The correlations of glycated hemoglobin and carbohydrate metabolism parameters with heart rate variability in apparently healthy sedentary young male subjects

Abstract

IntroductionSedentary lifestyle is a major risk factor for diabetes, cardiovascular and many other age-related diseases. Heart rate variability (HRV) reflects the function of regulatory systems of internal organs and may sensitively indicate early metabolic disturbances. We hypothesize that quantitative and qualitative changes of HRV in young subjects may reflect early metabolic derangements responsible for further development of clinically significant disease.AimThe aim of our study was to determine whether the parameters of carbohydrate metabolism (fasting blood glucose, HBA1c and surrogate insulin sensitivity/resistance indices) correlate with anthropometric data and HRV.MethodsThe study group consisted of 30 healthy sedentary male subjects aged 20–40, nonsmokers, mainly office and research employees, medical staff and students. Athletes, actively training more than one hour per week, severely obese and men of physical work were excluded from the study. HRV parameters were derived from short term ECG records (five minutes intervals) in supine position and during orthostatic test. Anthropometric data included height, weight, body mass index (BMI), age and body composition (estimation by bioelectric impedance method). The fasting blood glucose, insulin and C-peptide, homeostatic model assessment (HOMA-IR) index and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) were evaluated. Linear correlation coefficient (r) was calculated using Statistica 10.0 software.Results and discussionHOMA-IR index correlated positively with body weight, visceral fat and BMI (p=0.047, 0.027 and 0.017 respectively). In supine position pNN50 positively correlated with glucose/insulin ratio (p=0.011) and heart rate with HOMA-IR (p=0.006). In orthostatic test negative correlations of HBA1c with standard deviation, total and low frequency power were determined (p=0.034, 0.400 and 0.403 respectively), which indicates a gradual worsening of functional capacity of cardiovascular system with low-grade increase (under the conventional threshold) of HBA1c.ConclusionsIn apparently healthy sedentary subjects HRV reduction correlates with the age advancement, subclinical deteriorations of carbohydrate metabolism and excessive fat accumulation.

A marked decrease in heart rate variability in Marfan syndrome patients with confirmed FBN1 mutations

“…As we have recently hypothesized [18], the interpretation of decreased HRV may not be simply limited to an autonomic dysfunction and increased sympathetic tone. The negative correlations of HRV parameters with weight, visceral fat, BMI, and a number of carbohydrate metabolism parameters in apparently healthy sedentary subjects also confirm this hypothesis [23]. The energetic deficiency as well as chronic hypoxia and persistence of oxidative stress seem to play major roles in HRV suppression in MS patients.…”

Glucose as a Major Antioxidant: When, What for and Why It Fails?

“…Consistent with this is recent data generated on C. elegance model regarding integration of stress induced responses of nervous system with metabolic adaptations [34]. It was shown that the flight response mediated by tyramine (worm analog of catecholamines) in the end leads to stimulation of insulin-IGF-1 signaling and have the opposite effect to longevity-promoting stress responses to heat, starvation, glucose restriction or exercise [35][36][37]. If hypothetically translated to modern humans it can provide accurate mechanistical explanations why emotional stress accompanied with sedentary behaviors may have detrimental health consequences associated with both excessive insulin and adrenaline signaling causing atherosclerosis [23], contributing among the other factors to insulin resistance and accelerated aging [38] but can be reversed by exercise or fasting [39].…”

Helicobacter pylori in Health and Disease: Its Contribution to Gastrointestinal Disorders and Systemic Metabolic Effects

“…It was demonstrated that Amaranth oil supplementation provided significant improvement of gastric mucosa morphological pattern and also had a positive effect on heart rate variability [5]. In a separate study we demonstrated that H. pylori in apparently healthy sedentary young male subjects is associated with higher heart rate, sympathetic activity and insulin resistance, however, we detected no changes in parameters reflecting inflammatory profile, metabolic parameters or oxidative stress [6][7][8]. In summary, there is a growing evidence of systemic metabolic effects of H. pylori infection not only in patients with overt gastrointestinal disorders, but also in apparently asymptomatic healthy subjects.…”