The Effects of a 10-Week Exercise Program on Physiological Variables and Quality of Life in Type 2 Diabetes

The purpose of this study was to determine the interaction between psychological and physiological parameters before and after a 10-week, aerobic training study of sedentary diabetic individuals and sedentary controls. Tests measuring physiological parameters (interstitial NO, blood flow, lactate threshold, VO2 peak and glycosylated hemoglobin) and a quality of life survey were completed before and after training. Nine previously sedentary diabetic (DE, diabetic exerciser) and 10 control sedentary subjects (CE, control exerciser) engaged in 10 weeks of supervised aerobic exercise. A non-training diabetic group (DS, diabetic sedentary, n=12) and a non-training control group (CS, control sedentary, n=I0) were also formed. There were no significant differences among age, height, weight, BMI or scores in the PCS or MCS in the training and non-training groups. Neither did we find any significant differences between diabetic and the control subjects in the trained or untrained state in either PCS or MCS scores. A significant increase occurred in lactate threshold with training (p=0.002), which was different between groups (p<0.05). Percent body fat decreased as a result of training (p<0.05). No significant differences were found between subject groups due to training for BMI, NO, or BF. Neither training nor diabetes affected the mental and physical composite scores of the SF36v2 Health Survey. Another study monitoring participants over a longer period of time may be more effective in demonstrating changes in the PCS and MCS scores.