Park Hun-Young, Kim Sung-Woo, Jung Won-Sang, Kim Jisu, Lim Kiwon
Department of Sports Medicine and Science, Graduate School, Konkuk University, 05029 Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Physical Activity and Performance Institute (PAPI), Konkuk University, 05029 Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Rev Cardiovasc Med. 2022 Apr 28;23(5):161. doi: 10.31083/j.rcm2305161. eCollection 2022 May.
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are recognized as one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Generally, most CVDs can be prevented by addressing behavioral risk factors, including smoking, unhealthy diet and obesity, lack of physical activity, and alcohol abuse. Therefore, it is important to have a healthy lifestyle by performing regular physical activity to improve cardiovascular health and diseases. However, a majority of adults worldwide do not meet the minimum recommendations for regular aerobic exercise, and overweight and obesity ratio continues to rise. In addition, obese individuals, with a high prevalence of CVDs, have a lower participation rate for exercise because of the strain on the musculoskeletal system. Hypoxic therapy, including exposure or exercise intervention under hypoxia, has been utilized as a new therapeutic modality for cardiovascular benefit and amelioration of CVDs. Hypoxic therapy shows various physiological and pathophysiological properties, including increased appetite suppression and dietary intake reduction, increased energy consumption, improved glycogen storage, enhanced fatty acid oxidation, improved myocardial angiogenesis or ventricular remodeling, augmentation of blood flow within the skeletal muscle vascular beds, and reduction of the burden on the musculoskeletal system making it applicable to patients with CVDs and obesity with attenuated cardiovascular function. In particular, hypoxic therapy is very effective in improving cardiovascular benefits and preventing CVDs by enhancing arterial function, vascular endothelial function, and hemorheological properties. These observations indicate that hypoxic therapy may be an important and essential strategy for improving cardiovascular health and reducing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
心血管疾病（CVDs）被公认为是全球发病和死亡的主要原因之一。一般来说，大多数心血管疾病可以通过解决行为风险因素来预防，这些因素包括吸烟、不健康饮食和肥胖、缺乏体育活动以及酗酒。因此，通过定期进行体育活动来拥有健康的生活方式对于改善心血管健康和预防疾病很重要。然而，全球大多数成年人未达到定期有氧运动的最低建议标准，超重和肥胖率持续上升。此外，心血管疾病患病率高的肥胖个体由于肌肉骨骼系统的负担，运动参与率较低。低氧疗法，包括在低氧环境下暴露或进行运动干预，已被用作一种新的治疗方式，以获得心血管益处并改善心血管疾病。低氧疗法具有多种生理和病理生理特性，包括增强食欲抑制和减少饮食摄入、增加能量消耗、改善糖原储存、增强脂肪酸氧化、改善心肌血管生成或心室重塑、增加骨骼肌血管床内的血流量以及减轻肌肉骨骼系统的负担，使其适用于心血管功能减弱的心血管疾病和肥胖患者。特别是，低氧疗法通过增强动脉功能、血管内皮功能和血液流变学特性，在改善心血管益处和预防心血管疾病方面非常有效。这些观察结果表明，低氧疗法可能是改善心血管健康以及降低心血管发病率和死亡率的一项重要且必要的策略。
