Abstract
Decreased physical activity and increased obesity during childhood have recently emerged as significant social problems. Since long-term exposure to risk factors contributes to the development of lifestyle diseases, determining effective early-age prevention strategies is essential. Regular exercise and increased physical activity are well known to prevent obesity and insulin resistance in both animals and humans. However, although physical activity during childhood has a well-known direct effect on child health, the long-term consequences of childhood exercise on adult health and morbidity have not been well studied due to the difficulties of following subjects long-term. To address this, many researchers use rodents or other animal models. Previous studies have suggested that exercise has long-lasting effects on body weight after exercise cessation. In this review, studies examining the long-lasting effects of childhood exercise on obesity and metabolic diseases later in life using animal models are summarized, and the importance of exercise in childhood in preventing obesity and its related comorbidities is highlighted.
© 2016 The Juntendo Medical Society. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original source is properly credited.
