Publications by authors named "Martin Bahls"

The current guidelines for cardiovascular disease prevention by the European Society of Cardiology highlight the undisputable benefits of exercise and a physically active lifestyle for cardiovascular risk reduction. In addition to the health benefits of physical activity, observational data suggests that regular physical activity lowers all-cause mortality. However, this was not confirmed by Mendelian randomization studies and randomized controlled trials.

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: Diet-microbiome interactions are core to human health, in particular through bacterial fibre degradation pathways. However, biomarkers reflective of these interactions are not well described. : Using the population-based SHIP-START-0 cohort ( = 4017), we combined metabolome-wide screenings with elastic net machine learning models on 33 food items captured using a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and 43 targeted urine nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolites, identifying methanol as a marker of plant-derived food items.

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Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is characterized by a gradual and irreversible decline in renal function. Arginine derivatives like symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) and asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) have been associated with the progression of renal disease in cross-sectional studies. This study aimed to investigate the longitudinal associations between arginine derivatives and renal function over time in a population-based cohort.

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Background And Aims: The associations between physical fitness markers and liver volume in the general population are unclear. We investigated the associations of peak oxygen uptake (VO)and handgrip strength with liver volume in a general population sample.

Methods And Results: Data were taken from 1,531 German adults (51.

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Background And Aims: Associations of hyperlipidaemia and inflammation with the risk for incident major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) were analysed in individuals with and without cholesterol-lowering medication therapy.

Methods: Data from 322,922 participants (55.9% women) aged 38 to 73 years from the UK Biobank were included.

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Background: We investigated associations of movement behaviors (moderate-vigorous physical activity, light physical activity, and stationary time) with various parameters measured during cardiopulmonary exercise testing. We applied compositional data analysis to account for the relative contributions of different movement behaviors to the overall time budget of the waking day.

Methods: We used data from 1,396 participants of the cross-sectional population-based Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP-TREND-1), who provided valid accelerometer data worn on the hip for seven days during waking hours and participated in cardiopulmonary exercise testing on a cycle ergometer (n = 1,396 participants with a mean age of 57.

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Background And Objectives: Cardiac dysfunction and heart failure are linked to cognitive impairment, but the underlying brain pathology remains undetermined. We investigated associations between cardiac function (measured by echocardiography or cardiac MRI), clinical heart failure, and structural markers on brain MRI, including volumes of gray and white matter (WM), the hippocampus, and white matter hyperintensities (WMHs).

Methods: We leverage data from 7 prospective, community-based cohorts across Europe and the United States, all part of the Cross-Cohort Collaboration.

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Handgrip strength (HGS), cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and body size, shape, and composition are all related to cardiometabolic health and are associated in cross-sectional settings. Their longitudinal relationship is less clear. We used observational data from the Study of Health in Pomerania at baseline (SHIP-TREND-0; 2008-2012) and follow-up (SHIP-TREND-1; 2016-2019) with 1,214 men and 1,293 women.

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Objectives: This individual participant data meta-analysis investigates the association between occupational physical activity (OPA) and both cardiovascular mortality and all-cause mortality across different cardio-respiratory fitness (CRF) groups among male workers.

Methods: Data were pooled from five European cohort studies. OPA was categorized into three levels and CRF into low, moderate, and high tertiles.

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High cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is associated with better overall health. This study aimed to find a metabolic signature associated with CRF to identify health-promoting effects. CRF based on cardiopulmonary exercise testing, targeted and untargeted metabolomics approaches based on mass spectrometry, and clinical data from two independent cohorts of the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP) were used.

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Arterial stiffness, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, can be measured using pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index (AIx). We studied sex-specific associations between carotid-femoral PWV (cfPWV), brachial-ankle PWV (baPWV), aortic PWV (aoPWV), aortic (aoAIx), and brachial (baAIx) AIx with echocardiographic parameters. Data of 1150 participants of the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP-Trend 1; 530 men; median age 53 years; inter quartile range (IQR) 44 to 64) were used.

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Adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as gestational diabetes, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, fetal growth restriction, and prematurity, can increase the risk of future cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the offspring. This document aims to raise recognition of the impact of maternal health on offspring cardiometabolic health and to highlight research gaps on how to mitigate this risk via pregnancy-related lifestyle interventions. Lifestyle interventions initiated before, during, or after pregnancy hold great promise to prevent and manage adverse maternal outcomes.

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Sedentarism is characterized by low levels of physical activity, a risk factor for obesity and cardio-metabolic diseases. It can also adversely affect the composition and diversity of the gut microbiome which may result in harmful consequences for human health. While cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is inversely and independently associated with cardiovascular risk factors and diseases and all-cause mortality, the relationship between low CRF and the gut microbiome is not well known.

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Background And Aims: Evidence links body composition and inflammatory markers with type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, the comparative analysis of body composition markers derived from different modalities and inflammatory markers in relation to T2D remains unexplored. This study aims to evaluate and compare the association of body composition and inflammatory markers with T2D.

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Sacubitril/valsartan (Sac/Val) belongs to the group of angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitors and has been used for the treatment of heart failure (HF) for several years. The mechanisms that mediate the beneficial effects of Sac/Val are not yet fully understood. In this study we investigated whether Sac/Val influences the two proteolytic systems, the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and the autophagy-lysosomal pathway (ALP), in a mouse model of pressure overload induced by transverse aortic constriction (TAC) and in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) treated with endothelin-1 (ET1) serving as a human cellular model of hypertrophy.

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: Aortic pulse wave velocity (aPWV) is a well-established surrogate marker of arterial stiffness. The Antares algorithm offers a method for determining aPWV from oscillometric blood pressure waveforms without requiring additional inputs. This prospective study aimed to evaluate the association and prognostic value of aPWV, determined by Antares, in predicting major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE).

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Article Synopsis
  • Diet plays a significant role in metabolic syndrome (MetS), with a focus on both dietary diversity and quality being essential for obesity prevention and metabolic health.
  • Data from a study involving 6,753 individuals revealed that higher dietary diversity (DDS) is linked to a lower risk of MetS, while dietary quality (DQS) showed limited positive associations.
  • The findings suggest that while dietary diversity enhances gut microbiota diversity and leads to a healthier metabolic state, dietary quality may not be as influential, indicating that future dietary guidelines should prioritize a variety of foods over simply focusing on nutritional content.
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Background: The aortic-femoral arterial stiffness gradient, calculated as the ratio of lower-limb pulse-wave velocity (PWV) to central (aortic) PWV, is a promising tool for assessing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, but whether it predicts incident CVD is unknown.

Methods: We examined the association of the aortic-femoral arterial stiffness gradient measures carotid-femoral stiffness gradient (femoral-ankle PWV divided by carotid-femoral PWV) and the heart-femoral stiffness gradient (femoral-ankle PWV divided by heart-femoral PWV), as well as PWV, with incident CVD (coronary disease, stroke, and heart failure) and all-cause mortality among 3109 participants of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study cohort (age, 75±5 years; carotid-femoral PWV, 11.5±3.

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Background: There is insufficient evidence to provide recommendations for leisure-time physical activity among workers across various occupational physical activity levels. This study aimed to assess the association of leisure-time physical activity with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality across occupational physical activity levels.

Methods: This study utilized individual participant data from 21 cohort studies, comprising both published and unpublished data.

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