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| |  Walking May Lower Chances Of Getting Diabetes CHICAGO, IL -- March 3, 1998 -- Physical activity, even if it's nonvigorous physical activity such as walking, can lower the risk of developing diabetes, according to an article in tomorrow’s issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, Ph.D., from the University of South Carolina-Columbia, and colleagues studied whether habitual, nonvigorous physical activity, as well as vigorous and overall activity, is associated with better insulin sensitivity, which has been associated with a reduced risk for diabetes. They found that an increase in nonvigorous as well as vigorous physical activity was associated with significantly higher insulin sensitivity. The researchers used data from the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study of 1,467 men and women, aged 40 to 69 years, with glucose tolerance ranging from normal to mild non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. "Because the magnitude of the association between estimated energy expenditure and insulin sensitivity was comparable for vigorous and nonvigorous activities, it is not unreasonable to speculate that regular participation in either vigorous or nonvigorous activity would result in a clinically-meaningful improvement in insulin sensitivity with a consequent reduction in disease risk," they write. "Therefore, if nonvigorous activity is confirmed to have beneficial effects on insulin sensitivity, the potential for prevention of related chronic diseases, including non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease, may be considerable because interventions could be designed that incorporate an already common and presumably acceptable behavior [walking] that is inexpensive and accessible to large segments of the population." Previous studies have linked vigorous physical activity to reduced incidence of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, but the benefits of moderate-intensity physical activity had been unclear, according to the researchers. They added that sedentary living is extremely common among U.S. adults. Surveys estimate that between 22 percent and 30 percent of adults report no participation in leisure-time physical activity including walking. However, within various groups of individuals at high risk for diabetes, including those who are overweight, older, African American or Hispanic, walking was reported as the most prevalent activity, with 28 percent to 45 percent reporting walking at least occasionally. "The findings from the present cross-sectional study lend further support for the current recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine encouraging all U.S. adults to participate in at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most days of the week," they write.
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