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Blood pressure response to moderate physical activity is increased in obesity
J P W Burger1, E H Serne, F Nolte
1Department of Internal and Vascular Medicine, and the Institute for Cardiovascular Research (IcaR-VU), VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Objective:
To test the hypothesis that in young, normotensive obese subjects, physical activity at a fixed, moderate workload, causes a more pronounced hypertensive effect than in lean subjects.
Patients And Methods:
24 subjects (12 with BMI >30 kg/m(2), 12 with BMI <25 kg/m(2)), underwent a moderate-intensity physical activity protocol (cycling at 100 W). Blood pressure and oxygen consumption were monitored continuously.
Results:
In the obese subjects, physical activity caused a more pronounced increase in both systolic blood pressure (increase of 40.4 +/- 15.3 mmHg vs 21.2 +/- 10.2 mmHg in lean subjects; p=0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (17.5 +/- 17.9 mmHg vs 3.2 +/- 8.1 mmHg in lean subjects; p=0.02). In regression analyses, these differences were only partly explained by small differences in resting blood pressure.
Conclusion:
Healthy obese subjects show an enhanced prohypertensive response of both systolic and diastolic blood pressure to moderate-intensity physical activity.
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