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Your Health

Walk to Regulate Blood Sugar

Walking for 15 minutes after a meal may provide the best benefit.

Recent research, published in the June issue of Diabetes Care, shows that moderately paced 15-minute walks after meals works well at regulating overall blood sugar in adults with prediabetes.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), about 35% of adults have prediabetes — and many do not know it. In Michigan, that is about 2.6 million adults.

Prediabetes means a person has a blood glucose (blood sugar) level higher than normal, but not high enough to be diabetic. Prediabetes can be diagnosed using a fasting blood glucose test (FBG), oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) or hemoglobin A1c (A1C).

Prediabetes ranges are:

FBG = 100-125 milligrams (mg)/decilitre (dL)

OGTT = 140-200 mg/dL

A1C = 5.7%-6.4%

Those with prediabetes have a higher risk of developing diabetes within five years. Prediabetes is a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Studies have shown that people with prediabetes who lose a modest amount of weight (5%-7%) and are physically active at least 150 minutes per week can prevent or delay the onset of Type 2 diabetes.

The 150 minutes can be broken into various segments, 30 minutes five days a week or even two 15-minute periods twice a day for five days. Based on the recent research results, three 15-minute periods after meals may have the highest benefit.

Postmeal walking was significantly (P < 0.01) more effective than 45 minutes of sustained morning or afternoon walking in lowering post-dinner glucose between the control and experimental day. Additional information on this research can be found through the American Diabetes Association.

How can you fit in 15 minutes of physical activity after each meal? Suggestions to accomplish this goal include:

If you have trouble finding a safe location or the weather does not cooperate, you can find an inside location such as a stairwell, mall, indoor track, community center or school.

Evidence has shown modest lifestyle changes reduced the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 58% in people with prediabetes. Michigan State University Extension is offering the National Diabetes Prevention Program, which is a one-year intervention that coaches participants to adapt lifestyle changes to prevent the onset of prediabetes. These programs are occurring across the state of Michigan. Current interventions can be found at: http://msue.anr.msu.edu/topic/info/chronic_disease; and http://mihealthmatters.msu.edu/.

 

 

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Editor’s Note: This article was published by Michigan State University Extension.









 

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