Apr 23, 2002 (The Palm Beach Post) - If you knew you could prevent
or improve a serious medical condition, without drugs, would you do it?
Most of us would say yes, I think.
But how many of us exercise regularly, at least 30 minutes 2-3
times a week or more?
Even though exercise has been shown many times to have great
health rewards, we often fail to follow through on our own exercise
regimens.
Increasingly, word is filtering out that exercise not only can
improve the blood sugar readings of diabetics, but also may prevent
diabetes, especially in people who are predisposed to developing
Type 2, the adult-onset variety of this chronic condition.
Duke University Medical Center recently released results of a
study showing that long-term, intensive exercise "can significantly
improve the body's ability to control blood sugar levels" and that
such exercise produces benefits that stay with the body for at least
a month, even if exercising stops.
"Long-term exercise leads to loss of fat in the gut (stomach)
region, which is especially beneficial since this fat is thought to
be directly linked to increased risk of diabetes and heart disease,"
explained Dr. Cris Slentz, an exercise physiologist who was part of
Duke's research team.
The exercise program was defined by Duke as equivalent to running
20 miles a week for the participants, so it was intense.
It consisted of four exercise sessions a week, beginning with 15
minutes each day and increasing to 60-70 minutes daily by the end of
a three-month period. For the remaining six months of the study,
patients maintained the same level of exercise. The program
consisted of a combination of stationary biking, treadmill walking
and stair climbing.
A long-term study, the Diabetes Prevention Program, which
involved over 3,000 people who were at risk for Type 2 diabetes,
found that walking 30 minutes, five days a week, accompanied by
"moderate changes in eating," resulted in a 58 percent reduction in
the rate of people developing Type 2.
This was compared with a group given diabetes medication, and one
given placebo pills; lifestyle changes were "about twice as
effective as medication" in preventing the development of adult-
onset diabetes, the study found.
While studies differ on the amount and intensity of exercise that
might be needed to prevent Type 2 diabetes - Duke is following up
with a broader study aimed at answering how much and how long -
everyone seems to agree that exercise can be helpful in improving
the body's ability to ward off, or control, diabetes.
It's just that challenge of doing it that needs to be overcome.
Even a study coordinator for the Diabetes Prevention Program, Dr.
Richard R. Rubin, confessed in a recent newsletter for the Diabetes
Research and Wellness Foundation that he wasn't exercising and
eating the way he knew he should. But he vowed to change that.
"For me," he wrote, "the bottom-line message is the things that
work to help people control Type 2 diabetes also work to prevent
it."
