Dynamic compression enhances pressure-to-pain threshold in elite athlete recovery: exploratory study. J Strength Cond Res 29(5): 1263–1272, 2015—Athlete recovery-adaptation is crucial to the progress and performance of highly trained athletes. The purpose of this study was to assess peristaltic pulse dynamic compression (PPDC) in reducing short-term pressure-to-pain threshold (PPT) among Olympic Training Center athletes after morning training. Muscular tenderness and stiffness are common symptoms of fatigue and exercise-induced muscle microtrauma and edema. Twenty-four highly trained athletes (men = 12 and women = 12) volunteered to participate in this study. The athletes were randomly assigned to experimental (n = 12) and control (n = 12) groups. Pressure-to-pain threshold measurements were conducted with a manual algometer on 3 lower extremity muscles. Experimental group athletes underwent PPDC on both legs through computer-controlled circumferential inflated leggings that used a peristaltic-like pressure pattern from feet to groin. Pressures in each cell were set to factory defaults. Treatment time was 15 minutes. The control group performed the same procedures except that the inflation pump to the leggings was off. The experimental timeline included a morning training session, followed by a PPT pretest, treatment application (PPDC or control), an immediate post-test (PPT), and a delayed post-test (PPT) after the afternoon practice session. Difference score results showed that the experimental group's PPT threshold improved after PPDC treatment immediately and persisted the remainder of the day after afternoon practice. The control group showed no statistical change. We conclude that PPDC is a promising means of accelerating and enhancing recovery after the normal aggressive training that occurs in Olympic and aspiring Olympic athletes.

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Doctor Scientiae (Odontology) - DSc(Odont) / The primary function of the jaws and teeth in mammals is chewing and swallowing. In man there are additional functions of speech, non-verbal communication and cosmetic appeal. Chewing is a complex operation requiring both adequate skeletal structures, and a well co-ordinated muscle system. There is considerable variation in both these components of chewing within which adequate function appears to be possible, at least for a modern refined diet. For example, the dental arches may not conform to the modal arrangement and teeth may be missing, yet adequate function remains (Slagter et al 1993). There are unfortunately no baseline requirements for an adequate dentition nor the minimal chewing performance necessary to avoid indigestion. A common rule of thumb when replacing missing posterior teeth is that the extent of the prosthesis can be reduced to the premolars without seriously affecting chewing (Kayser, 1984). This arbitrary estimation has not been defined by a minimum area for functioning posterior occlusal surfaces. The same lack of quantifiable measurement is a feature of assessing orthodontic treatment goals and outcomes (Omar, McEwen and Ogston 1987). The clinical rules for correcting malocclusions, usually, have more to do with the restoration of modal tooth, arch and skeletal relationships, than with the restoration of function; if restoration of function is a concern of treatment, it is not measurable in the same way that tooth positions can be assessed on plaster casts or angles measured on a radiograph. Muscle tenderness and limited movement are both features of temporomandibular dysfunction. The boundary between normal subjects, who may have some signs of dysfunction and patients, who may not have distinctly more severe signs cannot always be made (Widmar 1992). By some definitions based on the morphology of the joint structures, even symptomless individuals could be categorised as abnormal. One of the difficulties in assessing functional incapacity of a patient with muscle pain is the absence of the same baseline data needed to assess malocclusion, or the handicap due to reduced occlusal area. It is encouraging to find that a simple test, such as measuring maximum opening, is a useful indicator of treatment progress in temporomandibular dysfunction. This sign, although simple and of limited diagnostic use, reflects the poverty of useful tests for masticatory function.

Tension-Type Headache (TH) is highly prevalent and associated with significant personal and social cost. The causes of TH are unclear, precluding optimal treatment or prevention at present. Stress is a well-documented correlate and trigger of TH activity, however the causal significance has not been experimentally demonstrated to date. Similarly, the mechanisms by which stress contributes to TH, if in fact it does, are not clearly understood. Findings of increased pain sensitivity in TH sufferers suggests TH pathophysiology may involve dysfunction in peripheral and/or central nervous system processing of pain. Studies on animals and healthy humans demonstrate that stress can increase pain sensitivity by affecting peripheral and central pain mechanisms proposed as dysfunctional in TH. It has therefore been proposed that stress may contribute to TH through aggravating already increased pain sensitivity in TH sufferers. However, this hypothesis has not been adequately examined in TH sufferers to date. Addressing the above issues, the present project conducted seven studies examining relationships between stress, pain sensitivity, and headache activity in TH sufferers. The aim was to test the hypothesis that stress contributes to TH by aggravating already increased pain sensitivity in TH sufferers. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated increased general arousal and complex temporal relationships between general arousal and headache activity in the natural environment in Episodic TH (ETH) sufferers. In Study 3, experimentally induced stress of brief duration increased pressure pain sensitivity at the head in Chronic TH (CTH) sufferers more than in healthy controls. Study 4 found CTH sufferers to have increased levels of daily stress, increased pericranial muscle tenderness, and reduced pain thresholds, which were inter-related. Both daily stress and pain sensitivity were predictive of prospective daily headache activity. In Study 5, an experimental model demonstrated that stress-induced headache was associated with stress-induced increase in pericranial muscle tenderness and reduction in pressure pain thresholds at head and hand. Additionally, induced stress reduced pain tolerance and increased pain intensity ratings to cold pressor more in TH sufferers than in healthy controls (Study 7). Finally, TH sufferers were found to have abnormal temporal summation of pressure pain and impaired noxious inhibition of temporal summation compared to healthy controls, however neither temporal summation nor noxious inhibition of temporal summation were affected by induced stress (Study 6). Together, the results support the hypotheses: 1) Stress contributes to both ETH and CTH, and 2) Stress contributes to CTH through aggravating already increased pain sensitivity in CTH sufferers. Impaired pain inhibition and increased wind-up may be underlying abnormalities contributing to increased pain sensitivity in CTH sufferers.