According to an Australian study conducted by Dr Paul Fournier of the University of Western Australia it was found that a 10-second sprint after exercise reduces the risk of low blood sugar in young people with insulin-dependent (type 1) diabetes.
This decreases the risk of early post exercise hypoglycemia in individuals with type 1 diabetes. The findings were published in the journal Diabetes Care. This mainly works in case of complication-free type 1 diabetes especially if a source of dietary carbohydrate is not readily available.But he also cautioned that though it is a simple and new procedure it would be premature and irresponsible at this stage to advocate its widespread adoption. Hence much more research is needed to identify whether the target population of type 1 diabetic patients are likely to have a positive response to this treatment. This is because in the research only healthy young individuals have been tested. They have studied in 7 subjects who were an average of 21 years old.
They were asked to perform 20 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, and then it was found that the subjects experienced a rapid and significant decrease in blood glucose levels. After a 10-second maximal sprint immediately following the moderate-intensity exercise stopped a further decline in blood glucose levels for the next two hours.
In contrast, moderate-intensity exercise followed by a rest period led to a further decrease in blood glucose levels. But he said that further research has to be conducted with other groups of type 1 diabetic patients such as children and sedentary middle-aged individuals before accepting it as a finding.
