HHS HealthBeat (October 22, 2012)

Lifting away type 2 diabetes

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Nicholas Garlow with HHS HealthBeat.

Men who do weight training consistently may reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes. Add aerobic exercise to their routine, and their risk may drop even more. Researchers followed 32,000 men for two decades, adjusting results for other lifestyle factors. Men who did at least 150 minutes of weight training a week cut their risk of type 2 diabetes by more than 30 percent.

Frank Hu is a professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.

“Men who did aerobic exercise and weight training, their risk was reduced by more than 60 percent.”

Hu suggests men include both aerobic and weight training into their daily lives, to get the most benefit.

The study in Archives of Internal Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at healthfinder.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Nicholas Garlow.

Last revised: October 22, 2012