Can Active Aerobic Exercise Reduce the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Prehypertensive Elderly Women by Improving HDL Cholesterol and Inflammatory Markers?

Nayoung Ahn and Kijin Kim
Additional contact information
Nayoung Ahn: Department of Physical Education, Keimyung University, Daegu 42601, Korea
Kijin Kim: Department of Physical Education, Keimyung University, Daegu 42601, Korea

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 16, 1-16

Abstract: This study aims to verify the efficacy of exercise programs designed to prevent and treat hypertension-induced cardiovascular disease (CVD) by analyzing the effects of a 6-month active aerobic exercise program, administered to prehypertensive elderly women, on reducing the risk of developing CVD by enhancing their physical fitness level and improving the detailed markers of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and inflammatory markers. We assigned the elderly women (≥65 years) recruited into normal blood pressure (120–129/80–84; NBP, n = 18) and high-normal blood pressure (130–139/85–89; HNBP, n = 12) groups according to the European guidelines for the management of arterial hypertension. The exercise program was made up of combined workouts of elastic band resistance exercise and aerobics with dance music. The program took place three times a week for six months, with each session lasting 60 min. We measured pre- and post-intervention body composition, blood pressure, physical fitness level, blood lipids profile, HDL-C, SAA, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-4, IL-15, CRP, and HSP70 and calculated the Framingham risk scores for comparison. A significant post-intervention reduction in the mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) was observed in the HNBP group ( p < 0.001), with significant increase in HDL-C ( p < 0.01) and significant decrease in serum amyloid A (SAA) concentration ( p < 0.01). A significant improvement in physical fitness factors such as physical efficiency index (PEI) was also observed in the HNBP group ( p < 0.05). The post-intervention TNF-α, IL-6, and SAA concentrations were more significantly lower in the HNBP than in the NBP group ( p < 0.05). Compared to the baseline values, a significant decrease in SAA concentration ( p < 0.01) and significant increase in HSP70 concentration ( p < 0.001) were observed in the HNBP group. The HNBP group’s 10-year CVD risk was also significantly reduced ( p < 0.05). The pre–post differences in SBP and DBP were significantly correlated with those in the anti-inflammatory markers IL-4 and IL-15 ( p < 0.01). In conclusion, the 6-month active aerobic exercise program of moderate intensity administered to prehypertensive elderly women (≥65 years) had the effect of reducing the 10-year CVD risk through a substantial reduction in SBP, overall physical fitness improvement, increase in HDL-C, decrease in SAA concentration, and substantial decrease in inflammatory biomarkers. It was also confirmed that an increase in anti-inflammatory markers, which showed a small range of increase with respect to the decrease in blood pressure, may have a major effect.

Keywords: hypertension; exercise; inflammation; cardiovascular disease; physical fitness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/16/5910/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/16/5910/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:16:p:5910-:d:399205

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().