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Adverse metabolic response to regular exercise: is it a rare or common occurrence?
Claude Bouchard1, Steven N Blair, Timothy S Church
1Human Genomics Laboratory, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States of America. claude.bouchard@pbrc.edu
Plos One
|June 6, 2012
Summary
Some individuals experience adverse changes in cardiovascular and diabetes risk factors despite regular exercise. This study identified that up to 13.3% of participants showed detrimental responses in key health indicators.
Area of Science:
- Exercise physiology
- Cardiovascular health
- Metabolic disease research
Background:
- Individual responses to regular exercise vary significantly.
- The occurrence of adverse changes in cardiovascular and diabetes risk factors due to exercise is not well-documented.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the prevalence of adverse responses in cardiovascular and diabetes risk factors among individuals undergoing regular exercise.
- To establish definitions for adverse exercise responses based on technical error and day-to-day variation.
Main Methods:
- Quantified variation in resting systolic blood pressure (SBP), HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides (TG), and insulin (FI) in 60 subjects over three weeks.
- Defined adverse response as a change exceeding two technical errors in an unfavorable direction.
- Analyzed data from 1,687 participants across six exercise studies.
Main Results:
- Adverse changes in fasting insulin (FI) were observed in 8.4% of participants.
- Adverse responses occurred in 12.2% for SBP, 10.4% for TG, and 13.3% for HDL-C.
- Approximately 7% of participants exhibited adverse responses in two or more risk factors.
Conclusions:
- Adverse responses to regular exercise affecting cardiovascular and diabetes risk factors are a reality.
- Further research is needed to identify predictors of these responses and develop strategies for prevention.
- Personalized exercise prescription may require considering individual susceptibility to adverse effects.
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