Fitness and physical activity can lower risk of type 2 diabetes

Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), high-intensity physical activity (HPA) and low sedentary time (ST) are associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, as per a new study.

The study is by Jeroen van der Velde and Annemarie Koster, Maastricht University, Netherlands, and colleagues. While a previous research has individually connected CRF, HPA, and ST with cardiometabolic health, the majority of studies on HPA and ST did not account for CRF, and this study is the first to examine combinations of ST and CRF.

The researchers found that higher ST, lower HPA, and lower CRF were independently associated with greater odds for type 2 diabetes and also metabolic syndrome (a cluster of factors indicating poor metabolic health, such as high blood pressure and large waist circumference.

The authors said, "High ST, low HPA, and low CRF were each associated with several markers of cardiometabolic health and higher risk for the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes independent of each other. A combination of low CRF and low HPA and a combination of low CRF and high ST were associated with a particularly high risk of having the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes."

Furthermore, they discovered that a change from low to medium CRF appeared to be more beneficial than medium to high CRF since the difference in risk of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome was higher between low and medium CRF than between medium and high CRF.

"We also need to find out what amount of ST is associated with a clinically relevant increase in risk and which levels of HPA and CRF are associated with clinically relevant lower risk for the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes," added the authors.

The full findings are present in the journal- Diabetologia.

-ANI