Source: Medical News Today
Friday 9 June 2023 16:28:48
It may come as no surprise that, according to existing research, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity promotes good health, in general.
Research has also shown it can help prevent chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, in many people. What, however, does it offer people who have a familial predisposition toward type 2 diabetes?
A new study investigates this question and finds that moderate-to-vigorous physical activity is linked to a reduction in type 2 diabetes risk, and that the association is seen regardless of genetic predisposition for this condition. The effect is dose-dependent, with more activity linked to a greater protective effect.
Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity for more than an hour a day was associated with a 74% lower risk of type 2 diabetes compared to the least-active people studied.
The findings are based on an analysis of data from 59,325 participants, 40 to 69 years of age, whose data feature the UK Biobank.
Baseline data were collected between 2006 and 2010, and from 2013 to 2015 a subset of individuals was monitored wearing wrist accelerometers for 7 consecutive days. Participants were followed for an average of 6.8 years.
The study is published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
“Diabetes is a serious, common, and costly disease. Prevention is the key. I think it is important to reinforce the importance of physical activity in type 2 diabetes prevention, especially among those with a family history,” said the study’s senior investigator, Dr. Melody Ding, to Medical News Today.
Dr. Ding is an associate professor at the Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Australia.
In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reportTrusted Source that in 2022, 37.3 million people — 11.3% of the US population — had some form of diabetes. Of those people, 28.7 million had been diagnosed, with another 8.5 million people unaware they had the disease.
In 2017, diabetes was recorded as the underlying or contributing cause of death for 270,702 U.S. residents.
Unmanaged type 2 diabetes is associated with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, kidney disease, nerve damage, vision impairment, hearing loss, skin issues, dementia, sleep apnea, and slowness to heal.
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) says that type 2 diabetes is more closely linked to a familial history with the disease than type 1 diabetes. However, the disease can be prompted by genetic or environmental factors, or both.