PHYSICAL-ACTIVITY AND SERUM-LIPIDS AND LIPOPROTEINS IN ELDERLY WOMEN

Objective: The relationship between cardiorespiratory exercise and ser um lipid and lipoprotein levels was studied in elderly women. Design: Randomized controlled experimental design with a follow up of 12 weeks ; cross-sectional comparison at baseline. Setting: Community-living el ders in university exercise facilities. Participants: Thirty-two appar ently healthy, sedentary elderly Caucasian women, 67 to 85 years of ag e. Ten highly conditioned elderly women, 65 to 84 years of age, who we re active in endurance competitions and had been training for 11.2 +/- 1.2 years, were recruited at baseline for cross-sectional comparisons . Interventions: Sedentary subjects were randomized to either a walkin g or calisthenic group. Intervention groups exercised 30 to 40 minutes , 5 days a week for 12 weeks, with the walking group training at 60% h eart rate reserve and the calisthenic group engaging in mild range-of- motion and flexibility movements that kept their heart rates close to resting levels. Measurements: Serum lipids and lipoproteins, maximal a erobic capacity (VO2 max), four skinfolds, and dietary intake at basel ine and after 5 and 12 weeks. Results: When the highly conditioned gro up an com ne group of sedentary subjects were compared at baseline, se rum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C; 1.61 +/- 0.14 vs 1.27 +/- 0.05 mmol/L, respectively; P = 0.048) and triglycerides (1.29 +/- 0.15 vs 2.00 +/- 0.15, respectively; P = 0.002), but not total serum cholesterol (5.72 +/- 0.36 vs 5.72 +/- 0.19 mmol/L, respectively) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C; 3.62 +/- 0.36 vs 3.72 +/- 0.18 mmol/L, respectively), were significantly different. Twelve weeks of moderate cardiorespiratory exercise improved the VO2max of the sed entary subjects 12.6% but did not result in any change in body weight, energy intake, dietary quality, or any of the serum lipids or lipopro teins. Conclusion: Highly conditioned and lean elderly women, when com pared with their sedentary counterparts, had higher HDL-C and lower tr iglycerides, but similar total serum cholesterol and LDL-C values. How ever, twelve weeks of moderate cardiorespiratory exercise were not ass ociated with an improvement in serum lipid or lipoprotein profiles in previously sedentary elderly women.