Cross-country skiing may reduce type 2 diabetes risk
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
In a cohort of Finnish men, those who went cross-country skiing more frequently and for longer duration had reduced risk for type 2 diabetes vs. those who did not participate in the sport, according to findings published in Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews.
“Though the importance of physical activity in disease prevention is generally well accepted, knowledge of the relationships between specific physical activity types and major chronic diseases could provide insight into whether a particular physical activity type has more benefits compared with others and also whether harm could occur by performing too much of a particular physical activity type,” Setor K. Kunutsor, MD, PhD, a research fellow in evidence synthesis in the musculoskeletal research unit, translational health sciences, of Bristol Medical School at the University of Bristol in the U.K., and colleagues wrote.
In a subanalysis of the Finnish Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease risk factor study, Kunutsor and colleagues analyzed data from 2,483 men aged 42 to 61 years (mean age, 53 years) from Kuopio, Finland, which included 26.1 years of median follow-up time. Participants were recruited from March 1984 to December 1989 and followed for a median of 26.1 years. Participants reported physical activity practices via questionnaire, including habits related to cross-country skiing. The researchers used these data to establish how often and how long the men participated in cross-country skiing as well as the effort expended during a session expressed as units of metabolic equivalent task (MET). The researchers used data from the national hospital discharge registry and the Social Insurance Institution of Finland to confirm diagnoses of type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes was diagnosed for 539 of the participants.
Participants who logged between 1 minute and 60 minutes of cross-country skiing per week had a 27% lower risk for type 2 diabetes vs. those who did not cross-country ski (HR = 0.73; 955 CI, 0.6-0.89), and participants who logged more than 60 minutes had a 36% lower risk (HR = 0.64; 95% CI, 0.5-0.82).
Participants who reported 1 MET to 200 MET hours per year had a 25% lower risk for type 2 diabetes vs. those who did not cross-country ski (HR = 0.75; 95% CI, 0.62-0.92), and those who reported more than 200 MET hours per year had a 41% lower risk (HR = 0.59; 95% CI, 0.46-0.76). The risk reduction plateaued beyond 1,215 MET hours per year, according to the researchers.
“The findings showed that total volume and average duration of cross-country skiing were each inversely and independently associated with future risk of type 2 diabetes,” the researchers wrote. “It seems that most benefits of cross-country skiing in the prevention of type 2 diabetes may be achieved when the total amount in MET hours per year of cross-country skiing is increased from a low to moderate level.” – by Phil Neuffer
Disclosures: The study was funded by the Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research. Kunutsor reports support from the Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland via the Finnish Governmental Research Funding (VTR). See the study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts