Group Means and Inter-Individual Analysis in Post-exercise Hypotension: Effects of Citrulline Malate Oral Supplementation

Hypertension is pointed out as one of the most aggressive risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, since it is directly associated with nearly 8 million obits per year related to cardiovascular diseases such as cardiac arrest or stroke. Hypertensives with low levels of physical activity present higher risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality even when receiving anti-hypertensive medication. The regular practice of exercise, mainly aerobic exercises, is highly recommended due to its hypotensive effect. Actually, a single session of exercise is already able to promote a sustained reduction of blood pressure, this phenomenon is called post-exercise hypotension (PEH).^–

Kenney and Seals were the first to term the most accepted version of PEH as a phenomenon – It is the decrease of systolic and/or diastolic blood pressure after an acute session of exercise to below a control value followed by no clinical hypotensive symptom. PEH has been faced as a clinically relevant tool, mainly due to its known magnitude and for lasting many hours. In this context, a meta-analysis including 65 studies recently showed reductions of blood pressure averaging from 6/4 mmHg for systolic/diastolic after aerobic exercise session, while hour-to-hour analysis reported a decrease for 16 hours.

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