Faculty Articles

Title

Exercise intervention attenuates emotional distress and natural killer cell decrements following notification of positive serologic status for HIV-1

ISBN or ISSN

0363-3586

Publication Title

Biofeedback Self Regulation

Volume

15

Issue

3

Publication Date / Copyright Date

9-1-1990

First Page

229

Last Page

242

Abstract

The impact of aerobic exercise training as a buffer of the affective distress and immune decrements which accompany the notification of HIV-1 antibody status in an AIDS risk group was studied. Fifty asymptomatic gay males with a pretraining fitness level of average or below (determined by predicted VO2 max) were randomly assigned to either an aerobic exercise training program or a no-contact control condition. After five weeks of training, at a point 72 hours before serostatus notification, psychometric, fitness and immunologic data were collected on all subjects. Psychometric and immunologic measures were again collected one-week postnotification. Seropositive controls showed significant increases in anxiety and depression, as well as decrements in natural killer cell number following notification whereas, seropositive exercisers showed no similar changes and in fact, resembled both seronegative groups. These findings suggest that concurrent changes in some affective and immunologic measures in response to an acute stressor might be attenuated by an experimentally manipulated aerobic exercise training intervention.

Disciplines

Medical Specialties | Medicine and Health Sciences | Osteopathic Medicine and Osteopathy

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