Weight training and weight loss
help diabetes control
NEW
YORK (Reuters Health) - High-intensity weight training coupled with a
moderate weight-loss program can help older men and women with type 2
diabetes to improve their blood sugar control and also boost their muscle
strength and lean body mass, researchers report.
The
added muscle is particularly beneficial to people with diabetes, according
to Dr. David Dunstan, the study's lead author, because muscles are
"major clearance sites" for circulating blood sugar, or glucose.
In type 2 diabetes, the body loses its ability to respond to the blood
sugar-regulating hormone insulin, so high levels of glucose can build up in
the blood.
Dunstan
is director of physical activity programs and research at the International
Diabetes Institute in Victoria, Australia.
The
magnitude of the response, noted study co-author and institute director Dr.
Paul Zimmet, was surprising. "The effects of the resistance training
program were as great as those typically seen with drugs for diabetes,"
he explained.
The
findings are published in the October 10th issue of the journal Diabetes
Care.
The
researchers assigned 36 people aged 60 to 80 to one of two exercise groups:
high-intensity resistance training and moderate weight loss; or moderate
weight loss plus a control program, for 6 months. Study participants in the
control group did stretching exercises instead of lifting weights.
The
goal of the high-intensity lifting program is to train with weights that are
around 80% of the maximum poundage a person can lift for one repetition. The
weight-lifting patients did nine different exercises three times a week that
worked muscles in their legs, arms and abdomen, and were closely monitored
by staff.
A
test of long-term blood sugar control showed significant improvements in the
weight-lifting group after 3 months of exercise, and improved further by 6
months. People in both groups lost weight and fat, but the weight-lifters
showed gains in lean body mass while those who didn't lift weights showed
losses.
Encouraging
high-intensity weight lifting for people with diabetes could reduce the risk
of diabetes complications--which can include eye and nerve damage, as well
as kidney problems--in the long term, Dunstan said. The more tightly blood
sugar is controlled, the less likely complications are to develop.
These
results, said Dunstan, "support the recent recommendations of the
American College of Sports Medicine that resistance training should be
included as part of a well-rounded exercise program for all people with type
2 diabetes." Patients should consult their doctor first before
beginning training, he added.
Dunstan
encourages gym owners to make gyms more accommodating to older people so it
will be less intimidating for them to work out. "Who knows--for many
gymnasiums this could be a totally untapped market," he said.
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