The correlation between physical fitness and illness has been established yet again. Teenagers who are not physically fit are at a higher risk of diabetes later in life, even if they manage to maintain their weight.
The facts were presented on the basis of a study involving approximately 1.5 million Swedes. The participants had undergone physical fitness tests at the age of 18, while being conscripted into the military. Researchers followed their medical history up to the age of 62.
The researchers found that, "The combination of low aerobic capacity and low muscle strength at age 18 is associated with a three times greater risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes in adulthood."
Translating into figures, of the 1.5 million participants, 34,008 men were diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.
"This is the first study to examine early-life physical fitness in relation to the long-term risk for Type 2 Diabetes in adulthood, independent of BMI, family history or socioeconomic factors," said Casey Crump, M.D., Vice Chair for Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and lead author of the study. "Our findings suggest that prevention should start early in life and should include both aerobic and muscular conditioning. We hope our research will help inform more effective lifestyle interventions among children and youth to promote better population health in the U.S. and other countries."
"Our research group is also studying the effects of aerobic fitness, muscular strength and BMI on other health outcomes, including ischemic heart disease and cancer. We need more longitudinal measurements of physical fitness over individuals' life course to determine age windows of greatest susceptibility to its effects on Type 2 Diabetes," she added.
The only limitation of the study was that it did not include women, nor did it "measure physical fitness at older ages."
"This research has enormous implications for the work we have been doing in our department, promoting adequate physical education programs in schools and the need for safe play spaces for children and teens in our communities. Addressing these problems has now been proven to be of critical importance in preventing adult diabetes," said Neil Calman, M.D., Professor and Chair of Family Medicine and Community Health, Mount Sinai Health System.
The team was led by Dr. Casey Crump of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. The study was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and has been published in the journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, on March 7.
