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 Stewart. "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
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Contact: David March
dmarch1@jhmi.edu
410-955-1534
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
29-Dec-2004