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Exercising more can help type 2 diabetes

Tuesday 13th December 2011

Regular exercise can seriously benefit type 2 diabetes but exceeds the recommended workout for people with the condition.

The American Diabetes Association's guidelines state that sufferers would find it difficult to meet the advised 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise a week.

Researchers at McMaster University, British Columbia, found that exercising at a very high rate for 30 minutes a week helped to lower the blood sugar level and reduce post-meal blood sugar spikes.

The findings show that exercising harder, but in a shorter amount of time, could substantially improve a person's health in the long term.

A spokesperson for the McMaster team said: "Given that the majority of individuals with and without type 2 diabetes do not accumulate sufficient exercise to achieve health benefits, and the most common cited barrier to regular exercise is a lack of time, our results suggest that low-volume high-intensity training may be a viable, time-efficient strategy to improve health in patients with type two diabetes."

In figures by Diabetes UK it says the type 2 strain of the disease accounts for between 85 and 95 per cent of all people with the condition.

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written by Megan Smith