Discussion
obesity, muscle mass, TNF-α, PAD, inflammation
OBESITY, INFLAMMATION, PERIPHERAL ARTERIAL DISEASE, PAD
This study was conducted to investigate the effect that twelve weeks of moderate intensity walking exercise has on the body composition, vascular inflammatory factors, and VEGF levels of women to assess whether such exercise can assist with potential postmenopausal obesity. We hypothesized that vascular inflammatory and endothelial growth factor levels would improve after a moderate intensity walking program. Our data confirmed that moderate intensity walking improved body composition and reduced vascular inflammatory factors, but we observed no changes in VEGF levels.Postmenopausal, rapid physiological and hormonal changes, such as decreased estrogen levels, reduce muscle mass and accelerate fat accumulationRegular exercise can help improve lean body mass and reduce body fatWhen triglycerides and adipose tissue increase in musculature, there is a corresponding increase in inflammatory factors TNF-α and IL-6 in vascularA previous study showed that TNF-αHs-CRP is an inflammatory factor produced in the liver by stimulating inflammatory substances such as TNF-α and IL-6Taghian et alObesity disrupts vascular endothelial cell function via heightened inflammation and oxidative stressIn a previous study, patients with PAD (peripheral arterial disease) experienced an increase in VEGF as a result of treadmill walkingA potential limitation of this study is that we did not measure direct markers of vascular changes in response to moderate intensity walking. Therefore, further studies need to investigate the direct indices of walking exercise and the relationship between vascular inflammatory factors and VEGF. In addition, there are some limitations in generalizing our findings. First, as the focus of the study was postmenopausal women with obesity, it is difficult to extrapolate the results to men or women of other ages. Second, due to the small sample size, the effect size in this study was confined to a statistical power of 70%, posing a limitation that could potentially influence the outcomes. Therefore, subsequent studies involving a larger number of participants should be conducted to reinforce our findings. Lastly, our study did not implement dietary control to assess the effects of walking exercise while maintaining participants' daily routines. This omission represents a limitation of our research. Therefore, for future studies, incorporating dietary control is important to provide a more specific understanding of the observed changes.