Critical reviews in food science and nutrition | 2021
The impact of exercise training versus caloric restriction on inflammation markers: a systemic review and meta-analysis.
Abstract
Obesity is associated with an increased risk of chronic, low-grade systematic inflammation for which exercise training (EX) and caloric restriction (CR) are potential treatments. We therefore performed a systematic meta-analysis to compare the effect of EX vs. CR and EX\u2009+\u2009CR vs. CR on inflammation markers in overweight and obese individuals. PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and the Cochrane were searched up to April 2020 for EX vs. CR or EX\u2009+\u2009CR vs. CR interventions studies on inflammatory makers i.e. CRP, IL-6 and TNF-α in overweight and obese individuals. Standardized mean differences and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Thirty two articles (reporting 38 trials) involving 2108 participants were included in the meta-analysis. Based on studies that directly compared EX and CR, there were no evidence for an effect of EX on IL-6 (p\u2009=\u20090.20) and TNF-α (p\u2009=\u20090.58), when compared with a CR. However, when compared to EX, CR has a statistically greater benefit on CRP (p\u2009=\u20090.01). In those studies, directly comparing EX\u2009+\u2009CR and CR, EX\u2009+\u2009CR caused a larger decrease in TNF-α (p\u2009=\u20090.002) and IL-6 (p\u2009=\u20090.02) and tended to decrease CRP (p\u2009=\u20090.06) when compared with CR. These results suggest that a combination of EX and CR may be more effective than CR alone at reducing inflammatory cytokines and CRP in overweight and obese individuals.