Habitual Physical Activity Affects Brachial Artery Reactivity In Women Who Are Postmenopausal And Overweight

The growing awareness of cardiovascular disease in women has intensified the concern for excess body weight in older age, especially after menopause. Furthermore, the inverse relationship of frequent, moderate-intensity exercise and all-cause mortality in post-menopausal women has been documented, but the mechanisms have received sparse attention in research. PURPOSE: To examine brachial artery reactivity in women who exercise regularly, and who are post-menopausal and overweight. METHODS: Regularly exercising women (EX: n=17; 55+3 yrs; consistently exercising > 6 mo) were compared to sedentary women (CON: n=8; 56+7 yr; sedentary > 6 mo) for cardiovascular fitness, measures of body composition, and brachial artery reactivity via flow mediated dilation (FMD). All of the women reported the complete cessation of menses for > 12 mo and were non-users of hormone therapy, medications or nutritional supplements that might have vasoactive properties. All were non-smokers and were weight stable over the previous six months. Exercise was defined by self-reported physical activites that, when equated for METs, represented > 3days/wk of moderate intensity (50-60% of VO2max) cardiovascular training. t-tests corrected for multiple comparisons were run for all appropriate measurements. RESULTS: The groups were similar in body fat via DEXA (EX, 42.85.5 vs CON, 45.5+3.8%). Estimated VO2max was insignificantly higher in EX than CON (28+5 vs 24+4 ml/kg/min). FMD was greater (P<0.002) in EX (10.2+2.4%) than CON (6.6+2.2%). CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that regularly performed exercise of a primarily aerobic nature appears to contribute to a higher FMD, presumably reducing endothelial dysfunction, in women who are both post-menopausal and overweight.