Exercise combats metabolic syndrome in older adults

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Colleagues, the following is FYI and does not necessarily reflect my own

opinion. I have no further knowledge of the topic.

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Public release date: 29-Dec-2004

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-12/jhmi-ecm122104.php

Contact: March

dmarch1@...

s Hopkins Medical Institutions

Exercise combats metabolic syndrome in older adults

Researchers at s Hopkins have determined that in people age 55 to

75, a moderate program of physical exercise can significantly offset the

potentially deadly mix of risk factors for heart disease and diabetes

known as the metabolic syndrome. More specifically, the researchers

found that exercise improved overall fitness, but the 23 percent fewer

cases were more strongly linked to reductions in total and abdominal

body fat and increases in muscle leanness, rather than improved fitness.

The researchers' findings raise the importance of physical exercise in

treating both men and women with the metabolic syndrome, a clustering of

three or more risk factors that make it more likely for a person to

develop heart disease, diabetes and stroke - including high blood

pressure, elevated blood glucose levels, excess abdominal fat and

abnormal cholesterol levels.

The study, to be published in the American Journal of Preventive

Medicine and available online Dec. 30, is believed to be the first to

focus on the role of exercise training in treating metabolic syndrome in

older persons, a group at high risk for heart disease and diabetes.

" Older people are very prone to have the metabolic syndrome, " said lead

study investigator and exercise physiologist Kerry , Ed.D.,

professor of medicine and director of clinical exercise physiology and

heart health programs at The s Hopkins University School of Medicine

and its Heart Institute. " While each component of metabolic syndrome

increases disease risk by itself, when combined, they represent an even

greater risk for developing heart disease, diabetes and stroke. "

To assess the benefits of a fixed program of exercise training, the

Hopkins team studied a group of 104 older people for a six-month period

between July 1999 and Nov. 2003. All of the participants had no previous

signs of cardiovascular disease beyond untreated, mild hypertension. One

half of the study participants were randomly assigned to a control group

that received a booklet that encouraged increased activity, such as

walking, to promote good health. The other half participated in a

supervised series of exercises for 60 minutes, three times per week. The

combination of exercises was designed to work all major muscle groups,

the heart and circulation. These included aerobics on a treadmill,

bicycle or stepper, plus weightlifting.

The Hopkins team measured the changes in participants' risk factors,

body fat, and muscle and fitness levels, and found substantial

improvements in the group that was exercising for six months. Aerobic

fitness, as measured by peak oxygen uptake on a treadmill, increased by

16 percent, and strength fitness increased by 17 percent. The average

weight loss in this group was only four pounds because much of the loss

of fat was offset by increased muscle mass. The fat in the abdominal

region, by itself an important risk factor for heart and metabolic

syndrome, was reduced by 20 percent among people in the exercising

group. The group that was not exercising had either no or significantly

less improvement than the exercising group.

At the beginning of the study, 43 percent of all participants had the

metabolic syndrome. By the end of the study, participants in the

exercising group had no new cases of metabolic syndrome, and the

condition had resolved in nine of them, a reduction of 41 percent. In

the control group, eight participants no longer had the syndrome, while

four new cases appeared, resulting in an overall reduction of only 18

percent.

" Older people can benefit greatly from exercise, especially to reduce

their risk for developing metabolic syndrome, " said . " Our

results show that this population can be motivated to follow through

with a moderate exercise program, and for some risk factors, such as

abdominal fat, exercise can be as effective as what is accomplished

today with drugs.

" A novel finding of our study was that the changes in disease risk

factors with exercise training were more closely related to reductions

in body fat, particularly abdominal fat, and increases in muscle tissue,

rather than improvements in fitness.

" The results also confirm the value of exercise for managing multiple

risk factors. Because so many older persons have or are at risk for

metabolic syndrome, this study provides a very strong reason for

individuals to increase their physical activity levels. They will reduce

their fatness, and increase their fitness and leanness, while reducing

their risk for heart disease and diabetes. "

Estimates of the prevalence of metabolic syndrome range from 25 percent

to 40 percent of American adults age 40 and older.

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Funding for the study was provided by the Heart, Lung and Blood

Institute, a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with

additional assistance from the s Hopkins Bayview General Clinical

Research Center, also funded by the NIH. Other Hopkins researchers who

took part in this study were Anita Bacher, M.P.H.; ,

M.S.; Jimmy Lin, M.D.; Hees, Ph.D.; Shapiro, M.D.;

Tayback, Sc.D.; and Pamela Ouyang, M.D.

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