Metabolic syndrome is a disorder characterised by central adiposity, insulin resistance and detrimental blood lipid changes, which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. The detrimental physiological changes that accompany metabolic syndrome may be the underlying causative factor in the development of obesity, which is increasingly being seen as a systemic inflammatory condition characterised by hormonal and metabolic dysfunction. The traditional view of obesity is that adipose tissue accumulation is caused by a positive energy balance, such that energy intake is too high and energy expenditure is too low. However, evidence continues to accumulate that prescribing exercise or calorie restricted diets to obese individuals does not result in long-term weight gain. Instead, research suggests that obesity is caused by metabolic dysfunction related to low quality diets with too much refined nutrient-poor foods.
Research1 published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2009 investigated the prevalence and associations of metabolic syndrome in young European individuals. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 0.2% in 10 year olds and 1.4% in 15 year olds, which suggested that incidence may increase with age as would be expected. In these subjects metabolic syndrome was associated with low levels of cardioresopiratory fitness and low levels of physical activity. Having a parent with a high BMI was also associated with metabolic syndrome. Statistical analysis of the data suggested that an increase in daily moderate intensity activity of 10 to 20% was associated with a 33 % lower risk of being categorised with metabolic syndrome, and the authors concluded that ‘relatively small increases in physical activity may significantly reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome in healthy children’.
The development of obesity, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease are not fully understood and care should be exercised when assigning cause and effect. While it is easy to find evidence that exercise is associated with lower body weight, it is not so easy to determine if exercise causes lower body weight, or if an individual with a lower body weight is more likely to exercise. If exercise was the cause of low body weight, studies that prescribe exercise regimens to individuals should produce long-term body weight loss, but the results from such studies have been inconsistent at best. Metabolic syndrome is a complex disorder that is characterised by fuel substrate dysfunction, and so it would be no surprise that its development may curtail the physical ability of the sufferer and reduce activity levels. In other words, ‘not suffering from metabolic syndrome increases the chance that someone will perform 10 to 20% more exercise’.
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