Postprandial lipemia refers to the fat, or lipids, circulating in your bloodstream after you eat. It is a dynamic condition, with lipemia levels changing throughout the day. Exercise can reduce your postprandial lipemia and your risk for heart disease, with research published in the "Journal of Applied Physiology" suggesting that endurance-trained athletes who engage in frequent exercise maintain low levels of postprandial lipemia. This study found that even short interruptions cause an increase in lipemic levels. Discuss postprandial lipemia and exercise with your doctor.
Exercise and Chylomicrons
Exercise decreases your risk for heart disease by reducing postprandial lipemia levels. Your body converts the fat you consume into triglycerides, a type of lipid. These triglycerides are bundled onto large chylomicrons and transported through your bloodstream. Some tissue cells in your body, like the muscle cells you use for exercise, have special receptors to capture chylomicrons, releasing the triglycerides to use as energy. Exercise reduces postprandial lipemia levels by using the fat you consumed in a meal as instant energy.
Exercise, LDL and VLDL
When you lead a sedentary lifestyle, your unused chylomicrons float around in your bloodstream. These big chylomicrons slowly erode into smaller but more dangerous low-density lipoproteins, or LDL, the "bad" cholesterol, which collect along arterial walls. The liver breaks down some chylomicrons and repackages triglycerides onto VLDL, or very low-density lipoproteins, to carry triglycerides through your bloodstream.
Accumulation of LDL and other fatty deposits eventually leads to atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease and other cardiovascular diseases. Exercise prevents the unhealthy accumulative action by stimulating muscle tissues into calling for chylomicrons for energy to keep you moving. Exercise and postprandial lipemia impart opposing cardiovascular risk, with lipemia increasing your chances for heart disease and exercise working to reduce your risk.
Diet and Postprandial Lipemia
Exercise improves your postprandial lipemia levels more effectively than changing your diet. Research published in 2000 in "The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" found that, compared to control trial subjects, exercise reduced postprandial lipemia more effectively than diet change alone.
This study sampled the blood of 11 postmenopausal women who underwent different treatments the previous day. The control group ate a prescribed diet and did not exercise. Another group of women ate the prescribed diet and walked briskly for 90 minutes. The last group ate a diet similar to the control group but with caloric intake reduction equal to the calories expended by the 90-minute walk. Results from the oral-fat-tolerance tests showed exercise improved postprandial lipemia by a mean of 20 percent, whereas intake restrictions reduced postprandial lipemia by a mean of only 7 percent.
Exercise Intensity
The intensity of exercise is directly related to the amount of protection offered to your cardiovascular system. The Universidade Paulista in Brazil released a study in 2011 which showed intense intermittent and moderate, continuous exercise were both effective in reducing postprandial lipemia. Researchers found that only the intense, intermittent exercises reduced postprandial VLDL levels.
References
- "Journal of Applied Physiology"; Postprandial Lipemia in Endurance-Trained People During a Short Interruption to Training; Adrianne E. Hardman, et al.; June 1998
- "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition"; Postprandial Lipemia: Effects of Exercise and Restriction of Energy Intake Compared; Jason M.R. Gill, Adrianne E Hardman; February 2000
- "Clinics"; The Influence of Intense Intermittent Versus Moderate Continuous Exercise on Postprandial Lipemia; Aparecido Pimentel Ferreira, et al.; 2011
