Longitudinal study finds that physical activity decreases with duration of T1D
by Adam Burrack, PhD
YOUglycemia’s mission is to promote healthy levels of physical activity in people with diabetes. This is the point of our collaboration with the American Diabetes Association’s flag-ship event, the Tour de Cure. In short, we believe that the documented benefits of physical activity – to both insulin sensitivity and emotional well-being – are particularly useful for people with type 1 diabetes. Since T1D is a chronic disease, any improvement in insulin sensitivity by the muscles will be an aid to diabetes management, and any mood-boosting effects of exercise will aid resiliency and ability to cope with managing a condition requiring constant attention. Therefore, seeing the headline of a review paper titled “Diabetics exercise less each year with diabetes” was a call-to-action during these winter doldrums.
Here’s what this recent review article concluded. Less frequent exercise was positively associated with the following: (1) older chronological age, (2) less-than-excellent general health, (3) increased body mass index, (4) longer duration of diabetes, and (5) increased depressive symptoms. That’s the bad news. Here’s the good news, what increased physical activity correlated with: (1) male gender, (2) less than full-time employment, (3) being single.
Unfortunately, not all of us – and none of us at YOUglycemia – are single, part-time employed males. For the rest of us, we have to fit in exercise when and where we can. If that means shoveling the snow for 30 minutes before work in the morning (at least in some parts of the country), great. If that means a 30-minute walk over the lunch hour – potentially including an adjustment in lunch meal bolus insulin – great. If that means a spin class at the gym every Wednesday night all winter – probably including insulin dose adjustments to avoid overnight lows – even better.
The point of exercising isn’t necessarily to finish an Ironman, race 12 hours on a bike across Nebraska or hike Mount Kilimanjaro. These top-end pursuits provide great goals to shoot toward, over time, for those of us who are “type A personalities”.
Importantly, these “mountain top experiences” are not the point of exercising. The point of exercising is to improve our diabetes management, delay or prevent developing diabetic complications, and to each live our own best-possible lives. The mode of exercise is a means to that end, to our best selves.