Why does sports help with diabetes?

Positive effects of sports deprived of diabetes

31.10.2011

Researchers have found out why exercise in type II diabetes is so helpful. For the first time, Marc Donath from the University and University Hospital Basel and colleagues have deciphered the positive mechanism behind the positive effect of sports activities on diabetes.

As the Swiss researchers report, sport has an effect on hormone production in the human organism, which can provide more insulin and normalize the blood sugar level of type 2 diabetes (so-called adult-onset diabetes) in the long term. The recommendation made by most doctors in type 2 diabetics for weight loss and increased physical activity, therefore rightly in diabetes therapy has a particularly high priority.

Obesity reduces insulin production
The development of so-called old-age diabetes often brings together several factors, with obesity and physical inactivity being regarded as significant factors. The pancreas can not produce sufficient insulin in overweight, also decreases the insulin production with age generally and the metabolism reacts in the affected less sensitive to insulin, describe the researchers possible development of diabetes. Significant successes have been achieved with diet changes and exercise in the treatment of type 2 diabetes in the past, although it has remained unclear what precise mechanisms lead to the positive effects of the sport. In this study, the Swiss researchers have now developed an explanatory model of the underlying processes in the human organism.

Sports activates hormones
Marc Donath and colleagues were able to show that activating the muscles during exercise stimulates the production of the molecule interleukin-6 (IL-6). The researchers were also able to decipher the initial unexplained effect of the IL-6: The molecule has a significant influence on the production of hormones in the pancreas. To understand it first requires the explanation of the produced by the L-cells in the gut hormone glucagon-like-peptide-1 (GLP-1). The release of GLP-1 is stimulated after eating as soon as the food reaches the intestine. In the organism, GLP-1 subsequently promotes insulin production, thereby facilitating the breakdown of blood sugar. The Swiss researchers have now been able to show that the GLP-1 release is also stimulated in the muscles during exercise. In addition, Marc Donath and colleagues found that IL-6 reprogrammed the so-called pancreatic islet cells (α-Cells), which subsequently transition from blood sugar-enhancing glucagon production to production of GLP-1. This, in turn, has, according to the researchers result in the so-called β-Cells of the pancreas increasingly release insulin. This will be provided by the change in hormone production in sports activities more insulin in the organism, which reduces blood sugar lasting and can have positive effects on the disease course of diabetes, reports the team around Marc Donath.

This discovered hormone cycle of IL-6 and GLP-1 provides many new options for the therapeutic treatment of diabetes. Thus, for example, with sport a targeted high IL-6 release in the body could be achieved in order to maximize insulin production at certain times. In addition, the efficacy of existing drugs could be increased to prevent the degradation of GLP-1 in the body and thus increase insulin production, if additionally by sport, the IL-6 release is stimulated, so the hope of Donath and colleagues. By combining with sport, the therapeutic success could possibly be significantly improved, emphasized the Swiss researchers. This assumption is currently under investigation in a comprehensive clinical study with overweight and diabetics at the University Hospital Basel, explained the Swiss scientists. Interestingly, researchers also noted that IL-6 is also produced in overweight fatty tissue. Here, too, IL-6 is used to increase insulin production, but these can not be increased in some people just to the extent required and the affected are suffering from diabetes. Physical activity can also help prevent or prevent diabetes through IL6 production, said Donath and colleagues. (Fp)

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Picture: Berlin-Pics