Incident Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension, and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Exercising Hypercholesterolemic Patients

Abstract

Exercise may be an important treatment for hypercholesterolemic patients, particularly in statin users who are at increased diabetes risk. We therefore used Cox proportional hazard analyses to compare running and walking dose (metabolic equivalent hours/day [MET-h/d]) to diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in hypercholesterolemic patients. There were 60 diabetic- and 373 CVD-related deaths during a 10.1-year mortality surveillance of 6,688 hypercholesterolemic patients. In addition, there were 177 incident nonfatal diabetes, 815 incident nonfatal hypertensions, and 323 incident nonfatal CVD events during a 6.4-year follow-up of 6,971 hypercholesterolemic patients who supplied follow-up questionnaires. Fatal and nonfatal diabetes risk decreased 26% (p = 0.002) and 19% (p ≤0.0001) per MET-h/d, respectively, and relative to <1.07 MET-h/d decreased 35% (p = 0.19) and 55% (p ≤0.0001), respectively, for 1.8 to 3.6 MET-h/d and 73% (p = 0.02) and 71% (p ≤0.0001), respectively, for ≥3.6 MET-h/d. Fatal and nonfatal CVD risk decreased 8% (p = 0.008) and 3% (p = 0.22) per MET-h/d, respectively, and relative to <1.07 MET-h/d decreased 10% (p = 0.45) and 36% (p = 0.008) for 1.8 to 3.6 MET-h/d, respectively, and 37% (p = 0.009) and 26% (p = 0.10), respectively, for ≥3.6 MET-h/d. Incident hypertension risk decreased 4% (p = 0.01) per MET-h/d, and relative to <1.07 MET-h/d decreased 29% (p = 0.002) for 1.8 to 3.6 MET-h/d and 31% (p = 0.001) for ≥3.6 MET-h/d. In conclusion, running and walking for exercise lowers diabetes, hypertension, and CVD risk in hypercholesterolemic patients and should more than compensate for the purported 9% increase in diabetes risk from statin use. By preventing morbidity and mortality for a specific existing medical condition, some exercise expenses may qualify for flexible spending account expenditures in hypercholesterolemic patients when prescribed by a physician.