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21-12-2016 | Physical activity | News

News in brief

Interrupting sitting has lasting metabolic benefits

medwireNews: Researchers have expanded on their previous findings to demonstrate that the metabolic benefits of interrupting prolonged sitting with periods of light exercise extend for many hours after the intervention.

Both studies were randomized crossover trials involving 24 sedentary overweight/obese adults with type 2 diabetes who undertook 8-hour sitting periods interrupted every 30 minutes by 3 minutes of light walking or resistance exercises. The first study showed improved glucose and insulin indices during the intervention period; the second now shows that this beneficial effect extends into the post-laboratory free-living period, including while the participants slept overnight.

During the entire 22-hour study period, average glucose levels were 8.9 and 8.7 mmol/L when patients did light walking and resistance exercise, respectively, compared with 11.6 mmol/L for prolonged sitting. And the corresponding average times spent in hyperglycemia were 6.3, 6.3, and 14.7 hours.

During sleeping time, the average glucose levels were 8.1, 8.3, and 10.6 mmol/L after the light walking, resistance, and uninterrupted sitting interventions, respectively, while times spent in hyperglycemia were 1.4, 1.8, and 4.7 hours.

Paddy Dempsey (Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) and team say that their findings, which appear in Diabetologia, “may have implications for adults with relatively well-controlled type 2 diabetes who engage in prolonged periods of sitting, such as in a workplace setting.”

By Eleanor McDermid


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