[Effect of aerobic exercise on plasma vasoactive intestinal peptide, blood pressure and heart rate of elderly healthy persons and coronary artery patients]

ABSTRACT

Vasoactive intestinal peptide [VIP] plays an important role in modulating coronary blood flow and heart rate. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of eight weeks of low intensity aerobic exercise on plasma levels of VIP hormone, blood pressure and heart rate in healthy elderly men and women, and patients with coronary artery disease [CAD]. In this study, 15 healthy women and 15 healthy men and 15 female and 15 male with CAD disease were randomly chosen as the experimental and control groups. Subjects did aerobic exercises tree days/week, for eight weeks, with the heart rate of 100 +/- 10 beats per minute. Blood samples were taken from each subject in three stages, [before, immediately after and 24 hours after the 8 weeks of exercising]. The results showed that there was a significant difference among plasma VIP levels in the four groups. Moreover, a significant difference was observed between the systolic blood pressure in the four groups [P=0.01] and the systolic blood pressure in male patients and healthy women [P=0.03] while there was no meaningful difference the systolic blood pressure in the two other groups. There was also a significant difference in the heart rate of the three rounds of sampling in the three of groups [P=0.002] but no significant difference was observed in healthy men. According to the above results, it seems that the duration and intensity of each workout should be considered to reach the VIP stimulation threshold. It may bring about considerable changes in VIP levels.