Engaging in light physical activity reduces cholesterol, improves lipids for adolescents
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Key takeaways:
- Adolescents have lower cholesterol levels with more time spent performing light physical activity.
- Fat mass had a minimal mediating effect on the association between light physical activity and cholesterol.
Adolescents and young adults who partake in more light physical activity have lower cholesterol levels, according to a study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
In a 13-year follow-up of participants from age 11 to 24 years, participating in more physical activity was associated with lower cholesterol. However, fat mass reduced the effect of moderate to vigorous physical activity on total cholesterol levels by 48%, whereas it only mediated the effect of light physical activity on total cholesterol levels by 6%.
“Importantly, the increase in fat mass neutralized the small effect of moderate to vigorous physical activity on total cholesterol,” Andrew O. Agbaje, MD, MPH, clinical researcher in the Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, School of Medicine at University of Eastern Finland, and honorary research fellow at the Children’s Health and Exercise Research Center in the department of public health and sports sciences at the University of Exeter in the U.K., told Healio. “To encourage children to participate in more physical activity, we need to update our current guidelines that have no information on light physical activity and encourage parents to lead by example.”
Agbaje enrolled 792 participants from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children U.K. birth cohort who had sedentary time, light physical activity and moderate to vigorous physical activity measured at least twice during follow-up at age 11, 15 and 24 years. Physical activity was measured through an accelerometer worn for 7 consecutive days at age 11 and 15 years and 4 consecutive days at age 24 years. All participants had HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol and triglycerides measured at all three follow-ups. Fat mass was measured using DXA scans.
Among the study group, greater sedentary time was associated with higher HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and total cholesterol. Insulin resistance partly mediated the association between sedentary time and HDL cholesterol and suppressed the other three associations. Lean mass partly suppressed the association between sedentary time and HDL cholesterol and mediated the association between sedentary time and triglycerides.
“High cholesterol level from childhood has been associated with a 30% risk of heart attacks, strokes and sudden death by age mid-40s,” Agbaje said. “If increased sedentary time contributes 70% to the total increase in cholesterol between childhood and young adulthood, then a highly dangerous public health alert has been triggered. We need to abort this tragic development in its wake with all political, scientific and financial resources at our disposal.”
Greater light physical activity was associated with lower HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. Total fat mass partially suppressed the inverse association between light physical activity and HDL cholesterol. Fat mass partly mediated the associations between light physical activity and LDL cholesterol by 13%, triglycerides by 28% and total cholesterol by 6%.
More time spent participating in moderate to vigorous physical activity was linked to lower HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. Fat mass had a 37% mediation effect on the link between moderate to vigorous physical activity and LDL cholesterol and a 48% mediation effect on the association between moderate to vigorous physical activity and total cholesterol. No effect was observed with HDL cholesterol or triglycerides.
“We were amazed that light physical activity outperformed moderate to vigorous physical activity by five to eight times in lowering lipids,” Agbaje said. “On the other hand, it is not surprising because the increase in childhood sedentariness from 6 to 9 hours per day was time displaced from light physical activity. So, to combat the catastrophic effect of sedentary time on lipids, we need to use the right weapon, which is light physical activity.”
For more information:
Andrew O. Agbaje, MD, MPH, can be reached at andrew.agbaje@uef.fi.
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