Journal of Physical Activity and Hormones
Volume:2 Issue: 4, Autumn 2018

Clinical studies indicated that small dense LDL (sdLDL) levels are more powerful than LDL levels for the determination of severe stable coronary heart disease (CHD). The effects of intensive aerobic exercise on sdLDL levels are not well known; thus the aim of present study was to investigate effect of a strenuous aerobic exercise on sdLDL concentration in healthy men.

Elevenhealthy young men (aged: 20.8 ± 1.8 years; ± SD) volunteered to participate in this study. All the subjects were performed Repeated High-Intensity Endurance Test (RHIET) as a strenuous aerobic exercise. Blood samples were taken at baseline and immediately after the RHIET. Wilcoxon and paired-sample t-test was used to analyze the data.

The results showed that sdLDL (38.8 ± 11.3 mg/dl vs. 39.9 ± 11.3 mg/dl), TC (188.6 ± 36.2 mg/dl vs. 194.1 ± 42.2 mg/dl), TG (139.6 mg/dl ± 55.0 vs. 157.7 ± 79.7 mg/dl), LDL (109.1 ± 33.4 mg/dl vs. 121.5 ± 53.0 mg/dl) and HDL (44.0 ± 13.6 mg/dl vs. 44.6 ± 14.0 mg/dl) remained unchanged in response to strenuous aerobic exercise. Significant correlation was observed between changes of sdLDL with TC (r = 0.74, P = 0.008), TG (r = 0.65, P = 0.02) and LDL (r = 0.64, P = 0.03) levels.

The results suggest strenuous aerobic exercise had not significant effect on blood lipids and lipoprotein subfractions.

C-reactive protein (CRP) is a marker of chronic systemic inflammation frequently used in cardiovascular disease risk assessment. The aim of this study was to investigate CRP concentrations in middle-aged men after 8 weeks high intensity aerobic exercise.

Twenty two sedentary obese middle-aged men (aged: 46.4 ± 2.3 years and body mass index (BMI): 32.8 ± 2.0 kg/m2; ± SD) volunteered to participate in this study. The subjects were randomly assigned to training group (n=11) or control group (n=11). The training group performed high intensity aerobic training 3 days a week for 8 weeks at an intensity corresponding to 75-80% individual maximum oxygen consumption for 45 min.

The results showed that the body weight, BMI, body fat percent and WHR were decreased and VO2max was increased in the training group compared to the control group (P<0.05). After 8 weeks, the training group resulted in a significant decrease (58.7 %) in the CRP in compared with the control group.

The results suggest high intensity aerobic exercise improves body composition and decreases CRP concentrations in obese middle-aged men.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune mediated demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. The aim of present study was to investigate the effect of eight weeks resistance training on interlukin-17 (IL-17) in women with MS.

Twenty seven women with MS disease in a range of 18-48 year of old and EDSS lower than 4.5 participated in this study as the subject. Subjects were divided into control group (n=13) or training group (n=14) randomly. The training group performed progressive resistance training program, 3 days a week for 8 weeks, whereas control group continued their usual routine activities. Serum level of IL-17 was measured by ELISA kits before and after training.

The disability score and IL-17 were significantly decreased from 1.8 to 1.3 and from 716.3 to 601.3 pg/ml respectively in test MS subjects after 8 weeks resistance training.

In summary, the results suggest that resistance training has useful anti-inflammatory effects by decrease in serum IL-17 production in women with MS.

Elevated levels of galectin-3 have been found to be significantly associated with higher risk of death in both acute decompensate heart failure and chronic heart failure populations. Although endurance exercise is a crucial element in cardiovascular disease prevention, the relationship between exercise and plasma levels of galectin-3 is still unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of an exhaustive aerobic exercise on galectin-3 levels in healthy males.

Fifteen healthy male (aged: 22.2 ± 2.3 years; ± SD) volunteered to participate in this study. The subjects were performed Bruce protocol as the exhaustive aerobic exercise. The blood sample was taken before and immediately after the completion of the exhaustive aerobic exercise. Wilcoxon test and Spearman correlation test were used to analyze the data.

The results demonstrated that galectin-3 had no significant changes in response to the exhaustive aerobic exercise (297.6 ± 180.5 vs. 294.9 ± 190.3 pg/ml). No significant correlation was observed between the post-exercise levels of galectin-3 with body mass (r = 0.1, P = 0.7), BMI (r = ‒ 0.1, P = 0.7), body fat percentage (r = 0.06, P = 0.8), WHR (r = 0.02, P = 0.9), or VO2max (r = 0.2, P = 0.4).

In conclusion, the exhaustive aerobic exercise had not significant effects on galectin-3 concentrations in healthy individuals.

Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is a metabolic disease that is brought about by either insufficient production of insulin or the inability of the body to respond to the insulin formed within the system. The prevalence of T2D is increasing worldwide in the 21st century. The main reason for the increase is the changes in lifestyle, specifically doing less exercise and consuming excessive calories. Physical activity is an important component of T2D treatment plan, because it improves glycemic control and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. Just as the main reason for the increased prevalence of T2D is lifestyle changes, the cornerstones of treatment must also incorporate lifestyle changes to control and reduce the complications of T2D. Physical activity has been recommended as one of the alternatives. This review focuses on the association between physical activity [Aerobic training (AT), Resistance training (RT) and Concurrent training (CT)] and metabolic syndrome.

Yoga may have a role in revitalizing thyroid function there are few studies on the effects of yoga on thyroid function. The aim of present study was to investigate the effect of eight weeks yoga program on triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) in young sedentary women.

Twenty sedentary women aged between 20 to 40 years old participated in this study as the subject. The subjects were divided into yoga group (n=10) or control group (n=10) randomly. The subjects in the yoga group underwent 90 min hatha yoga practices daily, 3 times a week for 8 weeks, whereas control group continued their usual routine activities. Basal level of serum T3, T4 and TSH were measured before commencement and after 8 weeks of yogic training.

The results indicated that T3 decreases significantly in the control group (t = ‒ 2.02, P = 0.05); however, there was no significant change in T4 (t = ‒ 0.3, P = 0.7) or TSH (t = 0.15, P = 0.8) in any of the two groups over the 8 weeks period.

In summary, the results suggest yoga training utilized in this study had not significant effect on thyroid function in sedentary women.