| Keywords |
Walking ; Body fatness ; Metabolic syndrome ; Serum cytokines ; Middle-aged women |
| Abstract |
The purposes of this study was to investigate the effects of 20 week aerobic exercise training on metabolic syndrome risk factors and serum cytokine in meddle-aged women. A total of 45 meddle-aged women, who were apparently healthy and not taking any medications affecting blood pressure, blood lipids, and blood glucose, participated in this study. Body fatness including body mass index, percent body fat, and waist circumference were measured by using the standardized protocols. Resting blood pressures were also measured in duplicate, of which mean values were used for data analysis. Fasting blood samples were collected for the assessments of triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, glucose, and cytokines. The subjects were randomly assigned to either normal group (n = 15) or obesity group (BMI > 25.0, n = 15) or obesity + metabolic syndrome group (n = 15) having three or more on metabolic syndrome risk factors based on the NCEP ATP-III criteria. All the subjects voluntarily participated in a 5 months of walking exercise program (65% VO2max, 3 day/week). Two way mixed ANOVA tests showed significant time by group interactions in changed triglycerides, TNF-α, and IL-6 such that either obesity or obesity +MS groups had significantly higher improvements following the walking exercise programs. In addition, most of metabolic risk factors were significantly improved in all the groups. In summary, the findings of the current study show that walking exercise at a moderate intensity is a safe and effective means of improving metabolic risk factors and serum cytokines related to metabolic syndrome including adiponectin, TNF-α, and IL-6. |