Share on PinterestJust 150 minutes of exercise per week could help lower blood sugar, reverse prediabetes. Image credit: Ana Luz Crespi/Stocksy.
- The number of people with type 2 diabetes, a condition where a person’s body is no longer able to control blood glucose (sugar) levels, is increasing worldwide.
- If type 2 diabetes is not adequately managed, the condition can lead to heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, amputations, and death.
- Prediabetes, which often progresses to type 2 diabetes, occurs when blood glucose levels are higher than advisable but not as high as in type 2 diabetes.
- Now, a new study has suggested that by exercising for just 150 minutes a week, people with prediabetes can prevent their condition from progressing and even bring their blood glucose back to healthy levels.
The increasing numbers of people with type 2 diabetes is a major healthcare concern worldwide. Currently, more than 6% of the adult population lives with the condition, and that is projected to rise to around 7% by 2030.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), type 2 diabetes is often preventable. Maintaining a healthy weight and getting sufficient exercise are effective ways to help prevent prediabetes — higher than advisable blood glucose levels when the body has become resistant to insulin — developing into type 2 diabetes.
Now, a new study has provided further evidence that exercise can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The study, which appears in Cardiovascular Diabetology – Endocrinology Reports, suggests that by exercising for just over 2 hours a week, people with prediabetes can reverse that condition, and prevent its progression to type 2 diabetes.
David Cutler, MD, a board-certified family medicine physician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, no involved in this study, explained for Medical News Today that:
“The health impact of having diabetes is profound. There is increased risk of almost every category of disease: heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, vascular disease, blindness, and infection. These ailments lead to earlier death and markedly impaired quality of life prior to death for diabetics. While prediabetes carries little of these increased risks, it is a warning because we know that 25–50% of prediabetics will develop diabetes. So, the smart thing to do is prevent prediabetes or reverse it if it is already present.”
Exercise reversed prediabetes in over 20% of participants within the year
The researchers analyzed data from 130 people enrolled in a cardiovascular risk program at a referral center in Cali, Colombia, between 2019 and 2023.
Participants were all aged over 18 with a mean age of 69.5 years, and just over half were women. Almost half had overweight or obesity (mean BMI 26.7), and four-fifths had high blood pressure (hypertension). A total of 57.7% of the cohort reported exercising for 150 minutes or more per week.
At the start of the 1-year follow-up, all participants had prediabetes, with a median glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c — a measure of glucose control) of 5.9% (healthy levels are below 5.7%; type 2 diabetes is 6.5% or above).
HbA1c is a marker of glucose control over the 3 months preceding the test, so is a better predictor of cardiometabolic risk than fasting blood glucose tests.
All participants were assessed regularly by specialists in internal medicine, nutrition, psychology, and physiotherapy. Specialists also used the glucose/triglyceride index to measure their insulin resistance — a factor in prediabetes.
During follow-up, 21.5% of the participants returned to normal blood glucose levels, 13.8% progressed to type 2 diabetes, and 64.6% remained prediabetic.
150 minutes of exercise per week most effective at reversing prediabetes
Physical activity for more than 150 minutes per week had a statistically significant effect on the likelihood of reversing prediabetes, quadrupling the likelihood of reverting to normal blood glucose levels.
“The study clearly reinforces what physicians have been telling patients for a long time: Diet, weight control and exercise are the key ingredients to a long and healthy life. And now you can have a concrete target to shoot for, 150 minutes of exercise per week.”
– David Cutler, MD
After researchers adjusted for possible biases, they identified the following factors that decreased the likelihood of reversing prediabetes:
- having a BMI greater than 25 (overweight or obesity), which as associated with a 76% lower likelihood of reversing prediabetes
- having HbA1c levels higher than 6%, which was associated with a 74% lower likelihood to reverse prediabetes compared with having HbA1c of less than 6%.
Cutler told MNT that “common everyday medical practice emphasizes three approaches to control or reverse prediabetes: a low glycemic diet to lower blood sugar, [then] weight loss through calorie restriction, diet modification or medication, and [finally] exercise.“
“[This] recent study of 130 pre-diabetic adults in Cali, Colombia, confirmed these assumptions. Moreover, it highlighted the marked impact that even a modest amount of exercise could have,” he added.
However,” Cutler also pointed out, “it is sobering that even in this controlled study providing state-of-the-art diet, weight loss and exercise resources, only 21.5% of the subjects got their prediabetes into remission. Furthermore, while 64.6% remained prediabetics, [and] 13.8% went on to develop full-blown type 2 diabetes.”
Prediabetes: ‘Still time to make a U-turn’
Alongside exercising for 150 minutes or more each week, keeping HbA1c levels below 6.0% was the most important factor the researchers identified in increasing the likelihood of reversing prediabetes.
This is linked to levels of insulin resistance, which the researchers measured using the glucose/triglyceride index.
Prediabetes reversal was less likely in those with a higher glucose/triglyceride index, so the researchers suggest that measuring glucose/triglyceride index could be a cost-effective way of predicting risk of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.
Lucy Chambers, Head of Research Impact and Communications at Diabetes UK, who was not involved in the study, sounded an optimistic note, telling MNT:
“Prediabetes can feel like you’re on the road towards type 2 diabetes, but there’s still time to make a U-turn. While some risk factors like age, genetics or ethnicity can’t be changed, research has consistently shown that increasing physical activity, improving your diet and managing your weight can halve your risk of type 2 diabetes. If you have prediabetes, your healthcare team can support you to make small, sustainable changes that will have long-lasting benefits to your health.”
