Diabetics can "Pick up the pace" to improve health

Last Updated: 2006-07-05 12:30:24 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A small study of overweight individuals with type 2 diabetes shows that people get can get more out of their daily walks by picking up the pace.

Among eight adults with type 2 diabetes already walking a little more than the recommended 10,000 steps per day, a "Pick Up the Pace" program increased walking speeds, and therefore intensity of walking, to a level that elicited significant improvements in heart and respiratory fitness over 12 weeks.

"The program used simple tools (pedometer and stopwatch) and a simple message to pick up the pace," note Steven T. Johnson of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and colleagues in the journal Diabetes Care.

In the study, participants determined their normal walking pace by counting steps taken in a 10-minute walk using a pedometer. This information was used to establish a "training cadence" that was 10 percent above their usual pace.

For example, if someone usually walked 90 steps in a minute, they increased the pace to 100 steps per minute. They walked at their training pace for 30 minutes a day, 3 days a week for 12 weeks.

The Pick Up the Pace program led to significant improvements in subject's heart rate response to exercise and decreases in their blood sugar levels.

In a prior study, Johnson and colleagues found that individuals with type 2 diabetes naturally walk at a speed that is slower than that associated with the minimal intensity needed to derive health benefits, despite increasing the number of steps taken in a day.

"The main finding of this study," they say, "is that a pedometer and a stopwatch can...facilitate increased walking intensity" for people with type 2 diabetes, leading to health benefits.

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, July 2006.

Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

Abdominal fat may raise colon cancer risk

Last Updated: 2006-07-05 16:12:25 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Adults who carry much of their fat around the middle may be at increased risk of colon cancer, a large European study suggests.

Researchers found that among nearly 370,000 adults from nine European countries, men and women with large waistlines were more likely to develop colon cancer than those who were trimmer around the middle.

Waist size and waist-to-hip ratio, which are both indicators of abdominal obesity, appeared more important in colon cancer risk than does overall weight. In fact, the study found that body mass index (BMI) -- a measure of weight in relation to height -- was unrelated to colon cancer risk among the women.

The findings, reported in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, suggest that abdominal fat holds a particular influence over colon cancer risk.

People with large waistlines often have a high amount of fat around the abdominal organs, and this type of fat is more "metabolically active," explained Dr. Tobias Pischon, a researcher at the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbruecke and the lead author of the study.

It's possible, he told Reuters Health, that this visceral fat increases colon cancer risk by raising levels of certain hormones that affect cell growth, including the growth of cancer cells. For example, the researcher noted, people with type 2 diabetes have a higher rate of colon cancer -- supporting a potential role for the hormones insulin and insulin-like growth factor 1 in promoting tumor cell growth.

Whatever the reason, the new findings point to the importance of preventing abdominal obesity in particular, according to Pischon.

The findings come from a large ongoing study of nutrition and cancer risk among European adults. The researchers included 368,277 men and women who had their weight and body measurements taken and who completed questionnaires on diet, exercise and other lifestyle factors at the start of the study.

Over the next six years, the researchers found that adults with larger midlines were more likely to develop colon cancer. Compared with the slimmest men, those with the largest waistlines were 39 percent more likely to be diagnosed with the cancer; women with the most fat around the middle had a 48-percent higher risk of the disease than those with the smallest waistlines.

BMI was linked to colon cancer risk among men only.

Previous studies have found the same sex difference when it comes to BMI and colon cancer risk, according to Pischon's team. One reason, they note, may be the differences in body fat distribution between men and women.

When a man has a high BMI, it's typically because of fat around the middle. Women, on the other hand, often carry much of their fat around the hips and thighs.

So waist size may be a more accurate predictor of colon cancer risk than overall BMI, particularly for women, according to Pischon.

"Our study shows that it's more important to keep an eye on the waist circumference, especially in women," he said.

SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, July 5, 2006.

Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.