Exercise reduced atherosclerosis markers in pre-pubertal obese children

Obese children who were physically active on a regular basis experienced improvements in several early atherosclerosis markers, findings from a recently published study indicated.

“These changes are independent of body weight or fat reduction and are of greater magnitude in hypertensive subjects,” the researchers wrote.

They recruited 44 pre-pubertal children from the Obesity Clinic of the Children’s Hospital of Geneva, in Switzerland, and randomly assigned them to 60 minutes of exercise, three times a week for three months (n=22) or a control group that remained relatively inactive (n=22).

Physical activities in the exercise group varied and included ball games, walking and swimming. Neither group participated in a dietary intervention. The researchers performed baseline comparisons of all obese participants with a group of children from a local school with normal BMIs (n=22).

After three months, children involved in the exercise group experienced significant decreases in 24-hour systolic blood pressure (-6.9 mm Hg vs. 3.8 mm Hg), diastolic BP (-0.5 vs. 0), hypertension rates (-12% vs. 1%), office BP, BMI z-scores abdominal fat and maximal oxygen consumption compared with controls.

“Surprisingly, the changes in BP that we observed during the three-month intervention were not associated with improved endothelial or smooth muscle cell functions or arterial stiffness in obese subjects,” the researchers wrote.

After the initial three months, researchers invited participants from both groups to continue physical training twice weekly for three more months. Nineteen of the 22 patients in the exercise group continued participation, with 16 participating regularly; 18 in the control group started training, with 12 participating regularly.

Patients from both groups continued to experience significant treatment affects, with further improvements in BMI z-scores, cardiorespiratory fitness, and systolic BP, intima-media thickness and arterial stiffness. Participants from the initial exercise group experienced significant change differences in arterial stiffness and intima-media thickness compared with controls, according to the researchers.

“Future research should investigate the volume, intensity and duration of physical activity that is needed to improve endothelial and smooth muscle functions in children with obesity.”

Farpour-Lambert NJ. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2009;54:2396-2405.