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Exercise training favourably affects autonomic and blood pressure responses during mental and physical stressors in African-American men

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 23, pages 267–273 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Aerobic exercise is a powerful mechanism by which cardiovascular and autonomic parameters may be improved. We sought to quantify the extent of benefit that could be achieved by a short-term monitored exercise regimen on several autonomic parameters during recognized mental and physical stressors in young normotensive African-American men matched for a family history of hypertension, a group at high risk for the development of hypertension. Autonomic modulations were derived using spectral decomposition of the electrocardiogram and beat-to-beat blood pressures (BPs). Arterial compliance was obtained using contour analysis of the radial artery pulse wave. The analysis of variance revealed that compared with a matched sedentary control group, aerobic capacity of the trained group significantly increased by 16%. Autonomic modulations, arterial compliance and BP responses significantly improved during some of the stressors, whereas no such improvements were seen in the control group. Attenuated responses, mediated through a favourable shift in sympathovagal balance and enhanced arterial compliance, provide mechanistic evidence of how certain variables may be improved due to aerobic conditioning in a population at high risk for the development of hypertension.

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Acknowledgements

Supported by National Institutes of Health, Grant no. S08016-30 (VB) and VIDDA Foundation (RED) and RO1 HL61287 (RPS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of HHPLS, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA

    V Bond

  2. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    M N Bartels & R E De Meersman

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    R P Sloan

  4. Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA

    R M Millis

  5. Department of Biobehavioral Sciences, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    A S Zion & R E De Meersman

  6. Department of Cardiology, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA

    N Andrews

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  1. V Bond
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Correspondence to R E De Meersman.

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Bond, V., Bartels, M., Sloan, R. et al. Exercise training favourably affects autonomic and blood pressure responses during mental and physical stressors in African-American men. J Hum Hypertens 23, 267–273 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/jhh.2008.125

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/jhh.2008.125

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