Regular swimming exercise improves metabolic syndrome risk factors: a quasi-experimental study

BACKGROUND: In the past few decades, swimming became one of the most important physical activities within the health system and is considered a practical nonpharmacological approach to managing of type 2 diabetes (T2DM), hyperlipidemia, hypertension (HTN), and obesity. The current study aimed to assess the effect of long-term swimming sessions on glycemic and lipidemic parameters, hemodynamic responses, body fat percent, and body mass index for patients with metabolic risk factors from Palestine. METHODS: Forty participants from both genders with T2DM and HTN (aged 52.4 ± 5.5 yrs) agreed to participate in this quasi-experimental study and were divided into two groups. The first group included the participants who performed long-term swimming sessions and the second group served as the control. The first group exercised for 2 h, 3 times/week in 29–33 °C swimming pool temperature for 16 weeks. Simultaneously, the control group did not participate in any exercise and advised them to keep on with their everyday lifestyle. All the obtained metabolic syndrome risk factors data were analyzed using a two-way ANOVA analysis of variance (2*2) which was applied to determine the differences according group, time, and interaction. RESULTS: The results showed that there were statistically significant differences at p < 0.05 in the variables of Total Cholesterol (TC), High Density of Lipoprotein (HDL), Low Density of Lipoprotein (LDL), Triglycerides (TG), Blood Glucose (BG), Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP), Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP), Body Mass Index (BMI), and body fat percent according to group, time, and interaction for the experimental group. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the current study suggested that the regular 16 weeks of swimming sessions could be considered nonpharmacological approaches in managing T2DM and HTN.