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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Little Rock, Arkansas » Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #190229
Title: SKIPPING BREAKFAST: GENDER EFFECTS ON RESTING HEART RATE MEASURES IN PREADOLESCENTS

Author
item PIVIK, R - ACNC/UALR
item DYKMAN, ROSCOE - ACNC/UAMS
item TENNAL, KEVIN - ACNC
item GU, YUYUAN - ACNC
item BADGER, THOMAS - ACNC/UAMS

Submitted to: Journal of Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/6/2006
Publication Date: 3/27/2006
Citation: Pivik, R.T., Dykman, R.A., Tennal, K., Gu, Y., Badger, T.M. 2006. Skipping breakfast: gender effects on resting heart rate measures in preadolescents [abstract]. The FASEB Journal. 20(4):A187.

Interpretive Summary: Resting heart rate was studied in healthy boys and girls in the morning after they awoke and then again after they ate or skipped breakfast. Boys and girls who skipped breakfast had much slower heart rates than those who didn't. Beat-to-beat changes in heart rate were greater in boys, but changes in heart rate responses to eating or skipping breakfast were greater in girls. Faster heart rate after eating helps deliver nutrients to the brain and body. The results show that when children do not eat there is a quick reaction to save energy by slowing heart rate, and that the effects of eating or not eating are not the same for boys and girls. The strong effect of short term fasting on heart rate may have implications for dieting in children.

Technical Abstract: The cardiovascular response in children to morning nutrition has received little attention, and associated gender-related effects are virtually uninvestigated. This study evaluated resting heart-rate (HR) and heart-rate variability (HRV) in preadolescents after overnight fasting and again after eating a standardized breakfast or continuing to fast. HR increased slightly after eating and decreased significantly with continued fasting. These effects were present for both sexes. Relative to children who ate, those who continued fasting showed increases in HRV, particularly for inter-beat-interval and low frequency component (LF: 0.04-0.15Hz) measures. Within-group analyses revealed significant increases across variability measures for fasting children, but a selective LF decrease in those who were fed, an effect most prominent in females. Otherwise, males and females showed similar treatment-related changes in HRV. While within-gender comparisons showed similar results for HR, i.e., faster HR in fed compared with fasting males and females, respectively, fasting females, but not males, showed significantly greater increases in variability relative to their fed counterparts. Together, these findings suggest that extended overnight fasting initiates an increase in parasympathetic activity that appears to attenuate the expected increase in cardiovascular output following a mid-morning meal. Observed gender differences were related to greater parasympathetic activity in males and to the apparent emphasis on the parasympathetic regulation of LF variability. The implications of these findings for health concerns, the nature of responses to physiological and cognitive stressors, and how such differences may influence performance variables, particularly early in development when cardiovascular responses to these stressors may be more sensitive to nutritional factors, are discussed.