Pumping Iron Helps
Seniors Control Diabetes
Excerpt By Dana Frisch, Reuter's Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - High-intensity weight training coupled with a moderate weight-loss program can help older men and women with type 2 diabetes to improve their blood sugar control and also boost their muscle strength and lean body mass, researchers report.

The added muscle is particularly beneficial to people with diabetes, according to Dr. David Dunstan, the study's lead author, because muscles are "major clearance sites" for circulating blood sugar, or glucose. In type 2 diabetes, the body loses its ability to respond to the blood sugar-regulating hormone insulin, so high levels of glucose can build up in the blood.

Dunstan is director of physical activity programs and research at the International Diabetes Institute in Victoria, Australia.

The magnitude of the response, noted study co-author and institute director Dr. Paul Zimmet, was surprising. "The effects of the resistance training program were as great as those typically seen with drugs for diabetes," he explained.

The findings are published in the October 10th issue of the journal Diabetes Care.

The researchers assigned 36 people aged 60 to 80 to one of two exercise groups: high-intensity resistance training and moderate weight loss; or moderate weight loss plus a control program, for 6 months. Study participants in the control group did stretching exercises instead of lifting weights.

The goal of the high-intensity lifting program is to train with weights that are around 80% of the maximum poundage a person can lift for one repetition. The weight-lifting patients did nine different exercises three times a week that worked muscles in their legs, arms and abdomen, and were closely monitored by staff.

A test of long-term blood sugar control showed significant improvements in the weight-lifting group after 3 months of exercise, and improved further by 6 months. People in both groups lost weight and fat, but the weight-lifters showed gains in lean body mass while those who didn't lift weights showed losses.

Encouraging high-intensity weight lifting for people with diabetes could reduce the risk of diabetes complications--which can include eye and nerve damage, as well as kidney problems--in the long term, Dunstan said. The more tightly blood sugar is controlled, the less likely complications are to develop.

These results, said Dunstan, "support the recent recommendations of the American College of Sports Medicine that resistance training should be included as part of a well-rounded exercise program for all people with type 2 diabetes." Patients should consult their doctor first before beginning training, he added.

Dunstan encourages gym owners to make gyms more accommodating to older people so it will be less intimidating for them to work out. "Who knows--for many gymnasiums this could be a totally untapped market," he said.

SOURCE: Diabetes Care 2002;25:1729-1736.

Reference Source 89

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