Walk Away from Diabetes

A new study, published in the journal Diabetes Care, suggests that even small amounts of physical activity can reduce the incidence of diabetes by up to 29%. The study focused on native American communities known to have low physical activity levels and high incidences of diabetes. The 1,800 participants, none of whom had diabetes at the  beginning of the study, were required to wear a pedometer for a week to measure the number of steps they traveled per day. A quarter of the group had very low levels of physical activity; less than 3,500 steps per day, while half the group took fewer than 7,800 steps. After five years of followup, about 17% of the lowest activity group developed diabetes, as opposed to 12% of the people who took more than 3500 steps per day. After taking other risk factors into account, the study concluded that the people who walked the most were 29% less likely to develop the blood sugar condition than the people who walked the least.