The early prevention of metabolic syndrome by physical exercise.

The article deals with physical exercise in the early prevention of metabolic syndrome, which is one of the most frequent diseases today. Sedentary life style of modern man, surrounded by sophisticated technological achievements, supersedes the time spent in motion in all age groups, from the earliest childhood. The growing number of well substantiated studies has yielded results connecting such kind of life with greater incidence of many chronic diseases and low functional capability of an organism. Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a complex process and one of the most important groups of diseases, presenting a major health problem in developing countries. MS is an increasing risk for coronary heart disease, stroke and peripheral angiopathy. MS comprises overweight and abdominal (intraperitoneal) apple shape obesity, insulin resistance or glucose intolerance (type 2 diabetes mellitus--some persons are genetically predisposed to insulin resistance), hypertriglyceridemia with low HDL and high LDL cholesterol, accompanied by arterial hypertension. The prevention of metabolic syndrome should start as early as possible. Regarding physical activity, the period of childhood and adolescence is very important from the aspects of public health. However, intervention exercise programs should not be limited to younger age groups, but must encompass all age groups within population.