Get off the couch, teens: Exercise could help reduce diabetes risk

Researchers found while exercise made a difference at age 13, it made no impact on insulin resistance by the age of 16. Photo / Getty Images

Carrying out exercise during the early teenage years could reduce a child's risk of developing diabetes later in life, UK health experts say.

A study led by the University of Exeter found physical activity provides the greatest benefits to fighting adolescent insulin resistance, a condition which leads to high blood sugar and is a precursor to type 2 diabetes. But researchers found while exercise made a difference at age 13, it made no impact on insulin resistance by the age of 16.

They said their findings, published in the journal Diabetologia, suggested that early teens should be targeted for reducing diabetes levels.

Researchers measured insulin resistance in the same 300 children every year from the age of nine through to 16 using electronic motion sensors worn by the child.

The results showed that the condition was 17 per cent lower in the more active adolescents at the age of 13, but this difference diminished progressively over the next three years and had disappeared completely by age 16, when insulin resistance levels were much lower. Dr Brad Metcalf, of the University of Exeter's School of Sport and Health Science, said the findings had implications for future interventions in reducing the insulin resistance of children.

"Insulin resistance rises dramatically from age nine to 13 years, then falls to the same extent until age 16," he said.

"Our study found that physical activity reduced this early-teenage peak in insulin resistance, but had no impact at age 16."

A reduction in this peak could lessen the demand on the cells that produce insulin during this critical period, which may preserve them for longer in later life, Dr Metcalf said.