Daily Gym Class Reduces CV Disparities

By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: November 18, 2009 Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner Action Points   Explain to interested patients that the American Heart Association recommends that schools provide at least 30 minutes of physical activity during the school day. Note that one of the analyses was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. ORLANDO -- Daily exercise at school may mitigate the impact of poverty and other socioeconomic forces on future cardiovascular risk, German researchers found. One year of daily gym class increased fat-free mass by 2.6% among children in a poorer neighborhood compared with youngsters who got twice-weekly classes (P=0.04). That brought them close to the baseline level of children in a more affluent area in a randomized trial led by Claudia Walther, MD, of the University of Leipzig, Germany, and colleagues. A second analysis of the same trial revealed an increase in endothelial progenitor cells overall with daily exercise, along with a trend for reduced body mass index. Both were reported here at the American Heart Association meeting. These results reinforce the dictum that "primary prevention by means of increasing physical activity should start in childhood," Walther's group wrote in a simultaneous online release of the endothelial progenitor cell analysis in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. /.../