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Prediabetic exercise improves insulin secretion
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Exercise improves insulin resistance. We’ve known this for some time. Somehow, exercise strengthens the connection between the insulin receptor and the factory floor of metabolism. However, there is another factor to consider, namely the ability of the pancreas to compensate for insulin resistance. If the pancreas could compensate for the rest of your life you would never get type 2 diabetes. Does exercise have any effect on the ability of the pancreas to compensate? Recent research says yes!
A group of Duke University researchers led by Dr. Chris Slentz has examined exercise and the pancreas and published their results in a recent issue of Diabetes Care. The authors chose sedentary people with type 2 diabetes who were between 40 and 65 years of age. They had to be able to exercise and could only be mildly overweight (not obese). The authors randomly assigned the subjects to one of three exercise groups or a control group (that presumably watched TV). The three types of exercise were (1) high intensity and lots of it, (2) high intensity but only for a short period of time and (3) moderate intensity and for that same short period of time as group 2.
Compensation really means insulin production. How good is the pancreas at responding to a perceived lack of insulin response? They found that while all 3 groups showed some improvement as compared to the non-exercising control group, the low intensity low duration group did far better than the high intensity groups.
Why is this important? The measure that the researchers used is called the disposition index (DI) and it has been shown to be a valid predictor of the onset of type 2 diabetes. Behaviors which markedly improve the DI would decrease the likelihood of actually progressing from prediabetes to the actual disease. It is comforting to know that you do not need to run a marathon to get there.
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