Metabolic Syndrome: What It Is and How Walking Helps

Metabolic syndrome isn’t a disease, but rather a cluster of risk factors that increase your risk for cardiovascular disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and other serious health conditions. It is defined by having at least three of the following five conditions:

1. High blood pressure: Systolic pressure of 130 millimeter of mercury (mmHg) or higher (top number) and/or diastolic pressure of 85 mmHG or higher (bottom number).
2. Low HDL “good” cholesterol: HDL cholesterol 40 milligrams per deciliter (ml/dL) in males and 50 ml/dL in females or less.
3. Elevated triglycerides: Triglyceride levels of 150 mg/dL or greater.
4. Elevated blood sugar: Fasting blood sugar level of 100 mg/dL or greater.
5. Excess abdominal weight: Waist circumference 40 inches in males and 35 inches in females or greater.^1,2

Metabolic syndrome is becoming more common. Globally, it affects about 12.5% to 31.4% of people, including one in 20 adolescents and about 3% of children.^3,4 In the United States, rates are even higher, approaching 35%, or about one in three adults.^1,3 While these risk factors may seem separate, they are closely connected and many are influenced by everyday lifestyle habits. One of the most accessible ways to improve them is through physical activity. This is where something as simple as walking can play a meaningful role.

We often hear that walking and other forms of physical activity help protect the heart and lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. In fact, research shows that frequent exercise is strongly associated with a lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease and dying from it.⁵ But walking doesn’t just support heart health, it directly targets many of the same risk factors that make up metabolic syndrome. One of the biggest health improvements happens when someone goes from being inactive to walking just 30 minutes per day.⁶

Regular physical activity can help manage metabolic syndrome by supporting heart health and addressing key risk factors, including:

• Strengthening the heart muscle
• Improving blood pressure
• Supporting healthy cholesterol and triglyceride levels
• Improving blood sugar control
• Reducing harmful fat (and modestly reducing body weight).^5,6

How do these improvements happen? How does moving more protect your heart and the network of blood vessels that carry blood throughout the body? Let’s take a closer look.

The Cardiovascular System

To understand how regular physical activity, like walking, supports heart health and helps reduce the risk of disease, it helps to know a little about the cardiovascular system. The cardiovascular system is part of the circulatory system, which includes the heart and a closed system of vessels (arteries, veins, and capillaries). Blood is pumped by the heart through this closed circuit of vessels, passing again and again throughout the body. The movement of blood through these vessels permeates every tissue and reaches every cell in the body, delivering nutrients and other essential materials and removing waste products.⁷

Strengthening the Heart Muscle

Though we often think of the heart as an organ, it is also a muscle. The heart acts as a muscular pump that provides the force needed to circulate blood to all the tissues of the body. In fact, the normal adult heart pumps roughly 5 liters of blood through the circulatory system every minute of our lives. This is vital since our tissues need a constant supply of oxygen and other nutrients that come through our blood. If the heart can’t pump blood properly for even a few minutes, it can quickly become life-threatening.⁷

The good news is, like other muscles in the body, the heart can become stronger and more efficient with exercise.

Improving Blood Pressure

Both aerobic and resistance training exercise can reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure.¹⁰

• Systolic blood pressure – the first or top number – measures the maximum pressure your blood is pushing against your artery walls when your heart beats (when it contracts or squeezes to pump out blood).^8,9,10
• Diastolic blood pressure – the second or bottom number – measures the minimum pressure your blood is pushing against your artery walls between beats (when your heart rests and fills with blood to get ready for the next heartbeat).^8,9,10

When you exercise, blood flow increases in your vessels and working muscles send signals to release helpful chemicals (such as nitric oxide and prostacyclin). These chemicals tell the muscles in the blood vessel walls to relax. This allows the blood vessels to widen, making it easier for blood to flow through them and helping lower blood pressure.⁵ Research shows that regular long-term exercise can increase the body’s ability to produce nitric oxide. This helps blood vessels stay more flexible, which can help lower blood pressure, especially in people with hypertension.⁵

Supporting Healthy Cholesterol and Triglyceride Levels

Exercise can help prevent the buildup of arterial plaque (a mix of fats, cholesterol, and other materials) keeping blood vessels clearer so blood flows more easily. This reduces strain on the heart and blood vessels, which can lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Regular activity also improves these blood lipid levels by using blood fats for energy during muscle activity, helping regulate lipid levels even without weight loss.⁶

Research suggests that regular exercise can:

• Raise “good” HDL cholesterol and improve its ability to remove cholesterol (including “bad” LDL) from arteries, helping clear fat that can contribute to plaque.
• Lower “bad” LDL cholesterol and triglycerides (another type of blood fat), especially with higher amounts or intensity of activity, reducing the material available to form plaque.
• Improve cholesterol particle size – larger HDL particles are better at removing cholesterol from arteries, while smaller particles are less effective.
• Support blood vessel health by increasing nitric oxide production, which keeps vessels flexible and improves blood flow.⁵

Together, these effects help keep arteries clear and healthy, complementing the blood pressure lowering and overall cardiovascular benefits of exercise.

Improving Blood Sugar Control

Research shows that regular exercise can improve blood sugar (glucose) control in people with prediabetes, type 1 diabetes, and type 2 diabetes.^5,6 During exercise, working muscles take in more glucose from the blood to use for energy. This happens because exercise makes your muscles more responsive to insulin – the hormone that helps move sugar from your blood into your cells (to be used for energy).  Muscles can also take in sugar more easily during activity, even with less reliance on insulin. When your cells let sugar in more efficiently, your body can lower blood sugar more effectively, improving overall blood sugar control.⁵

These benefits can happen relatively quickly and build over time. Exercise programs including aerobic and/or resistance training lasting about 12 weeks have been shown to improve blood sugar control,^6,11 and even a single session of low-intensity exercise can improve how the body responds to insulin the next day.^5,12 Over time, regular exercise alone¹³ or combined with healthy eating and weight management¹⁴ may help prevent or delay the development of type 2 diabetes in people at higher risk.⁶

Reducing Harmful Fat and (modestly) Body Weight

Research suggests that long-term aerobic exercise training alone may only lead to modest reductions in body weight (e.g., 6-12 months exercise training was associated with roughly 3-4 pounds weight loss).⁶ Adding healthy eating and portion control can help with further weight loss.

More significantly, however, exercise training can lead to significant reductions in harmful visceral and hepatic fat.⁶ Visceral fat is the fat you can’t pinch. It lies deeper under your abdominal muscles and surrounding your internal organs.¹⁵ Hepatic fat is fat that builds up in the liver and can lead to fatty liver disease and other serious complications. Research suggests that aerobic exercise training in overweight or obese adults significantly reduces visceral and hepatic fat, despite minimal overall weight loss.^6,16 This may explain why exercise training is often linked to better cardio-metabolic health, even if the scale doesn’t change much.⁶

What About Walking

Walking is a great option for physical activity. It can be performed by most people and only requires a good pair of shoes. For the greatest benefits, it’s important to go about it intentionally.

Set aside time to walk specifically for exercise most days. In a large-scale study of 422,654 adults, faster walking pace, as well as the amount of time spent walking at a moderate or brisk pace, was associated with lower risk of heart rhythm abnormalities (e.g., atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias).¹⁷ So, when you walk, consider intentionality – walk at a brisk pace or simply add more time to your moderately-paced walking session for potential benefits to the heart and vascular system.

Physical activity, be it walking or another choice, can support your heart and vascular health, and contribute to reducing the risk of diseases, like heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. Consider joining one of our free programs to help in your health and fitness journey.