Association between regular aerobic exercise and hyperhomocysteine in hypertensive patients

ABSTRACT

Objective

The relationship between total plasma homocysteine (tHcy) and exercise remains controversial. This study aimed to investigate the association between regular aerobic exercise and hyperhomocysteine (hHcy) in patients with hypertension.

Methods

A total of 497 hypertensive patients from 7 communities of Nanjing were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. All participants were asked to complete standard questionnaires by themselves. Physical and laboratory examination were performed within 1 week after enrollment. The association between regular aerobic exercise and hHcy in hypertensive patients was estimated by a multiple logistic regression analysis.

Results

Of the 497 patients, 210 had a regular aerobic exercise habit and 274 of them were detected with hHcy. Multivariate analysis revealed that exercisers have less risk of hHcy (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 0.42, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.26–0.66) as compared to non-exercisers controlling for the established and potential confounders. Intensity, frequency, and total energy expenditure of aerobic exercise were found to be independently associated with lower hHcy risk in hypertensive patients. Gender subgroup analyses showed that this inverse relationship between regular aerobic exercise and hHcy exists in both male and female groups (adjusted OR 0.41 95%CI 0.21–0.80, and adjusted OR 0.40 95%CI 0.20–0.80, respectively).

Conclusions

Regular aerobic exercise has a negative association with hHcy in this cross-sectional study. That suggests a hypothesis that doing aerobic exercise might decrease the risk of hHcy in hypertensive patients.

KEYWORDS:

• Daily regular exercises
• aerobic exercise
• hyperhomocysteine
• hypertension

Declaration of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data sharing

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

Reviewers disclosure

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This study is supported by grants from Special Fund for Preventive Medicine of Jiangsu Provincial Commission of Health and Family [Y2015061], and the Fund Project of Jiangsu Provincial Commission of Health and Family Planning [H201638]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.