Habitual Combined Exercise Protects against Age-Associated Decline in Vascular Function and Lipid Profiles in Elderly Postmenopausal Women

Abstract

Postmenopausal status is associated with increased risks for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). This study investigated differences in vascular function, lipids, body composition, and physical fitness in elderly postmenopausal women active in combined resistance and aerobic exercise (CRAE) training for 1 year versus a sedentary cohort of similar-in-age counterparts. Elderly postmenopausal women performing habitual CRAE training for 1 year (age ~75 year; CRAE, n = 57) and elderly sedentary postmenopausal women (age ~78 year; SED, n = 44) were recruited. Arterial stiffness (brachial-to-ankle pulse-wave velocity, baPWV), blood pressure, blood lipids, anthropometrics, 2-min walking distance, and muscular strength were assessed for both groups. There were significant differences for baPWV, systolic blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein, and body fat percentage, which were significantly lower (p < 0.05) in CRAE vs. SED, and both 2 min walking distance and muscular strength were significantly greater (p < 0.05) in CRAE vs. SED. These results indicate that elderly postmenopausal women participating in habitual CRAE training may have better protection against risks for CVD and have better physical fitness compared to SED counterparts.

Benefits of combined exercise training on arterial stiffness and blood pressure in spontaneously hypertensive rats treated or not with dexamethasone

“…There are some metaanalyzes comparing the effects of different types of exercise (aerobic, resistance, combined and high intensity interval training) on PWV, however they include hypertensive and normotensive individuals (Martinez-Vizcaino et al, 2019), which challenge the interpretation of the results. In agreement with the present results, the clinical relevance of the combined training has been shown in hypertension, aging and other cardiovascular risk factors (Figueroa et al, 2011;Montero et al, 2015;Son et al, 2017b;Pekas et al, 2020), but the underlying mechanisms induced by combined training to decrease arterial stiffness in hypertensive individuals are not completely understood, basically due to inherent challenges of mechanistic studies of large arteries in humans. In addition, most of the human/animal studies investigating the mechanisms of arterial stiffness reduction are performed using aerobic exercise (Moraes-Teixeira Jde et al, 2010;Hasegawa et al, 2018;Kohn et al, 2018;Gioscia-Ryan et al, 2021).…”

Effects of Combined Resistance and Aerobic Training on Arterial Stiffness in Postmenopausal Women: A Systematic Review

“…In all studies, arterial stiffness was measured by brachial–ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV). Four articles showed the effects of combined resistance and aerobic exercise on baPWV [ 4 , 26 , 29 , 31 ], and three demonstrated the effectiveness of exercise that has a resistance component as well as aerobic [ 27 , 28 , 30 ]. The most important finding from this research is that the applied type of exercise reduced the level of arterial stiffness (baPWV) in the range of 0.6–2.1 m/s ( Figure 2 ).…”

“…Jeon et al [ 4 ] applied circuit resistance and aerobic training. All studies lasted 12 weeks, except the study conducted by Pekas et al [ 26 ], which was conducted for 52 weeks. Participants usually practiced 3–4 times a week, for 40–60 min a day, except in the study done by Ohta et al [ 30 ], where participants exercised 3 times a day, for 10–20 min.…”

Resistance Band Exercise Training Prevents the Progression of Metabolic Syndrome in Obese Postmenopausal Women

“…Insulin concentrations were measured in duplicate using a commercially available radioimmunoassay kit (Insulin IRMA, Biosource, Belgium). Insulin resistance was assessed by a HOMA-IR calculated as described by Matthews et al (Matthews et al, 1985) Blood lipid profiles including triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were assessed and calculated as previously described (Pekas et al, 2020). Blood pressure Systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) were measured after an overnight fast and 5 min of quiet rest in a seated position using an automatic sphygmomanometer (BP-200, Omron, Kyoto, Japan) before and after 12 weeks of training intervention.…”

“…Interventions targeting the risk factors of MetS in postmenopausal women are urgently needed. Previous studies have shown that an exercise program is an effective intervention to reduce the risk factors of MetS such as abdominal obesity (Bharath et al, 2018;Coker et al, 2009;Son et al, 2017;Sung et al, 2019), elevated blood pressure (BP) (Bharath et al, 2018;Pekas et al, 2020;Son et al, 2017;Sung et al, 2019;Wong et al, 2018), dyslipidemia (Shaw et al, 2009), and insulin resistance (Bharath et al, 2018;Brooks et al, 2006;Son et al, 2017) in adolescents and postmenopausal women. Specifically, resistance training has been demonstrated to improve several risk factors of MetS in postmenopausal women by reducing blood glucose levels, waist circumference, body fat percentage, systolic BP, inflammatory markers, total cholesterol (TC), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and increasing lean body mass (LBM) (Conceicao et al, 2013;Oliveira et al, 2015;Tomeleri et al, 2018;Wooten et al, 2011).…”