Effects of Tai Chi on adiponectin and glucose homeostasis in individuals with cardiovascular risk factors

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the acute effect of a single bout of Tai Chi (TC) exercise on adiponectin and glucose homeostasis in individuals with cardiovascular risk factors. Twenty-six individuals (mean age 60.2 years) with at least one cardiovascular risk factor who had been practicing Yang's style TC exercise for at least 3 months were recruited from a regional hospital in Taiwan. A one-group repeated measured quasi-experimental design was used. Participants completed a 60-min Yang's style TC exercise routine including warm up, stretching exercises, and TC followed by a 30-min resting period. After a 1-week washout period, the same group of participants underwent a control condition in which they were instructed to remain seated for 90 min at the study location. Blood samples were collected both before and after the TC intervention or the sitting condition. The difference between pre-post measurements for adiponectin was 0.58 ± 1.42 μg/ml in the TC trial and -0.46 ± 0.99 μg/ml in the sitting trial. The differences between the two trials were statistically significant (P = 0.004). The changes from pretrial to posttrial were significantly greater for glycerol (P < 0.001), cholesterol (P = 0.046), and LDL-C (P = 0.038) in the TC trial compared with those in the sitting trial. Conversely, the changes were significantly lesser for HOMA-IR (P = 0.004), log (HOMA-IR) (P = 0.001), and glucose (P = 0.003) in TC trial compared with those in the sitting trial. In conclusion, a single bout of TC exercise had a significant positive effect on blood adiponectin concentrations in individuals with cardiovascular risk factors.

Comparing the Effects of Bafa Wubu Tai Chi and Traditional He-Style Tai Chi Exercises on Physical Health Risk Factors in Overweight Male College Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…The findings of our study align with those of earlier studies conducted by [19][20][21][22][23]45,46]. Tai Chi is a combination of aerobic exercise and resistance exercise; during exercise, skeletal muscle deconstructs adipose tissue and oxidizes fatty acids, which mobilizes lipids throughout the body, leading to control tissue uptake of fatty acids, intracellular lipid transport and mitochondrial β oxidation and increased systemic fat oxidation, thereby lowering blood lipid levels [47,48]. This is the probable physiological mechanism by which Tai Chi training improves blood lipids through a combination of aerobic and resistance exercise.…”

Acute effects of walking in forest environments on cardiovascular and metabolic parameters

“…Some studies have shown no eVect of acute exercise on adiponectin levels in normal or overweight individuals (Ferguson et al 2004;Kraemer et al 2003;Numao et al 2008), but other studies have observed signiWcant changes in adiponectin levels (Jürimäe et al 2005(Jürimäe et al , 2006. Chang et al (2011) found that 60-min Yang's style Tai Chi exercise signiWcantly increased the blood adiponectin levels of the middle-aged subjects (mean age 60.2 years). In the present study, there was no signiWcant diVerence in physical activity between the walk in the forest park and that in the urban area suggesting that the diVerences in blood adiponectin levels between the two trips were not due to physical activity.…”

Effect of Tai Chi exercise on blood lipid profiles: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

“…Beebe et al (2013) revealed that Tai Chi exercise was associated with improvements in LDL-C particle size in obese older women. Tai Chi practicing comprises aerobic exercise and resistance exercise, increasing the whole body fat oxidation, adipose tissue lipolysis and fatty acid utilization by skeletal muscle, mobilizing lipid from adipose tissue, liver and intramuscular reserves, dictating tissue fatty acid uptake, intracellular lipid delivery and mitochondrial β-oxidation, coordinating activation of the sympathetic nervous system and induction of energy deficit-sensing pathways, promoting energy expenditure via heightened TG/FA cycling, inducing energy-sensing pathways such as adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase (AMPK), activating peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta (PPARD)-mediated remodeling of lipid metabolism pathways in muscle, and increasing adiponectin level with strong anti-atherogenic and anti-inflammatory effects (Chang et al, 2011;Franklin et al, 2014;Gordon et al, 2014;Noland, 2015). The possibility that the change of body fat ratio and insulin resistance might have an influence on lipid profiles should also be considered (Kohno et al, 2000).…”