Fear of a having a low blood sugar crash dissuades many people with type 1 diabetes from getting the exercise they need, a new study finds. However, people were more likely to engage in exercise if their doctor discussed how to manage their diabetes while working out, researchers reported Thursday at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting in Madrid. “In order to break down the barriers to physical activity and empower our patients to exercise safely and effectively, we need to improve the education we provide and our dialogue about exercise in clinics,” said lead researcher Catriona Farrell, a clinical senior lecturer in diabetes with the University of Dundee in Scotland. “In turn, this should help them to achieve the multitude of health benefits that exercise offers.” Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks the pancreas, severely damaging or destroying its ability to make insulin. As a result, people must constantly monitor their blood sugar levels and take insulin daily. People with type 1 diabetes can receive a multitude of health benefits from regular exercise, Farrell said. “Regular exercise can help individuals with diabetes to achieve their blood glucose goals, improve their body composition and fitness, as well as reduce their risk of heart attacks and strokes, which is higher in people with type 1…  read on >  read on >

In exercise bike tests, twentysomethings who’d been vaping for at least two years had much lower exercise capacity than those who didn’t, and the losses were equal to those of folks who’d spent a similar amount of time smoking. The vaping young adults “found it harder to breath, their muscles became more fatigued, and they were less fit overall,” said study lead author Dr. Azmy Faisal of Manchester Metropolitan University in the U.K. “In this regard, our research indicated that vaping is no better than smoking,” said Faisal, who presented the findings Sunday in Madrid at the annual meeting of the European Respiratory Society (ERS). According to Faisal, it’s long been known that the use of e-cigarettes “is linked to lung inflammation and damage, and harmful changes to the blood vessels.” But for young smokers, could a switch to vaping still be healthier? In an ERS news release, he said the jury is still out on that. “We don’t yet know what longer-term vaping use does to our bodies,” he explained. To help find out, the Manchester team recruited 60 people in their 20s, all of whom appeared to have normal lung function based on standard tests. Twenty neither vaped nor smoked, 20 had vaped for at least two years and 20 had smoked for at least 2 years. Each participant was subjected to exercise…  read on >  read on >

Participation in youth sports is becoming a “haves” versus “have-nots” situation, a new study shows. Income, education and social class are determining who can play in youth sports leagues, with the children of more privileged families more likely to hit the field or court, researchers reported recently in the journal Leisure/Loisir. “Childhood social class matters when it comes to whether you have the opportunity to participate in organized sports, something which is a relatively recent development,” said lead researcher Chris Knoester, a professor of sociology at Ohio State University. “We found that privileged families seem to be leveraging their advantages to strategically and intentionally invest in organized sports participation,” Knoester said in a Ohio State news release. “That can give their children big benefits.” For the study, researchers analyzed data from a survey conducted in 2018 and 2019 at Ohio State in which nearly 4,000 American adults were asked about their sports participation as children. There’s been a significant increase over the past 60 years in kids playing organized sports, results showed. About 70% of American kids who turned 18 by 2015-16 said they took part in some sort of organized youth sports, up from slightly more than half of those born in the 1950s, researchers said. However, children from privileged families are increasingly dominating organized sports, the study found. There were essentially no class…  read on >  read on >

A quality physical education program involves more than just getting kids to move for a set amount of time during the school day, experts say. PE classes can teach lessons not found in any other classroom, Erika Mundt, a PE teacher at Iowa West City High School in Iowa. “A successful PE program can literally change the way a school functions as a whole,” said Mundt, who was the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) America High School PE Teacher of the Year in 2018. “PE involves cooperative learning, acceptance of yourself and others, learning to try new things no matter how good you are, communication, and problem-solving,” Mundt added in a news release from the National Education Association. That’s not to downplay the need for exercise. Physical activity during the school day is essential for student mental health, Mundt said, particularly following the pandemic. “I just hope that school districts and administrators take into consideration PE when they are trying to catch up with the pandemic and realizing that cutting PE and cutting activity time isn’t the way to get students to learn more,” Mundt said. “PE is an efficient way to help kids learn more.” Kids learn more and stress less when they take PE, said Cara Grant, president-elect of SHAPE America. “As young as early elementary school, students discover how physical…  read on >  read on >

Folks can overcome their genetic risk for type 2 diabetes through healthy diet and regular exercise, a new study says. A healthy lifestyle reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes by 70% among a group of people with a high genetic likelihood of developing the metabolic disorder, researchers found. In fact, healthy behaviors had a greater impact on their risk than it did for people with a low genetic propensity for type 2 diabetes, results showed. A healthy diet and exercise had a statistically insignificant impact on the diabetes risk of those with low-risk genetics, researchers found. Nevertheless, “these findings encourage everyone to make lifestyle changes that promote health,” said lead researcher Maria Lankinen, a lecturer in nutrition with the University of Eastern Finland. That’s because all participants tended to achieve better blood sugar control and lost weight if they engaged in a healthy lifestyle, researchers said. The three-year study involved nearly 1,000 men ages 50 to 75 in eastern Finland. More than 600 of the men received guidance on healthy lifestyle, while the rest served as a control group. Genetic risk was determined based on 76 gene variants known to increase risk of type 2 diabetes, researchers said. However, during the study neither the participants nor the researchers knew to which risk group each individual belonged. Men receiving the lifestyle guidance significantly improved the…  read on >  read on >

Many people with disabilities aren’t getting the exercise they need because fitness centers don’t offer adaptive equipment or staff trained in helping the disabled, a new review finds. There are few efforts by most commercial gyms to promote fitness for people with disabilities, said review author Alexandra Jamieson, a research scientist at The University of Texas at Arlington Research Institute. “The biggest barriers to fitness are accessibility and cost,” Jamieson said in a university news release. “Standard gyms are not legally required to have adaptive machines for users of differing abilities. Plus, there is generally a lack of data about the demand for these adaptive machines that would help gyms justify the higher costs of adding them.” About one in every six people (16%) live with a significant disability that affects their daily life, researchers wrote. But only about 40% of the disabled engage in regular physical activity, the review noted. As a result, they’re more likely to suffer from chronic illnesses like heart disease, stroke, diabetes or cancer, and are at higher risk for mental illnesses like depression and anxiety. “Many people with disabilities struggle with psychological issues such as low self-esteem and negative body image, which can further reduce their motivation to participate in exercise activities, especially in public places like gyms,” Jamieson said. On top of not having the proper equipment and…  read on >  read on >