Diabetes Risk Reduced by Working Out and Increasing Muscle Mass

Working out could be beneficial in more ways than one after a new study conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, suggests that increasing body muscle may reduce the risk of diabetes. The researchers analyzed data of more than 13,600 adults who participated in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III between 1988 and 1994.

The researchers looked into the link between diabetes and skeletal muscle index (SMI), which is the ratio of muscle mass to total body weight, and found that for every increase of 10 percent of SMI, the risk of type 2 diabetes reduced by 11 percent.

Writing in the report, which has been published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, UCLA’s Dr Preethi Srikanthan said, “This is a welcome message for many overweight patients who experience difficulty in achieving weight loss, as any effort to get moving and keep fit should be seen as laudable and contributing to metabolic change.”



Source-Medindia