Hormonal
Exercise training improves endothelium-derived nitric oxide (NO) function in humans, with the magnitude of improvement depending on the muscle mass trained and the presence of pre-existing endothelial dysfunction.
To improve your vascular health through exercise, prioritize large muscle group activities like cycling or running. These create systemic shear stress that boosts nitric oxide function throughout your body, even in areas you aren't directly exercising. If you have existing heart risk factors, this benefit is particularly pronounced.
Exercise training has been shown, in many animal and human studies, to augment endothelial, NO-dependent vasodilatation in both large and small vessels. The extent of the improvement in humans depends upon the muscle mass subjected to training; with forearm exercise, changes are restricted to the forearm vessels while lower body training can induce generalized benefit.
Why this rating
The paper is a review of multiple human and animal studies, citing consistent findings, though it notes variability in healthy vs. diseased subjects.
Source
Effect of exercise training on endothelium‐derived nitric oxide function in humans
Daniel J. Green et al. · The Journal of Physiology · 2004
DOI 10.1113/jphysiol.2004.068197
More from this paper
- Exercise training improves endothelial function primarily by increasing nitric oxide bioactivity, which counteracts oxygen free radicals and upregulates eNOS expression, leading to structural arterial remodeling over the long term.Good
- The contribution of nitric oxide to exercise hyperaemia (blood flow increase during exercise) is significant (20-30%) but not obligatory, with redundancy in vasodilator mechanisms allowing other pathways to compensate.Moderate
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