Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Being sedentary raises blood sugar

Sedentary behavior linked to high blood sugar Reuters/Scientific American 3/28/07 "People who tend to be sedentary -- as indicated by the amount of time they spend watching television -- are likely to have high levels of glucose in their blood, even though they may not be diabetic...After accounting for physical activity time and for factors that can affect blood glucose, the investigators found that the more time women spent television viewing, the higher were their blood glucose levels two hours after they took the glucose test-drink. This was not seen in men, according to the team's report in the medical journal Diabetes Care..."The findings reinforce the case for a strong focus in diabetes and obesity research on sedentary behaviors, such as television viewing, in addition to the now well-established base of evidence on the importance of increasing physical activity,""

Higher levels of blood sugar = greater risk of a variety of diseases = increased chance of early mortality. The simple answer, although it can be hard in practice is to drag your ass out of that chair and get your heart rate up for 30+ minutes 5 days a week. Start slow and easy and gradually increase workout intensity. The benefits of this are massive - as a quick pubmed dump on the topic proves - or a more organized NIH education site. As if we haven't know this forever. And yet... obesity and type 2 diabetes are on the rise - the latter being almost totally preventable and reversible if caught early enough.


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