Can just 30 minutes of exercise help prevent type 2 diabetes?

• About 530 million adults worldwide have diabetes, and 98% of them have type 2 diabetes.

• Insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance are hallmarks of type 2 diabetes.

• Previous research suggests that there are ways to naturally help improve a person’s insulin sensitivity, including exercise.

• Researchers at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Italy have found that just one 30-minute workout can help lower blood sugar and improve insulin sensitivity, showing potential benefits in the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Researchers believe that around 537 million adults all over the world now live diabetesand 98% of these cases are type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease in which the body cannot properly use insulin, known as low sensitivity to insulin. This can eventually cause insulin resistance in the body, causing in humans blood sugar level rise.

Previous research suggests that there are ways to naturally improve a person’s insulin sensitivity, for example healthy food, weight managementand performing exercises.

Now researchers at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Italy have found that just one 30-minute workout can help lower blood sugar and improve insulin sensitivity, showing potential positive benefits in both the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes.

The study was recently published in Journal of endocrinological research.

Why only 30 minutes of exercise?

For this study, scientists recruited 32 research participants — 18 men and 14 women — aged 20 to 35 years. All participants were healthy, without signs of diabetes, and of normal weight or slightly overweight.

All study participants led a mostly sedentary lifestyle or had low activity only in their free time.

After baseline measurements of blood sugar and insulin levels, participants were asked to complete one 30-minute aerobic exercise session of light jogging.

“The choice to study a single 30-minute session of aerobic exercise in young, healthy adults was prompted by the lack of previous studies examining the direct metabolic effects of a single bout of exercise in this group,” Teresa Mezza, MD, PhDresearcher at the Department of Medicine and Translational Surgery at the Catholic University of St. Quore in Italy and corresponding author of this study explained Medical news today.

“This approach allows researchers to observe the acute effects of exercise on glucose metabolism without the confounding factors of preconditioning or diabetic status, providing a clearer basis for how exercise affects glucose and insulin dynamics,” she noted.

Improvement in blood sugar and insulin sensitivity after 30 minutes of exercise

Mezza and her team re-measured the study participants’ glucose and insulin levels 24 hours after the 30-minute workout.

They found a significant decrease in the participants’ blood sugar levels after exercise, as well as an increase in insulin sensitivity.

“These reductions in fasting glucose and insulin, together with improved insulin sensitivity 24 hours after exercise, highlight the potential of a single exercise session to induce rapid and beneficial metabolic changes,” Mezza said.

“This suggests that brief bouts of aerobic activity may play an important role in glucose regulation and insulin response, possibly reducing the risk of diabetes in non-diabetic populations and offering immediate benefits in glucose management for those at risk.” she assumed.

The results of the study do not surprise doctors

After reviewing this study, David Cutler, MDboard-certified family medicine physician at Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, said MNT that he’s excited to see data that backs up what doctors have been telling people for the past 35 years.

“We’ve just always told people that exercise is good for you and that it’s likely to lower your risk of type 2 diabetes,” Cutler explained. “We will often recommend it to people, even before they have diabetes, when they have it prediabetes or even without signs of diabetes. And it’s good to have some evidence and support that common sense would tell you is good.”

“Diabetes (…) increases the risk of blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, stroke (and) amputations,” he continued. “It takes years off your life and lowers your quality of life. This is a huge burden of costs for a person and society.”

“Changing people’s behavior is really hard, and getting them to exercise can sometimes be difficult because sometimes there’s no immediate reward for it, and the benefits can take months or years, not days, before they see them,” Cutler added. “So having something like this where there’s instant positive feedback is a good way to encourage people to exercise more.”

Why is exercise important for people with type 2 diabetes?

MNT also communicated with Jennifer Cheng, DOchief of endocrinology at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center in New Jersey, about this study.

“This study highlights the importance of exercise and activity in maintaining glycemic control for patients with type 2 diabetes,” commented Cheng, who was not involved in the study. “We know that exercise helps reduce insulin resistance and helps people become more insulin sensitive. Exercise helps burn fat and also helps people achieve better sugar control.”

“Diabetes really changes and transforms patients’ lives, and finding new ways to control and prevent type 2 diabetes is really critical,” she continued. “Diabetes affects many different body systems and patients’ daily lives.”

In terms of what she would like to see as the next steps in this research, Cheng said expanded research into postprandial hyperglycemia and efforts to mitigate it, as well as the role of continuous glucose monitors as a way to monitor sugar trends.

View the original article at Medical news today