Aerobics may benefit platelet reactivity in menopausal women

(HealthDay)—Regular aerobic exercise may improve regulation of platelet reactivity, providing a cardioprotective effect, in pre- and postmenopausal women, according to a small study published online Oct. 12 in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

Martina Helena Lundberg Slingsby, Ph.D., from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and colleagues evaluated a three-month, high-intensity, supervised aerobic spinning-cycle training (one hour, three times per week) among 25 sedentary, but healthy, late premenopausal and 24 matched recently postmenopausal women. Platelet-rich plasma from venous was used to analyze blood basal platelet reactivity.

The researchers found that basal platelet reactivity (%aggregation) to TRAP-6 (1μM) was higher in the postmenopausal, compared to premenopausal, women (59 versus 45 percent). Only in the premenopausal group did exercise training reduce basal platelet reactivity to collagen (1μg/mL; from 63 to 51 percent). Platelet aggregation was more inhibited by the arterial prostacyclin infusion and the acute exercise in both pre- and postmenopausal women following the training intervention.

"These results highlight previously unknown cardioprotective aspects of regular aerobic exercise in pre- and postmenopausal women, improving their regulation of platelet reactivity through an increased platelet sensitivity to prostacyclin, which may counterbalance the increased atherothrombotic risk associated with menopause," the authors write.

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