Abstract
Purpose
Acute mental stress (MS) causes an elevation in pulse wave velocity (PWV), an index of arterial stiffness. In contrast, aerobic exercise acutely decreases arterial stiffness, even in the short term. The present study aimed to examine whether acute MS-caused arterial stiffening can be counteracted by brief aerobic exercise.
Methods
Thirteen young healthy men (mean age, 20 ± 1 years) participated in two randomized experimental visits where they were subjected to acute MS followed by seated rest (RE) or cycling exercise (EX) trials. Following a 5-min MS task, the participants in the RE trial rested on a chair for 10 min (from 10 to 20 min after the cessation of the task), whereas those in the EX trial cycled at 35% of heart rate reserve for the same duration. Heart-brachial PWV (hbPWV), brachial-ankle PWV (baPWV), heart-ankle PWV (haPWV), and the cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) were simultaneously measured at baseline and 5, 30, and 45 min after the task.
Results
Both trials caused significant elevations (P < 0.05) in hbPWV, haPWV, and CAVI at 5 min after the task; subsequently, this persisted until 45 min after the task in the RE trial, whereas the elevations in the EX trial were eliminated. In the RE trial, baPWV significantly increased (P < 0.05) at 30 and 45 min after the task, whereas such an increase was not observed in the EX trial.
Conclusion
The findings of the present study reveal that brief aerobic exercise counteracts arterial stiffening caused by acute MS.
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Abbreviations
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of variance
- baPWV:
-
Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity
- BP:
-
Blood pressure
- CAVI:
-
Cardio-ankle vascular index
- cfPWV:
-
Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity
- ECG:
-
Electrocardiogram
- EX:
-
Acute mental stress followed by cycling exercise
- haPWV:
-
Heart-ankle pulse wave velocity
- hbPWV:
-
Heart-brachial pulse wave velocity
- HR:
-
Heart rate
- HRR:
-
Heart rate reserve
- MAP:
-
Mean arterial pressure
- MS:
-
Mental stress
- NS:
-
Not significant
- PWV:
-
Pulse wave velocity
- RE:
-
Acute mental stress followed by seated rest
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Acknowledgements
We sincerely thank the study participants for their cooperation.
Funding
This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Science (#20K11480 to DK) and a Grant-in-Aid of the Uruma Fund for the Promotion of Science (to DK).
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DK conceived and designed the study. DK performed the experiments. DK analyzed the data. All authors interpreted the results of the experiments. DK and MN drafted the manuscript. DK edited and revised the manuscript. All authors approved the final version of manuscript.
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Kume, D., Nishiwaki, M., Hotta, N. et al. Acute mental stress-caused arterial stiffening can be counteracted by brief aerobic exercise. Eur J Appl Physiol 121, 1359–1366 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-021-04618-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-021-04618-3