doi: 10.1161/01.CIR.0000018887.09239.EB
(Circulation. 2002;105:e9096.)
© 2002 American Heart Association, Inc.
Cardiovascular News
Circulation Newswriter
The More You Run
Physical activity has an inverse relationship with a variety of factors related to inflammation and hemostasis—a fact that could explain why exercise seems to ward off cardiovascular disease, according to British researchers in a report in this week’s issue of Circulation (Circulation. 2002;105:1785–1790).
Twenty years after they screened 7735 men aged 40 to 59 in 24 British towns, a group of researchers from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London, the University Department of Medicine at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow, and the Department of Public Health Sciences at St George’s Medical School in London reexamined 4252 of the available survivors, who were now aged 60 to 80. After some men were excluded for incomplete information or other factors, the researchers analyzed information from a fasting blood sample taken from 3810.
They found that physical activity had a statistically significant and inverse relationship with fibrinogen, plasma and blood viscosity, platelet count, coagulation factors VIII and IX, von Willebrand factors, fibrin D-dimer, tissue plasminogen activator, antigen, C-reactive protein, and white cell count. The effects were similar in men with and without prevalent cardiovascular disease.
They found that men who had taken up light physical activity in the 20 years since the baseline examination had blood variables similar to those who had exercised for the entire time.
Don’t Worry
"Lighten up" is the message of a group of researchers who looked at the link between mental stress and dying from a heart-related event. Men whose hearts showed new or worsened