Exercise and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease

Moderate physical training counterbalances harmful effects of low-protein diet on heart: metabolic, oxidative and morphological parameters

“…There are epidemiological and clinical data supporting the hypothesis that poor quality of diet during developmental period increases the risk for several diseases including cardiovascular diseases 26,27 . In the opposite direction, hefty evidences have demonstrated that physical exercise counteracts the deleterious effect of several metabolic and cardiovascular diseases 14,28 . The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease hypothesis considers that nutritional insult between development and early ages induces fetus or newborn adaptation in response to the signals in the intrauterine environment, resulting in adjustments to support immediate survival and improve success in an adverse postnatal environment 29 .…”

“…In addition, studies from our laboratory also have shown that protein undernutrition during the developmental period induces oxidative stress in hearts and brainstems of adult offspring 12,13 . Exercise training, on the other hand, is well recognized as a reducer in the propensity to cardiovascular disease by the reduction of risk factors such as obesity, hypertension and oxidative stress 14,15 . It is proposed that the exercise upregulates the antioxidant defenses which leads to an improvement in the cellular resistance to oxidative stress 15 .…”

Exercising: the more, the better?

“…When matched for risk factors, that is, the Framingham score, marathon runners presented higher calcium levels, leading to the hypothesis that high-performance and high-intensity sports may be correlated to accelerated atherosclerosis. Further evidence suggests that the process can be diffuse, as in the study of Kroeger et al 9 One hundred marathon runners without history of cardiovascular disease were assessed; increased calcification of the carotid, aorta and arteries of the lower limbs was observed, with a correlation trend with coronary calcification. On the other hand, it is important to note that, despite the observed increased prevalence of atherosclerosis in some groups of athletes, especially marathon runners, there is no proof of increased mortality from coronary artery disease involving athletes.…”