Effects of Exercise in Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes: A Central Role for Insulin Sensitivity

Abstract

Poor physical fitness is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. It has been observed consistently that low cardiorespiratory fitness and physical inactivity predict mortality in both normal-weight and obese men, in older men and women, and in men with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) (1–9). Sedentary behavior has been clearly implicated as a factor leading to the development of diabetes, as well as the worsening of cardiovascular (CV) outcomes in patients with diabetes. Physical inactivity has become so common that one group has coined the term “Sedentary Death Syndrome” (10). The sedentary death syndrome model proposes that evolution favored genes that support the physical activity required for long-term health in an agrarian society and that sedentary behavior is maladaptive.