Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Sedentary behavior linked to high blood sugar

By Michelle Rizzo
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who tend to be sedentary -- as indicated by the amount of time they spend watching television -- are likely to have high levels of glucose in their blood, even though they may not be diabetic.
Dr. David W. Dunstan, of the International Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues examined the association between television viewing and blood glucose levels, measured after fasting and after a glucose test-drink, in 3781 men and 4576 women in Australia. All of the subjects were free of diabetes at the time.
An interviewer assessed the participants' self-reported television viewing time in the previous week.
After accounting for physical activity time and for factors that can affect blood glucose, the investigators found that the more time women spent television viewing, the higher were their blood glucose levels two hours after they took the glucose test-drink.
This was not seen in men, according to the team's report in the medical journal Diabetes Care.

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