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Exercise – is it the key to prevent diabetes?

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Written by Dr Victoria Hordern – Consultant Physician specialising in diabetes and endocrinology and adviser to Dr Morton’s – the medical helpline

See Dr Morton’s living with diabetes and thyroid problems

Obesity, diabetes and exercise

We are nearly half way through January, how many of us have kept our New Year’s resolutions? New Year’s resolutions are a funny thing, sometimes we decide what we’ll change on New Year’s Eve, sometimes we plan them weeks ahead. Most (90%) if a recent gym chain advert is to be believed are broken almost immediately. Gym memberships peak in January, unsurprisingly after Christmas excesses and the good intentions of the New Year, but by February the majority aren’t being used.

In a rather timely fashion, just as our resolve is weakening, the headlines of several papers today report ‘the rising tide of obesity’. Apparently more than a quarter of adults in the UK are obese, by 2050 it will be half of us. Parents no longer recognise fatness in children as obesity becomes the norm, and GPs are reportedly failing us too. Sugary drinks, high fat junk food and confusing advertising are all blamed.

As a diabetes consultant I spend a great deal of my day asking people to eat less and exercise more, not just because I’m an optimist, but mostly because the evidence for diet and exercise is clear for all to see in the literature. The diabetes prevention program for example showed us that intensive lifestyle modification (where participants had effective diet and exercise advice) was better than drugs (metformin and troglitazone) at reducing the development of diabetes. In the same study people who had pre-diabetes with a slightly high fasting blood sugar, or who had had diabetes in pregnancy reduced their chance of developing diabetes by 58%.

As a diabetes consultant I spend a great deal of my day asking people to eat less and exercise more

Exercise isn’t only effective for diabetes, studies have shown that amongst other things exercise makes you feel less depressed, it reduces your chances of getting dementia and helpfully gets you back into those clothes that are a bit tight after Christmas. However, while I’m a big fan of advocating exercise and going to the gym is undeniably a brilliant way of exercising, what about resolving to do something that is achievable for more than just the first few days of January? Instead of joining a gym, why not put the membership money into a jam jar and go for a walk instead? It is free, fits easily into your daily routine by parking further from work, walking to the next stop on the tube or the bus, or walking round the block, and unlike going to the gym for an hour you don’t have to do all your exercise at once.  In fact there is growing evidence that being sedentary for the rest of the day can undo all the good of a three times a week exercise plan. So by walking for ten minutes at the start and end of the day and ten minutes at lunchtime, that’s 30 minutes of exercise and about an extra 130 kcals burned each day.  It’s three and a half hours of exercise a week, and a stone in weight that you’ll lose in a year. So with that jam jar full of money you can get yourself some new clothes for the summer. Result!

 

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Tags: diabetes, exercise, lifestyle, obesity

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