Improvements in blood pressure, glucose metabolism, and lipoprotein lipids after aerobic exercise plus weight loss in obese, hypertensive middle-aged men.

The clustering of metabolic abnormalities often associated with hypertension, including insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, and dyslipidemia, in middle-aged men may be the result of a decrease in cardiovascular fitness (VO2max) and the accumulation of body fat with aging. This study examines the effects of a 6-month program of aerobic exercise training plus weight loss (AEX+WL) on VO2max, body composition, blood pressure (BP), glucose and insulin responses during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), glucose infusion rates (GIR) during 3-dose hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamps at insulin infusion rates of 120, 600, and 3,000 pmol x m(-2) x min(-1), and plasma lipoprotein levels. Compared with eight non-obese, normotensive, sedentary men (age, 62+/-2 years; 19%+/-2% fat; BP, 117+/-4/72+/-2 mm Hg), the nine obese, hypersensitive, sedentary men studied (age, 56+/-1 year; 32%+/-1% body fat; BP, 147+/-3/93+/-2 mm Hg) initially had a larger waist girth and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and were more hyperinsulinemic and insulin resistant with lower GIR at the two lower insulin infusion rates of the clamp and had a 2.9-fold higher EC50, the insulin concentration producing a half-maximal increase in GIR. They had higher triglyceride (TG) and lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels. The AEX+WL intervention reduced body weight by 9%, percent body fat by 21%, waist girth by 9%, and WHR by 3%, and increased VO2max by 16% (P < .01 for all). This was associated with decreases of 14+/-3 mm Hg in systolic and 10+/-2 mm Hg in diastolic BP, significant changes in GIR at the low (+42%) and intermediate (+39%) insulin infusion rates and EC50 (-39%) and in glucose (-21%) and insulin (-51%) responses during OGTT (P < .02 for all). AEX+WL also lowered total cholesterol by 14% and TG by 34%, and raised HDL2-C levels twofold (P < .01 for all). Thus, a 6-month AEX+WL intervention substantially lowers BP and improves glucose and lipid metabolism in obese, sedentary, hypertensive men. This suggests that hypertension and the metabolic risk factors for cardiovascular disease associated with it can be ameliorated by AEX+WL in obese, sedentary, middle-aged men.