Integrated cardiovascular control responses to physical activity in humans

我们对体力活动的耐受性在我们的生活质量中起着重要的作用，部分取决于我们的肌肉对氧气的需求得到满足的程度。这就要求心血管系统在维持动脉血压的同时，不断调节血液流向活跃的肌肉。为了实现这些目标，心脏需要调整泵入血管的血液量，而血管则需要通过扩大或缩小来调整流向肌肉和其他组织的血液量（以及氧气量）。我的研究项目侧重于寻找以下基本问题的答案：“在体育活动中，心脏和血管是如何向肌肉输送足够数量的氧气的？”以及“运动训练是如何提高它们的能力的？”特别是我的工作集中在心脏和血管如何快速调整当体力活动的强度增加或减少，因为我们的大多数活动的特点是不断变化的强度。目前这项研究计划的具体目标是：1)确定个体之间不同类型的心血管运动反应，以及这些反应对运动耐受性差异的预测程度；2)确定运动训练是否能提高运动肌肉的氧气输送速度和增加的量，以及“全力以赴”冲刺型运动是否更有效。这项研究将提供重要的新发现，进一步了解我们的心脏和血管是如何支持身体活动的。这种基础研究是未来调查的跳板，旨在了解这种功能如何受损，从而影响加拿大人的生活质量，以及可以采取什么措施来预防这种情况。

Our tolerance for physical activity plays an important role in our quality of life, and depends in part on how well our muscle's demand for oxygen is met. This requires that the cardiovascular system constantly adjusts blood flow to active muscles while maintaining arterial blood pressure. Accomplishing these goals requires the heart to adjust the amount of blood that it pumps into the blood vessels, and the blood vessels to widen or narrow to adjust how much blood (and therefore oxygen) flows to the muscle and other tissue. My research program focuses on finding answers to the fundamental questions "How do the heart and blood vessels work to deliver adequate amounts of oxygen to muscle during physical activity?" and "How does exercise training improve their ability to do so?" In particular my work has focused on how quickly the heart and blood vessels adjust when the intensity of physical activity increases or decreases, because most of our activities are characterized by continually changing intensity. The current specific objectives of this research program are to 1) identify different types of cardiovascular exercise responses between individuals and how well these predict differences in exercise tolerance, and 2) identify whether exercise training can improve how quickly and how much oxygen delivery to active muscle can increase, and if "all out" sprint type exercise is more effective at this. This research will provide important new findings that advance understanding of how our heart and blood vessels function to support physical activity. Such basic research is the springboard for future investigations aimed at understanding how this function may be impaired and therefore affect the quality of life of Canadians, and what can be done to prevent that.