• Recent studies have found that many of the complications associated with diabetes, such as stroke and eye disease, are associated with decreased levels of physical activity.
• Researchers suggest that increasing activity may help prevent diabetes complications.
• The CDC recommends that adults 18 and older get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week.

Physical activity is an important part of overall health. This is especially true for people with type 2 diabetes.

“Our findings challenge this idea by showing that a significant proportion of these complications can be prevented by an achievable increase in physical activity in people living with diabetes,” she added.

Yesica GarciaM.D., a board-certified endocrinologist who was not involved in the study, agreed.

“The study’s conclusions are very consistent with what we’re seeing clinically. A significant portion of diabetes complications can be prevented with regular exercise. As an endocrinologist, I’m increasingly prescribing physical activity in the same way that I prescribe medications because exercise has a huge impact on quality of life,” Garcia told Healthline.

Having diabetes can increase your risk of developing complications such as:

This recent study pooled data on more than 2.3 million people from 27 health surveys conducted to date around the world.

The researchers used this data to track the physical activity levels of people with diabetes and the complications they developed related to diabetes.

They estimated that up to 10% of these complications could be due to lack of exercise.

Some of the key findings from this study revealed that physical inactivity globally is responsible for:

david cutlerM.D., a board-certified family medicine physician at Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., who was not involved in the study, cautioned against taking these findings as evidence of direct causation.

“There was wide variation in the impact of physical activity based on ethnicity and geographic location. Physical activity is categorized using a binary (active or inactive) accounting method, which does not help determine how much activity is needed to reduce risk,” Cutler told Healthline.

“Definitions of diabetes varied between countries. Several confounding factors were not consistently measured, including obesity, hypertension, access to health care, glycemic control, and medication adherence,” he added.

But Kalter agreed that physical activity is one of the key tools to help manage diabetes.

Garcia noted that physical activity can help manage diabetes in the following ways:

• Increase insulin sensitivity: Muscles use glucose more efficiently during and after exercise, such as walking, jogging, cycling, and swimming.
• Reduces cardiovascular risks: Exercise lowers blood pressure, cholesterol, and inflammation. All these factors are associated with cardiovascular risk.
• Improves body composition: The more muscle mass you have, the better and faster your metabolism is and the more glucose you utilize.

Implementation of clinical guidelines from Canadian Diabetes Journal states that moderate to high levels of physical activity are associated with lower morbidity and mortality in people with diabetes. The guidelines also state that prolonged and habitual sitting is associated with an increased risk of serious cardiovascular events and death.

Feta listed in press release Their research “reconstitutes physical activity as a core component of preventing diabetes complications.”

“Promoting physical activity in people with diabetes has the potential to reduce hospitalizations, disability, and health care costs while improving quality of life,” Feter added.

Examples of moderate-intensity physical activity include:

• brisk walk
• recreational swimming
• active yoga form
• ballroom dancing or line dancing
• General yard work and home repairs
• Exercise classes such as water aerobics

As a rule of thumb, if you’re doing a moderate-intensity activity, you can talk, but not sing.

In this study, physical inactivity was defined as failure to meet a goal of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week.

“The bottom line is that physical activity is associated with improved outcomes in diabetes because it improves insulin sensitivity, lowers blood sugar levels, reduces cardiovascular risk, and increases overall metabolic health. Exercise is not just supportive care, it is a core treatment for diabetes,” Cutler said.

Physical activity can help improve blood sugar control and promote weight loss. But even if your weight doesn’t change, there are many other benefits. include:

• Improving cardiopulmonary function
• increase in energy
• Improved blood sugar control
• Improved lipid profile
• Reduced insulin resistance
• Blood pressure improvement

“The powerful message of this study is one of empowerment. The narrative that diabetes complications are ‘inevitable’ is challenged. It is now understood that a significant part of the complications are modifiable and directly dependent on our lifestyle,” Professor Garcia said.