

By exploring the benefits of sport in memory and motor learning, scientists from the University of Geneva are opening up promising perspectives for school programmes and in the prevention of Alzheimer's disease. After an intensive sports session, the memory performance are much better. @DR  If sport is good for the body, it also seems to be good for the brain.

Chess requires playing ability and strategic thinking; in roulette, chance determines victory or defeat, gain or loss. But what about skat and poker? Are they games of chance or games of skill in game theory? This classification also determines whether play may involve money. Jörg Oechssler and his team of economists at Heidelberg University studied this question, developing a rating system similar to the Elo system used for chess.

New findings from the FIELD study announced today, show that former professional football players have lower risk of hospitalization for the most common mental health disorders, including anxiety and depression, and are at no greater risk of suicide. The results follow the publication of landmark research last year, which found that former professional footballers had an approximately three and a half times higher rate of death due to neurodegenerative disease than expected.

Study reveals long-term impact of rugby injuries Rugby players continue to suffer from their high 'injury load' after retirement from the sport. This is according to the first independent study looking at the health of retired rugby players. The researchers, led by our sport and exercise scientists, are calling for governing bodies, to step up their efforts to prevent, in particular, recurrent injuries in rugby and ensure players are supported post-retirement.

Study finds that people literally don't always see things the same way, which can impact activities that require visual precision. (Photo by iStockphoto) We humans may not always see eye to eye on politics, religion, sports and other matters of debate. But at least we can agree on the location and size of objects in our physical surroundings.

Researchers at the Yale School of Public Health have partnered with the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) to study the efficacy of a saliva-based method that quickly determines if someone is infected with the novel coronavirus. A research team led by Yale's Nathan Grubaugh and Anne Wyllie will begin testing select players, coaches, and staff from the NBA teams that have opted into the study, using a testing method they developed, known as SalivaDirect.

Elite athletes who adopted simple oral health measures, such as using high fluoride toothpaste and cleaning between their teeth, reported significantly reduced negative effects on performance related to poor oral health, finds a new study led by UCL.

Sporting activities can bring about a long-term improvement in cognitive performance across all age groups. However, the effects differ between men and women, and not all sports provide the same impact. Researchers at the University of Basel and the University of Tsukuba have provided recommendations based on a comprehensive analysis of previous studies.

Usain Bolt's 200m record has not been beaten for ten years and Florence Griffith Joyner's for more than thirty years. And what about if the secret behind beating records was to use mathematics' Thanks to a mathematical model, Amandine Aftalion, CNRS researcher at the Centre d'analyse et de mathématique sociales (CNRS/EHESS), and Emmanuel Trélat, a Sorbonne Université researcher at the Laboratoire Jacques-Louis Lions (CNRS/Sorbonne Université/ Université de Paris) have proved that the geometry of athletic tracks could be optimised to improve records.

Fitness trackers like Fitbit and Garmin watches make it easy for anyone to collect data about health and performance. Now college athletic programs are moving toward implementing more data-driven trackers - devices or apps that can monitor students' heart rates, sleep or even class attendance - into their own programs to help keep their athletes as competitive and healthy as possible.