Resistance Training Lowers Exercise‐Induced Oxidative Stress and Homocysteine Levels in Overweight and Obese Older Adults

Abstract

VINCENT, HEATHER K., CHERYL BOURGUIGNON, AND KEVIN R. VINCENT. Resistance training lowers exercise-induced oxidative stress and homocysteine levels in overweight and obese older adults. Obesity. 2006;14: 1921-1930. Objective: To compare exercise-induced oxidative stress and levels of homocysteine and cholesterol in normalweight and overweight older adults after resistance exercise (RX). Research Methods and Procedures:This interventional study was conducted at a wellness center. Forty-nine older adults (age range, 60 to 72 years) were stratified by BMI (Ͻ25 kg/m 2 normal weight, Ն25 kg/m 2 overweight/obese) and then randomly assigned to either a control non-exercise group or an RX group. The RX group completed a 6-month training program. Exercise-induced lipid hydroperoxides (PEROXs) and thiobarbituric-reactive acid substances, homocysteine, lipoprotein a, cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol were measured before and after the 6-month RX program. Results: PEROXs and thiobarbituric-reactive acid substances were lower in both the overweight/obese and normal-weight RX-trained groups compared with control groups (p Ͻ 0.05). Homocysteine levels were lower in both overweight/obese and normal-weight RX groups compared with control groups (p Ͻ 0.05). Lipoprotein a, total cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol were not different in normal-weight and overweight/obese groups before or after RX. The change in muscle strength was correlated with homocysteine at 6 months (r ϭ Ϫ0.452, p Ͻ 0.05), whereas the change in PEROXs was correlated with the change in body fat (r ϭ Ϫ0.329). Discussion: To our knowledge, these data are the first to show that RX reduces exercise-induced oxidative stress and homocysteine regardless of adiposity, indicating that this protection can be afforded in an older, overweight/obese population as effectively as in healthy older adults. These data suggest that RX may afford some protection against emerging cardiovascular risk factors using a mode of exercise that supports body weight.

What do we know about homocysteine and exercise? A review from the literature

“…Some researchers highlighted an exercise-induced-fall in tHcy after training: the investigations of Randeva et al [12] and Choi et al [13] included aerobic modalities and Vincent et al [27] and [30] performed resistance programs [12,13,27,30]. Thus, we did not find the common point among these results, due to the differences in the type of exercise, training duration and sample studied.…”

Effects of two different exercise trainings on plasma homocysteine levels and other cardiovascular disease risks

“…Homocysteine (Hcy) is a sulfur-containing nonproteinforming amino acid and intermediate in the metabolic pathway of the dietary essential amino-acid methionine [6]. Homocysteine is a metabolic product of methionine [5,[7][8][9][10] and its metabolism has two pathways which requires folate+vitamin B 12 and vitamin B 6 [11]. For the last 20 years hyperhomocysteinemia (blood Hcy concentration equal or higher than 16 μmol/L) is a commonly accepted independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases [5,8,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”

“…For the last 20 years hyperhomocysteinemia (blood Hcy concentration equal or higher than 16 μmol/L) is a commonly accepted independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases [5,8,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. It's thought that the increase in Hcy levels causes atherosclerosis and thrombosis through several ways [1,10,11,[18][19][20]. Physical activity, folic acid and/or vitamin B 6 -B 12 levels can influence Hcy methabolism [11,13,21].…”

“…They found that physical activity was negatively associated with blood Hcy concentration whereas some researchers found no association between physical activity level and Hcy [23][24][25]. In chronic exercise studies it was determined that Hcy level decreased in patients with high Hcy concentrations [26] or low physical fitness levels [10,27]. There's still equivocal results for effects of sub-maximal aerobic exercise training [5,9,26,28] and limited information about the effect of resistance exercises [10,27] on Hcy levels in sedentary individuals.…”

“…In chronic exercise studies it was determined that Hcy level decreased in patients with high Hcy concentrations [26] or low physical fitness levels [10,27]. There's still equivocal results for effects of sub-maximal aerobic exercise training [5,9,26,28] and limited information about the effect of resistance exercises [10,27] on Hcy levels in sedentary individuals. For the last two decades, the American College of Sports Medicine recognized resistance training as a significant component of a comprehensive fitness program to improve cardiovascular functions in adults [29].…”