Diabetes: Could muscle strength lower risk?
Many people worldwide have type 2 diabetes, a metabolic condition in which the body cannot properly regulate blood sugar levels. Experts already know that lack of physical activity can contribute to the risk of diabetes, but what type of exercise might lower it?
Recently, researchers have been looking into the effects of exercise on the risk of type 2 diabetes, asking what kind of physical activity might help decrease it the most.
These researchers hail from Iowa State University in Ames, the University of South Carolina in Columbia, the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, LA, and the Ochsner Clinical School at the University of Queensland School of Medicine in Brisbane, Australia.
Their findings — which appeared earlier today in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings — indicate that people with moderate muscle strength, maintained and consolidated through resistance exercise, may be at a considerably lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
This effect, the scientists note, is independent of other factors such as cardiorespiratory fitness. They also point out that moderate muscle mass seems to be enough to provide this benefit — increasing it does not lower risk any further.
Associate professor Duck-chul Lee, from Iowa State University, explains that the current findings suggest that even moderate resistance training can be beneficial in this respect. However, he cautions that it is difficult to establish how much is enough.
"Naturally, people will want to know how often to lift weights or how much muscle mass they need, but it's not that simple," notes Lee.
"As researchers, we have several ways to measure muscle strength, such as grip strength or bench press. More work is needed to determine the proper dose of resistance exercise, which may vary for different health outcomes and populations," he continues.
