Active
Diabetic Men Live Longer
Brisk walking may be a key to longevity for men
with type 2 diabetes.
Looking
at data on thousands of men with type 2 diabetes,
Dr. Mihaela Tanasescu, of Touro University International
in Cypress, California, and colleagues found that
men who walked regularly were less likely to die
than those who were more sedentary.
What's more, the faster the men walked, the less
likely they were to develop heart disease or to
die from any cause, including heart attack and
stroke.
Dr.
Tanasescu stated that "Exercise is advised
in diabetes, especially for controlling glucose
(blood sugar)," . "But this is showing
that farther down the road, it's going to reduce
these people's risk of heart disease -- heart
disease being their primary risk."
Heart
disease is to blame for about three-quarters of
deaths among people with diabetes. The new findings
were published online this week in the "rapid
access" issue of Circulation: Journal of
the American Heart Association.
The
data Tanasescu and her colleagues analyzed came
from a study of more than 51,000 male health-care
professionals that began in 1986. The men were
40 to 75 years old when the study began. Among
all these men, 3,058 had type 2 diabetes. Tanasescu's
team excluded 255 of them because they had physical
disabilities, which would limit their ability
to exercise. The remaining 2,803 were followed
for 14 years, and every other year during that
time they answered a questionnaire about their
exercise habits.
Over the course of the study, 266 men had heart
attacks or strokes. Ninety-six of them died as
a result. In all, 355 of the men in the study
group died. The researchers found that men who
walked the fastest were the least likely to die
from any cause, no matter how much time they spent
walking. The greatest reduction in the risk of
heart disease was seen in men who spent about
three to five hours a week walking at a brisk
pace.
According
to Dr. Jonathan Myers, of the Veterans Administration
Hospital in Palo Alto, California, who wrote an
editorial accompanying the study, it's no mystery
why exercise might prolong the lives of diabetic
men. "Exercise is known to increase insulin
sensitivity, improve glucose tolerance, and promote
weight loss, and reduce triglyceride levels."
Tanasescu
said she focused on walking in her analysis of
the data because it's the most common form of
exercise. Not everyone swims laps or goes jogging,
but everyone does at least some walking.
However, Myers said, "too many people do
a minimum amount -- walking to their car, to the
front door, and that's about it." Both Tanasescu
and Myers agreed that doctors should make exercise
a major part of every diabetic patient's care.
"The
physician has to advise and guide patients in
an exercise program, not only for controlling
glucose, but also making it clear that this is
likely to reduce their most important risk,"
Tanasescu said.
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