BOONE—Here’s a sobering thought. Your health is directly related to the health of your blood vessels.

Vessels hardened by poor diet, a lack of exercise or simply aging show restricted blood flow, which means the heart works harder to pump blood. The result is high blood pressure, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

A new lab in Appalachian State University’s Institute for Health and Human Services will help faculty and students conduct research related to vascular health. Exercise science majors learning to use equipment in the lab are, from left, Rebecca Kappus, Chelsea Curry and Amber McKenzie. David Ingraham rests on a tilt table while the students monitor his arterial and peripheral blood flow. Dr. Scott Collier, far right, a faculty member in the Department of Health, Leisure and Exercise Science, directs the lab activities. (Appalachian photo by University Photographer Marie Freeman.)

While high blood pressure can be treated with antihypertensive drugs that lower blood pressure, the best medicine might be a combination of exercise and natural supplements.

That’s what researchers at Appalachian State University are hoping to determine through studies conducted in a new vascular biology and autonomic studies laboratory in the university’s Institute of Health and Human Services located at University Hall. The lab is managed by faculty member Scott Collier from the Department of Health, Leisure and Exercise Science.

“Basically, you are as old as your blood vessels,” Collier said. “The people with the greatest longevity tend to have the best vascular health.”

Research conducted at the lab has tracked how a natural supplement with quercetin, omega-3s and green tea extracts given to healthy, college-age individuals affected post-exercise hypotension, or the decrease in blood pressure that follows exercise. If their hypotheses hold true, it could be a new way to treat high blood pressure without the use of medication.

Collier says the next step will be to look at the differences between exercise and antihypertensive medications versus supplements in a less healthy population with high blood pressure or hypertension.  “If the supplement can decrease blood pressure in older adults even further than exercise alone, then maybe patients wouldn’t need to take hypertension medications,” Collier said. “Once you start a course of these medications, you are less likely to come off it, and antihypertensive agents, such as beta blockers or ACE inhibitors, are often a gateway to stronger medications.”

Also, women respond differently to antihypertensive medication than men and with greater side effects. “If we can change vascular health with exercise and/ or supplements, that might be a better way to go for most of us,” Collier said.

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