Less TV and More Exercise = Less Chance of Diabetes After Pregnancy

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Less TV, More Exercise = Less Chance of Diabetes After Pregnancy

Although women with a history of gestational diabetes are at exceptionally high risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus, if they keep active and minimize the amount of TV they watch, they may lower this risk, researchers report.

In new research — a large prospective cohort study of women with a history of gestational diabetes — those who met US federal guidelines for physical activity had a 45% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, independent of body mass index (BMI) and other major risk factors.

The results indicate that such women “should exercise regularly and try to comply with the US federal guidance of at least 150 minutes/week of moderate-intensity exercise [such as brisk walking] or 75 minutes/week of vigorous exercise, such as jogging,” senior author Cuilin Zhang, MD, from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, in Rockville, MD, told Medscape Medical News in an email.

While upping exercise appeared to ward off diabetes in these high-risk women, the opposite habit — sitting transfixed in front of a television — was associated with an increased risk of developing diabetes, largely due to increased BMI.

“TV watching typically acts as a sedentary replacement for physical activity, leading to a reduction in energy expenditure,” Dr. Zhang noted. It “is associated with ‘mindless’ eating, [and viewers] may be influenced by commercial food advertisements for nutrient-poor, high-calorie foods.”

The study was published online May 19 in JAMA Internal Medicine, by Wei Bao, MD, PhD, also of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and colleagues.

JAMA Intern Med. Published online May 19, 2014. Abstract Editorial

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