Our laboratory at Tufts University just published a very important study in the December issue of Diabetes Care regarding strength training and type 2 diabetes. Dr. Carmen Castaneda, a close colleague of mine, led the research endeavor. Sixty-two older men and women were randomized into either a strength-training program or a "usual care" control group. After sixteen weeks, the men and women in the strength-training group experienced significant improvements in glucose control, had reductions in blood pressure, became stronger, gained muscle, and lost body fat. In addition, most of the volunteers in the strength-training group were able to reduce their intake of diabetes medications. The results were even better than we anticipated!

There are a couple of interesting elements to this study. All of the volunteers were Hispanic and none of them had done anything like this before. Despite the novelty of the exercise, they all did very well and most of them really enjoyed the exercise. The reason to study Hispanic older adults was driven by the fact that the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Hispanics is double that of Caucasians. Additional research from Australia shows us that the findings are also applicable to the general population.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has called diabetes "the epidemic of our time." Today, there are 16 million Americans with type 2 diabetes, a 700 percent increase from 1960. In addition, there are another 16 million people who are pre-diabetic. Forty years ago, when type 2 diabetes (which constitutes over 90 percent of all cases) was called "maturity-onset" diabetes, it was considered a disease that appeared in the elderly. Times have changed. Now even adolescents get type 2 diabetes! The reasons for the dramatic increase in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes are the increase in obesity along with poor nutrition and inadequate exercise.

We have known for many years that exercise helps to improve glucose control in type 2 diabetes. Most of the research has looked at aerobic exercise. Now we know that strength training is a critical element in the arsenal of holistic treatments to help women and men control their type 2 diabetes!