Nutritional epidemiology is faced with the challenge of estimating overall diet quality and adherence, along with how this relates to health outcomes. Several dietary assessment tools exist for the Mediterranean dietary pattern. Additionally, we recently validated a clinical study Mediterranean Diet Scoring System (MDSS). Firefighters are a population that faces additional challenges. The leading cause of mortality in firefighters remains cardiovascular, so improving diet is important. Our prior studies have found that blood pressure (BP) surges that firefighters experience are dependent on call type and occupational activity and that firefighters are interested in learning healthy dietary patterns. The purpose of this pilot study was to compare the PREDIMED study screener, MEDI-Lifestyle score, and MDSS. A secondary purpose was to examine relationships between these scores with health outcomes. 15 firefighters (36.3±9.5 yrs) completed surveys, a health history, and a 6-week Mediterranean diet and tactical training intervention. Physiological testing included BP, BMI, ambulatory BP monitoring during a 12-hr work-shift, and fitness testing. Each firefighter was assigned a wellness coach who provided weekly dietary training, answered questions, and tracked diet and exercise progress throughout. Data was self-reported by firefighters through a clinical study website. Firefighters had elevated BP (128.7±9.4 /77.6±7.0 mmHg), overweight BMI classification (29.9±3.2 m/kg 2 ), and low fitness (VO 2 30.1±4.4 ml/kg-min). Firefighters scored low on all scales with MEDI-Lifestyle score of 2.9±1.0 out of 7, a PREDIMED score of 6.3±2.3 out of 14, and overall MDSS of 67.1±16.8 out of 102 possible points. We found direct relationships between the screening tools, but sample size is too small to establish significance. MEDI-Lifestyle (r = -0.44) and MDSS (r = -0.6) were inversely related to depression scores (p<.05). MDSS was inversely related to SBP surge with fire-calls (r = -0.6, p<.05). During the work-shift, firefighters experienced BP levels in the hypertensive range (145.5±14.1 /87.8±15.8 mmHg) and extreme BP surges when alarms sounded (21.6±11.8 /15.2±12.8 mmHg). Firefighters with higher DBP had higher overall ambulatory BP levels (r = 0.7, p<.01), higher BP surges (r=0.6, p<.05), and higher overall occupational BP levels (r = 0.7, p<.01). It seems that multiple screening tools are effective at assessing a Mediterranean dietary pattern. Further research is needed to examine dietary adoption and related health outcomes in firefighters. A full study is needed to better understand the relationship between different Mediterranean diet screeners. Furthermore, it needs to be investigated where the relationship lies with DBP and overall cardiac health in firefighters. Subclinical diastolic dysfunction may exist and if undiagnosed, it could lead to cardiac incidents.
Objective: Office blood pressure (BP) measurements miss a significant number of individuals with masked hypertension (MHT). The aim of our study was to identify the prevalence of MHT and compare pl...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the oxidative stress response to a short duration bout of submaximal exercise in a cohort of healthy young adults. 15 apparently healthy college age males and females completed a modified Bruce-protocol treadmill test to 75-80% of their heart rate reserve. Blood samples collected immediately before (pre-exercise), immediately after, 30, 60 and 120 minutes post-exercise were assayed for total antioxidant capacity (TAC), superoxide disumutase (SOD), thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS), and protein carbonyls (PC). SOD activity was significantly increased from pre-exercise levels at 30 minutes (77%), 60 minutes (33%), and 120 minutes (37%) post-exercise. TAC levels were also significantly increased from pre-exercise levels at 60 minutes (30%) and 120 minutes (33%) post-exercise. There were no significant changes in biomarkers for reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (RONS) mediated damage (TBARS and PC) across all post-exercise time points. In a cohort of healthy young adults, a short duration bout of submaximal aerobic exercise elicited increases in antioxidant activity/concentration, but did not evoke changes in oxidative stress-induced damage. These results may suggest that: (1) short duration bouts of submaximal aerobic exercise are sufficient to induce RONS generation; and (2) the antioxidant defense system is capable of protecting against enhanced RONS production induced by a short duration, submaximal exercise bout in healthy young adults.
PURPOSE: Middle-aged African Americans (AA) have the highest incidence of hypertension in the U.S. partly due to endothelial dysfunction. Nitric oxide (NO) mediates endothelial-dependent vasodilation and is endogenously inhibited by asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA). The aim of our study was to determine the effects of a 6 mo cardiorespiratory fitness training (CRFT) intervention on plasma NO end-products (NOx) and ADMA levels in African-Americans participants. METHODS: Nineteen females and three males (52.3 ± 1.3 yrs) with a systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) of 122±2.2/77± 1.2 mmHg who were sedentary, non-diabetic, non-smoking, free of cardiovascular disease and not on antihypertensive or lipid lowering medications followed an AHA low fat, low salt diet for the duration of the study. All participants completed 6 mo of supervised CRFT (3 d/wk, 65% of VO2max, 40 min/session). Blood samples were collected before and after the CRFT intervention following an overnight (12 hrs) fast in order to measure plasma NOx and ADMA levels. RESULTS: VO2max increased from 25.3±.83 to 28.6± 1.2 (p<.000) after CRFT. There was a significant increase in plasma NOx levels (21.5± 2.0 vs. 37.4± 3.5, p=.002) while there was no change in plasma ADMA (N=13). Baseline VO2max (r=-.52, p=.02) and total cholesterol (r=-.50, p=.02) were related to the %change in plasma NOx levels with CRFT. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary findings suggest that AA males and females increased their plasma NO production despite no change in ADMA. It appears that initial levels of fitness and TC may influence the change in plasma NOx levels with training in AA.
African Americans have an endothelial dysfunction that likely contributes to their high prevalence of hypertension. Endothelial cell (EC) responses to stimuli could play a role in the development of endothelial dysfunction and hypertension. High physiological levels of vascular laminar shear stress can alter EC phenotype profoundly. It is not known whether there are race-dependent EC responses to laminar shear stress.
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