1Department of General Medicine, Meenakshi Medical College Hospital and Research Institute, Meenakshi Academy of Higher Education and Research
2Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Meenakshi Ammal Dental College and Hospital
3Meenakshi College of Nursing, Meenakshi Academy of Higher Education and Research
4Meenakshi College of Allied Health Sciences, Meenakshi Academy of Higher Education and Research
5Meenakshi College of Nursing, Meenakshi Academy of Higher Education and Research
6Meenakshi College of Physiotherapy, Meenakshi Academy of Higher Education and Research
Background: Increased susceptibility to cardiomyopathy progression or arrhythmia, and unfavorable cardiac remodeling is linked to genetic predisposed cardiomyopathies, including mutations in binding proteins, myosin proteins, and acting proteins systems like MYH7, LMNA, TNNT2, and TTN. Not every carrier of a mutation is however expressive of clinical disease implying that phenotypic penetrance is controlled by environmental and behavioral influences. New data has shown that lifestyle areas - dietary, physical activity, and sleep quality may have a modulating effect on the metabolism of myocardium, inflammation, autonomic regulation, and overall cardiac resilience in genetically vulnerable individuals.
Objective: To determine the effects of lifestyle interventions (diet optimization, structured physical activity, and sleep regulation) upon cardiac functions, symptom load, and subclinical outcomes of disease advancement among asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic carriers of variants of pathogenic cardiomyopathies.
Methods: It was a prospective cohort study, which recruited genetically-confirmed carriers of cardiomyopathy who were aged 18-65 with no known heart failure. Baseline measures were performed in the participants with echocardiography, ECG, and biomarker (NT-proBNP, hsCRP) analysis, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, and activity/sleep wearable. The customized lifestyle intervention was designed as a 12-month program and included counseling on the Mediterranean style of dieting, moderate intensive aerobic or resistance training, and enhancing sleep hygiene. The outcomes were the shift in left ventricular functioning, exercise performance, burden of arrhythmia, metabolic/inflammatory biomarkers and quality of life measures. Comparative studies were conducted on high-adherence and low-adherence subgroups.
Results: Out of 142 participants, high compliment of lifestyle interventions was linked to substantial augmentation of peak VO2 (+14, p = 0.01), lessened NT-proBNP (+18, p = 0.03) and enhanced diastolic functions parameters besides a 27 per cent decrease in the burden of premature ventricular complex (p = 0.05). Participants that were regulated by sleep displayed better HRV indices and reduced resting heart rates. None of the participants in the high-adherence arm developed overt cardiomyopathy with 7 incidences in the low-adherence arm. The scores on quality-of-life increased conspicuously on all aspects of lifestyle.
Conclusion: Lifestyle change combining heart diet and physical activity along with sleep optimization has a major protective quality in carriers of genetic cardiomyopathy. Reduced biomarker load, lessened arrhythmias and short-term phenotypic progression were identified to be linked with high adherence. These results demonstrate lifestyle intervention as an effective non-pharmacologic approach that can be used to adjust disease penetrance in genetically predisposed individuals.
Keywords: Genetic heart disease, lifestyle change, diet, physical activity, sleep, delivery of genetic factors, cardiac adaptation, phenotype adjustment, cardiac risk of arrhythmias, preventive cardiology.
How to cite this article: Jayannan, Poongodi S, Dhanraj FM, Ramnath V, Jayabharathi B, Kumar KN. The Role of Lifestyle Interventions (Diet, Exercise, Sleep) in Genetic-Predisposed Cardiomyopathy Carriers. Int J Drug Deliv Technol. 2026;16(10s): 234-241; DOI: 10.25258/ijddt.16.10s.35
Source of support: Nil.
Conflict of interest: None