NEW YORK: Resistance training may not only help to build muscle in older people, it may also be warding off type 2 diabetes, a new study demonstrates.

Thirty-six men and women in their early 60s experienced significant improvements in glucose tolerance after a 12-week resistance-training regimen, Dr Wayne W. Campbell of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and his colleagues found.

“The idea that you could actually improve your glucose tolerance by about 25 per cent to 30 per cent with 12 weeks of strength exercise without having any weight loss, which is a typical therapy for this, is very encouraging,” Campbell told reporters.

People lose their ability to metabolise sugar effectively as they age, even if they’re otherwise healthy, Campbell and his team note in their report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. And the weight gain that frequently accompanies aging worsens glucose tolerance and compounds diabetes risk. One in five Americans older than 60 years has type 2 diabetes, they add.

There is evidence that resistance training can improve glucose tolerance, while adequate protein levels are necessary for resistance trainers and may even improve changes in body composition and glucose tolerance that come with weightlifting, the researchers note.

To investigate how resistance exercise and dietary protein affect metabolism, the researchers had the study participants work out on resistance machines three times a week for 12 weeks.—Reuters