Physical Fitness in Adolescence Linked to Less Atherosclerosis in Middle Age

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

Men who were physically fit when they were young had a lower risk of atherosclerosis almost 40 years later, according to a study led by researchers at Linköping University, Sweden. The findings, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, suggest that atherosclerosis is one of the mechanisms behind the link between physical fitness and cardiovascular disease.

"Our results strengthen the notion that physical fitness is linked to health outcomes much later in life. The findings are worrying in the sense that there is a clear global trend indicating that young people are less fit now than when these study participants were young in the 1970s and 80s.

"Therefore, I believe that these findings may be even more important for those growing up now," says Pontus Henriksson, senior associate professor at the Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences at Linköping University.

In the study, the researchers linked information from the Swedish Military Conscription Register to SCAPIS (the Swedish Cardiopulmonary Bioimage Study), a large population study on heart and lung health in individuals aged 50 to 64 years. For almost 9,000 men who participated in SCAPIS, data on them at conscription at age 18 from 1972 to 1987 were also available. One of the strengths of the study is that it is based on the general population and that the men have been followed for a long time, an average of 38 years.

The researchers examined the coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart muscle, using coronary CT angiography, CCTA. In addition, the researchers studied two different types of plaques in the coronary arteries. Plaques with calcium deposits are easy to measure and have long been the focus.

"We see in our study that both good cardiorespiratory fitness and good muscle strength in youth are associated with a lower risk of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries almost 40 years later," says Pontus Henriksson.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-02-physical-adolescence-linked-atherosclerosis-middle.html