Effects of aerobic exercise and strength in subjects with metabolic syndrome

Metabolic syndrome (MS) is gaining relevance in the world every day, in the United States 34% of the population is diagnosed annually with MS and in Mexico, according to the 2006 National Health and Nutrition Survey, the prevalence of MS reaches 41.6% of the adult population. These prevalences are in themselves a problem, since the diagnosis of MS is associated with a greater probability of acquiring cardiometabolic diseases, type II diabetes mellitus, insulin resistance, and other associated pathologies that lead to greater morbidity and mortality and in many cases to permanent disability. As a whole, MS has become one of the most important public health problems, with the highest incidence and a vertiginous increase due to the increase in overweight and obesity. Currently, one of the most successful and cost-effective therapeutic strategies is physical exercise. Different studies demonstrate the efficacy of physical exercise in MS. The article published by Dorthe Stensvold et al. showed a decrease in cytokines involved in the development of MS and an increase in VO2 in the group that performed physical exercise with an interval method5. Gayda et al. found that an exercise program of three times a week plus nutritional information improved the cardiometabolic profile of the treated patients6 and decreased their risk factors.6 Information on exercise as a tool for the control and management of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is extensive and varied when it comes to each of the pathologies that make up this syndrome, but not so much when it comes to the management of this metabolic disorder as a single entity. In the study conducted by Dr. Katzmarzyk, et al shows how cardio respiratory fitness attenuates the mortality associated with metabolic syndrome, managing to find a relationship between aerobic fitness and mortality. Like the previous study, most of the studies on physical exercise in the metabolic syndrome have focused on the prescription of aerobic exercise, while information on the effects of strength exercise in this population is scarce, and even less information is available when comparing strength and aerobic physical exercise and their results in the control of the components of the MS.