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Date: 22 May 2012
Time: 17:01
Does exercise help diabetes patients?
Story posted/last updated: 28 February 2011
A new study to assess the benefits of exercise for people with type 1 diabetes is about to start in Birmingham.
Type 1 diabetes often occurs in younger people and they will need immediate treatment with insulin. It is different from type 2 diabetes, which is associated with being overweight and which can be treated through diet and tablets initially.
The benefits of exercise have been investigated in type 2 diabetes, but it is not certain whether the same benefits apply to type 1 diabetes.
The study is being funded through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under its Research for Patient Benefit Programme (RfPB) and will recruit throughout the West Midlands and South West England. Birmingham has secured £249,000 of the total funding.
The study aims to investigate the benefits of regular exercise in adults newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. In particular it will examine whether exercise can preserve insulin secretion, which is important for controlling blood sugar levels. Controlling blood sugar levels in patients with type 1 diabetes is the cornerstone to reducing the risks of diabetic complications such as blindness and kidney failure.
The research will be coordinated by the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility, based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and involves University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), the University of Birmingham, University of Bristol and University of Bath.
Newly-diagnosed patients over the age of 16 will be recruited over two years, starting mid-March 2011, and will remain in the study for a year.
They will be randomly allocated into two groups, with one group receiving normal treatment and the other encouraged to also adhere to a simple and safe exercise programme which increases their activity levels to 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week – the level recommended by the Department of Health.
Dr Parth Narendran, diabetes consultant at UHB, said: “There is already some evidence that exercise can preserve insulin production in healthy people and patients with other forms of diabetes. We now need to find out if this is also the case for patients with type 1 diabetes.
“The type 1 diabetes patients in the study group will get support from exercise experts, monitoring, regular contact and an individualised programme. The exercise can take any form, for example in the gym (for which the patients will get free membership), walking or swimming.”
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