Can whole body vibration exercises promote improvement on quality of life and on chronic pain level of metabolic syndrome patients? A pseudorandomized crossover study

Abstract

Quality of life (QoL) is one of the most important health outcome concepts expressed subjectively. Chronic pain (CP) is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. Taking into account the poor QoL and the CP already described in metabolic syndrome (MSy) individuals, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of whole body vibration exercises (WBVE) on these parameters in this population. Thirty-three MSy patients were divided in subgroups A [whole body vibration exercise group (WBVeG), n = 17, 15 females/2 males, 61.1 ± 8.4 yr] and B (control group, n = 16, 14 females/2 males, 58.2 ± 9.1 yr). Subgroup A performed 10 sessions (2 times/wk) of WBVE (18 min/session, with a frequency from 5 up to 14 Hz and a peak-to-peak displacement of 2.5, 5.0, and 7.5 mm) on a side-alternating vibrating platform (VP). Subgroup B did the same protocol, but the VP was turned off. The individuals answered the World Health Organization Quality of Life bref (WHOQoL-bref) questionnaire before the first and after the 10th session. The chronic pain level (CPL) was measured by a numeric rating scale (0–10) before and at the end of each session. Significant improvements were found in physical health ( P = 0.05) and psychological health ( P = 0.04) domains of WHOQoL-bref in WBVeG. A significant acute reduction of the CPL was found in the WBVeG after the protocol, considering the first session and at the last session. WBVE marginally improved physical health and psychological health and decrease the CPL in acute interventions. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Metabolic syndrome patients experience poor quality of life, frequently associated with lack of exercise and bad dietary habits. Additionally, factors such as obesity, neuromusculoskeletal impairment, and peripheral endothelial dysfunction result in a chronic pain level. Whole body vibration exercise might represent a suitable physical therapy, since it is easy to perform, low cost, safe, and capable of promoting an improvement of quality of life and reducing chronic pain level during acute interventions in metabolic syndrome individuals.

Whole-Body Vibration Exercise: A Possible Intervention in the Management of Post COVID-19 Complications?

“…The negative impact of the COVID-19 on health-related QoL e has been demonstrated in various populations [78]. WBV training exercise can improve the QoL of individuals in different clinical conditions, as reported by Paineiras-Domingos et al, 2020 [49] and Carvalho-Lima et al, 2017 [79] in patients suffering from MSy, Neves et al, 2018 [80] in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Wang et al, 2016 [34] in knee osteoarthritis (KOA), Çevik Saldıran et al, 2020 [81] in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients, Jamal et al, 2019 [82] in painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy, de Melo Marinho et al, 2020 [83] in renal transplantation, and Pessoa et al, 2016 [84] in elderly adults. The samples consisted of individuals of both sexes tested on vertical and alternating platforms.…”

“…In this case, the MV produced in the VP is transmitted to whole body of the subject. WBV exercise can lead to physiological responses that contributes to increasing power and muscle strength [45][46][47], decrease the pain [48,49] and fatigue [50,51], improve the QoL [49,52], improve quality of the sleep [53], and aid with neuro-cognition and mental disturbances [54][55][56]. Considering the lung commitments, WBV exercises can decrease the risk of dyspnea [51] and improve QoL [57].…”

“…Paineiras-Domingos et al, 2020 [49] investigated a protocol performed weekly (one and two sessions a week) for 10 weeks. The session was performed with 1 min or vibration followed 1 min of rest.…”

The Effects of Whole-Body Vibration Exercise on Anticipatory Delay of Core Muscles in Patients with Nonspecific Low Back Pain

“…As a noninvasive therapy method, WBV exercise acts like a mild exercise on the body [48,49]. In recent years, WBV exercise are performed for wild range of patients with metabolic syndrome [50,51] and musculoskeletal problems including low back pain [33], knee osteoarthritis [52,53], fibromyalgia [54], osteogenesis imperfecta [55], and so on. Although our research focused on the relative activation time of trunk muscles for APAs in lumbar stability, the intrinsic value of coactivation of core muscles for maintaining lumbopelvic stabilization has been recognized in clinical knowledge.…”

Editorial “Biomechanical Spectrum of Human Sport Performance”

“…The relevance of the exercise against age-related risks for commitment of the health and wellbeing that lead to disease and disability is unquestionable [4,5]. Furthermore, sedentarism is associated with an elevated incidence, in various stages of the life, in particular during aging, of chronic disease such as cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, cognitive decline, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cancer [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Regular exercise, additionally, improves health and decreases the incidence of oxidative-stress-related disease [6].…”