"Exercise Anytime: Study Finds No Time-of-Day Effect on Blood Pressure and Glucose Levels"

2023-05-09 21:16:47

MADRID– And study led by the University of Granada has shown that the time of day at which exercise does not influence the immediate effect that it has on the blood pressure and blood glucose.

Therefore, the researchers recommend exercising without looking at the clock, contrary to what has been suggested to date by the scant existing scientific literature on the matter.

The Institute for Biosanitary Research of Granada (ibs.Granada) and the Center for Network Biomedical Research, Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBEROBN) have collaborated on this research, published in the scientific journal ‘Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport’. ) of the Carlos III Health Institute.

Cells have a molecular clock that controls metabolic processes and is in constant interaction with external stimuli. Patterns of the modern lifestyle such as having disturbed sleep rhythms, not getting enough sleep, working and/or eating at irregular hours or being exposed to artificial light contribute to the appearance of cardiovascular diseases.

Exercise is a protective factor against these diseases, and recent studies suggest that the time of day it is practiced may influence its effects on health. In this study, a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature has been carried out with the aim of contributing to optimizing the effects of exercise as a tool in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

AT MORNING OR EVENING?

The objective was to determine if exercising in the morning or in the afternoon has a different effect on cardiovascular health in adults. For this, information from 22 studies was collected and the results have been analyzed comparing the effect of a single exercise session in the morning and in the afternoon.

Researchers have found that the time of day that you exercise does not influence the immediate effect of exercise on blood pressure and blood glucose.

“Exercise has a short-term blood pressure-lowering effect both in the morning and in the evening. It also causes a rise in blood glucose regardless of time of day. This immediate rise in glucose appears to be greater by the morning when it comes to people with diabetes mellitus (exercising at this time could be less recommended for them), although it has not been possible to confirm it statistically”, explained the main author of the study, Raquel Sevilla Lorente.

In any case, the researchers point out that the studies that have been analyzed in this work have heterogeneous characteristics, so the results should be taken with caution. In the works analyzed, exercises of different types and intensities are included, and also the participants vary in weight and height, state of health or level of physical condition. Furthermore, there are few studies in women.

“The available literature provides us with preliminary results and leaves open questions for future studies. For example, there is not enough evidence to define the immediate effect on blood lipids. It is also not known what role sex or chronotype (individual differences in the sleep-wake cycles), characteristics that seem to affect this question in an important way”, the author pointed out.