Research Results Indicate Weight Lifting Decreases Risk of Diabetes Type II

It has been found that even little bit of weight lifting had an effect on diabetes type II, which is significant for individuals who cannot manage with aerobic exercises. But, a combination of aerobic exercises as well as weight training offers the greatest benefits.

Around 2 million people in Britain are affected by Type 2 diabetes, but many amongst these don’t even know that they have diabetes. It is mostly associated with overweight and considerably increases the risk of heart attack.

The scientists from the University of Southern Denmark and Havard School of Public Health, Boston followed around 32,000 men for almost 18 years.

The advantages of aerobic exercises and weight training were independent of one another, implying the partakers decreased their diabetes risk by just doing one; however, it was found that the combined effects were even greater. All the results were posted in Archives of Internal Medicine.

The visiting researcher of the Department of Nutrition at HSPH, Anders Grøntved said that earlier studies had suggested that aerobic exercises were of major significance for prevention of type 2 diabetes. He is also a doctoral student in the discipline of exercise epidemiology at University of Southern Denmark.

The people who took parts in the study were asked to fill in forms every 2 years with respect to their lifestyle and factors like alcohol consumption, weight training, family record of diabetes, and other exercises.

The scientists could find men who did weight training between 1 and 59 minutes per week had reduced risk of type 2 diabetes when compared to others who did not do anything. For those who did for somewhere around 60- 149 minutes, the risk was reduced by 1/4^th, while those who did for atleast 150 minutes, it was reduced by atleast a third.

People who did aerobic exercises like running also experienced the same kind of effect with reductions of almost 7%, 31%, and 52% respectively.

Men who did minimum 150 minutes weight training and more than 150 minutes aerobics per week had a 59% decreased risk of diabetes type 2 as against individuals who did nothing.

The professor of nutrition and epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Frank Hu said the research gave an evident proof that weight training had beneficial effects on risk of diabetes over aerobic exercise, which is probable to be mediated via enhanced insulin sensitivity and improved muscle mass.

Overall, the impact of exercise on humanity is greater than what is expected from medicines.