Exercise boosts artery health in teens

Obese teens can reverse early signs of artery disease by exercising even if they do not lose weight. The negative effects of obesity on artery health are evident at an early age and this is one of the reasons that obesity in young people can become a big problem in later life in terms of cardiovascular disease but there is a way to improve children's artery health without medications. Exercise reverses the bad effects of obesity without changing body weight or changing body mass index (BMI), a measure of obesity that takes into account weight and height.Researchers form the University of Western Australia, tested blood vessel function in 19 obese and 20 lean adolescents before and after they participated in an exercise program. The youth were all healthy non-smokers who had normal cholesterol and blood pressure. The researchers focused on flow-mediated dilation, which measures how well the endothelium, the lining of the blood vessel, acts to keep blood moving by widening the vessel. Poor endothelial function is suspected of being an early sign of artery disease. For 8 weeks, participants completed three 1-hour sessions of aerobic activity and weight training. At the start of the study the obese adolescents had impaired endothelial function compared with their lean peers. But blood vessel function had improved significantly by the end of the exercise program.It can be concluded that exercise has a direct and beneficial effect on artery health, as well as the indirect but beneficial effect exercise possibly has through decreasing blood lipid levels, blood sugar and blood pressure. Obese teens who were not advised to change their diet, did not lose weight while on the exercise plan, but they did experience healthy changes in their body composition, including increased muscle mass. They also experienced a decrease in fat around the abdomen. This type of fat is strongly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.