Does exercise prevent or trigger asthma attacks in children and teens?

Scientists from UC Irvine Health Pediatric Center for Exercise Medicine (PRCEM) (formerly Pediatric Exercise and Genomics Research Center (PERC)), are trying to solve one of the great paradoxes of pediatric medicine.

Children with asthma who are physically fit have better controlled asthma than those who are not. Yet, most children with asthma will, at some point, experience a wheezing episode that seems to be triggered by exercise.

What is it about physical activity that it can both cause and protect against asthmatic episodes?

PRCEM has established the Fitness for Asthmatic Children and Teens (FACT) program to explore answers to this question.

FACT is a state-of-the-art research study that delves into this question at the cellular level. We are observing how the immune system responds to exercise with changes in gene expression. We are then targeting those changes that are unique to asthmatics. The knowledge will help us develop therapies that can prevent asthmatic attacks in children, allowing them to engage fully in physical activity.

View a video to see how the FACT program is giving Olivia more options for her life ›

UC Irvine researchers study the benefits of dance on children with cerebral palsy

The Therapeutic Dance Program for Children with Cerebral Palsy was a collaborative pilot research effort of UC Irvine Health Pediatric Exercise and Genomics Research Center (PERC), UC Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts, Children’s Cerebral Palsy Movement (CCPM), Chapman University and CHOC Children’s Orthopaedic Institute.

The goal is to evaluate the effects of therapeutic dance on the bodies and minds of children with cerebral palsy, said PERC Executive Director Shlomit Radom-Aizik, PhD.

Data generated by this pilot project will be incorporated into future large clinical trial applications.

Special thanks

PERC gratefully acknowledges CCPM for initiating and supporting this pilot study. CCPM is a nonprofit organization committed to reshaping approaches to CP rehabilitation through the development and funding of innovative research.

PERC also thanks Chapman University’s Marybeth Grant-Beuttler, PhD, and Afshin Aminian, MD, medical director of the CHOC Children’s Orthopaedic Institute, for their involvement in this study.

Pilot project shows the health benefits of exercise

Most children with disabilities of the muscle and nerves are not able to engage in normal physical activity and exercise.

Consequently, they miss out on the critical benefits of exercise on the growth of muscle and bone, helping to prevent obesity and accompanying heart and metabolic diseases, and on learning and behavior.

Physical inactivity also may actually worsen disease symptoms associated with the underlying impairment.

The National Institutes of Health recently recognized the potential therapeutic importance of exercise in children with neuromotor disabilities and the lack of the most basic knowledge on how to conduct well-designed studies to gauge such effects in this difficult-to-evaluate population. The NIH has called for research focused on innovation in implementing exercise programs in children with disabilities and in new approaches to measuring fitness and exercise responses in these children.

At the UC Irvine Pediatric Center for Exercise Medicine (PRCEM) (formerly Exercise and Genomic Research Center (PERC)), we have modified the model of the “I Can Do It, You Can Do It” (ICDI) program from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, an institution known for its adaptive PE program. ICDI is based on training college-students to serve as physical activity mentors for children with disabilities.

Working with our colleagues at Miller Children’s and Women’s Hospital Long Beach, led by Dr. Kimberly BeDell, we implemented ICDI with a group of children who have spina bifida. This condition doesn’t allow the spinal cord to develop normally, leaving children with substantial neuromotor impairment of their lower extremities. We also worked with the recreation therapy program of Cal State University, Long Beach, and trained students to act as mentors.

During the week before and following the last week of the exercise intervention, we invited the participants to come to our research center at UC Irvine to assess their fitness and cognitive function.

View a video to see how our young participants benefited below

View a photo gallery of our intervention program ›

Exercise: ‘It’s about winning in life’

Irvine, Calif., May 12, 2016 — Six-time Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee told more than 200 pediatricians, family physicians, medical students and children’s health researchers that exercise was her key to living.

“Exercise has given me a lifeline — a lifeline to continue exercising beyond my years of competing,” the retired track-and-field champion said at a celebration for “Exercise Is Medicine” month at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering.

The celebratory event, sponsored by the UCI Pediatric Exercise and Genomics Research Center (PERC), was held to kick off an initiative aimed at training primary care professionals to prescribe exercise to children and to track health improvements related to their physical activity — both in the short-term and over a lifetime.

The motivational speaker and founder of the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation described how she had learned to manage severe asthma while competing on the world stage, as well as the influence asthma and exercise have on her life today.

“It’s not about winning gold medals; it’s about winning in life,” Joyner-Kersee told the assembled physicians and scientists. “That’s what I’m faced with on a daily basis.”

PERC’s exercise-as-medicine initiative is intended to reshape how the next generation of children’s health professionals prescribes then monitors physical activity beginning in early childhood. PERC is working with global leaders in exercise medicine, clinical care, research and education to develop a curriculum for teaching others how to evaluate the effectiveness of specific, individualized physical activities for children.

The program’s development is supported by a $1.75-million gift from the Sunrider Corporation, which was inspired by the company’s vice president of business development, Dr. Reuben K. Chen, a UCI School of Medicine alumnus.

Pediatrician Dan Cooper, MD, associate vice chancellor for Clinical and Translational Science for UCI’s College of Health Sciences, recognized Chen, his family and Sunrider at the gathering for what their gift is making possible.

“It is that kind of proverbial gift that echoes and reverberates for years to come because it will enable coming generations of child healthcare professionals to set new standards in how we harness the biological benefit of exercise to improve the lives of children, all children — those who are healthy and those who suffer from chronic disease or disability.”

From left to right, Dan M. Cooper, MD, 2016 associate vice chancellor for Clinical and Translational Science; Sunrider International Vice President Reuben K. Chen, MD; Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the most decorated woman athlete in Olympic track-and-field history; Michael J. Stamos, MD, interim dean, UC Irvine School of Medicine, and Shlomit Aizik-Radom, PhD, executive director of PERC.