Daily exercise lowers blood pressure and reduces visceral adipose tissue areas in overweight Japanese men.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the link between a reduction in blood pressure (BP) and daily exercise.


METHODS
Cross-sectional and longitudinal clinical intervention study with exercise education.


METHODS
43 overweight Japanese men aged 32-59 years (BMI, 29.0+/-2.3 kg/m2) at baseline. Among the participants, a randomly selected 23 overweight men (BMI, 28.5+/-1.7) were further enrolled into the 10 months exercise program.


METHODS
BP was measured every week and steps per day were also recorded every day throughout the observation period. Fat distribution was evaluated by visceral fat (V) and subcutaneous fat (S) areas measured with computed tomography (CT) scanning at umbilical level, at before, 5 months and after intervention. Anthropometric parameters were also measured at same point. Aerobic exercise level, muscle strength, flexibility and calorie intake and insulin resistance (HOMA index) were investigated at before and after the study.


RESULTS
In a cross sectional analysis, systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) were significantly correlated with body composition. In a second longitudinal analysis, SBP was significantly reduced at 2 months and DBP was also reduced at 3 months, and almost maintained until the end of the observation period. Increasing daily walking was observed in 3 months and maintained until 10 months. Body composition, aerobic exercise level, muscle strength, flexibility and insulin resistance were significantly improved. There was positive correlation between DeltaDBP and Deltavisceral fat area (1-5, 5-10, 1-10 months). By stepwise multiple regression analysis, only Deltavisceral fat area was independently related to DeltaDBP at a significant level (1-10 months: DeltaDBP=-0.608+0.105Deltavisceral fat area, r2=0.227, P=0.0334).


CONCLUSIONS
The present study indicated daily exercise lowers BP and visceral fat area is the critical factor for BP change.
Miyatake
Nobuyuki
N
Okayama Southern Institute of Health, 408-1 Hirata, Okayama 700-0952, Japan. center@okakenko.jp
Takahashi
Kayo
K
Wada
Jun
J
Nishikawa
Hidetaka
H
Morishita
Akie
A
Suzuki
Hisao
H
Kunitomi
Mie
M
Makino
Hirofumi
H
Kira
Shohei
S
Fujii
Masafumi
M
D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D001824:Body Constitution; D003971:Diastole; D002149:Energy Intake; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007333:Insulin Resistance; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000503:physiopathology; D009765:Obesity / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013599:Systole; D013997:Time Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014781:Viscera