Introduction
Physical exercise significantly affects the management and prevention of diabetes, together with the overall health of individuals. Physical exercise includes activities that maintain the body’s general well-being and physical and mental state. Exercise significantly impacts glucose levels within the body, reducing risk factors such as cardiovascular and preventing and delaying the onset of diabetes. It has become a prevalent epidemic because of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes has a significant economic burden in society, which continues to expand, bringing the need for preventive measures such as exercise.
Discussion
Although diabetes affects individuals of all ages, it can be prevented by controlling the cholesterol and weight of individuals, blood glucose levels, and blood pressure. Exercise helps manage blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, stroke, and cholesterol which are mainly associated with the development of diabetes. It is crucial in retarding the developmental stage of diabetes and reversing the process. Many people are unaware that type 2 diabetes can be prevented by exercising regularly (Seidu et al., 2021). Individuals at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes and are associated with regular exercise tend to have a lower affinity for developing diabetes than their counterparts.
Abdominal fats located in the tummy region are stored within the abdominal cavity and surround several vital organs, including the liver, intestines, and pancreas. This fat can be grouped into visceral fats, subcutaneous, and ectopic. Visceral fat is associated with diabetes-related risks. It releases retinol-binding protein, which promotes insulin resistance in the human body and leads to high blood sugar levels, leading to diabetes (Helmer, Kempf, and Laimer, 2019).
This issue is common among individuals who are obese. Exercising is helpful among this group as it is an adjunct therapy when used with a proper diet. Obese individuals require a combination of exercise and a proper diet to promote weight loss, which reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes (Helmer, Kempf, and Laimer, 2019). Through exercise, obese people can reduce their weight consistently, lowering visceral adiposity and reducing the chance of developing diabetes. Although exercise requires a combination with a proper diet, it has proven effective. Obese individuals are prone to weight gain when not including regular exercise in their daily activities.
Aerobic and restrictive exercise have a significant impact on the prevention of diabetes. Aerobic exercise involves activities that increase the heart rate for a given period. It includes walking, swimming, jogging, or cycling (Blatt and Gostic, 2018). These activities help reduce insulin resistance by increasing cardiorespiratory fitness and promoting heart functionality. Exercise delays the development of type 2 diabetes by enhancing insulin sensitivity (Blatt and Gostic, 2018).
It also indirectly benefits body composition and mass by reducing fat levels. Aerobic and resistive exercises are critical in lowering the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and managing weight loss. This exercise promotes resting metabolic rate by promoting GLUT4 protein content and enhancing glucose metabolism through glycogen synthase activity (Blatt and Gostic, 2018). Exercise promotes muscle quality and insulin sensitivity together with reducing C-reactive protein and free fatty acids.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus results from the insulin resistance mechanism, which reduces glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) expression in the muscle, which is linked with decreased biogenesis and mitochondrial dysfunction. Glucose uptake in skeletal muscle relies on the translocation of GLUT4 (Yang et al., 2019). The process involves insulin-induced movement from the intracellular to the plasma membrane. Exercise has a significant role in mediating the translocation of the GLUT4 as it bypasses the insulin action through the proximal signaling mechanism. Regular and long-term exercise significantly increases the GLUT4 protein expression in the skeletal muscle cells, enhancing its translocation to the cell membrane. This process promotes skeletal muscle ability in the increasing uptake of glucose and transport (Yang et al., 2019).
Endurance exercise has proven to enhance the mitochondrial capacity in skeletal muscle cells. Additionally, it increases the mitochondrial oxidase process and regulates the lipid content in the mitochondria, thereby improving the mitochondria’s function in glucose oxidation. Exercise increases the expression of mitochondrial biogenesis marker together with cytochrome C oxidase IV protein which is part of the enzyme activity.
Muscle tissue is a target for insulin; exercising helps increase these muscles’ strength, plus enlarges the quadriceps muscles’ cross-sectional area. This results in more insulin receptors enhancing their sensitivity (Harrington and Henson, 2021). Exercise amplifies insulin signals promoting the transduction of the intracellular signal pathways. It can be noted that exercise enhances the efficiency of insulin’s physiological effects. Glucose can be taken to skeletal muscles through non-insulin-dependent and insulin-dependent pathways. Acute exercise support non-insulin dependent pathway hence regulating glucose in the insulin resistance state. This is critical in individuals who are a risk of developing diabetes.
Increased exercise activity and intensity are essential in consuming the lipid and glucose accumulated in the body. This process relieves the body’s lipotoxicity and glucotoxicity on pancreatic β-Cells, which results from the internal environment having hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia (Klimek-Tulwin et al., 2019). Additionally, it helps reduce oxidative stress, tissue injury, and inflammation of the pancreas. Exercise helps maintain the endocrine levels by recovering damaged islets and protecting residual pancreatic β-Cells. These cells respond to the exercise stimulus and increase insulin secretion, which regulates glycolipid metabolism, meeting daily needs. Exercising has a crucial effect on insulin regulation as it changes secretion, improving glycemic control.
Exercise is crucial in promoting induced lipid metabolism. Type 2 diabetes is associated with abnormal metabolism, mainly involving low levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and high triglyceride levels linked to cardiovascular risk infections. Exercise is useful in increasing the levels of blood lipid profile (Hjerkind, Stenehjem, and Nilsen, 2017). Aerobic resistance exercise enhances catecholamine secretion, increasing lipase enzymatic activity and accelerating lipid hydrolysis. This process converts the lipid into fatty acids, which are transferred to target cells. The process reduces the accumulation of catecholamine intracellular lipids, alleviating peripheral insulin resistance.
Obesity and systemic inflation have a common relationship linked by the concentration of inflammatory markers, including C reactive protein, IL-1β, cytokines, IL-6, and TNF-α. Obese patients having type 2 diabetes have higher levels of inflammation than healthy people. When a person is obese, Toll-like receptor 4 is activated using fatty acids, which results in systemic inflammation. This change results in a subsequent inflammatory pathway resulting in phosphorylation dysfunction (Klimek-Tulwin et al., 2019). Regular exercise reduces the production of proinflammatory cytokines and visceral fat storage, maintaining normal insulin signals by lessening systemic inflammation. Furthermore, some anti-inflammatory factors are released into the bloodstream when exercising.
Conclusion
In conclusion, exercise has a critical role in preventing diabetes. It helps control cholesterol, weight, blood glucose, and blood pressure. The abdominal visceral fats promote insulin resistance leading to the development of diabetes. This issue is prevalent in obese people, and regular exercise reduces visceral adiposity. Aerobic and restrictive exercises such as walking, swimming, jogging, and cycling lower insulin resistance by enhancing cardiorespiratory fitness. Exercise promotes glucose uptake and its utilization by mediating the translocation of GLUT4. It also improves insulin sensitivity by strengthening the muscles. Furthermore, it protects the functionality of the pancreatic β-Cells and also increases lipid hydrolysis oxidation. Regular exercise lowers the production of inflammatory markers hence alleviating systemic inflammation.
Reference List
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Hjerkind, K.V., Stenehjem, J.S. and Nilsen, T.I. (2017) ‘Adiposity, physical activity and risk of diabetes mellitus: Prospective data from the population-based Hunt study, Norway’, BMJ Open, 7(1), pp. 1–10. Web.
Klimek-Tulwin, M. et al. (2019) ‘Physical activity in prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus’, Journal of Education, Health and Sport, 9(9), pp. 1175–1181. Web.
Seidu, S. et al. (2021) ‘The importance of physical activity in management of type 2 diabetes and covid-19’, Therapeutic Advances in Endocrinology and Metabolism, 12. Web.
Yang, D. et al. (2019) ‘Physical exercise as therapy for type 2 diabetes mellitus: From mechanism to orientation’, Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, 74(4), pp. 313–321. Web.