Key result
Electrical muscle stimulation of the lower extremities during prolonged sitting significantly increased normalized flow-mediated dilation of the brachial artery compared to prolonged sitting alone.
Why the study?
Prolonged sitting increases cardiovascular disease risk and causes arterial functional decline, but whether skeletal muscle electrical stimulation provides an effective passive alternative to active exercise was unknown.
Does electrical muscle stimulation to the lower extremities improve brachial artery endothelial function in healthy adult men during prolonged sitting?
RCT (n=12)
Open-label
Randomly assigned (crossover)
No
Does electrical muscle stimulation to the lower extremities improve brachial artery endothelial function in healthy adult men during prolonged sitting?
Absolute Event Rate: 1.14% vs 0.74%
p-value: p=<0.05
Electrical muscle stimulation of the lower extremities during prolonged sitting prevents the decline in vascular endothelial function observed with sitting alone in healthy men.
EMS during prolonged sitting may preserve endothelial function; hypothesis-generating for CVD risk reduction, needing RCTs before practice change.
OBJECTIVE: While prolonged sedentary behaviors (SBs) increase cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, interrupting prolonged sitting (PS) with frequent light exercise reduces arterial functional decline. Skeletal muscle electrical stimulation (EMS) enhances peripheral circulation through passive muscle contraction, suggesting that EMS reduces CVD risk by providing an alternative to active exercise for prolonged SBs. This study aimed to investigate the effects of EMS to skeletal muscles during PS on the endothelial function of the brachial artery (BA). METHODS: Study participants included 12 healthy adult men who were subjected to 15 min of supine rest, followed by 1 h of PS only (control [CON] trial), or 20 min of EMS to the lower extremities at 50% of the maximum tolerance intensity during PS (EMS trial). Flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the BA was measured before and 30 min after PS, and normalized FMD (nFMD) was calculated. RESULTS: The nFMD of the CON trial significantly decreased 30 min after PS completion (6.21% ± 1.13%) compared with that before PS (7.26% ± 0.73%), and there was no significant change in the EMS trial before and after PS. The EMS trial showed a significant increase in the nFMD 30 min after PS completion (1.14 ± 0.77) compared with that before PS (0.84 ± 0.43). However, no significant difference was observed in the CON trials. CONCLUSION: Passive contraction of the lower extremity muscles by EMS increases BA nFMD, suggesting that prolonged sedentary lower extremity EMS use may reduce the risk of vascular endothelial dysfunction.
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Ishikawa et al. (2022) conducted an RCT in Healthy (Prolonged sitting) (n=12). Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) vs. Prolonged sitting without EMS was evaluated on Normalized flow-mediated dilation (nFMD) of the brachial artery 30 minutes after prolonged sitting (p=<0.05). Electrical muscle stimulation of the lower extremities during prolonged sitting significantly increased normalized flow-mediated dilation of the brachial artery compared to prolonged sitting alone.
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