About this Research Topic
Metabolic disease is a clustering of obesity, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension that is occurring in increasing frequency worldwide. Physical inactivity is a major contributor to the development of metabolic diseases and regular exercise prevents, delays, and even treats metabolic diseases mainly that including cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
Based on extensive evidence of health benefits, physical activity is widely recommended today for individuals with or at high risk of developing metabolic diseases. In addition, exercise prescription, particularly aerobic exercise has been largely used as an efficient approach to counteract many metabolic impairments (i.e., type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome). Recently, very brief high-intensity exercise in the form of interval training has become popular because of its potential health benefits that appear in shorter laps of time in addition to its exertion that seems to be highly motivating and tolerable for participants. While several studies showed the benefits of exercise for both the prevention and the treatment of metabolic diseases, others do not report any benefits. Moreover, large variability in the inter-individual changes in metabolic responses to exercise at post-intervention has been reported.
One of the major challenges when studying the effects of different exercise models is controlling for factors that differ between participants and could influence the results (i.e., age, gender, weight, baseline fitness, diet, sleep patterns, physical work versus a desk job). At the participants’ level, it is still unclear as to the effect of the intervention on post-intervention outcomes (i.e., how long do these benefits remain?) as well as for lifestyle change. Addressing these aims will increase our knowledge of the extensive benefits of exercise on metabolism and will reveal the true magnitude of these effects. This reinforces the mandate for exercise as a valuable approach to manage metabolic disease. High-quality studies and hypothesis-prompting discussions are urgently needed. For this reason, this Research Topic is specifically interested in original research, review and systematic review articles.
Based on extensive evidence of health benefits, physical activity is widely recommended today for individuals with or at high risk of developing metabolic diseases. In addition, exercise prescription, particularly aerobic exercise has been largely used as an efficient approach to counteract many metabolic impairments (i.e., type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome). Recently, very brief high-intensity exercise in the form of interval training has become popular because of its potential health benefits that appear in shorter laps of time in addition to its exertion that seems to be highly motivating and tolerable for participants. While several studies showed the benefits of exercise for both the prevention and the treatment of metabolic diseases, others do not report any benefits. Moreover, large variability in the inter-individual changes in metabolic responses to exercise at post-intervention has been reported.
One of the major challenges when studying the effects of different exercise models is controlling for factors that differ between participants and could influence the results (i.e., age, gender, weight, baseline fitness, diet, sleep patterns, physical work versus a desk job). At the participants’ level, it is still unclear as to the effect of the intervention on post-intervention outcomes (i.e., how long do these benefits remain?) as well as for lifestyle change. Addressing these aims will increase our knowledge of the extensive benefits of exercise on metabolism and will reveal the true magnitude of these effects. This reinforces the mandate for exercise as a valuable approach to manage metabolic disease. High-quality studies and hypothesis-prompting discussions are urgently needed. For this reason, this Research Topic is specifically interested in original research, review and systematic review articles.
Keywords: Metabolic diseases, Exercise, Activity, Adaptations, Physiological mechanisms
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