Muscular Fitness More Important Than Body Weight for Heart Health in Young Men

Exercise protects against heart disease in many ways. One important mechanism is by elevating HDL, a.k.a. the “good” cholesterol.[1] It is well established that high levels of HDL are protective against cardiovascular disease and the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) has emphasized increasing HDL levels to help reduce CHD risk. [2-4]  However, not only HDL levels are important. Emerging research in showing that HDL quality and function is as important, if not more important for health promotion and prevention of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases…[5-7]

Researchers from the University of California/Los Angeles (UCLA, California, USA) investigated HDL quality in three groups of young men:[8]

1) overweight untrained
(BMI 30 – no training)
2) overweight trained
(BMI 29 – 4 d or more per week resistance training)
3) lean trained
(BMI 24 – 4 d or more per week resistance training)

It was found that HDL function was significantly better in both trained groups compared with the overweight  untrained group. However, HDL function in the overweight trained group was not significantly different from that of the lean trained group.

Thus, muscular fitness is more important than body weight for HDL functionality and could be a potential mechanism by which resistance training may decrease cardiovascular disease risk.

Interestingly, it was noted that some metabolic and hormonal parameters were related to HDL functionality. High HDL function not only correlated with lower oxidized LDL, which is implicated in atherosclerosis, but also with higher testosterone levels. The latter can explain why low testosterone levels are associated with increased cardiovascular disease risk.[9-12]
This is the first study to demonstrate a relationship between HDL redox activity (an aspect of HDL function) and testosterone. 🙂
 
References:

1.            Pattyn, N., et al., The effect of exercise on the cardiovascular risk factors constituting the metabolic syndrome: a meta-analysis of controlled trials. Sports Med, 2013. 43(2): p. 121-33.
2.            Barter, P., HDL-C: role as a risk modifier. Atheroscler Suppl, 2011. 12(3): p. 267-70.
3.            Sharma, R.K., V.N. Singh, and H.K. Reddy, Thinking beyond low-density lipoprotein cholesterol: strategies to further reduce cardiovascular risk. Vasc Health Risk Manag, 2009. 5: p. 793-9.
4.            McGrowder, D., et al., The role of high-density lipoproteins in reducing the risk of vascular diseases, neurogenerative disorders, and cancer. Cholesterol, 2011. 2011: p. 496925.
5.            Eren, E., N. Yilmaz, and O. Aydin, High Density Lipoprotein and it’s Dysfunction. Open Biochem J, 2012. 6: p. 78-93.
6.            Kontush, A. and M.J. Chapman, Functionally defective high-density lipoprotein: a new therapeutic target at the crossroads of dyslipidemia, inflammation, and atherosclerosis. Pharmacol Rev, 2006. 58(3): p. 342-74.
7.            Besler, C., T.F. Luscher, and U. Landmesser, Molecular mechanisms of vascular effects of High-density lipoprotein: alterations in cardiovascular disease. EMBO Mol Med, 2012. 4(4): p. 251-68.
8.            Roberts, C.K., et al., Untrained young men have dysfunctional HDL compared with strength-trained men irrespective of body weight status. J Appl Physiol (1985), 2013. 115(7): p. 1043-9.
9.            Bhasin, S., Effects of testosterone administration on fat distribution, insulin sensitivity, and atherosclerosis progression. Clin Infect Dis, 2003. 37 Suppl 2: p. S142-9.
10.          Eckardstein, A. and F.C. Wu, Testosterone and atherosclerosis. Growth Horm IGF Res, 2003. 13 Suppl A: p. S72-84.
11.          Manolakou, P., et al., The effects of endogenous and exogenous androgens on cardiovascular disease risk factors and progression. Reprod Biol Endocrinol, 2009. 7: p. 44.
12.          Kelly, D.M. and T.H. Jones, Testosterone: a vascular hormone in health and disease. J Endocrinol, 2013. 217(3): p. R47-71.

Monica Mollica

Monica Mollica has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Nutrition from the University of Stockholm, Sweden, and is an ISSA Certified Personal Trainer. She works a dietary consultant, health journalist and writer for

 

www.BrinkZone.com, and is also a web designer and videographer.

 

Monica has admired and been fascinated by muscular and sculptured strong athletic bodies since childhood, and discovered bodybuilding as an early teenager. Realizing the importance of nutrition for maximal results in the gym, she went for a major in Nutrition at the University.

During her years at the University she was a regular contributor to the Swedish bodybuilding magazine BODY, and she has published the book (in Swedish) “Functional Foods for Health and Energy Balance”, and authored several book chapters in Swedish publications.

 

It was her insatiable thirst for knowledge and scientific research in the area of bodybuilding and health that brought her to the US. She has completed one semester at the PhD-program “Exercise, Nutrition and Preventive Health” at Baylor University Texas, at the department of Health Human Performance and Recreation, and worked as an ISSA certified personal trainer. Today, Monica is sharing her solid experience by doing dietary consultations and writing about topics related to bodybuilding, fitness, health and anti-aging.

 

www.leanfitnesslife.com