KCH News & Announcements | Cureton Profiled as University of Illinois Innovator.

Thomas K. Cureton, Jr., who taught at the University of Illinois from 1941 to 1969, is known as the father of physical fitness. He lectured around the world and wrote more than 50 books encouraging people to lead a healthier life. Professor Cureton served on the U.S. President’s Council on Physical Fitness during five administrations. He was also a champion swimmer who once held 14 world records. Thanks to Cureton, the study of physical fitness is now an accepted science.

Physical Activity in Cancer Survivors: Quality of Life, Fitness, and Disease Outcomes
Wednesday, March 7, 2:00 PM
114 Huff Hall

Kerry S. Courneya, PhD
Behavioural Medicine Laboratory
University of Alberta

Medical Xpress | Exercise triggers stem cells in muscle.

University of Illinois researchers determined that an adult stem cell present in muscle is responsive to exercise, a discovery that may provide a link between exercise and muscle health. The findings could lead to new therapeutic techniques using these cells to rehabilitate injured muscle and prevent or restore muscle loss with age.

In 1944, Thomas K. Cureton became the director of the Physical Fitness Research Laboratory, one of the first of its kind in the nation. He developed methods to test motor and cardiovascular fitness and aquatic performance and to appraise the human physique. Cureton played a major role in the development of the fitness movement in America.

Kinesiology & Community Health
Fall 2011 Colloquium, BioBehavioral Kinesiology
Friday, November 4, 12:00 – 1:00 pm

Deborah F. Tate, PhD.

Associate Professor
Gillings School of Global Public Health
Department of Health Behavior and Health Education
Department of Nutrition
Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 

Talk Title: “One Size Does Not Fit All:
Alternatives to Traditional Obesity Treatment”

Research Activities:

Dr. Tate is a clinical psychologist with primary research interest in interventions for the prevention and treatment of obesity. She is jointly appointed in the School of Public Health in the Departments of Health Behavior and Health Education and the Department of Nutrition and holds an appointment in the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. The focus of Dr. Tate’s programmatic line of research is in developing public health alternatives to standard clinical treatments for obesity incorporating technology and informatics. She also has an interest in developing health communications about dietary and physical activity changes for weight loss and maintenance. Her National Institute of Health funded research is an extension of her work in developing and evaluating Internet behavioral weight loss programs incorporating new technology such as palm-based diet and physical activity monitoring and online chat support. She is also the principal investigator of a study funded by the US Courts to develop an Internet component for weight loss for adolescent girls. She is part of a research team recently funded by the CDC to examine the effectiveness of Internet weight loss programs combined with incentives for weight loss in worksites.

Faculty, students, and staff in the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health study all aspects of health, rehabilitation, and human movement across the lifespan. Faculty Research Highlights summarizes some of these projects. Other research exploration includes:

• lifespan physical activity
• community health
• rehabilitation counseling
• disability
• well-being and inclusion
• physical culture and education
• pedagogy
• human factors
• human performance

Click here to learn more about the department’s research groups and labs.

Dr. Thomas K. Cureton, an internationally known scientist at the University of Illinois, established the Physical Fitness Research Laboratory in the Department of Physical Education for Men in 1944.  He was an internationally known scientist who played a crucial role in the development of the fitness movement in America.  Like the other physical culturists of the first half of the twentieth century, Cureton was called a “quack” and a “charlatan” by some physiologists and physicians who did not agree with his early findings, especially those relating to exercise and the heart. But, in Cureton’s relentless bulldog style, he produced study after study demonstrating that his statements were indeed correct.
Source.

UI News Bureau | Firefighting stiffens arteries, impairs heart function

Three hours of fighting a fire stiffens arteries and impairs cardiac function in firefighters, according to a new study by Bo Fernhall, a professor in the department of kinesiology and community health in the College of Applied Health Sciences, and Gavin Horn, director of research at the Illinois Fire Service Institute.

In dieting postmenopausal women, protein preserves muscle, physical function: University of Illinois study.

Dieting postmenopausal women who want to avoid losing muscle as they lose fat should pay attention to a new University of Illinois study. Adding protein throughout the day not only holds hunger pangs at bay so that dieters lose more weight, it keeps body composition–the amount of fat relative to muscle–in better proportion.