title: The potential placebo effect of advanced footwear technology on running economy and comfort in female recreational runners

authors: Pfister, Ashlynne

abstract: Since the release of advanced footwear technology (AFT) in 2017, the running landscape has changed forever. However, researchers are unable to decisively conclude what part of AFT contributes the most to running economy (RE) improvements, with some eluding to a potential placebo effect of AFT shoes. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the presence of a potential placebo effect of AFT on RE and perceptual measures in female recreational runners.

Chapter One provides a brief overview of the origins of AFT, the properties of AFT proposed to contribute to RE improvements, shoe comfort, and placebo effects in sports and footwear research. Features of AFT shoes typically are a curved geometry, a rigid plate embedded in the midsole, and a resilient and compliant energy-returning foam midsole. AFT shoes are also typically lightweight, linked with improved RE. Research generally reports an average improvement in RE of runners when wearing AFT; however, responses are variable and there are responders and non-responders to AFT.

In Chapter Two, 26 female recreational runners (age: 34.7 ± 10.1 y, VO2peak: 45.19 ± 4.65 mL/kg/min) completed one session at the University of Waikato Adams Centre for High Performance Laboratory to assess RE and perceptual measures in two pairs of women’s Nike Vaporfly NEXT% 2. Participants completed 4 x 6-minute RE trials in these two pairs of shoes. One pair was described as a performance-enhancing super shoe (SS) with AFT worn by elite athletes, and the other pair was spray-painted black and described as a “knock-off” (KO) of the performance-enhancing shoe without AFT. Data from 24 participants were analysed (age: 33.3 ± 8.9 y, VO2peak: 45.58 ± 4.17 mL/kg/min) as physiological data from two participants suggested running above their aerobic threshold. Oxygen consumption was not significantly different between SS and KO (mean difference: 0.24 ± 0.64 mL/kg/min, p = 0.077, d = 0.11 [-0.01, 0.23]). Overall comfort on a 100 mm visual analogue scale (VAS) was significantly greater in SS than KO (mean difference: 14.6 ± 15.0 mm, p < 0.001, d = 0.94 [0.46, 1.40]), with 87.5% of runners preferring the SS over the KO. Runners perceived running as more enjoyable and less difficult, and perceived an improved running performance and lower injury risk in SS when compared to KO based on visual analogue scale scores (p ≤ 0.009, d = 0.72 to 1.16). While no significant physiological difference was observed between shoes, a significant difference in perceived comfort and performance was observed favouring the performance-enhancing SS, suggesting a perceptual placebo effect based on shoe description alone.

Chapter Three summarises the findings and provides avenues for future research. Overall, this thesis provides evidence that product descriptions can influence the perception of shoe comfort, performance, and injury risk. The improvements in RE reported for AFT shoes appear underpinned by how runners interact with the shoe properties, rather than by a placebo effect – at least in female recreational runners. Investigating a potential placebo effect in AFT during maximal running performances may provide further insight into the performance enhancements associated with shoes containing AFT.

text: The potential placebo effect of advanced footwear technology on running economy and comfort in female recreational runners Since the release of advanced footwear technology (AFT) in 2017, the running landscape has changed forever. However, researchers are unable to decisively conclude what part of AFT contributes the most to running economy (RE) improvements, with some eluding to a potential placebo effect of AFT shoes. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the presence of a potential placebo effect of AFT on RE and perceptual measures in female recreational runners.

Chapter One provides a brief overview of the origins of AFT, the properties of AFT proposed to contribute to RE improvements, shoe comfort, and placebo effects in sports and footwear research. Features of AFT shoes typically are a curved geometry, a rigid plate embedded in the midsole, and a resilient and compliant energy-returning foam midsole. AFT shoes are also typically lightweight, linked with improved RE. Research generally reports an average improvement in RE of runners when wearing AFT; however, responses are variable and there are responders and non-responders to AFT.

In Chapter Two, 26 female recreational runners (age: 34.7 ± 10.1 y, VO2peak: 45.19 ± 4.65 mL/kg/min) completed one session at the University of Waikato Adams Centre for High Performance Laboratory to assess RE and perceptual measures in two pairs of women’s Nike Vaporfly NEXT% 2. Participants completed 4 x 6-minute RE trials in these two pairs of shoes. One pair was described as a performance-enhancing super shoe (SS) with AFT worn by elite athletes, and the other pair was spray-painted black and described as a “knock-off” (KO) of the performance-enhancing shoe without AFT. Data from 24 participants were analysed (age: 33.3 ± 8.9 y, VO2peak: 45.58 ± 4.17 mL/kg/min) as physiological data from two participants suggested running above their aerobic threshold. Oxygen consumption was not significantly different between SS and KO (mean difference: 0.24 ± 0.64 mL/kg/min, p = 0.077, d = 0.11 [-0.01, 0.23]). Overall comfort on a 100 mm visual analogue scale (VAS) was significantly greater in SS than KO (mean difference: 14.6 ± 15.0 mm, p < 0.001, d = 0.94 [0.46, 1.40]), with 87.5% of runners preferring the SS over the KO. Runners perceived running as more enjoyable and less difficult, and perceived an improved running performance and lower injury risk in SS when compared to KO based on visual analogue scale scores (p ≤ 0.009, d = 0.72 to 1.16). While no significant physiological difference was observed between shoes, a significant difference in perceived comfort and performance was observed favouring the performance-enhancing SS, suggesting a perceptual placebo effect based on shoe description alone.

Chapter Three summarises the findings and provides avenues for future research. Overall, this thesis provides evidence that product descriptions can influence the perception of shoe comfort, performance, and injury risk. The improvements in RE reported for AFT shoes appear underpinned by how runners interact with the shoe properties, rather than by a placebo effect – at least in female recreational runners. Investigating a potential placebo effect in AFT during maximal running performances may provide further insight into the performance enhancements associated with shoes containing AFT.

year: 2024

title: The therapeutic potential of traditional kava use spaces in the treatment of psychological trauma

authors: Aporosa, S. 'Apo'

abstract: The incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is increasing. At-risk populations include military, first responders (police, fire and ambulance) and corrections officers, but the mental health effects of COVID and natural disasters (such as the recent Cyclone Gabriel in Aotearoa New Zealand [ANZ]) are also triggering increased rates of PTSD in the wider population. The efficacy of current therapies for PTSD is low, motivating calls for innovative treatment approaches. Medical standards of care for anxiety/PTSD typically involve drugs such as benzodiazepines and tricyclic antidepressants, which are addictive, efficacious only in the short term and contraindicated for key populations such as older people. This presentation explains work among Pacific peoples in the UK and US military who had recently returned from combat operations, and who reported that traditionally influenced kava use settings produce a context
in which mental wellbeing therapy occurs informally. Kava is a culturally significant Pacific drink with clinically validated anti-anxiety and sleep aiding properties. Kava is vastly safer than benzodiazepines and tricyclic anti-depressants, reflected in kava’s regulation as a ‘food’ in ANZ. Additionally, kava at high doses does not cause marked euphoria or hallucinogenic effects, therefore aiding quality discussion, and with regular use not leading to addiction. Post-combat personnel who engage in traditional kava-use report that kava with talanoa (as ‘talk therapy’) is associated with a sense of increased cultural connectedness, reduced traumatic distress and improved sleep. This work supports upcoming clinical trials aimed at validating traditional kava-use as a culturally informed, therapeutic approach to treating PTSD.

text: The therapeutic potential of traditional kava use spaces in the treatment of psychological trauma The incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is increasing. At-risk populations include military, first responders (police, fire and ambulance) and corrections officers, but the mental health effects of COVID and natural disasters (such as the recent Cyclone Gabriel in Aotearoa New Zealand [ANZ]) are also triggering increased rates of PTSD in the wider population. The efficacy of current therapies for PTSD is low, motivating calls for innovative treatment approaches. Medical standards of care for anxiety/PTSD typically involve drugs such as benzodiazepines and tricyclic antidepressants, which are addictive, efficacious only in the short term and contraindicated for key populations such as older people. This presentation explains work among Pacific peoples in the UK and US military who had recently returned from combat operations, and who reported that traditionally influenced kava use settings produce a context
in which mental wellbeing therapy occurs informally. Kava is a culturally significant Pacific drink with clinically validated anti-anxiety and sleep aiding properties. Kava is vastly safer than benzodiazepines and tricyclic anti-depressants, reflected in kava’s regulation as a ‘food’ in ANZ. Additionally, kava at high doses does not cause marked euphoria or hallucinogenic effects, therefore aiding quality discussion, and with regular use not leading to addiction. Post-combat personnel who engage in traditional kava-use report that kava with talanoa (as ‘talk therapy’) is associated with a sense of increased cultural connectedness, reduced traumatic distress and improved sleep. This work supports upcoming clinical trials aimed at validating traditional kava-use as a culturally informed, therapeutic approach to treating PTSD.

year: 2023

title: Re-presenting Māori and Indigenous understandings of Being: Deconstructing the notion of mental illness

authors: Southey, Kim Marie

subjects: Maori

abstract: This thesis examines metaphysics in order to re-present Māori and indigenous understandings of Being and deconstruct the notion of mental illness.  A holistic understanding of Being is crucial to Māori and indigenous worldviews and takes priority as a focus for this thesis. Holistic notions of Being allow indigenous peoples to reimagine potentiality in general and the possibility of a renewed experience of being-in-the-world more specifically. Through an exploration of Māori and indigenous (complex) holism, I seek to re-turn to the influence of things in the world that exist outside of the self-contained individual - that is, beyond the cognitive rational agent.  Doing so shifts the concept of well-being to reside not simply within the person (or the individual’s reactions), but within the entire world in which we live.  

It is posited that a dominant Western metaphysics poses a fundamental risk to Māori and indigenous expressions of Being.  This deeper layer of influence – the metaphysics of presence - is examined to expose its structure – one that insists that things in the world will be represented as fully discernible objects.  The implications that a dominant Western metaphysics has for the notion of mental illness are explored within the context of the metaphysics of presence that sets up things in the world as Beings whose essential meaning is identified only through qualities that can be seen, measured, described and defined.  Within this view of the world, the notion of mental illness is solidified, reflected in a focus on the most discernible aspects of Being – the observable and physical parts of a person that can be examined through science.  To counter this, the more mysterious and unthinkable aspects of Being reflected in Māori and indigenous metaphysics are highlighted as a way of re-turning to holism, to the extent that they resist the expectation that things in the world will be reduced to fit the dominant (metaphysical) framework.  

I engage the relational holistic research approach of whaiwhakaaro (a non-method implicating the more-than-human entities that push thinking and characterised by a free-flowing style of reflection), to draw out the possibilities that exist for re-presenting Māori and indigenous metaphysics and the notion of mental illness.  Eleven interviews were conducted with participants from varying professional and community-based backgrounds.  While the participants represent different views on metaphysics and mental illness, each has a passion for exploring the philosophies that shape the experience of being-in-the-world and how we understand ourselves in relation to all other things.  Their responses provide important signals for how human nature, more-than-human nature, and (mental) well-being are re-conceptualised.  

The main ideas that emerged through the interviews and the process of reflecting on participant responses (whaiwhakaaro) provoked thinking about the possibilities of holism in reconsidering the notion of mental illness.  Māori and indigenous understandings of Being were used to re-turn to ideas of well-being as a collective experience. I posit that, if there is illness, then it resides in the world rather than being centred solely on the individual who experiences the world.  If there is a way to talk about illness and well-being, then it need not be restricted to assigned concepts or pre-determined categories that explain behaviour.  Through a re-turn to complex holism – to Māori and indigenous metaphysical premises – I suggest we can engage with people’s experiences on different terms.  These are the terms that carry excessive meaning, that allow for mystery – to break from conventions and categories. These terms support a different view of individualism where the person is free to express their experience of thorough interconnection – of whakapapa.  In its broadest sense, the re-turn to holism is an understanding of the self as part of a thoroughly connected whole.

text: Re-presenting Māori and Indigenous understandings of Being: Deconstructing the notion of mental illness This thesis examines metaphysics in order to re-present Māori and indigenous understandings of Being and deconstruct the notion of mental illness.  A holistic understanding of Being is crucial to Māori and indigenous worldviews and takes priority as a focus for this thesis. Holistic notions of Being allow indigenous peoples to reimagine potentiality in general and the possibility of a renewed experience of being-in-the-world more specifically. Through an exploration of Māori and indigenous (complex) holism, I seek to re-turn to the influence of things in the world that exist outside of the self-contained individual - that is, beyond the cognitive rational agent.  Doing so shifts the concept of well-being to reside not simply within the person (or the individual’s reactions), but within the entire world in which we live.  

It is posited that a dominant Western metaphysics poses a fundamental risk to Māori and indigenous expressions of Being.  This deeper layer of influence – the metaphysics of presence - is examined to expose its structure – one that insists that things in the world will be represented as fully discernible objects.  The implications that a dominant Western metaphysics has for the notion of mental illness are explored within the context of the metaphysics of presence that sets up things in the world as Beings whose essential meaning is identified only through qualities that can be seen, measured, described and defined.  Within this view of the world, the notion of mental illness is solidified, reflected in a focus on the most discernible aspects of Being – the observable and physical parts of a person that can be examined through science.  To counter this, the more mysterious and unthinkable aspects of Being reflected in Māori and indigenous metaphysics are highlighted as a way of re-turning to holism, to the extent that they resist the expectation that things in the world will be reduced to fit the dominant (metaphysical) framework.  

I engage the relational holistic research approach of whaiwhakaaro (a non-method implicating the more-than-human entities that push thinking and characterised by a free-flowing style of reflection), to draw out the possibilities that exist for re-presenting Māori and indigenous metaphysics and the notion of mental illness.  Eleven interviews were conducted with participants from varying professional and community-based backgrounds.  While the participants represent different views on metaphysics and mental illness, each has a passion for exploring the philosophies that shape the experience of being-in-the-world and how we understand ourselves in relation to all other things.  Their responses provide important signals for how human nature, more-than-human nature, and (mental) well-being are re-conceptualised.  

The main ideas that emerged through the interviews and the process of reflecting on participant responses (whaiwhakaaro) provoked thinking about the possibilities of holism in reconsidering the notion of mental illness.  Māori and indigenous understandings of Being were used to re-turn to ideas of well-being as a collective experience. I posit that, if there is illness, then it resides in the world rather than being centred solely on the individual who experiences the world.  If there is a way to talk about illness and well-being, then it need not be restricted to assigned concepts or pre-determined categories that explain behaviour.  Through a re-turn to complex holism – to Māori and indigenous metaphysical premises – I suggest we can engage with people’s experiences on different terms.  These are the terms that carry excessive meaning, that allow for mystery – to break from conventions and categories. These terms support a different view of individualism where the person is free to express their experience of thorough interconnection – of whakapapa.  In its broadest sense, the re-turn to holism is an understanding of the self as part of a thoroughly connected whole.

year: 2020