Taking a stroll after meals can tackle diabetes

By Ben Spencer

Taking a ten-minute stroll after each meal could help people with type two diabetes control their condition, experts have found.

Patients who exercised three times a day, after breakfast, lunch and dinner, had lower blood sugar levels than those who went for a single 30-minute walk each day.

People with type two diabetes are currently encouraged to carry out regular physical activity - but are not given advice about when to do this exercise.

The scientists, whose results were published in the Diabetologia medical journal, called for a change in guidelines.

They found that people who took regular exercise within five minutes of finishing their meals, saw their blood sugar drop 22 per cent immediately after their walk, and 12 per cent lower overall than people who went for a single walk a day.

The researchers, from the University of Otago in New Zealand, wrote: ‘Although the prescriptions were matched in total walking time, the advice to walk after each main meal resulted in significantly greater overall activity.

‘The improvement in overall postprandial glycaemia was largely accounted for by lower blood glucose levels after the evening meal, when carbohydrate consumption was high and participants tended to be more sedentary.’

The scientists, who carried out their research on 41 volunteers, think people will also be more likely to be consistently go for short walks, several times a day, than a single longer walk.

They did not explore exactly why exercising after meals was more effective, but previous research suggests muscular contractions shortly after eating helps transport the newly digested glucose into the muscle cells, without the need for insulin.

A second study, also published in the Diabetologia journal, suggests that regular exercise by healthy people significantly reduces they chance they will develop diabetes in the first place.

That research, by the University of Cambridge and University College London, suggests that people who walk for 30 minutes a day, five times a week, have a 26 per cent lower chance of developing type two diabetes

And the more exercise they do, the greater the benefit.

People who carry out an hour of exercise every day reduce their risk of by 40 per cent, independent of other factors such as diet.

The study gathered data from previous studies involving more than a million people.

Nearly 4million people in the UK have type two diabetes, and 12million more are at risk of developing the disease.

The NHS advises that everyone does moderate exercise such as walking, cycling or swimming at least 150 minutes a week, or 30 minutes five times a week.

But surveys have revealed that 44 per cent do no regular exercise at all.

Researcher Dr Soren Brage, of Cambridge University, said: ‘This research shows that some physical activity is good, but more is better.’

Study leader Andrea Smith, of UCL and Cambridge, added: ‘Our results suggest a major potential for physical activity to slow down or reverse the global increase in type two diabetes.

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