Diabetes And Exercise

Nicolas Musi, MD, a diabetes specialist working as an associate professor in the School of Medicine in the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, said that exercise is extremely helpful in protecting a person against type 2 diabetes, no matter what the age of the patient is. It can be anything from 8 to 88 years of age and with exercising, a patient can get protection from type 2 diabetes.

This is done as exercise revs up the functioning of mitochondria, the small structures found inside the cells. Musi has studied the impact of exercising on one hundred specimens of muscle biopsy and is currently documenting how exercising can affect mitochondria. The mitochondria functions as the energy factory as they take up several different nutrients from the body and convert them into energy. As the person gets older, the functioning and number of mitochondria tend to decrease. An exercise intrusion was done on older people and it was noticed that physical activities improves the functioning of mitochondria significantly especially in people more than 65 years of age.

It is believed that benefits of exercising is related to the amount of exercise you do but generally, exercise done in any amount will be better than no exercise. Musi said that even a small amount of exercise can bestow several benefits. However, it can be very helpful if you design an exercising program for yourself which is not harmful, especially for older people or those who are suffering from heart disease. If an elderly person has not exercised for many years, it would be better for him to begin the new program for exercising under a certified trainer or physician’s expert training.

Decrease in mitochondria with age contributes a lot to type 2 diabetes but it can be successfully reversed with the help of exercising. Older patients are not only more prone to develop diabetes or pre-diabetes but they also respond very effectively to exercise. Musi said that investigations are being done to find out how physical activities can prevent occurrence of diabetes in people who already have pre-diabetes. Musi said that when a person exercises, his muscles become more capable of burning fats and sugars. The reason for this is not yet known that there is a belief that when a person exercises, AMP kinase, an enzyme gets activated, which monitors the energy levels maintains the normal energy levels in cells.