Nutritional Strategies for Optimizing Health, Sports Performance, and Recovery for Female Athletes and Other Physically Active Women: A Systematic Review.

CONTEXT: Despite the progress toward gender equality in events like the Olympic Games and other institutionalized competitions, and the rising number of women engaging in physical exercise programs, scientific studies focused on establishing specific nutritional recommendations for female athletes and other physically active women are scarce. OBJECTIVE: This systematic review aimed to compile the scientific evidence available for addressing the question "What dietary strategies, including dietary and supplementation approaches, can improve sports performance, recovery, and health status in female athletes and other physically active women?" DATA SOURCES: The Pubmed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases were searched. DATA EXTRACTION: The review process involved a comprehensive search strategy using keywords connected by Boolean connectors. Data extracted from the selected studies included information on the number of participants and their characteristics related to sport practice, age, and menstrual function. DATA ANALYSIS: A total of 71 studies were included in this review: 17 focused on the analysis of dietary manipulation, and 54 focused on the effects of dietary supplementation. The total sample size was 1654 participants (32.5% categorized as competitive athletes, 30.7% as highly/moderately trained, and 37.2% as physically active/recreational athletes). The risk of bias was considered moderate, mainly for reasons such as a lack of access to the study protocol, insufficient description of how the hormonal phase during the menstrual cycle was controlled for, inadequate dietary control during the intervention, or a lack of blinding of the researchers. CONCLUSION: Diets with high carbohydrate (CHO) content enhance performance in activities that induce muscle glycogen depletion. In addition, pre-exercise meals with a high glycemic index or rich in CHOs increase CHO metabolism. Ingestion of 5-6 protein meals interspersed throughout the day, with each intake exceeding 25 g of protein favors anabolism of muscle proteins. Dietary supplements taken to enhance performance, such as caffeine, nitric oxide precursors, ß-alanine, and certain sport foods supplements (such as CHOs, proteins, or their combination, and micronutrients in cases of nutritional deficiencies), may positively influence sports performance and/or the health status of female athletes and other physically active women. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO registration no. CRD480674.

Mother adversity and co-residence time impact mother-child similarity in genome-wide and gene-specific methylation profiles.

BACKGROUND: The effects of adverse life events on physical and psychological health, with DNA methylation (DNAm) as a critical underlying mechanism, have been extensively studied. However, the epigenetic resemblance between mother and child in the context of neglectful caregiving, and whether it may be shaped by the emotional impact of maternal stressful events and the duration of co-residence (indexed by child age), remains unknown. The present study examined mother-child similarity in methylation profiles, considering the potential effect of mother adversity, mother empathy, neglect-control group, child age (an index of years of mother-child co-residence), and mother age. Using Illumina Epic arrays, we quantified DNAm in 115 mother-child saliva samples. We obtained a methylation similarity index by computing correlation coefficients between methylation profiles within dyads, for the entire epigenome, and five specific genes related to stress and empathy: NR3C1, FKPB5, OXTR, SCL6A4, and BDNF. RESULTS: The methylation profiles of the mother-child familial pairs significantly correlated as compared to mother-child random pairs for the entire epigenome and NR3C1, FKBP5, OXTR and BDNF genes. Next, multiple linear regression models observed associations of mother adversity, child age, and neglect-control group on mother-child methylation similarity, only significant in mother-child familial pairs, after correcting for multiple comparisons. Higher mother adversity was associated with lower mother-child methylation similarity for the epigenome-wide analysis, for the BDNF gene, and in the neglect-control group for the OXTR gene. In turn, being an older child (longer co-residence) was associated with higher mother-child methylation similarity. CONCLUSIONS: Mother adversity and co-residence time are modulating factors in the intergenerational methylation process that offer a window into development-dependent adaptations that can be affected by both hereditary and environmental factors, significantly observed only in biological dyads. A twofold implication for child well-being emerges, one is positive in that children of mothers exposed to life adversity or neglect did not necessarily inherit their methylation patterns. The other is concerning due to the influence of time spent living together, which affects similarity with the mother and potentially increases the risk of inheriting an epigenetic profile associated with future dysfunctional parenting patterns. This underscores the importance of the 'the earlier, the better' recommendation by the Child Protection System, which is not always followed.

Dimensiones afectivas y motivacionales básicas en el espacio interpersonal / Affective and motivactional basic dimensions in the interpersonal space

El objetivo de esta investigación era explorar la existencia de algunas dimensiones afectivas y motivacionales básicas del espacio interpersonal. Nuestro punto de partida era que las personas evalúan el efecto de la conducta interpersonal en términos de vinculación y posición. Elaboramos un cuestionario que contenía situaciones de la vida cotidiana y se pedía a los participantes que se pusieran en situación. Cada uno de los episodios describía una interacción donde el protagonista tenía una iniciativa que conducía a la expectativa de una respuesta positiva por parte de los otros. Sin embargo, la respuesta de los otros era negativa, y se le pedía a los sujetos que evaluaran su malestar en una escala de 1 a 5. Los análisis factoriales mostraron que los ítems se organizaban de acuerdo a tres dimensiones que asumíamos previamente. Las dimensiones de vinculación y posición interpersonales (Birtchell,1993; Marrero, Gámez, Castillo y Espino, 1995) y una tercera, asociada a situaciones donde los otros obstaculizaban nuestros objetivos. Cuando correlacionamos las dimensiones con ciertas variables de personalidad, encontramos que estaban ligeramente asociadas con el neuroticismo y la ansiedad. Asimismo, el malestar vinculatorio fue mayor en las mujeres. Estos resultados son discutidos en el contexto de la investigación en el dominio interpersonal (AU)