Regular exercise can help reduce kidney disease risk in people with diabetes: study

ISLAMABAD: Moderate to vigorous physical activity is linked to a lower risk of developing chronic kidney disease in people with type 2 diabetes who also have obesity or other weight issues according to a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Researchers performed a secondary analysis that compared cardiovascular outcomes of an intensive lifestyle intervention to standard diabetes support and education.

The scientists reviewed the records of 5,145 adults with diabetes who also had weight issues with an average follow up period of 12 years. During the monitoring period, 567 participants or about one in three progressed to chronic kidney disease.

Some 8 out of 16 trial sites involving 1,746 participants used an activity tracker. These individuals had an average age of 58 and more than half were women.

The scientists noted that the average weekly total for moderate to vigorous physical activity was 329 minutes for people.

For those who had exercise amounts accumulated in periods of less than 10 minutes, the average weekly totals were 267 minutes.

There were 41 participants, who accumulated activity in periods of more than 10 minutes.

Overall a higher cumulative weekly average was associated with about an 8 percent lower risk for every 100 minutes of activity. This increased to 19 percent if their bouts of activity were at least 10 minutes at a time.

The researchers reported that those who improved their weekly tally by about one hour reduced their risk of developing chronic kidney disease by about 33 percent.

Participants engaging in between 329 and 469 minutes were significantly less likely to progress to chronic kidney disease than those completing vigorous activity for under 220 minutes.

The scientists did not determine cause and effect as this was an observational study only.

The study found that even brief episodes less than 10 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity are associated with a decreased risk of chronic kidney disease.