Home Cardiology Aerobics May Benefit Platelet Reactivity in Menopausal Women

Aerobics May Benefit Platelet Reactivity in Menopausal Women

Exercise appears to improve platelet reactivity regulation by increased platelet sensitivity

TUESDAY, Oct. 24, 2017 (HealthDay News) — Regular aerobic exercise may improve regulation of platelet reactivity, providing a cardioprotective effect, in pre- and postmenopausal women, according to a small study published online Oct. 12 in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

Martina Helena Lundberg Slingsby, Ph.D., from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and colleagues evaluated a three-month, high-intensity, supervised aerobic spinning-cycle training (one hour, three times per week) among 25 sedentary, but healthy, late premenopausal and 24 matched recently postmenopausal women. Platelet-rich plasma from venous was used to analyze blood basal platelet reactivity.

The researchers found that basal platelet reactivity (%aggregation) to TRAP-6 (1μM) was higher in the postmenopausal, compared to premenopausal, women (59 versus 45 percent). Only in the premenopausal group did exercise training reduce basal platelet reactivity to collagen (1μg/mL; from 63 to 51 percent). Platelet aggregation was more inhibited by the arterial prostacyclin infusion and the acute exercise in both pre- and postmenopausal women following the training intervention.

“These results highlight previously unknown cardioprotective aspects of regular aerobic exercise in pre- and postmenopausal women, improving their regulation of platelet reactivity through an increased platelet sensitivity to prostacyclin, which may counterbalance the increased atherothrombotic risk associated with menopause,” the authors write.

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