More evidence of health benefits of brief, intense exercise for diabetics

Wed, 14 Dec 2011
A new study by scientists at McMaster University in the United States has offered further proof of the health benefits of short but intense amounts of exercise for people who suffer from type 2 diabetes. The research, which was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, showed that such levels of activity provides benefits on a similar level to longer, but more moderate, amounts of exercise.

The small-scale research, which involved eight patients with type 2 diabetes, showed that exercising for only a half an hour per week but at a very high intensity was able to reduce overall blood sugar concentrations and lower post-meal spikes in blood sugar levels, as well as improving skeletal mitochondrial capacity, which is a known marker of metabolic health.

Regular exercise is known to help both prevent and treat patients with type 2 diabetes, although it can be difficult to manage the 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise that is recommended by organisations such as the American Diabetes Association.

The report claimed that "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 2 diabetes."

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