Benefits of Exercise - Diabetes

An additional study, presented in Reference 2 tracked approximately than 38,000 women in a diabetes study, for about 7 years of followup. The average age of the women was approximately 55. At the start, the women were free from diagnosed cardiovascular (blood vessels and heart) disease, diabetes or cancer. They were questioned about weight, height and recreational activity at the start of the study.

The difference between this study, and the previous (reference 1) was that here, the effects of physical activity and obesity were separated. In the previous study, the women who were less physically active grew more obese, and got diabetes. If they had been able to keep their weight down, would they have a smaller risk of diabetes? This study answers the question with a positive answer.

During the followup period, 1361 new cases of diabetes occured. They define "normal weight" as a BMI ("Body Mass Index" - a measure of obesity obtained by taking the body weight in kilograms, and dividing by the height-squared in meters-squared) less than 25, "overweight", 25 to 30, and "obese", 30 and above. Their analysis, as we mentioned, separates the risks from the degree of obesity and the degree of physical activity. The study finds that the highest degree of activity (when subtracting out the effect of weight differences) that involves expenditure of more than 1500 calories a week, reduces the risk of diabetes by 18% (Risk Ratio of 0.82, Margin of Error - 0.70 to 0.97), compared to a completely sedentary lifestyle.

The study determines that obesity is a far greater risk factor for diabetes. An inactive overweight person has approximate 4 times the risk, and an inactive obese person has approximately 12 times the risk (compared to an active, normal-weight person). We would like to reiterate that that this does not mean the exercise is unimportant or inconsequential. The previous study demonstrates unequivocally that exercise does reduce the risk of diabetes significantly, in part through the resulting maintenance of a lower weight.

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