Happy New Years! Healthy Resolutions!

Happy New Year! May Your Resolutions be Healthy!

The top three New Year’s Resolutions are:

1. eating healthier
2. exercising more
3. and losing weight

A recent blog post showed just 6.8% of US adults had optimal cardiometabolic health in 2018.

• Cardiovascular diseases can be prevented with lifestyle changes such as the top three resolutions.
• While many want to lose weight to feel good and look good, losing weight has greater health implications.
• Physical activity is one of the most important cornerstones in improving cardiometabolic health and disease prevention.

As our society becomes more sedentary, physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for mortality. 

Losing weight and keeping it off is challenging for many. 

RMC is here to support you and offer tools to help you reach your goals. What is now considered a breakthrough treatment for many people who struggle with chronic weight management is an affordable hormone peptide called semaglutide, resulting in an average weight loss of 15% and up to 20%. This peptide in conjunction with dietary changes such as intermittent fasting and exercise may result in greater success.

Semaglutide clinical trial data demonstrated significant weight loss and other health benefits among non-diabetic, overweight participants summarized here:

• 86% of people achieved at least 5% weight loss, 70% at least 10%, over 50% at least 15%, and one-third at least 20% at 68 weeks
• 3.7-inch reduction in waist circumference
• 4.6 decrease in BMI
• 5 mmHg decrease in systolic blood pressure
• Lowered fasting blood glucose levels
• Reduced total cholesterol, VLDL, triglycerides and free fatty acids
• Lowered C-reactive protein levels (marker of inflammation)
• Reduced risk of heart attack and stroke in patients with type 2 diabetes
• Reduced incidence of dementia in patients with type 2 diabetes

A game-changing non-surgical body contouring device called Emsculpt Neo is another fat loss/muscle building tool offered at RMC, simultaneously destroying fat cells and stimulating muscles. After a series of four sessions, patients can experience up to 30% permanent fat reduction, 25% increase in muscle mass, and a 2.2-inch reduction in circumference.  It is equivalent of doing 20,000 sit-ups in ½ hour! You may sweat while “doing nothing”!

A recently published study in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology entitled “Setting your clock: associations between timing of objective physical activity and cardiovascular disease risk in the general population,” suggests the timing of physical activity might be associated with more benefits and greater decreases in cardiovascular disease risk. 

Below is a summary of the findings of this study.

Study Design

While the intensity and duration of physical activity are important determinants of cardiovascular disease risk, recent studies suggest the timing of physical activity may also be an independent determinant of cardiovascular disease risk. The following study aims to assess if the timing of physical activity had an effect on cardiovascular disease incidence.

This is a UK population-based, observational prospective study of 86,657 people aged 42-78 followed for 6-8 years. Data was obtained from UK-Biobank. Study participants were free of cardiovascular disease at baseline. Participants were analyzed via wrist activity tracker monitoring acceleration for seven days and followed for incident cardiovascular disease, defined as hospital admission or death related to stroke or coronary artery disease.

The following study characteristics were present:

• Mean participant age 62
• 58% women, 42% men
• Participants were overweight on average with BMI of 26.6
• 56.8% reported themselves as morning people
• 14.4% used blood pressure medication

Participants were divided into early morning (8A), late morning (10A), midday and evening (7P) peak physical activity time periods and analyzed. Data was then adjusted for sex and age.

Results

Being most physically active between 8-11AM was associated with the lowest risks of stroke and heart disease.

• Over the follow up period, 2,911 of the participants developed coronary artery disease and 796 had a stroke.
• A clear pattern was visible in which high relative physical activity during night hours between 12-6A was associated with a higher risk of coronary artery disease, stroke and ischemic stroke.

• Participants most active in the early morning and late morning had lower risks of incident cardiovascular disease events. People who were most active in the late morning had a 16% decreased risk of coronary artery disease and a 17% decreased risk of stroke.

When analyzing the results separately for sex, result findings were mostly driven by women which cannot be explained at this time. 

• There was no difference in risk reduction in men per time of day of activity compared to the reference group.
• Women had a 22% and 24% lower risk of incident coronary artery disease when most active in early and late morning, respectively. Women were also observed to have a 35% decreased risk of incident stroke when active in late morning. 

Participants fell into two categories: less active and more active. 

• There was no difference identified based on length of activity, suggesting the timing of physical activity is independent of the total amount of physical activity performed in reducing cardiovascular disease risk.

In conclusion, morning activity was found to be the most beneficial regardless of the total amount of daily activity achieved. 

• While more research is required on this topic, this is the first large population-based study to suggest morning physical activity may be most advantageous in the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

Next week’s blog post will take a look into the research and benefits of short, vigorous bursts of exercise, high-interval intensity training and its effect on weight loss and cardiovascular disease risk reduction.

Have an awesome day!  Include some exercise!   Dr. D