Effect of short term exercise on serum nitrite/nitrate concentration in postmenopausal women

Abstract

The aim of this experimental designed research was to study the effect of short term moderate exercise on serum nitrite/nitrate concentration in thirty healthy post menopause women. The volunteers whose age ranging from 45-60 years were randomly assigned into two groups of 15 subjects, namely, the treadmill group and the bicycle group performing similar schedule of exercise training. On day 1, of the 23 day of study, 8 ml, blood samples were obtained both prior to and after a VO[subscript 2peak] test, for the analysis of serum nitrite/nitrate level and lipid profiles. During day 2-11, the control or run in period, all subjects were asked to live a regular sedentary lifestyle on their regular diet for 10 days. A second blood samples were taken on day 12 in the same manner as day 1. The exercise period, from day 13-22, both groups of 15 subjects each performed their assigned exercise mode at moderate intensity (50-60% VO[subscript 2peak]) for 30 minutes per day for 10 consecutive days. The final third blood samples were obtained on day 23 to avoid contamination of short term exercise training over VO[subscript 2peak] effect on serum nitrite/nitrate level. Results on the concentration of serum nitrite in all thirty subjects exhibited a slight increase, 26.14 mmol/L, in post VO[subscript 2peak] at day1 and remained at this level throughout the studied period. The lipid profiles of the treadmill group showed a significant decrease in serum triglycerides (p<0.01) while there was a significant increase in high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) level with p<0.001. Similar lipid profiles changes were observed when analyzing all thirty subjects with p<0.05. The changes of lipid profiles were in accordance with the well accepted body response to exercise. However, the slight increase of nitrate was within expectation. Since, moderate intensity aerobic exercise did not change serum nitrite/nitrate in postmenopause women.