Exercise capacity predicts mortality in type 2 diabetes patients

A new study in the Nov 24, 2010 issue of JAMA showed that a combination of aerobic exercise and resistance training is the best exercise for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Physical exercise has been known to help people with diabetes. But Dr. Timothy Church of Louisiana State University System in Baton Rouge Louisiana and colleagues found aerobic exercise and resistance training together worked better than individually.

But not all people with type 2 diabetes mellitus are able to engage in the same level of physical exercise. Each individual has his exercise capacity, which according to a new study actually can be used to predict death risk in older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus. That is, those who were less able to engage in physical exercise were more likely to die prematurely.

The study published in the Oct 2010 issue of Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found increased exercise capacity was associated with lower risk of mortality in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus aged 50 to 65 as well as those older than 65.

Nylen E.S. and colleagues from Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Washington, DC reviewed data in a clinic based cohort of 2867 diabetes patients aged 50 to 87 from Veterans Affairs Medical Centers in Washington DC, and Palo Alto, California and found the association.

In the study, exercise tolerance testing was based on peak metabolic equivalents of task or METs and test results were adjusted for age.

During nearly 8 years of follow-up, each 1-MET increase in exercise capacity reduced the death risk by 23 percent in those aged 50 to 65 by 23 percent and 16 percent in those aged older than 65.

Those who achieved more than 4 METs in both age groups reduced their risk by anywhere between 30 and 80 percent, depending upon fitness categories.

The researchers concluded physical fitness, measured as the exercise capacity, lowers mortality risk in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus irrespective of age.

How to boost a person's exercise capacity then?

What boost a person's exercise capacity as studies suggest include exercise and respiratory training, arginine supplements and antioxidants, polyunsaturated fatty acids, exercise and weight loss, Dexamathasone, combined aerobic training and dichloroacetate among other things.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus affects an estimated 23 million Americans.

David Liu