Exercise reduces medication need for Metabolic syndrome patients: Study
Spain: Exercise reduces increase in medication that would otherwise be required for the management of metabolic syndrome (MetS), finds a recent study in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
Felix Morales-Palomo, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, and colleagues aimed to determine the effects of a five-year exercise intervention on metabolic syndrome (MetS) and health related variables, and medication use for MetS management.
The participants were randomly assigned to either exercise intervention (n=25, 54±2y, 20% women) or control group (n=26, 54±2y, 38% women). The intervention consisting of high-intensity interval training on a cycloergometer thrice a week lasted four months per year.
Outcomes were MetS Z- and medication use score, MetS-related variables (including blood pressure, blood glucose homeostasis and lipid profile), and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF, as determined by maximal oxygen uptake).
Key findings of the study include:
- MetS Z-score was similarly reduced over time in both groups.
- A quasi-significant and significant group*time interaction was found for MetS factors and CRF respectively.
- MetS factors tended to decrease over time only in the exercise group with no change in the control group whereas CRF increased from baseline to five-year assessment in the exercise group (by 1.1 MET) but decreased in the control group (-0.5 MET).
- Medicine use score increased twofold from baseline to five-year follow-up in the control group but did not significantly change (10%) in the exercise group.
- The proportion of medicated patients who had to increase antihypertensive, glucose-lowering or total medication over the five-year period was lower in the exercise than in the control group.
"Exercise training can attenuate the increase in medication that would be otherwise required to manage MetS over a five-year period," wrote the authors.
The study titled, "Exercise Reduces Medication for Metabolic Syndrome Management: A Five-Year Follow-up Study," is published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
