Swimming exercise is an ideal and excellent form of exercise for patients with osteoarthritis
(OA). However, there is no scientific evidence that regular swimming reduces vascular
dysfunction and inflammation and elicits similar benefits compared with land-based
exercises such as cycling in terms of reducing vascular dysfunction and inflammation
in patients with OA. Forty-eight middle-aged and older patients with OA were randomly
assigned to swimming or cycling training groups. Cycling training was included as
a non–weight-bearing land-based comparison group. After 12 weeks of supervised exercise
training, central arterial stiffness, as determined by carotid-femoral pulse wave
velocity, and carotid artery stiffness, through simultaneous ultrasound and applanation
tonometry, decreased significantly after both swimming and cycling training. Vascular
endothelial function, as determined by brachial flow-mediated dilation, increased
significantly after swimming but not after cycling training. Both swimming and cycling
interventions reduced interleukin-6 levels, whereas no changes were observed in other
inflammatory markers. In conclusion, these results indicate that regular swimming
exercise can exert similar or even superior effects on vascular function and inflammatory
markers compared with land-based cycling exercise in patients with OA who often has
an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: October 16, 2015
Accepted:
October 9,
2015
Received in revised form:
October 9,
2015
Received:
August 11,
2015
Footnotes
This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01836380.
This study was supported by the grant from the National Swimming Pool Foundation , Colorado Springs, Colorado.
See page 144 for disclosure information.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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- Do Distinct Exercise Modalities Have Identical Effects on Arterial Stiffness?American Journal of CardiologyVol. 117Issue 6
- PreviewElucidating the optimal exercise intervention to improve arterial stiffness is a crucial vein of inquiry in the attempt to minimize cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.1,2 Alkatan et al.3 are therefore to be congratulated for assessing the impact of different prevalent exercise training (ET) modalities (swimming, cycling) on arterial stiffness in a high-risk population. Using well-established methods, they conclude that the magnitude of improvement in central (carotid) arterial stiffness is similar with swimming and cycling ET interventions.
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