People with diabetes have long been advised to watch what they eat and to exercise. Now, more evidence is accumulating that doctors who treat people with diabetes would do well to write a prescription for regular physical activity - especially walking. That's because a recent study found that walking as little as 2 hours a week could significantly reduce mortality rates in those individuals. The results are published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Studying leisure-time activities

Researchers studied the exercise habits of 2,896 adults with diabetes (average age: 59) to determine if regular exercise reduced their risk of dying from cardiovascular disease or from any cause. They asked participants how often and how intensely they walked and how often they participated in other "leisure-time" activities, including gardening, jogging, aerobics, golf, tennis, and weight lifting.

Walking lowers mortality

They found that people who walked or engaged in other activities regularly were at a lower risk for death compared with those who were inactive. The group who walked at least 2 hours a week had a 39% lower risk of death, and those who engaged in at least 2 hours a week of other leisure-time physical activities had a 29% lower risk of death, compared with those who were inactive. Those who walked 3-4 hours had an even lower risk for death - a 54% lower risk - compared with inactive people. In doing their analyses, the researchers controlled for other factors that could influence the risk of death, including age, gender, smoking status, body mass index, and medical history.

The impact on public health

Diabetes affects millions of people worldwide, and its public health ramifications - including a greater risk for cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and death - are enormous. The authors of this study estimate that persuading sedentary individuals with diabetes to walk just hours a week could save one out of every 61 lives of people who have the disease. That could translate into thousands of lives saved every year.

Exercising caution

Exactly how exercise provides this protection from death is unclear, say the researchers. But this study adds to existing evidence of the health benefits of regular physical activity for people with diabetes and for the general public, alike.

And the particularly good news is that this study, like many others, found benefits from moderate physical activity, showing that you don't have to hit the gym hard to potentially improve your health.