The connection between exercise and diabetes treatment and prevention is not exactly new news, but this is: a new study shows that less than 10 minutes a week may actually be enough to make a difference!
Researchers studying Type 2 diabetes at Scotland's Heriot-Watt University assigned 16 subjects in their 20s to very short exercise sessions, lasting only 30-seconds each. In addition to a set of 4-6 sprints, subjects drank a 75 gram glucose solution, to determine how long blood sugar and insulin levels remained elevated, and the impact of intense exercise on glucose control.
The result: after only two weeks, blood sugar levels decreased 12 percent, and the duration of elevated blood sugar decreased 37 percent.
While we all know exercise has tremendous benefits -- not just to manage diabetes and control blood sugar, but to treat and prevent heart disease and boost overall health -- we still come up with excuses not to do it.
Exercise dramatically improves diabetes and insulin resistance. It actually acts like insulin -- exercising muscles take up glucose. Furthermore, the benefits are lasting because exercise increases insulin sensitivity.
Exercise also helps you lose weight, key to managing diabetes and blood sugar control. In an NIH study, regular exercise (just 30 minutes, five days a week) and a low-fat diet resulted in an average sustained weight loss of 10-15 pounds. This alone can prevent or reverse diabetes.
Walking, jogging, cycling, swimming --what you do doesn't matter as long as you actually do it. Dr. Whitaker recommends you aim for at least 30 minutes, five days a week, and if you can add a session or two of weight training, so much the better.
But this new research shows that even a few sprints around the block, a quick bike ride or a run up a hill or set of stairs can deliver lasting health benefits too.
No excuses -- start moving. I'll race ya!
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