The Acute And Chronic Vascular Function Responses To Heat Therapy And Exercise Training: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Bibliographic record
Abstract
PURPOSE: Heat therapy and exercise training have been independently shown to improve vascular function in both the acute and chronic time frames. However, no research has examined the synergistic effects of combining heating and exercise interventions in recreationally active individuals. Furthermore, heat therapies that have been previously proven to be effective typically involve the whole body, which is not feasible or tolerable for the general population, emphasizing the need for studies using local heating protocols. This study aimed to determine the acute and chronic vascular function responses to heat therapy and exercise training, alone or in combination. METHODS: This randomized controlled trial compared the effects of 8 weeks of no intervention (CON), lower limb heat therapy (HEAT), moderate-intensity cycling training (EX), or combined training (HEATEX) on vascular function in young, healthy recreationally active adults. Endothelial function was the primary outcome and was assessed using a brachial artery flow-mediated dilation test (BA FMD). Arterial stiffness was a secondary outcome and was quantified by pulse wave velocity centrally between the carotid and femoral arteries (cfPWV) and peripherally between the femoral and dorsalis pedis arteries (ffPWV). Each vascular function outcome was assessed acutely, before and after each participant’s first training session, as well as chronically, before and after 8 weeks of training. RESULTS: Sixty participants (23 ± 3 years, 30 females) were randomly allocated into either CON (n = 15), HEAT (n = 15), EX (n = 14), or HEATEX (n = 16). Absolute, relative, and shear-corrected BA FMD did not change acutely or chronically in any of the groups (all p > 0.05). There were no acute changes in cfPWV (p = 0.79) or ffPWV (group effect: p = 0.047; all pairwise comparisons: p > 0.05). Both interventions with a heating component were associated with chronic within-subject reductions in cfPWV after 8 weeks (HEAT: -0.27 [-0.53,-0.02] and HEATEX: -0.33 [-0.58,-0.09]), despite a lack of between-group differences (p = 0.25). CONCLUSIONS: In a young, recreationally active cohort, 8 weeks of lower limb heat therapy or combined training may elicit reductions in arterial stiffness but not endothelial function. Supported by an NSERC Discovery Grant #20011033 to MJM.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.004 | 0.005 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.006 | 0.003 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.009 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".