Physicians Should Get Patients to Move More to Help with Cardiometabolic Health, Says One Expert

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“Key takeaways are to move more, to get patients to move more,” said Jill Kanaley, PhD, to Patient Care Online after her recent presentation at the 17th Annual Cardiometabolic Health Congress, held October 19-22, in Boston.

Whether it be shopping in stores versus online at home or mowing the lawn, patients should be encouraged to stay active. “You might not want to use the word ‘exercise’, but we need them to get activity back into their life that they’ve engineered out,” added Kanaley, professor in the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology at the University of Missouri, to Patient Care.

During her presentation, Kanaley discussed literature that has focused on the association between physical activity and cardiometabolic health. Key takeaways from the evidence reviewed, included:

• Exercise training was associated with decreases in systolic blood pressure (BP) and diastolic BP.

• Postexercise hypotension was observed after 10 minutes of moderate intensity exercise.

• Decreases in blood lipids only sometimes observed following physical activity.

• Physical activity is associated with decreases in blood glucose and insulin levels.

• Post meal exercise lowered glucose levels more effectively than premeal exercise.

“There’s so much evidence to show it [exercise] provides so many cardiometabolic benefits and there’s even some that I didn’t even mention,” continued Kanaley. “But it gives us so much of an advantage if we just can move more.”

Kanaley is also a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, which has a global health initiative called Exercise is Medicine®that works to make exercise assessment and promotion a standard in clinical practice. “You have to realize that it is so important,” stated Kanaley to Patient Care.

Kanaley presented Physical Activity and Cardiometabolic Health: Benefits and Perspectives on Thursday, October 20, 2022.