Walk To Prevent Diabetes, Study Reports

Walking more lowers your risk of diabetes.

This comes from a just released study by Australian rearchers who studied nearly 600 middle-aged adults. The adults participated in a study to map diabetes levels across Australia between 2000 and 2005.

Diabetes is a major health condition increasingly affecting aging adults according to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (AALTCI). “Diabetes is one of the conditions that can cause many to need long-term care,” states Jesse Slome, AALTCI executive director. “It is also one of the conditions that can make it harder to get this insurance coverage.”
Participants underwent a health examination at the start of the study and provided details about their eating and lifestyle habits. The volunteers were also given a pedometer and instructed how to use it.

Follow-up with the participants five years later showed that a higher daily step count was associated with a lower body-mass index (BMI), lower waist-to-hip ratio and better insulin sensitivity, even after adjusting for factors such as diet, smoking and alcohol intake.

They calculated that a sedentary person who changed his or her behavior and started walking 10,000 steps every day would achieve a threefold improvement in insulin sensitivity, compared with a similar person who walked 3,000 steps a day, five days a week.

The 10,000 steps per day is a popular guideline, but a more recent recommendation is 3,000 steps per day, five days a week.

The findings confirm an independent beneficial role of higher daily step count on body-mass index, waist-to-hip ratio and insulin sensitivity, provide further support to promote higher physical activity levels among middle-aged adults. The study appears in the online edition of the British Medical Journal.