Walking to prevent adult diabetes

Exercise alone isn't enough in the fight against diabetes, women have got to drop the weight as well, according to a new study by Brigham and Women's Hospital.

While walking a few days a week may help your heart, it won't offer much in preventing adult diabetes if a woman isn't at normal weight, said Dr. Michael Gaziano, the senior author who works at the Brigham and the VA Hospital.

"If you exercise you can reduce the chances a little bit," said Gaziano, whose findings were published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. "But you can't get it back to where it was unless you lose that weight.", reports Boston Herald.

The research, published in today's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, was conducted on 906 women who were prescribed a coronary angiography -- a test that measures blockages in the arteries of the heart. Practically speaking, that meant many already had a number of risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

The vast majority of the women in the study, 76 per cent, were overweight or obese and just over 70 per cent were virtually sedentary. Their average age was 58.

During the four-year study period, 68 of the women died and 455 suffered a heart attack or stroke.

When the data were analyzed by categories of weight and activity, women who were active, even moderately, turned out to be far less likely to develop heart problems than the sedentary women, regardless of how much they weighed. (The fitness of the participants in the study was judged based on a questionnaire that estimated their daily energy expenditure.), informs the Globe and Mail.

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