Effects of Exercise on Heamorheology (Preliminary Report) : Mild Exercise can Improve Red Cell Filterability

We investigated the effects of exercise on the hemorheological parameters including plasma viscosity, whole blood viscosity and red cell filterability to determine whether the exercise might give the beneficial effects to microcirculation in the human. Subjects consisted of two young men and a woman (mean age=19.7 years old). They performed the graded exercise on the treadmill by the Bruce protocol. During the test, they were monitored ECG and blood pressure. Heart rate (HR), some hemorheological parameters, and the biochemical parameters including serum electrolytes, blood sugar, lactate, and catecholamines were measured at 5 points; (1) control (supine position), (2) stage 2, (3) stage 5 during exercise, (4) 1 ? 2 min.. (5) 5min. after exercise. Plasma viscosity, whole blood viscosity and red cell filterability (RCF) were measured by the same methods as our published paper (J. Health Science 10; 103, 1988.) The results were as follows; 1) Plasma viscosity and whole blood viscosity showed the gradual increase during exercise from stage 2 to 5 in all of three. 2) RCF showed decrease at stage 2, however the RCF at stage 5 increased markedly in all 3 subjects. 3) There was no increase of plasma catecholamine level at stage 2, but marked increase of catecholamine, lactate and heart rate at stage 5. The results suggest that (1) mild exercise may give benefical effects to hemorheology, resulting in the improvement of microcirculation. (2) Moderate to heavy exercise transiently worsens hemorheology, so that it must be harmful to the cardiovascular patients