Abstract
Abstract This study evaluated the effects of the herbal medicine red orange (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck) and swimming for 84 days on the animal, heart, and abdominal fat weight and the histomorphometric aspects of heart and total cholesterol of Wistar rats. The rats were divided into seven experimental groups of 12 animals each, consisting of a normocaloric diet (Dn), hypercaloric diet (Dh), normocaloric diet and herbal medicine (DnH), hypercaloric diet and herbal medicine (DhH), normocaloric diet and swimming (DnS), hypercaloric diet and swimming (DhS), and hypercaloric diet, swimming, and herbal medicine (DhSH). The data were analyzed statistically by the Tukey test and considered significant when p<0.05. Groups treated with the normocaloric diet had lower abdominal fat weight. The normocaloric diet and herbal medicine (DnH) provided the smallest thickness of the right ventricle. The hypercaloric diet (Dh) reduced the number of cardiomyocytes and the perimeter of cardiac muscle fibers. Swimming and the red orange extract acted synergistically by reducing the deleterious effects of the hypercaloric diet and increasing the thickness of the cardiac chambers and the number of cardiomyocytes. Only the supplementation with the red orange extract did not reduce abdominal fat in rats treated with a hypercaloric diet. Therefore, red orange alone did not promote beneficial changes in the studied data, but its association with swimming increased the number of cardiomyocytes and thickness of muscle fibers, which could contribute to preventing cardiovascular diseases and maintaining health, as well as the regular swimming and a normocaloric diet, which provided less adiposity.
Highlights
One of the biggest public health problems in the world is obesity
Systolic volume increases according to body weight and overloads cardiac functioning.[5]. Left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy is due to increased vascular resistance, which results from changes such as fibrosis and cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, while the right ventricle may be hypertrophic due to
The control group (DhS) showed a higher average weight than the normocaloric diet groups, which did not differ from the DhSH group (Table 1)
Summary
One of the biggest public health problems in the world is obesity. According to the Brazilian Association for the Study of Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome,(1) more than 50% of the Brazilian population is overweight. The excess adipose tissue overloads the circulation, increasing blood volume and cardiac output, which generates higher tension and dilation of the ventricle wall due to the increase in the venous return resulting from an increase in blood volume. According to Halpern et al,(4) 2–3 mL of blood is needed to perfuse 100 g of adipose tissue in a human. An individual with 100 kg of excess body fat would require a 3 L/min increase in blood in cardiac output. Systolic volume increases according to body weight and overloads cardiac functioning.[5] Left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy is due to increased vascular resistance, which results from changes such as fibrosis and cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, while the right ventricle may be hypertrophic due to
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