Does your body have a diabetes switch?

You might remember the research by the Mayo Clinic that showed you can turn off your body’s aging switch with high-intensity interval training (HIIT).

Basically, it found that HIIT can increase the function of the powerhouses of your cells – your mitochondria – in order to give every cell in your body the energy they need to work like they did when you were younger. This means that if you want to stave off aging, the best way to exercise is in short bursts at high intensity.

But, what if you want to turn off your body’s type 2 diabetes switch? Will exercise work? And, do you need to do HIIT or will any level of physical activity do?

Luckily, researchers at Cardiff Metropolitan University have investigated that exact question…

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Decreased inflammation lowers your diabetes risk

The scientists asked 20 normally sedentary people who were at risk of developing diabetes to walk briskly for 45 minutes, three times a week, for eight weeks.

This level of activity would be considered moderately intense exercise.

And, even though there was no change in the volunteers’ weight, blood pressure or cholesterol level, the participants lost on average six centimeters around their middles.

And, what’s even more significant is that they reduced their risk of type 2 diabetes.

The benefits didn’t stop there either…

The link to your immune system

The researchers found that exercise, even at only moderate intensity caused changes in the monocytes of the volunteers. You may remember that term from high school biology – it’s a cell that floats around in your bloodstream and is part of your immune system.

These changes in the monocytes led to reductions in the levels of inflammation in the exercisers’ bodies, important reductions since inflammation is one of the main risk factors for type 2 diabetes.

So, what’s the connection between monocytes and inflammation levels?

When your body is under attack from foreign invaders like the germs that can make you sick, your monocytes turn into macrophages that gobble up the germs, saving you from infection. And, there are two primary versions of macrophages, called M1 and M2.

The M1 macrophages are vital for battling the infections that try to take you down, but they’re also associated with inflammation. Now, in an ideal world, they would only activate when you need them, like when you’ve been exposed to a cold or the flu and you need them in order to stay well.

However, if you’re carrying around extra weight and don’t exercise, they become active even when you don’t need to fight off infection, leading to a chronic state of inflammation that could trigger diabetes.

Now, the M2 macrophages are different than those M1 macrophages. Instead of promoting inflammation, they actually turn it off. And, that is where exercise comes in.

You see, scientist have found that exercise leads to a healthier balance of M1 and M2 macrophages, which can not only optimize your body’s ability to fight infections but also prevent the inflammation that could lead to blood sugar problems.

In fact, exercise has been shown to work on two levels…

First, it helps to reduce inflammation because there are less macrophages present in fat tissue.

And, second a study in obese rats demonstrated that acute exercise leads to a shift from the M1 macrophages that increase inflammation, to the M2 macrophages that dampen inflammation – a state that resulted in a decrease in insulin resistance.

The right answer is the one that works for you

Put simply, there’s no hard and fast answer of which intensity of workout is best for staving off diabetes since studies of both acute (high intensity) and moderate exercise levels have proven their power to significantly reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

If you decide to try HIIT to turn off both your diabetes and your aging switch at the same time, check out this 3-minute HIIT post by my colleague, Dr. Mark Wiley, to learn how to perform the exercise.

But if HIIT isn’t for you, you can find all sorts of exercises, from yoga to strength training — and even exercise that won’t hurt your joints — in our home workout section.

Just remember to choose the type of exercise that best fits your lifestyle and that you can easily stick to — because no exercise will help you prevent blood sugar problems if you don’t actually do it.