Exercise for people with existing vascular disease as a tool for secondary prevention
At NESSIE we have been busy preparing for new reviews we will work on over the next year. In this blog we are putting the spotlight on one of these in conjunction with a project lead, Professor Gillian Mead from the University of Edinburgh and Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.
This project is a systematic review, you can find out more information on what a systematic review is in our previous blog. For this systematic review, we will be including studies from existing Cochrane systematic reviews as well as searching for new randomised controlled trials.
What is the focus of the project?
Vascular disease involves conditions that affect the body’s arteries and can include stroke, transient ischaemic attack, ischaemic heart disease and peripheral arterial disease. These conditions are called cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and are a leading cause of ill health (Timmis et al, 2022) or death (WHO, 2021).
Secondary prevention can include lifestyle changes that can be taken to reduce the risk of someone experiencing further vascular disease. The use of exercise can be one of these changes.
Why is exercise important?
Regular exercise can help prevent further vascular disease in several different ways including reducing stress, lowering blood pressure and helping with weight management (Damay et al, 2023). It can also have a positive impact on the health of our arteries by helping to prevent fatty deposits from building up, a process called atherosclerosis which narrows our arteries (Meyer-Lindemann et al, 2023). Guidelines used by health services recommend the use of exercise for vascular disease.
Why is this review needed?
Previous systematic reviews may have only included certain groups of people such as those with atherosclerosis in one main artery. This review will include a wider group of people (including those with atherosclerosis in two or more main arteries called polyvascular disease) and will be relevant to a wider group of people.
In addition, different types of exercise focus on different aspects of fitness. These can include aerobic exercises such as walking and cycling, exercise programmes using weights (resistance training) or a mixture of both. Exercise can also involve the use of technology such as virtual reality games. Finding out which types of exercise protect against further vascular disease will help inform the planning of future health services.
We will be using this blog site to keep you updated on the progress of the review so why not subscribe to our blog by leaving your details on the right-hand side of the page.
References
Damay VA, Setiawan S, Lesmana R, Akbar MR, Lukito AA. Effects of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise to FSTL-1 regulation in atherosclerosis: a systematic review. Int J Angiol 2023;32:1-10. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1750184
Timmis A, Vardas P, Townsend N, Torbica A, Katus H, De Smedt D, et al. European Society of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Disease Statistics 2021. European Heart Journal 2022;43:716-99.
Meyer-Lindemann U, Moggio A, Dutsch A, Kessler T, Sager HB. The impact of exercise on immunity, metabolism, and atherosclerosis. Int J Mol Sci 2023;24. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24043394
WHO. Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). URL: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) (who. int) (accessed 5 December 2023).
Blog by Dr Katie Thomson
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