Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 Diabetes is a killer - everyone knows this, everyone knows it kills you slowly and unpleasantly (leg needs amputation; blindness). Exercise helps. Medication helps. Exercise and medication are better. So exactly what kind of exercise has best effect?

The September 2007 edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine published the results of the trial in Ottawa, Ontario which addressed this question. The trial, lead by Dr. Ron Segal, selected sufficient participants so that the results would be satistically significant i.e. you could believe the conclusions from the trial. Four trial groups were randomly formed. One group was the no exercise group which continued with no or minimal exercise. 

The other three groups were all provided with a free gym membership for 6 months and a personal trainer:

- cardio only group did aerobic exercise either on a treadmill or stationery bicyle. 

- the resistance only group did muscle strengthening exercises but no aerobic exercise. 

- the last group did both cardio and resistance exercise. This group had the biggest impact of all on their blood sugar control. This group doing both forms of exercise three times every week did more exercise that the other groups. However the design of the trial ruled out the possibility that it was just exercise volume that made the difference. 

From the measurement of Hemoglobin 1C, which gives an average blood sugar level over the last 2 to 3 months, the trial showed that doing muscle strengthening exercise multipled the impact of cardio exercise about 3 fold i.e. a big, big impact.

If you want details on exactly what cardio or exactly what resistance exercises were followed then go to;

http://www.bodyrestored.com

From there you can access links to Dr Segal's paper in Annals of Internal Medicine (it's free).

One more interesting thing from this Ottawa exercise trial on Type 2 Diabetes; the exercise regime used with cardio and resistance was very effective in controlling blood sugar but it had only a small impact on either blood pressure or blood lipid levels. 

This means that this particularly effective exercise plan for Type 2 Diabetes is not the magic bullet for all major health issues. If you have hypertension or high cholesterol then you'll probably need to increase the exercise volume.