Why it is important to involve your kids in physical exercise

Emobileclinic Researchers’ corner

Kids’ involvement in exercise especially aerobic and muscle strengthening before age 18 is linked to lower risk of diabetes in a recent study reported in annals of internal medicine. According to Dr. Casey Crump of Department of family medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, ”low aerobic capacity and muscle strength at age 18 years were associated with increased long-term risk for type 2 DM, even among those with normal body mass index.”

If the results are true then it means physical education programs should be implemented in early levels of education; primary and secondary school. This will ensure that prediabetes and diabetes are minimized in later life, says Dr. Casey. The studied focused on 1,534 425 military conscripts from 1969 to 1997 who were mostly 18 years as at the time of recruitment into military force without prior type 2 DM. The study examined type 2 DM in these people between 1987 to 2012 and excluded all females. The researcher found that 34,008 men had type 2 DM and his analysis of those affected with those unaffected was associated with their physical exercise. He observed overall, that ‘’the combination of low aerobic capacity and muscle strength was associated with a 3-fold risk for type 2 DM’’ ‘These associations was seen even among men with normal body mass index’, he said

The study is important as it does not exclude the normal body size and showed that normal body size can be affected with type 2 DM if physical exercise is not cultivated. The study shows an ‘’Independent interactions between both cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness and body mass’’ says Dr. Peter. The study also shows that enhanced physical fitness can provide health benefits once a patient develops metabolic syndrome or type 2 DM. ‘’The risk of CVD and all-cause mortality among men with metabolic syndrome have been shown to be substantially lower in physically fit men than in unfit men without metabolic syndrome’’, as noted in the editorial. The result shown a 58% lower incidence of type 2 DM in the healthy life style group. Even among obese men, supervised exercise improved cardiorespiratory fitness level which resulted in significant reduction of their insulin resistance within 12 weeks. While among patients with type 2 DM, a combination of training program which included aerobic significantly improved hemoglobin A1 level, said the editorial.

Speaking on the outcome of the study , Dr. Peter T. Katzmarzk, of Penniington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana says the study came right on time when there is global increase in type 2 DM noting that there is a pressing need for intervention strategies and thus the study of Crump and colleagues fill an important gap.