Acute mental stress can impair arterial function (e.g., arterial stiffness and endothelial function) transiently. Repeated exposures to stress-induced transient vascular dysfunction in daily life potentially leads to persistent vascular dysfunction, which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. Therefore, it is important to devise an effective strategy to protect the vasculatures from daily stress, and exercise is one of the possible solutions. This review briefly outlines the detrimental impacts of acute mental stress on arterial function and introduces our recent research regarding exercise as a countermeasure.

The ratio of circulating estradiol to testosterone has been identified as a powerful predictor of cardiovascular disease in men. Obesity results in an increased circulating estradiol/testosterone ratio and is a high risk of cardiovascular disease. Aerobic exercise is a well-known preventive and effective strategy for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. However, the effect of regular aerobic exercise on the circulating estradiol/testosterone ratio in overweight and obese men has not been clarified. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of a 12-week aerobic exercise program on the circulating estradiol/testosterone ratio in overweight and obese men. Fifteen overweight and obese men (mean age, 46 ± 3 years; body mass index, 28.7 ± 1.0 kg/m²) completed a 12-week aerobic exercise intervention (90 min/session, one to three sessions/week). Before and after the intervention, we measured the circulating levels of estradiol and testosterone and calculated the estradiol/testosterone ratio in overweight and obese men. After the intervention, serum testosterone levels increased significantly (p < 0.05), whereas plasma estradiol levels did not change significantly. The circulating estradiol/testosterone ratio significantly decreased after the 12-week aerobic exercise intervention (p < 0.05). These results suggest that 12-week aerobic exercise decreases the circulating estradiol/testosterone ratio as a predictor of cardiovascular disease and reflects the decrease in the risk of cardiovascular disease in overweight and obese men.

The present study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and investigated the characteristics of hemodynamic responses of oxy-Hb and deoxy-Hb during motor imagery and action observation for whole-body movements. Sixteen female participants performed tasks under two conditions: motor imagery and action observation. Each condition included three tasks of whole-body movement of gymnastics: (1) forward roll, (2) backward roll, and (3) cartwheel. Under both motor imagery and action observation conditions, the mean amplitude of oxy-Hb in the left posterior parietal cortex (PPC) was significantly more positive for the forward roll than cartwheel. The mean amplitude of deoxy-Hb was significantly more negative for the cartwheel than forward roll in the middle PPC. These findings suggest that PPC plays an important role in representations of movement during motor imagery and action observation. In addition, correlations between the vividness of motor imagery and mean amplitudes of oxy-Hb were identified in the premotor and primary motor areas. These results suggest that psychological assessments for vividness are linked to neural motor processes, and may provide a valid and economic tool to evaluate a person’s ability to perform motor imagery.