WillBrink
11-09-13, 17:47
Writer for my site just posted this interesting article:
Muscular Fitness More Important Than Body Weight for Heart Health in Young Men (http://www.brinkzone.com/bodybuilding/muscular-fitness-more-important-than-body-weight-for-heart-health-in-young-men/)
By Monica M
Exercise protects against heart disease in many ways. One important mechanism is by elevating HDL, a.k.a. the “good” cholesterol. It is well established that high levels of HDL-C are protective against cardiovascular disease and the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) has emphasized increasing HDL levels to help reduce CHD risk. However, not only HDL levels are important, but also HDL quality and function…
Researchers from the University of California/Los Angeles (UCLA, California, USA) investigated HDL quality in three groups of young men:1
gym_weights_man
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.2-5
This is the first study to demonstrate a relationship between HDL function and testosterone. :)
Citations at end of article on BZ if interested in reading the study discussed.
Muscular Fitness More Important Than Body Weight for Heart Health in Young Men (http://www.brinkzone.com/bodybuilding/muscular-fitness-more-important-than-body-weight-for-heart-health-in-young-men/)
By Monica M
Exercise protects against heart disease in many ways. One important mechanism is by elevating HDL, a.k.a. the “good” cholesterol. It is well established that high levels of HDL-C are protective against cardiovascular disease and the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) has emphasized increasing HDL levels to help reduce CHD risk. However, not only HDL levels are important, but also HDL quality and function…
Researchers from the University of California/Los Angeles (UCLA, California, USA) investigated HDL quality in three groups of young men:1
gym_weights_man
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.2-5
This is the first study to demonstrate a relationship between HDL function and testosterone. :)
Citations at end of article on BZ if interested in reading the study discussed.