People with Type 2 Diabetes are advised to exercise to manage blood glucose, but should they also provide timing advice?
Whilst many in the health and wellness industry advocate early morning activity, research released earlier this year showed that afternoons may be better for people with Type 2 Diabetes.
A study of 2,400 people showed that those who participated in moderate or vigorous physical activity in the afternoon had the greatest reduction in blood glucose levels. Reducing blood glucose levels lowers the risk for Type 2 Diabetics of vision impairment, heart and kidney disease. The afternoon exercise group in this study also had the highest chance of stopping their glucose diabetes medications.
Further study will be needed to understand why exercising in the afternoon has this impact, and what the process is. Meanwhile, this is great news for sports clubs, intervention leaders, and time-poor participants as the period after work is usually easier to staff, and for participants with children.
Sports clubs in the United Kingdom have offered programs for adults, with or at risk of Type 2 Diabetes or cardiovascular disease, in parallel to children’s sport. This removed the barrier of childcare for parents, and repurposed waiting time for health improvement.
“According to the Global Burden of Disease, 462 million people have Type 2 Diabetes and a million die from it each year,” said Sport Health The CEO, Bastien Wallace.
“The more we can improve our understanding of what works to help combat this disease, and then apply it to benefit people, the better,” said Bastien.
Applying this research can help enhance the delivery of community sport- based programs. Collecting data from these programs could also help lead researchers to the next breakthrough.
Sport Health Tech is developing tools to make measurement easier, check out our website for details.
