SubscribeNew Diabetes Medication: Walking!
In the study, published in the journal Diabetes Care, ten people with Type 2 diabetes were paired with a control group who didn't have diabetes. Each person was given a pedometer and asked to walk over 10,000 steps a day. The researchers found that walking for an extra 45 minutes daily meant that the people with diabetes burnt 20% more fat - improving their muscles' ability to store sugar, which helps to control the diabetes.
Dr Trenell, who led the study, said:
What is exciting about this study is that it provides an immediate way to help control diabetes without any additional drugs. By building physical activity into everyday life the difficulty of making time to go out just for exercise is avoided. It is an important and simple health message - walking 45 minutes extra a day helps diabetes.
Other Benefits of Walking
The sample size in the study was very small, and would warrant further research before firm conclusions are drawn about managing diabetes with a daily walk. But the wider benefits of walking - for those with diabetes and those without - are well-attested. If you're yet to establish the habit of walking every day, remember that walking can:
- Help you to lose weight, or maintain weight loss
- Reduce your percentage of body fat
- Increase bone density
- Lower your blood pressure
- Help with mild depression
- Make you more flexible
And walking is one of the best exercises you can do, because:
- It doesn't cost anything
- You don't need any special clothes or kit
- If you're very overweight, you can just walk slowly for a few minutes
- Friends and family can easily join you on a walk
- You can walk anywhere: cities, countryside, inside shopping malls...
One of the most common reasons given for not exercising is lack of time, but there's really no excuse for not fitting walking into your day. As Dr Trenell says,
What we've found is that nearly everyone with diabetes is able to become more active through walking. In our study many people got off the bus a few stops earlier and some took a walk at lunchtime.
Has walking helped you to stay fit, lose weight, or manage diabetes? Do you have any great walking tips to share?
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Yes buy a stepper walking is good but offers no resistance so makes it harder to lose weight overall but that doesn't mean it doesn't work.
I just think there are better alternatives.
Replywalking uphill or in the sand offers plenty of resistance.
Reply
ReplyMore so than running, walking has many immediate and long-term benefits. For one, it invites more participants, as it rarely depends on weight, height, or physical limitations.
Many of my type 2 diabetes patients have figured out that going for a walk will lower their glucose levels significantly, e.g., 50-100 mg/dl or more. And they don't have to wait weeks to see it drop, in contrast to the article you cite. It goes down during the walk. Exercising muscles "soak up" glucose from the bloodstream to use as an energy source.
The article talks of using Magnetic Resonance Imaging to see what's going on inside mitochondria. I wasn't aware that MRI could drill down that deep. I look forward to learning more about that.
-Steve
ReplyThat's really interesting to hear results show up *during the walk* -- must be a great motivational boost if you're wondering "is this worth it"!
ReplyAs a type 2 diabetic, I can attest to the benefits of a brisk walk also. It's my treatment-of-choice if I over-do a meal, or splurge on something I shouldn't eat :)
Replyi love this article. people dont realize that you dont always have to have an intense, incredibly tolling workout to be making a difference in your health. i have a friend that believes "if it doesn't hurt, it doesn't work". I personally lost 15 lbs speed walking 5 days a week after work and nothing else, literally nothing else. i ate the same things but smaller portions, and drank lots of water of course but i didn't have to do a body-building routine to know that i was definitely benefitting from the walks i took. the best part of walking is that anyone can do it from age 1-99
ReplyAnd for everyone that says they don't have time in their day to go for a 45 minute walk:
The average adult male watches 4 1/2 hrs of tv every day, the average female watches 5 1/4 hrs and kids 3 1/2 hrs
http://www.tvb.org/rcentral/MediaTrendsTrack/tvbasics/09_TimeViewingPersons.asp
There is also some new research showing the amount of exercise needed to keep the lbs. off.
http://healthhabits.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/exercise-how-much-is-enough/
ReplyThanks for posting those links DR... stay tuned for a post on that very topic in the next couple of days...
ReplyThe ADA has been recommending walking to help control type 2 for years. It's long established that exercise lowers blood glucose, and I don't see why walking would be any different than any other form of exercise. I don't really see how this is a significant study.
ReplyI think that this would be something very appropriate for your website to talk about. A very young girls' soccer team played in a league that they dominated. The girls won every game, even against other girls that were older than them. Their coach made a bold move and put them into the boys league. This was met with some criticism, but as the girls did exceptionally well, it made people stop and think about what was fair and right concerning girls and boys. The main girl in this film has juvenile diabetes. She demonstrates that people are very able to live a normal life even with diabetes. And the film also teaches that people should not be discriminated against based on gender, and these girls overcame that discrimination. Watch the trailer at www.kicklikeagirlmovie.com and see what you think.
ReplyCheers!
Alayna Ferrin
Public Relations
Cobalt Communications Group
e. alaynaf@cobaltcg.com
It isn't discrimination if they have their own league.
That's why they call it Girls Soccer and Boys Soccer.
In other sports that don't specify gender both sexes participate. Once boys hit puberty girls get owned.
But about the Type II diabetes, these people know they can control it but they choose not to because they are too lazy. I do feel sorry for children with it, their parents are to blame.
ReplyExercise really helps increase the number of insulin receptors on your muscle cells so they become more responsive to blood sugar changes. So it makes sense that walking would help control type II diabetes (as opposed to type I). I thought this was pretty common knowledge already, so I'm wondering why there was a study done about it. Maybe this will inspire my mother-in-law to start walking more often.
ReplyThings that are common knowledge are sometimes the things that need official studies the most. A lot of health professionals won't recognise something like this until a study has been done.
ReplyI looked it up because I didn't get the huge "breakthrough" either. They found that it's mitochondria that's responsible for the increased metabolism. So the significance is that they found out how it works.
ReplyMother Teresa says
"It is impossible to walk rapidly and be unhappy"
2.All truely great thoughts are conceived while walking.
3.I have two doctors,my left leg and my right.
There's nothing like walking to get the feel of country. A fine landscape is like a piece of music;it must be taken at right tempo.Even a bicycle goes too fast.
ReplyWhat lovely thoughts!
ReplyWalking for extended periods or long distances is a great idea. Walking is a great way to start getting into better shape. Its relatively low impact, and it is easy to build off of. After walking for a while it is easy to transition to jogging, or running, which both also have great health benefits.
Reply"The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best."
-Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
"Walking is man's best medicine."
Reply-Hippocrates (460 BC-377 BC)
Working from home can be quite isolating for me at times so a 45 minute walk(at least)a day does wonders for me not just in terms of health but psychologically too when I'm feeling a bit down.
Reply# Other Benefits of Walking:
Help you to lose weight, or maintain weight loss
Reduce your percentage of body fat #
Yes, it is totally true. I remember when I was in China studying Mandarin for a year; I had to walk everyday - It took me 5 minutes to my classroom everyday and back to my dormitory room. Every weekend, When I was going to the centre of the city I had to spend 10 minutes walking to the bus stop, another 10 min to another bus stop, and it did the same to go back to the school dormitory. Not only weight loss but also flat tummy and smaller size of thigh did I get from the routine walking activity.
ReplyI thoroughly believe that exercise can reverse diabetes. The link between insulin and exercise is very strong. I remember watching the 1992 Olympic games and hearing about a German hockey player actually curing his type 2 diabetes by playing sport to a high level
ReplyOK i'm convinced, i just started insulin 3 month ago, time to reverse this!
Do I walk before every meal, or after a main meal or...
which is the most effective? am I in danger of BG dropping too low while walking for that amount of time?
ReplyVery encouraging informations are available in this article and comments.Thanks.
ReplyVery useful.But how can one determine the amount of exercise a diabetic can do?I read in an website that an engineer who had nearly 1300 mg of blood glucose and was hospitalised reversed his diabetes and got cured off it withoput even medication and he had written a book called,"death to diabetes".He said that diet and exercise alone is enough to cure oneself from diabetes..Is it possible?
ReplyOnce I was giving a speech to a group of med school students, and I told them that we should stop doing medical research.
I was kinda joking to make the point that we already know how to prevent most diseases, the problem is that we can't figure out how to get people to follow a doctor's advice.
Everytime I see these new studies (that are actually re-hashed old studies) I think cool walking helps diabetes, but how do you get all the 350 pound people to walk.
ReplyI was just talking to someone yesterday about how we don't need more medical research, but really need to just apply the things we've already learned. Don't see it happening though. Do see lots of people wearing tee shirts supporting a cause. I'd rather see a change in behavior rather than clothes :-(
ReplyAs part of Dr. Trenell's work, he is looking at ways of actually getting people to do this physical activity. He recently had a large group of patients train to run the Great North Run. They would never have been able to do that without him to inspire them and he is working on getting the message out there, but is facing many challenges. As a small part of this, he is coming into my school to work with 350 of our pupils on looking at physical activity, obesity and diabetes. The research published is just a small part of what he is trying to achieve and is really important as it leads on to other projects that can make a real difference.
Reply