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Some experience worse heart health after exercising

06.04.2012

Exercise is typically viewed as the cornerstone of healthcare and wellness programs. Doctors frequently urge their patients to be more active in order to support heart health improvements. However, a new study suggests that the medical community may want to rethink some of this advice.

A team of scientists from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University reported in the latest issue of the journal PLoS ONE that some people actually experience worse heart health after participating in an exercise program for three weeks.

The findings could be cause for concern. Most wellness programs that seek to improve participants' cardiovascular health rely heavily on exercise. If some people experience adverse outcomes associated with exercise it could call into question the benefit of such programs.

For the study, the researchers examined results from six previously published clinical trials that assessed the impact of exercise on various measures of cardiovascular fitness, including blood pressure, insulin levels, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides.

The results showed that 10 percent of the participants experienced worse heart health in at least one measure, while 7 percent saw at least two measures get worse after completing the exercise program.

The researchers said they could not explain the results based on the age, ethnicity, gender or prior level of cardiovascular fitness. This suggests that some people may simply respond negatively to regular exercise.

Researchers must continue to examine the association between exercise and heart health for several reasons. It will be important to determine why some patients experience unfavorable outcomes due to exercise and identify which patients should be kept out of exercise programs. Additionally, alternative cardio-rehabilitation programs will need to be designed to help patients who presently have poor heart health but are unlikely to benefit from physical activity.

Categories: Health and Wellness 

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