COLUMBIA, Mo., Feb. 7 (UPI) -- A University of Missouri-Columbia study says as little as 15 minutes a day of acute exercise can help prevent and fight diabetes.
Acute exercise is a bout of activity in which people actively participate, as opposed to activity resulting from everyday activities, according to study leader John Thyfault.
"Many people can fight type 2 diabetes through diet and exercise alone," said Thyfault. "It is important to ward off diabetes early. Exercise has proven to be effective at all levels. At any stage of type 2 diabetes, from an obese child to a person dependent for 20 years on insulin injections, exercise could have a dramatic effect on improving insulin sensitivity."
Thyfault's study found that relatively short periods of acute muscle exercise in diabetic Zucker rats significantly increased insulin sensitivity in the previously insulin-resistant skeletal muscles.
Since 80 percent to 90 percent of all glucose goes into muscle after a meal, it is reasonable that more active muscles on a day-to-day basis will result in increased insulin sensitivity, according to the study published in the American Journal of Physiology-Cell.
