Increased physical activity may blunt blood sugar spikes in diabetes patients

France: Increasing physical exercise may blunt the glycemic excursions during the next day which can help motivate people to engage in physical activity, suggests a recent study in the journal Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics. 

"Because health-related benefits of physical activity take time to be evident, such short-term physiological benefits could serve as personalized feedback to help motivate people to indulge in healthy behaviors," Douae El Fatouhi and colleagues wrote in their study. 

Disturbance of blood sugar control and large glycemic variability has been linked with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in the general population and increased complications in diabetes patients. Long-term health benefits of physical activity are well documented but not much is known about the timing of potential short-term effects on glycemic control and variability in free-living conditions.

Against the above background, Dr. Fatouhi and the team aimed to explore the associations of device-measured physical activity expressed as daily step count with various glycemic control and variability indices derived from 13 days of CGM in adults without diabetes from the Food & You (FAY) digital cohort.

For this purpose, the researchers analyzed data from the 85 participants without diabetes from the FAY digital cohort. During a follow-up of 2-weeks, device-based daily step count was studied in relationship to glycemic control and variability indices using generalized estimating equations. 

Glycemic indices including minimum, maximum, mean, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation of daily glucose values, the glucose management indicator, and the approximate area under the sensor glucose curve were evaluated using the flash glucose monitoring devices (FreeStyle Libre). 

"Our study revealed that daily step count is inversely associated with certain glycemic control indices in adults from the general population, specifically with maximum glucose values, mean glucose, and with the glucose management indicator of the next day," wrote the authors. Thye further added, "increasing the total volume of physical activity may be linked to slightly reduce maximum glucose excursions during the next day among those without diabetes."

"To clarify the associations between physical behaviors and glycemic measures in both larger normoglycemic populations and populations with diabetes further studies are warranted," they concluded.

Reference:

Douae El Fatouhi, Harris Héritier, Chloé Allémann, Laurent Malisoux, Nasser Laouali, Jean-Pierre Riveline, Marcel Salathé, and Guy Fagherazzi.Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics.Mar 2022.167-177.http://doi.org/10.1089/dia.2021.0294

KEYWORDS: blood sugar, exercise, physical activity, glycemic control, Douae El Fatouhi, Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics, continuous glucose monitoring, digital health, wearable activity trackers, CGM, diabetes