Innovation Canada | Kicking Butts

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Kicking Butts

Innovation Canada | Dr. Harry Prapavessis

Dr. Harry Prapavessis
Professor of Kinesiology, University of Western Ontario
Director, Exercise Health and Psychology Laboratory

Harry Prapavessis has never been one to sit still. His competitive nature and love of sports helped him secure funding and set up Western’s exercise lab in record time—a single year in fact.

He works in the area of exercise and health psychology. His research program has three main foci. First he investigates what drives physical activity, and how to change physical activity in diseased and non-diseased populations. Second, he studies exercise as a therapy to improve health. Third, he examines the role that psychological factors play in the prediction, prevention, and recovery of injury.

Prapavessis would also like to see a revolution in the way we view physical activity in post-industrial societies like Canada. He argues that we should look for ways to incorporate physical activity into our daily routines.

“Manual labour isn’t a bad thing. When you think about it it’s bizarre that we pay people to shovel our driveways or do our gardening. These kinds of things are opportunities to get fit and save money at the same time.”

Kinesiology

Kinesiology covers the study of human anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, exercise physiology, exercise psychology and the sociology, history, and philosophy of sport.

Nicotine

Nicotine is a drug found in tobacco leaves and it’s one of tobacco’s main ingredients. It stimulates the central nervous system. Nicotine is what makes cigarettes addictive by causing chemical (particularly higher dopamine levels) and biological changes in the brain. Nicotine is as addictive as heroin. Health Canada calls it a “reinforcing” drug, which means that users want it regardless of its damaging effects.

Nicotine patches

A nicotine patch looks like a large band aid applied to the skin. It releases nicotine into the body through the skin to gradually wean people off nicotine so they can quit smoking.

Dual energy x-ray absorpitometry scanner

A dual energy x-ray absorpitometry scanner uses low-dose radiation to assess the density of the skeleton The patient lies on a bed and a scanning arm moves across their body. The scan can take as little as 10 seconds, but most patients spend between four and eight minutes being scanned.

Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by low bone mass and deterioration of bone tissue. This leads to increased bone fragility and risk of fracture, particularly of the hip, spine and wrist. Osteoporosis is often known as "the silent thief" because bone loss occurs without symptoms. Osteoporosis is sometimes confused with osteoarthritis. Osteoporosis is a bone disease; osteoarthritis is a disease of the joints and surrounding tissue.

Source: www.osteoporosis.ca

An exercise lab at the University of Western Ontario hopes to help smokers trade nicotine fits for fitness.

By Matthew Bonsall

Many of the nearly five million Canadians who smoke tobacco will make a New Year’s resolution to quit. For most, it will be extremely difficult, and according to Health Canada data, it will require about three attempts before quitting for good.

So what can make quitting easier? Harry Prapavessis, a kinesiology professor at the University of Western Ontario in London, believes swapping the unhealthy habit for a healthy one, like exercise, may be the answer.

“Even small doses of aerobic exercise show an impact on reducing the craving for nicotine,” Prapavessis says. That means smokers struggling to butt out need to develop an action plan that includes regular exercise. Prapavessis’s work demonstrates that exercise may be the first step even before trying to quit. He suggests setting a quit smoking date four to six weeks after adopting a program of regular, supervised exercise. He also recommends combining exercise with nicotine patches and counselling.

This type of research is currently being supported at Western through the new Exercise and Health Psychology Laboratory—an 1,800-square-foot facility complete with a gym that would be the envy of the average fitness club. The lab also includes five suites where researchers can collect and examine body composition, objectively measured physical activity and fitness data, store blood and saliva samples, and run counselling sessions with people in clinical trials.

The counselling sessions make up a vital part of the quitting process. “They are grounded in behavior change principles“ Prapavessis explains. “It gives people the tools they need to quit and to stay smoke free.”

Another important coping technique is to avoid thinking of relapse as failure. Instead, trial participants are encouraged to determine why it happened and to focus on getting back on track. Stress is one of the main triggers for relapse, and exercise is a well-known way to combat stress. By linking exercise with smoke-free living, Prapavessis hopes people can use small doses of physical activity, like a short brisk walk, to combat tobacco cravings.

This spring, the lab will conduct an exercise and smoking cessation study with 60 pregnant women and another in the summer with 375 non-pregnant women. “Working with pregnant women shows just how addictive smoking is. Most women are extremely motivated to quit when they get pregnant but still, many can’t,” says Therese Harper, a PhD candidate who will work on the pregnant women study.

Ultimately, Prapavessis wants to expand his research beyond exercise aided smoking cessation programs. “We’re going to do a long-term study to see how to get people to start exercising, but also to see how to keep them exercising. It could mean sustaining abstinence over time.”