PURPOSE: To determine whether exercise at low intensity (LO; 50% of peak VO2) or high intensity (HI; 85% of peak VO2) results in improvement of the ventilatory threshold (VT), 186 men with coronary artery disease (CAD) were enrolled in an exercise study for 1 year. METHODS: A symptom-limited exercise test was performed at baseline and the heart rate corresponding to 50% and 85% of peak VO2 was determined. Subjects were randomized to LO or HI intensity exercise. Exercise sessions included 45 minutes of walking/jogging and/or stationary cycling at the appropriate target heart rate and were conducted 3 days per week. The exercise test was repeated at 3 and 6 months. Target heart rates were revised to adjust for training. RESULTS: Both LO and HI resulted in improved VO2 at VT and peak. However, HI resulted in greater improvement than LO. CONCLUSION: Among this population, both HI and LO improve the VO2 at VT and peak, but the improvement is greater with HI. The VT can be a useful adjunct to heart rate and peak oxygen uptake when prescribing exercise.

Anaerobic Threshold↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Association of fasting insulin with blood pressure and lipids in young adults. The CARDIA study.

The association of insulin with cardiovascular disease (CVD) may be mediated in part by the associations of insulin with CVD risk factors, particularly blood pressure and serum lipids. These associations were examined in 4576 black and white young adults in the CARDIA Study. Fasting insulin level was correlated in univariate analysis with systolic blood pressure (r = 0.16), diastolic blood pressure (r = 0.13), triglycerides (r = 0.27), total cholesterol (r = 0.10), high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (r = -0.25), and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (r = 0.14), and with age, sex, race, glucose, body mass index, alcohol intake, cigarette use, physical activity, and treadmill duration (all p less than 0.0001). After adjustment for these covariates, insulin remained positively associated with blood pressure, triglycerides, total and LDL cholesterol, and apolipoprotein B and was negatively associated with HDL, HDL2 and HDL3 cholesterol, and apolipoprotein A-I in all four race-sex groups. Higher levels of fasting insulin are associated with unfavorable levels of CVD risk factors in young adults; these associations, though relatively small, can be expected to increase the risk of atherosclerosis. Demonstration of these relationships in a large, racially diverse, healthy population suggests that insulin may be an important intermediate risk factor for CVD in a broad segment of the U.S. population.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Impact of hypertension information on high blood pressure control between 1973 and 1978.

To determine whether the immense multifocal efforts in the United States over the past 7 years to detect and treat high blood pressure (BP), had affected the status of hypertension, data from a national household survey in 1973-74 were compared with data obtained in 1977-78 from a second non-overlapping population in the same three communities. The impact of hypertension programs was measured by assessing change over the 5-year period in BP distribution, degree of awareness, and level of treatment in the population. Our data show that a substantial improvement in the status of high BP detection, treatment, and control has occurred since the early 1970s for all age, sex, and race groups studied.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied