A large-scale observational study linking various kinds of physical exercise to lipoprotein-lipid profile

Abstract

Background

Being a major cardiovascular risk factor, dyslipidemia is a critical problem in public health. Recommendations in performing regular physical exercise are important to prevent dyslipidemia.

Methods

Based on a discovery cohort with 27,735 subjects and a replication cohort with 67,512 subjects, we evaluated the associations of regularly performing 23 exercises with 4 dyslipidemia indices measured from serum, including triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and TG/HDL-C ratio. Regular exercise was defined as performing 30 min of “exercise” three times a week. “Exercise” includes leisure-time activities such as jogging, swimming, etc. Sex, age, body mass index, alcohol drinking, cigarette smoking, and education level were adjusted in all statistical analyses.

Results

Among the 23 exercises, only jogging was associated with a decreased level of TG (95% confidence interval [C.I.] = 5.9–14.5 mg/dL) and TG/HDL-C ratio (95% C.I. = 0.22–0.49). A total of 5 exercises were associated with an increased level of HDL-C, including jogging (95% C.I. = 2.1–3.3 mg/dL), swimming (95% C.I. = 1.6–3.3 mg/dL), dance dance revolution (95% C.I. = 1.5–3.4 mg/dL), international standard dancing (95% C.I. = 1.0–2.7 mg/dL), and cycling (95% C.I. = 0.6–1.8 mg/dL). These significant findings were further well replicated in the cohort of 67,512 subjects.

Conclusion

Regular jogging was not only associated with an increased level of HDL-C, but also the only one exercise associated with a decreased level of TG and TG/HDL-C ratio. Nonetheless, jogging may be difficult to engage in for subjects with limited exercise capacity. We here found that swimming, dancing, and cycling are also significantly associated with an increased level of HDL-C. People who are seeking exercise to improve their lipoprotein-lipid profiles can have other choices now.

Keywords:

• High-density lipoprotein cholesterol
• Jogging
• Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol
• Sport
• Triglyceride

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive comments, and the Taiwan Biobank for approving our application to access the data.

Author’s contributions

W.-Y.L. conceived the study design, applied for the Taiwan Biobank (TWB) data, developed the analysis tool, analyzed the TWB data, and wrote the manuscript. The author read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (grant number MOST 107–2314-B-002-195-MY3 to W.-Y.L.).

Availability of data and materials

The datasets analyzed during the current study are available from the Taiwan Biobank, https://www.twbiobank.org.tw/new_web_en/index.php

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Taiwan Biobank (TWB) was approved by the Institutional Review Board on Biomedical Science Research/IRB-BM, Academia Sinica, and also by the Ethics and Governance Council of Taiwan Biobank, Taiwan. Written informed consent was obtained before data collection, from each participant in accordance with institutional requirements and the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Our use of the TWB research data was approved by TWB on February 18, 2020 (application number: TWBR10810–07). This study further received approval from the Research Ethics Committee of National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH-REC no. 201805050RINB).

Consent for publication

Not applicable. This manuscript does not contain any individual details, images or videos. Only aggregate data were used in this work.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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