| dc.description.abstract |
Diabetes, a major public health problem affecting up to 25.8 million people in the USA in 2010 (CDC), has been escalating in recent years. One important issue in the etiology of this disease is diet which is composed more and more of fat and fructose. Chronic exercise has been recommended for human diabetics as a way to attenuate metabolic changes and prevent obesity. This study was undertaken to determine the effects of moderate swim exercise on body fat and metabolic parameters in response to a high fat/high fructose diet in mice. Mice were assigned to one of three groups: Control (standard chow, without exercise, n=10); Sedentary (fat/fructose, without exercise, n=9); and Exercise (fat/fructose, with exercise, n=9). In the Exercise group, mice swam 1 hour/day, 3 days/week for 8 weeks. In humans this is equivalent to a low/moderate training program. The fat/fructose diet produced a syndrome similar to human diabetes. There was high blood sugar, insulin resistance, high body fat (up to 40 percent), and increased metabolic hormones (insulin and leptin). The exercise paradigm prevented the pathological effects for glucose, insulin, leptin, and glucose tolerance. Exercise did not improve body fat or fat cell size. Glycogen storage and tissue morphology were examined in the liver. The high fat/fructose diet depleted glycogen and caused tissue damage, effects which were partially corrected by the moderate exercise program. Results document the beneficial effects of even moderate exercise on diet‐induced diabetes. |
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