Dutch researchers discovered that something most of us do for hours every day can worsen type 2 diabetes by a scary 39%.
But cut it down by just 26 minutes, and your diabetes may be healed permanently.
The study published in the journal Diabetologia concluded that your risk of developing diabetes increases with every hour you sit.
2,497 subjects (average age of 60) wore an accelerometer for 24 hours a day to measure the time they moved around and time they didn’t.
55.9 percent of the participants had normal glucose metabolism, 15.5 percent had poor glucose metabolism (metabolic syndrome), and 28.6 percent had type 2 diabetes.
Researchers found that every hour of sedentary time increased their chance of developing diabetes by 22 percent and of developing the metabolic syndrome by 39 percent.
That is the depressing part, and we should take it seriously.
But the study also reached some promising conclusions:
1. On average, diabetics sat 26 minutes per day more than non-diabetics did. So to change your metabolic control, you don’t have to run around for hours every day.
Just 26 extra minutes of movement can drop you from the diabetes at-risk group to the low-risk group.
2. Sedentary time increased the participants’ risk of poor metabolic control, regardless of whether or not the physical activities in which they participated during the rest of the day were strenuous or not.
This means that diabetes prevention campaigns can focus on lowering our sedentary time, rather than on high-intensity exercise. So if you hate the gym but you are happy to walk around, your diabetes risk will not increase.
The main thing to take from this study is that lifestyle dramatically influences type 2 diabetes. And by changing your lifestyle, you can cure yours.