Study: Every Day Walking For 45 Minutes Can Help Type 2 Diabetics
The number of people suffering from diabetes is increasing day by day. This increase is attributed to the sedentary lifestyle and increasing consumption of junk food. UK researchers claim that 45mins walk can help diabetics in controlling their blood sugar levels. The people suffering from type 2 diabetes can improve their health by walking for 45 mins.
The research led by Dr Michael Trenell of the University of Newcastle studied data collected from 10 people with type 2 diabetes and 10 people from control group. The researchers asked all the participants to walk at least 10,000 steps per day. MRI scans of the participants before the trial and then two and eight weeks after they began walking gave researchers opportunity to analyze the effect of walking on blood sugar levels. The MRI scans showed that muscles were processing energy inside the mitochondria – the so called ‘engines’ of the cell.
The study showed that the people with type 2 diabetes suffered from no major problem with the mitochondria. Mitochondria burns fat and sugar inside the muscles. Walking helps in improving the efficiency of the mitochondria which leads to better fat burning. Every day walking for 45 minutes helped these people in burning about 20% more fat.
Dr Trenell said, “Even in this limited eight-week period we could see that people with type 2 diabetes were processing energy more efficiently, which meant that walking for 45 minutes more is an effective way to help improve glucose control.”
High levels of sugar in the blood can lead to long term problems in organs which are sensitive to changes in blood flow, resulting in an increased risk of blindness, heart attack and kidney failure.