Overweight and obese individuals regular exercise skin blood flow and its effect on cardiovascular risk factors

Obesity is a major health problem of our era. The prevalence of this disease, which increases cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, is increasing rapidly in the world. One of the most important reasons for the increased incidence is physical inactivity. Obesity induces structural and functional changes in vascular endothelium with several mechanisms , resulting in the development of atherosclerosis. Pathologies caused by obesity, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia, insulin resistance and chronic inflammation may play a role in the development of endothelial dysfunction. Recently, many studies demonstrating the importance of exercise in the prevention of cardiovascular disease have been conducted. In the light of all these studies and findings, in our study we therefore aimed to investigate the blood values of nitric oxide (NO) and omentin, which appear to have effects on cardiovascular risk and microcirculation, and the changes caused by exercise in skin blood flow. In this study, two groups of subjects are used. The first group (n=25) consisted of volunteers who was diagnosed as overweight or obese and the second group (n=28) consisted of healthy controls. The volunteers performed walking exercises 60 minutes in a day and 5 days a week for 3 months. NO and omentin levels were measured from the the blood samples of volunteers, before starting and at the end of the execises program. In addition, blood flow measurements were made from upper extremity using the Laser Doppler Flowmetry. Increases in serum levels of NO and omentum were detected at the end of the execises program. An increase in vasodilation occured due to exercise, which, in turn, result in post-occlusive reactive hyperemia was determined, detected by Laser Doppler Flowmetry (LDF). It is thought that exercise may have beneficial effects aganist obesity-related endothelial disfunction. Therefore we suggest that LDF and omentin values could be used as indexes in the evaluation of endothelial dysfunction. Key Words: Obesity, Endothelial Dysfunction, Microcirculation, Omentin