Microcurrent and Aerobic Exercise Effects on Abdominal Fat

Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde do Porto

Status: Completed

Conditions: Obesity, Abdominal

Treatments: Device: 25-10Hz; Device: percutaneous microcurrent; Device: Exercise after; Device: Exercise at same time; Device: 25-50Hz microcurrent; Device: Transcutaneos

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01853761

AN-001

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study was to analyze microcurrent short and long term effects used with aerobic exercise on abdominal fat.

Full description

Nutritional patterns have been changed during XXI century with sugar and fat's high proportions that allied to sedentarism increased body fat. There is already a well establish relationship between total body fat excess, cardiometabolic diseases and increased mortality, knowing that abdominal fat (android pattern), different from body index, presents an additional influence to health risks. Women with their abdominal adipocytes (visceral fat) show an increased lipolitic activity that releases free fat acids to the systemic and portal circulation leading to a metabolic syndrome, increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases Aerobic exercise is a way to decrease fat as it stimulates lipolysis through an increase in catecholamine's level resulting from a sympathetic system nervous activity raise. The most used exercise for lipid elimination is the prolonged aerobic moderate exercise with a minimum of 30 mn.

Nevertheless aerobic exercise practice reduce globally lipidic sources and not locally . Electrolipolysis using microcurrent has been used in clinical practice as a technique to reduce abdominal fat. This technique can be applied transcutaneously or percutaneously seeming that the former is not so effective as skin can be an obstacle to the current effect on visceral and subcutaneous fat .

Abdominal fat excess is associated with cardiometabolic diseases and can be prevented using microcurrent and aerobic exercise to stimulate lipolysis.

Enrollment: 45 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 30 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• age between 18 and 30 years
• presenting a normal to pre-obese body mass index (18.5 - 29.9 Kg/m2)
• moderate physical activity level (between 600 and 3000 metabolic-minute/week (MET-min/week)) scored by International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ)

Exclusion criteria

• submitted to other fat reduce procedure
• to show cardiovascular risk factors or diseases and/or any physical condition limiting aerobic exercise
• to present any contra indications to microcurrent and/or aerobic exercise
• to take medication that influence lipid metabolism, and to be pregnant

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Factorial Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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45 participants in 5 patient groups, including a placebo group

Exercise after, Transcutaneos, 25-10Hz

Experimental group

Description:

Experimental group 1 performed aerobic exercise just after microcurrent in the abdominal region with four transcutaneous electrodes in a parallel position, intensity below the sensivity threshold and a maximum of 1 mA. Every 15 minutes changed from 25Hz to 10 Hz.

Treatment:

Device: Transcutaneos

Device: Exercise after

Device: 25-10Hz

25-50Hz microcurrent

Experimental group

Description:

Experimental group 2 performed aerobic exercise just after microcurrent in the abdominal region with four transcutaneous electrodes in a parallel position, intensity below the sensivity threshold and a maximum of 1 mA. Every 15 minutes changed from 25Hz to 50Hz.

Treatment:

Device: Transcutaneos

Device: Exercise after

Device: 25-50Hz microcurrent

percutaneous microcurrent

Experimental group

Description:

Experimental group 3 performed aerobic exercise just after microcurrent in the abdominal region with four percutaneous electrodes in a parallel position, intensity below the sensivity threshold and a maximum of 1 mA. Every 15 minutes changed from 25Hz to 10 Hz.

Treatment:

Device: percutaneous microcurrent

Device: Exercise after

Device: 25-10Hz

Exercise at same time

Experimental group

Description:

Experimental group 4 performed aerobic exercise at the same time microcurrent in the abdominal region with four transcutaneous electrodes in a parallel position, intensity below the sensivity threshold and a maximum of 1 mA. Every 15 minutes changed from 25Hz to 10 Hz.

Treatment:

Device: Transcutaneos

Device: Exercise at same time

Device: 25-10Hz

Control Group

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Control group performed aerobic exercise just after microcurrent in the abdominal region with four transcutaneous electrodes in a parallel position, but microcurrent device was switched off.

Treatment:

Device: Transcutaneos

Device: Exercise after