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The Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging

Exercise shifted metabolic hormone balance in older women

The hormone ratio fell by 6.48 in exercisers with metabolic syndrome and 2.18 in those without it over 10 weeks.

Paper by Liangliang Li, Deokhwa Jeong, Hyeongmo Jeong, Jiye Choi, Sunghwun Kang · Kangwon National University

Our read

Interventions
Studied:
Randomized trial in older women with and without metabolic syndrome, 10 weeks
What changed:
Hormone ratios fell with exercise (13.9% without metabolic syndrome; −26.5% with it), but changes did not clearly differ from controls
The catch:
Hormone ratio changes did not clearly differ between exercise and control groups
In the record:
The 226th paper on combined aerobic and resistance training with results in people; 442 on record in all. Its result on physical fitness agrees with all 4 other findings on record.

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper
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Sixty women averaging 75.2 years old entered a randomized controlled trial, including 30 with metabolic syndrome—a cluster of risks including high blood pressure and blood sugar. Within each metabolic group, women were assigned to exercise or their usual lifestyle. The supervised exercise program combined body-weight and elastic-band resistance exercises for 60 minutes, three times weekly, for 10 weeks.

The researchers measured fibroblast growth factor 21 and adiponectin, two hormones involved in regulating metabolism. Adiponectin rose in both exercise groups. Fibroblast growth factor 21 rose in exercisers without metabolic syndrome but fell in those with it. The ratio of fibroblast growth factor 21 to adiponectin fell in both exercise groups. Body fat fell, while muscle mass and physical fitness improved in both exercise groups.

Why it matters

Metabolic syndrome is common in older adults and raises cardiovascular and metabolic health risks. The authors suggest that a reduced hormone ratio may indicate how metabolism adapts to exercise.

Caveats

The hormone-ratio analysis did not find a statistically significant difference in changes between groups, and 12 participants withdrew. The trial lasted 10 weeks and enrolled only women able to exercise, excluding those with severe or unstable diseases or medications affecting metabolism or body weight.

From the paper

Participants

Based on these criteria, a total of 60 older women voluntarily participated in the study and were classified into two groups: a metabolic syndrome group (n = 30) and a non-metabolic syndrome group (n = 30).

Methods, Study design & participation

Quoted word for word from the full text on PubMed Central.

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