Open AccessEffects of Moderate Aerobic Exercise Training on Vascular Health and Blood Pressure in A frican A mericans
Author(s) -
Feairheller Deborah L.,
Diaz Keith M.,
Kashem Mohammed A.,
Thakkar Sunny R.,
Veerabhadrappa Praveen,
Sturgeon Kathleen M.,
Ling Chenyi,
Williamson Sheara T.,
Kretzschmar Jan,
Lee Hojun,
Grimm Heather,
Babbitt Dianne M.,
Vin Charmie,
Fan Xiaoxuan,
Crabbe Deborah L.,
Brown Michael D.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the journal of clinical hypertension
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.909
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1751-7176
pISSN - 1524-6175
DOI - 10.1111/jch.12328
Subject(s) - medicine , aerobic exercise , blood pressure , ambulatory blood pressure , ambulatory , cardiology , coronary artery disease , psychological intervention , african american , physical therapy , nursing , history , ethnology
As healthcare progresses toward individualized medicine, understanding how different racial groups respond to lifestyle interventions is valuable. It is established that A frican A mericans have disproportionate levels of cardiovascular disease and impaired vascular health, and clinical practice guidelines suggest lifestyle interventions as the first line of treatment. Recently, the authors reported that 6 months of aerobic exercise improved inflammatory markers, flow‐mediated dilation ( FMD ), and levels of circulating endothelial microparticles ( EMP s) in A frican A merican adults. This study is a subgroup analysis of the aerobic exercise–induced changes in vascular health and blood pressure ( BP ) measures, including carotid artery intima‐media thickness ( IMT ), nitroglycerin‐mediated dilation ( NMD ), ambulatory BP , and office BP . Sedentary A frican A merican adults (53.4±6.2 years; 21 women and 5 men) showed improved vascular health but no change in BP . Carotid artery IMT decreased 6.4%, plasma nitric oxide levels increased 76.6%, plasma EMP levels decreased, percentage of FMD increased 59.6%, and FMD / NMD ratio increased 36.2% ( P <.05 for all). Six months of aerobic exercise training is sufficient to elicit improvements in vascular structure and function in A frican A mericans, even without improvements in BP measures or NMD (ie, smooth muscle function). To our knowledge, this is the first study to report such findings in A frican A mericans.