Immediate effects of quantified hamstring stretching: hold-relax proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation versus static stretching.

PURPOSE: To compare the immediate effects of a hold-relax proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching (HR-PNF) versus static stretch (SS) on hamstring flexibility in healthy, asymptomatic subjects. SUBJECTS: Thirty subjects (13 female; mean age 25.7 ± 3.0, range 22-37) without excessive hamstring muscle flexibility were randomly assigned to one of two stretch groups: HR-PNF or SS. METHODS: The left leg was treated as a control and did not receive any intervention. The right leg was measured for ROM pre- and post-stretch interventions, with subjects receiving randomly assigned interventions one week apart. Data were analyzed with a 3 (intervention: HR-PNF, SS, control) × 2 (time: pre and post) factorial ANOVA with repeated measures and appropriate post-hoc analyses. RESULTS: A significant interaction was observed between intervention and time for hamstring extensibility, F(2,58) = 25.229, p < .0005. Main effect of intervention for the tested leg was not significant, p = .782 indicating that there was no difference between the two stretch conditions. However, main effect for time was significant (p < .0005), suggesting that hamstring extensibility (for both stretching conditions) after intervention was greater than before. CONCLUSION: No significant differences were found when comparing the effectiveness of HR-PNF and SS techniques. Both stretching methods resulted in significant immediate increases in hamstring length.

Ginkgo biloba and ovarian cancer prevention: epidemiological and biological evidence.

There is considerable interest in herbal therapies for cancer prevention but often with little scientific evidence to support their use. In this study, we examined epidemiological data regarding effects of commonly used herbal supplements on risk for ovarian cancer and sought supporting biological evidence. 4.2% of 721 controls compared to 1.6% of 668 cases regularly used Ginkgo biloba for an estimated relative risk (and 95% confidence interval) of 0.41 (0.20,0.84) (p=0.01); and the effect was most apparent in women with non-mucinous types of ovarian cancer, RR=0.33 (0.15,0.74) (p=0.007). In vitro experiments with normal and ovarian cancer cells showed that Ginkgo extract and its components, quercetin and ginkgolide A and B, have significant anti-proliferative effects ( approximately 40%) in serous ovarian cancer cells, but little effect in mucinous (RMUG-L) cells. For the ginkgolides, the inhibitory effect appeared to be cell cycle blockage at G0/G1 to S phase. This combined epidemiological and biological data provide supportive evidence for further studies of the chemopreventive or therapeutic effects of Ginkgo and ginkgolides on ovarian cancer.