Alexis Appelquist, Huffines Producer     Leagues of people gather at the break of dawn, creating a sea of neon colored nylon and spandex, all with the fixed determination of a distance typically anywhere from 5k to 26.2 miles. Endurance running has become the favorite pastime of suburban moms and ex-military fitness enthusiasts alike, with roots anchored even before ancient Greek tales of the marathon and extending to modern day world-class athletes. In retrospect, humans are far ...

Alexis Appelquist, Huffines Producer   Everyone has that one friend who always seems to be attempting some new diet regiment. Maybe they’re doing a juice cleanse in order to detoxify their system, or trying to eat nothing but raw vegetables. Odds are they read about it in a magazine, saw it on a commercial, or have a distant relative-in-law that swears they took six inches off their waistline with this latest trend. Lately, you may have heard of going Paleo or the Whole30 or the ...

Xuewei Chen, M.S.This is an exciting year full of adventure for Mr. and Mrs. Wang. They both retired in China and came to the US to reunite with their daughter. Upon arriving to the US, Mr. and Mrs. Wang encountered so many challenges because of their limited English proficiency and ignorance of US health systems. Every time they need to visit a doctor, their daughter has to be there with them to translate and explain everything. They are proud of their daughter. They want to be supportive of he...

Taewon Kim, M.S.Our daily life requires complex procedural skills, which are basically presented sequential movements, such as playing a musical instrument, driving a car, typing a computer keyboard, and texting with a smart phone. Thus, learning sequence movements become very important to people to live more efficiently. For example, driving a manual vehicle, which are sort of decision making movements, requires a complicated pattern of subsequent motor skills while changing down a gear from th...

Caitlin Ballard, M.S.Finland is a world leader in education and health outcomes, ranking 8th among 50 countries in childhood and youth fitness levels. In comparison, the United States ranked 47th in the same study. Finland is consistently recognized as one of the most top performing countries in the world. Additionally, Finland provides equal opportunity to higher education, innovative teaching methodologies, high quality curriculum, and advanced pedagogy strategies to keep students active and e...

Arden Anderson, M.S.The over 460,000 student-athletes competing in college athletics across the United States do so in a team environment, which undoubtedly impacts their experience in and out of sport. In the name of "team bonding", college coaches work very hard to build more cohesion within their teams with the hopes of improving athletic performance, since it is generally accepted that higher levels of team cohesion generate improved athletic performance, athlete satisfaction, and ...

Christina Bennett, M.S.You have probably seen the headlines touting the latest football player to be diagnosed with the rare degenerative brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE was first diagnosed in NFL football player Mike Webster in 2002 and has continued to grab the public’s attention.Experts believe that repeated hits to the head are the cause of CTE. These brain injury events include both those labeled as concussions and brain injuries less severe. People at...

Chelsea Goodenough, B.S.The human body is capable of powerful things. When in prime condition, we are capable of adrenaline induced She-Hulk strength, and fighting the effect of zero gravity by walking on the moon. This, to most of us, is recognizable as disease, and is amongst us in the form of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to name only a few. A disease that affects nearly 246,660 new people every year, is breast cancer, with an estimated 40,...

Rihana Bokhari, B.S.You have probably heard before that exercise is good for you. You know that doctors recommend people in disease states exercise, for instance in diabetes and heart disease. But did you know that exercise can do far more than help you look good and feel great? Exercise may be able to protect you if you are exposed to radiation. Radiation is well known to have negative effects on the body and lead to illness and loss of life. In this study we seek to understand how exercise, an...

This Friday, November 11th, from 1:00-4:00 pm the Sydney and JL Huffines Institute for Sports Medicine and Human Performance will host the Huffines Discussion 6 in the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center at Texas A&M University. The annual Huffines Discussion brings together eight leaders in the field of sports medicine and human performance from around the nation to share their research and expertise. Each speaker is given 15 minutes, with topics ranging from professional sports a...