Benefits of Aerobic Exercise

In a recent study at The Yale University School of Medicine, researchers compared the effects of aerobic exercise on insulin resistance in two groups of adults. Participants in the first group had one or both parents with non–insulin dependent diabetes and in the second group neither parent of the participant had diabetes.

After only six weeks of exercise, both muscle glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis doubled. Those individuals who were genetically insulin dependent became insulin-sensitive in just six weeks. (N Engl J Med 96;335:1357–1362) The program utilized in this study consisted of exercising at 65 percent of maximal capacity for 15 minutes, three times a day, for three days each week. It found that this duration and frequency of aerobic exercise cut the risk level of developing diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease in genetically predisposed individuals to the same level as individuals without these risk factors.

Simple aerobic exercise totally negated the risk caused by a genetic weakness. This certainly qualifies as the “poor man’s form of genetic therapy.” Can you imagine the news coverage a story like this would receive if someone were able to achieve these results using some very expensive, gene-altering, high-tech therapy? A moderately intensive aerobic exercise program may not have the “selling power” of something like genetic engineering or DNA replacement. But when you consider that it’s free, it’s currently available to everyone we should all use it!