homocysteine & cardio fitness

fresh~horses · medicine forum Guru Joined: 26 Aug 2005 Posts: 501

J Intern Med. 2005 Oct;258(4):328-35.

Levels of homocysteine are inversely associated with cardiovascular
fitness in women, but not in men: data from the National Health and
Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2002.

Kuo HK, Yen CJ, Bean JF.

Division of Gerontology Research, National Health Research Institutes,
National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan. hsukokuo@yahoo.com

OBJECTIVES: Cardiovascular fitness represents the ability of active
skeletal muscle to utilize oxygen during aerobic exercise. Elevated
homocysteine, causing tissue injury by such mechanisms as oxidative
stress, endothelial damage, and protein homocysteinylation, is
associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia and
osteoporotic fracture. However, the association between elevated
homocysteine and cardiovascular fitness has not been reported. DESIGN:
Population-based cross-sectional study.

SETTING: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999 to
2002 in the USA.

SUBJECTS: A total of 1444 noninstitutionalized adults aged 20--49 years
with reliable measures of cardiovascular fitness and non-missing values
in homocysteine. Main outcome measures. Cardiovascular fitness,
estimated maximal oxygen uptake or VO(2)max (mL kg(-1) min(-1)), was
obtained by a submaximal exercise test. Levels of homocysteine were
measured by the Abbott homocysteine assay, a fully automated
fluorescence polarization immunoassay method and were
natural-log-transformed due to right skewness.

RESULTS. After adjustment for age, race and body mass index, there was
a 0.70 mL kg(-1) min(-1) decrease (P=0.033) in the estimated VO(2)max
for each standard deviation (SD) increase in the
natural-log-transformed homocysteine level for women. Additional
adjustment of hypertension, diabetes, smoking status, alcohol intake,
use of lipid-lowering agents, physical activity, self-report health
condition, as well as levels of folate, vitamin B(12), creatinine,
C-reactive protein, total cholesterol and haemoglobin seemed to
influence the association.

In the fully adjusted model, we observed a 1.18 mL kg(-1) min(-1)
decrease (P=0.003) in the estimated VO(2)max for each SD increase in
the natural-log-transformed homocysteine level in women. There was no
association between cardiovascular fitness and homocysteine levels in
men.

CONCLUSION. High homocysteine levels were inversely associated with
cardiovascular fitness in women, but not in men. The results suggest
that homocysteine levels are important indicators of exercise tolerance
amongst women and may be useful in targeting female individuals
requiring endurance intervention to prevent loss of cardiovascular
fitness and function.

PMID: 16164571 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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