Exercise Helps Blood Sugar, Diet Uncertain

Exercise can improve blood-sugar levels, but it is uncertain if dietary advice alters the risk of elevated blood sugar, says a British study.

Type 2 diabetes leaves a person at danger of having elevated levels of sugar in their blood, which can cause damage to blood vessels, which in turn harms many organs including the eyes, nerves, kidneys and heart.

When people are first diagnosed they are given dietary advice in the hope that this will enable them to take more control over the level of sugar in their blood.

However, an analysis of the literature found no high-quality data that showed whether dietary advice did indeed alter the risk of developing long-term complications, affect overall quality of life or the likelihood of dying, according to The Cochrane Library.

We did find 36 published articles that reported work from 18 different trials which included a total of 1,467 people with type 2 diabetes, but only a minority of these trials examined hard clinical endpoints such as death or vascular disease, and those that did offered no details; most talked about factors that are easier to measure such as weight or blood sugar control, lead researcher Lucie Nield of the University of Teesside in Middlesbrough, England, said in a statement.

The researchers did find data suggesting exercise as an adjunct to dietary advice results in improvement in blood-sugar levels after six and 12 months.