Abundant daily non-sedentary activity is associated with reduced prevalence of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance

Independent relationships of daily life activity and leisure-time exercise with metabolic syndrome and its traits in the general Japanese population

PURPOSE

This study aimed to investigate independent relationships of daily non-exercise life activity and leisure-time exercise volume and intensity with the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its traits in Japanese adults.

METHODS

Data of 24,625 eligible subjects (12,709 men, 11,916 women) who participated in the baseline survey of the Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort (J-MICC) Study were analyzed. Information about lifestyle characteristics was obtained from a questionnaire. Logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate the independent associations of daily life activity as well as leisure-time exercise volume and intensity with the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its traits by sex.

RESULTS

Male subjects with higher daily life activity as well as with higher leisure-time exercise volume had a lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome, independently with each other. Female subjects with higher daily life activity also had a lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome. Particularly, male and female subjects with the highest daily life activity quartile showed considerably low odds ratios of 0.66 (95% CI, 0.53-0.81) and 0.64 (0.52-0.79), respectively, for low HDL-cholesterol even after the adjustment for BMI compared with the first quartile. Meanwhile, male subjects with the higher leisure-time exercise showed a quite lower prevalence of elevated triglycerides. Higher moderate-intensity exercise was more intensely associated with a lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome and some of its traits in both sexes.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that higher daily life activity and higher moderate-intensity exercise may be independently associated with a lower risk of metabolic syndrome in Japanese adults.

Associations between change in sedentary behavior and outcome in standard behavioral weight loss treatment

Sedentary behavior, particularly in prolonged periods, is an important determinant of health. Little research exploring changes in sedentary behavior during behavioral weight loss programs exists. This study evaluated the magnitude of changes in total and prolonged sedentary behavior and how these changes related to changes in weight and cardiovascular outcomes during a behavioral weight loss program. Participants (n = 450) in two lifestyle modification programs underwent assessments of sedentary behavior (by accelerometry), weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, and resting heart rate at baseline and after 6 months of treatment. Sedentary behavior was defined as both total and prolonged (≥30 continuous minutes) sedentary minutes/day. Reductions in total and prolonged sedentary time were significant and were accounted for by increases in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Only changes in MVPA significantly predicted change in weight when entered into a model simultaneously with changes in sedentary behavior. Changes in total and prolonged sedentary time were not associated with changes in waist circumference, heart rate, or blood pressure. Change in sedentary time was not independently associated with change in health outcomes during a behavioral weight loss treatment. High variability in changes in sedentary time indicate that individual differences may be important to examine. Reducing sedentary time may not be powerful enough to impact these health outcomes above the effects of other changes made during these programs; alternatively, it may be that increasing focus in treatment on reducing sedentary time may engender greater decreases in sedentariness, which could lead to better health outcomes.

Spontaneous Physical Activity Defends Against Obesity

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Spontaneous physical activity (SPA) is a physical activity not motivated by a rewarding goal, such as that associated with food-seeking or wheel-running behavior. SPA is often thought of as only "fidgeting," but that is a mischaracterization, since fidgety behavior can be linked to stereotypies in neurodegenerative disease and other movement disorders. Instead, SPA should be thought of as all physical activity behavior that emanates from an unconscious drive for movement.

RECENT FINDINGS

An example of this may be restless behavior, which can include fidgeting and gesticulating, frequent sit-to-stand movement, and more time spent standing and moving. All physical activity burns calories, and as such, SPA could be manipulated as a means to burn calories, and defend against weight gain and reduce excess adiposity. In this review, we discuss human and animal literature on the use of SPA in reducing weight gain, the neuromodulators that could be targeted to this end, and future directions in this field.

Systemic inflammation and family history in relation to the prevalence of type 2 diabetes based on an alternating decision tree

To investigate unknown patterns associated with type 2 diabetes in the Japanese population, we first used an alternating decision tree (ADTree) algorithm, a powerful classification algorithm from data mining, for the data from 1,102 subjects aged 35-69 years. On the basis of the investigated patterns, we then evaluated the associations of serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) as a biomarker of systemic inflammation and family history of diabetes (negative, positive or unknown) with the prevalence of type 2 diabetes because their detailed associations have been scarcely reported. Elevated serum hs-CRP levels were proportionally associated with the increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes after adjusting for probable covariates, including body mass index and family history of diabetes (P for trend = 0.016). Stratified analyses revealed that elevated serum hs-CRP levels were proportionally associated with increased prevalence of diabetes in subjects without a family history of diabetes (P for trend = 0.020) but not in those with a family history or with an unknown family history of diabetes. Our study demonstrates that systemic inflammation was proportionally associated with increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes even after adjusting for body mass index, especially in subjects without a family history of diabetes.

Update on the effects of physical activity on insulin sensitivity in humans

PURPOSE AND METHODS

This review presents established knowledge on the effects of physical activity (PA) on whole-body insulin sensitivity (SI) and summarises the findings of recent (2013-2016) studies.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Recent studies provide further evidence to support the notion that regular PA reduces the risk of insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes, and SI improves when individuals comply with exercise and/or PA guidelines. Many studies indicate a dose response, with higher energy expenditures and higher exercise intensities, including high intensity interval training (HIIT), producing greater benefits on whole-body SI, although these findings are not unanimous. Aerobic exercise interventions can improve SI without an associated increase in cardiorespiratory fitness as measured by maximal or peak oxygen consumption. Both aerobic and resistance exercise can induce improvements in glycaemic regulation, with some suggestions that exercise regimens including both may be more efficacious than either exercise mode alone. Some studies report exercise-induced benefits to SI that are independent of habitual diet and weight loss, while others indicate an association with fat reduction, hence the debate over the relative importance of PA and weight loss continues. During exercise, muscle contraction stimulated improvements in SI are associated with increases in AMPK activity, which deactivates TCB1D1, promoting GLUT4 translocation to the cell membrane and thereby increasing glucose uptake. Postexercise, increases in Akt deactivate TCB1D4 and thereby increase GLUT4 translocation to the cell membrane. The reduction in intramuscular saturated fatty acids and concomitant reductions in ceramides, but not diacylglycerols, provide a potential link between intramuscular lipid content and SI. Increased skeletal muscle capillarisation provides another independent adaptation through which SI is improved, as does enhanced β cell activity. Recent studies are combining exercise interventions with dietary and feeding manipulations to investigate the potential for augmenting the exercise-induced improvements in SI and glycaemic control.

Examining acute bi-directional relationships between affect, physical feeling states, and physical activity in free-living situations using electronic ecological momentary assessment

Current knowledge about the relationship of physical activity with acute affective and physical feeling states is informed largely by lab-based studies, which have limited generalizability to the natural ecology. This study used ecological momentary assessment to assess subjective affective and physical feeling states in free-living settings across 4 days from 110 non-physically active adults (Age M = 40.4, SD = 9.7). Light physical activity (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were measured objectively by an accelerometer. Multilevel modeling was used to test the bi-directional associations between affective and physical feeling states and LPA/MVPA minutes. Higher positive affect, lower negative affect and fatigue were associated with more MVPA over the subsequent 15 min, while higher negative affect and energy were associated with more LPA over the subsequent 15 and 30 min. Additionally, more LPA and MVPA were associated with feeling more energetic over the subsequent 15 and 30 min, and more LPA was additionally associated with feeling more negative and less tired over the subsequent 15 and 30 min. Positive and negative affective states might serve as antecedents to but not consequences of MVPA in adults' daily lives. Changes in LPA may be predicted and followed by negative affective states. Physical feeling states appear to lead up to and follow changes in both LPA and MVPA.