Association of body flexibility and carotid atherosclerosis in Japanese middle-aged men: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

ObjectiveThis study examined the associations of body flexibility with carotid arterial remodelling, including intima–media thickness (IMT) and plaque formation in middle-aged men.MethodsThe subjects of this cross-sectional study included 1354 Japanese men aged 35–59 years without histories of stroke or cardiac diseases. The arm extensibility test, which can estimate flexibility of the upper extremity (composed of shoulder external rotation and forearm supination), and the sit-and-reach test were performed. Common carotid IMT and plaque formation (≥1.1 mm) were estimated by ultrasound.ResultsThe proportion of subjects who fully completed the arm extensibility test was 55.0%, and who had plaques in the common carotid artery was 37.8%. IMT was associated with poor arm extensibility (β=–0.073, 95% CI –0.02224 to –0.00041, P=0.004), while plaque formation was associated with poor sit-and-reach (OR 0.98579, 95% CI 0.97257 to 0.99919, P=0.038) after adjustment by all covariates.ConclusionsThis study demonstrated that poor upper extremity and trunk flexibility were associated with characteristics of early onset of atherosclerosis. Furthermore, these associations were independent of covariates such as age, blood pressure, blood lipids glucose levels and abdominal fat accumulation, handgrip strength and lifestyle, including sleeping, drinking, exercise and smoking habits. Poor flexibility may reflect subclinical atherosclerosis in middle-aged men.

Exploring the Association between Vascular Dysfunction and Skeletal Muscle Mass, Strength and Function in Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review

“…All 33 studies were either cross-sectional or randomized controlled trials published within the past 10 years (Table 1). Twenty-three studies [20,26,27,[33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52] included healthy mixed-age adults (age range 18-95) and two studies [53,54] included healthy community-dwelling older adults (age range [65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81]. Six studies sampled participants with hypertension [55][56][57][58][59][60], one study sampled individuals with diabetes as a comparator to healthy aged popula...…”

“…Study populations varied from a minimum of 6 [20] to a maximum of 3356 [42] participants. Eight studies included only men [25,27,37,42,49,50,56,61] and four studies included only women [38,52,53,60]. Most studies reported the age range of the participants, except for two studies with one claiming to study "middle-aged" adults [46] and one using adult participants [62].…”

“…Thirteen studies assessed muscle mass [20,25,27,34,39,[42][43][44]47,48,54,58,61] and six studies assessed muscle fiber cross-sectional area (CSA) [33,46,47,56,61,62]. Seven studies examined muscle function [35,38,40,[49][50][51][52], one study assessed muscular power [41] and one study assessed the muscle anabolic response [20]. Body composition was measured as whole body lean mass [27,34,35,[38][39][40][42][43][44][47][48][49]51,52,54,58] or as appendicular lean mass [20,25,26,33,36,…”

“…Seven studies examined muscle function [35,38,40,[49][50][51][52], one study assessed muscular power [41] and one study assessed the muscle anabolic response [20]. Body composition was measured as whole body lean mass [27,34,35,[38][39][40][42][43][44][47][48][49]51,52,54,58] or as appendicular lean mass [20,25,26,33,36,37,41,46,50,53,[55][56][57][59][60][61][62]. To assess skeletal muscle mass various modalities were utilized including BIA [42][43][44]54,58], DXA [25,27,…”

“…The muscle anabolic response was measured as muscle protein synthesis rate [20]. Muscle function was the most varied assessment and included measurements of sit and reach [49,51], sit-to-stand [38], TUG [35], 12-min walk distance [35], perceived fatigue after a fast-pace 400-m walk [40], 40-foot walking speed [38], 10-m walking speed [49], aerobic capacity [52] and arm extensibility [50] (Table 2).…”