Brisk walking may help ward off diabetes
Brisk walking may be more effective than jogging in controlling blood sugar levels in people with prediabetes, a new study suggests.
People with prediabetes have higher-than-normal blood sugar levels but not so high that its full-blown diabetes. The gold standard approach to diabetes prevention involves weight loss, diet and exercise.
We know the benefits of lifestyle changes ... but it is difficult to get patients to do even one behavior, not to mention three, said study author Dr. William Kraus. So he and his colleagues wanted to know if exercise alone could achieve similar benefits.
When faced with the decision of trying to do weight loss, diet and exercise versus exercise alone, the study indicates you can achieve nearly 80 percent of the effect of doing all three with just a high amount of moderate-intensity exercise, said Kraus, a professor of medicine at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
The study included 150 people with prediabetes who were divided into four groups. One group followed a gold-standard program that included a low-fat, low-calorie diet and moderate-intensity exercise equivalent to 7.5 miles of brisk walking a week.
The other participants were assigned to one of three exercise groups: low amount at moderate intensity equivalent to walking briskly for 7.5 miles a week; high amount at moderate intensity equal to walking briskly for 11.5 miles weekly; and high amount at vigorous intensity equivalent to jogging for 11.5 miles a week.
HealthDay
