Abstract
Cardiometabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, stroke, and coronary heart disease are complex disorders influenced by multiple genetic and environmental factors. Physical activity is one of the most reliable predictors of cardiometabolic diseases among various lifestyle factors. Numerous epidemiological studies have revealed that higher levels of physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness are strongly associated with a lower incidence of cardiometabolic diseases and all-cause mortality in various populations. On the other hand, genetic factors also contribute to susceptibility to cardiometabolic diseases. Familial and twin studies have demonstrated that the strength of the contribution of genetic factors to cardiometabolic diseases is comparable to that of environmental factors, and a large number of genetic variants associated with cardiometabolic diseases have been identified. Importantly, genetic factors explain the heterogeneity of the effect that regular exercise has on the improvement of cardiometabolic risk, and there is evidence that regular exercise possibly attenuates the genetic predisposition to cardiometabolic diseases. Thus, genetic factors and exercise interact with each other to determine susceptibility to cardiometabolic diseases. This article reviews recent studies exploring genetic factors that determine susceptibility to cardiometabolic diseases, with an emphasis on the studies examining the gene-exercise interactions in cardiometabolic risk.
