August 18, 2020Open Access
High-Intensity Interval Training Decreases Muscle Sympathetic Nerve Activity in Men With Essential Hypertension and in Normotensive Controls
Structured PICO
Does 6 weeks of high-intensity interval training reduce muscle sympathetic nerve activity and blood pressure in men with essential hypertension and normotensive controls?
P
Population
24 men, comprising 14 with essential hypertension (mean age 62 ± 7 years) and 10 age-matched normotensive controls (mean age 60 ± 8 years).
I
Intervention
6 weeks of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
C
Comparator
Pre-training baseline (within-group comparison) and between-group comparison (hypertensive vs normotensive controls)
O
Outcome
Leg muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) responsiveness (burst frequency and burst incidence)surrogate
Six weeks of high-intensity interval training effectively lowers resting muscle sympathetic nerve activity and blood pressure in men with essential hypertension, highlighting its value as a time-efficient lifestyle intervention.
Abstract
Exercise training is a cornerstone in reducing blood pressure (BP) and muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) in individuals with essential hypertension. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) has been shown to be a time efficient alternative to classical continuous training in lowering BP in essential hypertension, but the effect of HIIT on MSNA levels has never been investigated. Leg MSNA responsiveness to 6 weeks of HIIT was examined in 14 hypertensive men (HYP; age: 62 ± 7 years, night time BP: 136 ± 12/83 ± 8 mmHg, BMI: 28 ± 3 kg/m2), and 10 age-matched normotensive controls (NORM; age: 60 ± 8 years, night time BP: 116 ± 2/68 ± 4 mmHg and BMI: 27 ± 3 kg/m2). Before training, MSNA levels were not different between HYP and NORM (burst frequency (BF): 41.0 ± 10.3 vs. 33.6 ± 10.6 bursts/min and burst incidence (BI): 67.5 ± 19.7 vs. 64.2 ± 17.0 bursts/100 heart beats, respectively). BF decreased (P P P P P 2-max in NORM only. Six weeks of HIIT lowered resting MSNA levels in age-matched hyper- and normotensive men, which was paralleled by a significant reduction in BP in the hypertensive men.