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Short, Intense Workouts May Fight Diabetes

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 February 2009, 07:40 CST

New research announced on Monday says that just a few moments of concentrated exercise weekly is as beneficial as thirty minutes of normal physical activity a day for reducing the risk of acquiring type 2 diabetes.

"It is possible to gain significant health benefits from only 7.5 minutes of exercise each week -- if that is all that you find the time to do," Dr. James A. Timmons of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh said to Reuters Health.

"This is a dramatically different view from current thinking," he added.

Timmons and his research team discovered that inactive males who performed only 15 minutes of sprinting on an exercise bike over a two-week period of time noticeably enhanced their ability to metabolize sugar.

Normal aerobic exercise plans can improve sensitivity to insulin. The intense program also achieved this, but additionally concentrated the men's blood sugar levels. This is impressive, considering that regular exercise programs have not achieved this.

30 minutes of exercise daily, five days a week is the normal activity recommended to adults, but "the general population fails to follow such regimes due to lack of time, motivation and adherence," the researchers in wrote in the journal BMC Endocrine Disorders.

During the study, 16 men in their 20s went through six sessions of exercise, all of which had four to six 30-second sprints along with four-minute rest times.

After two weeks of study, the men's blood sugar and blood insulin levels were higher than average after they consumed 75 grams of glucose, but quickly reduced after. When people have a meal, Timmons noted, blood sugar levels usually rise, but the levels of active individuals quickly drop to normal.

In those who are less active, high blood sugar levels last longer, which can eventually cause cardiovascular disease.

Based on the research, Timmons, adults should opt for four to six 30-second amounts of intense exercise, like cycling or running up stairs, two times a week. However, he added, those with diabetes or heart disease should steadily boost their activity under a doctor's management.

Advising adults between 20 and 40 to choose high intensity and shorter workouts may in the future substitute the current physical activity guidelines, Timmons noted.

"Only large scale trials could prove this," he said. "But there is mounting evidence that doing this new protocol will deliver the same reductions in risk factors. The key thing with exercise is the more routine you make it, the more likely you will benefit."

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On the Net:

• Heriot-Watt University
• BMC Endocrine Disorders

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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