December 6 - 12, 2007

The Epoch Times

HEALTH B3

Walking lowers risk High- glycemic-index

of heart disease diet raises diabetes risk
By DR. JOHN BRIFFA
Special to The Epoch Times
While exercise is pretty much
universally recommended as a dis-
ease-preventer and important con-
tributor to good health, there’s a sur-
prising dearth of studies supporting
this premise.
Most recommendations for exer-
cise have come from epidemiologi-
cal studies, which may find asso-
ciations between, say, activity and
better health, but do not prove that
it’s the activity itself that’s is caus-
ing improvement. Active individuals
may, after all, smoke less or eat more
healthily than less active individuals,
and it may be these factors that are
responsible for the apparent relation-
ship between activity and enhanced
health.
To properly gauge whatever bene-
fits exercise may have, we need proper
intervention studies. The most obvi-
ous model here would be to take a
group of individuals and get them to
up their exercise, and then compare
their long-term health with that of a
group who remain more sedentary.
As in the area of nutrition, such
studies are rare compared to the epi-
demiological variety, but they do
come along every so often, and they
generally provide a valuable oppor-
tunity to get a much more accurate
picture of what exercise can—and
can’t—do for us.
Recently, such a study was pub-
lished. It essentially sought to assess
the effects of walking on a group of
individuals with type 2 diabetes [1].
The study started out with 102 indi-
viduals aged 35–75 who walked for
20–30 minutes per day. Their progress
was followed for a period of a little less
than 18 months, during which their
adherence to the program and their
cardiovascular health with regard to
heart attack and stroke were assessed
through telephone interviews.
During the course of the study, 38
individuals dropped out and ceased
the exercise program. The cardiovas-
cular health of these individuals was
then compared with that of the indi-
viduals who stuck with the program.
The incidence of cardiovascular
disease was about 1.5 percent in
individuals who completed the
program. This compared very
favorably indeed with the incidence
in dropouts, which was found to be
more than 18 percent. The result was
statistically significant and remained
robust even after the researchers took
into account other factors that might
affect the result, including age.
This study was small and far from
perfectly designed. Asking people
about their exercise habits and dis-
ease experience over the phone, for
instance, may not give us the most
accurate picture of such factors. How-
ever, even with these limitations, I do
believe this study should allow us to
WALKING: An easy way to protect the heart. L. VALENTINE/THE EPOCH TIMES
be quite optimistic about the real ben-
efits to be had from regular exercise
for type 2 diabetics.
What I find most pleasantly sur-
prising about the findings is the rela-
tively short period of time it took for
the benefits of exercise to become
apparent.
It would be nice to see more exer-
cise-intervention studies in the future.
Ideally, these should include healthy
individuals and be focused on man-
ageable, realistic forms of exercise,
such as walking. Positive results from
such studies and their attendant pub-
licity may just help to inspire seden-
tary individuals to be more active.
References:
1. Shinji S, et al. Adherence to a
Home-Based Exercise Program and
Incidence of Cardiovascular Disease
in Type 2 Diabetes Patients. Inter-
national Journal of Sports Medicine
2007; 28:877–879
Dr. John Briffa is a London-based
doctor, author, and health writer with
an interest in nutrition and natural
medicine. His Web site is http://www.
drbriffa.com
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—
Regular consumption of foods with
a high-glycemic index appears to
increase the risk of type 2 diabetes
in African-American and Chinese
women, according to the results of
two studies published last week.
Glycemic index refers to how
rapidly a food causes blood sugar
to rise. High-glycemic -index foods,
like white bread and potatoes, tend
to spur a quick surge in blood sugar,
while low-glycemic-index foods,
such as lentils, soybeans, yogurt,
and many high-fiber grains, create
a more gradual increase in blood
sugar.
For their study, Dr. Supriya
Krishnan, from Boston University
School of Public Health, and col-
leagues examined data from 40,078
U.S. black women who filled out
a food questionnaire in 1995. The
glycemic index and glycemic load
were calculated. Every two years
through 2003, the women provided
up-to-date information about their
weight, health, and other factors.
During eight years of follow-up,
1,938 women developed diabetes.
Results showed that women who
ate high-glycemic-index foods or a
diet with a high-glycemic load had HIGH-GLYCEMIC FARE: These sweets have a high glycemic index. Eat-
a higher risk for diabetes. However, ing them often can predispose one to diabetes. L. VALENTINE/THE EPOCH TIMES
women who ate more fiber from
grains (cereal fiber) had a reduced
risk. day) had a 28 percent higher risk “Given that a large part of the
“Our results indicate that black than those in the group consum- world’s population consumes rice
women can reduce their risk of dia- ing the least (about 263.5 grams per and carbohydrates as the main-
betes by eating a diet that is high day). stay of their diets, these prospec-
in cereal fiber,” Krishnan and col- Women who had diets with a tive data linking intake of refined
leagues write. “Incorporating fiber higher glycemic index and who ate carbohydrates to increased risk
sources into the diet is relatively more staples such as bread, noo- of type 2 diabetes mellitus may
easy: A simple change from white dles, and rice specifically also had have substantial implications for
bread (two slices provides 1.2 grams an increased risk. Women who public health,” Villegas’s team
of fiber) to whole wheat bread (two ate 300 grams or more of rice per concludes.
slices provides 3.8 grams of fiber) or day were 78 percent more likely to
substituting a cup of raisin bran (5 develop diabetes than those who Source: Archives of Internal
to 8 grams of fiber) or oatmeal (4 ate less than 200 grams per day. Medicine, Nov. 26, 2007
grams of fiber) for a cup of Corn
Chex (0.5 grams of fiber) or Rice
Chex (0.3 grams of fiber) will move
a person from a low-fiber intake
category to a moderate-intake cat-
egory, with a corresponding 10 per-
cent reduction in risk.”
In the other study, Dr. Raquel
Villegas, from Vanderbilt Univer-
sity Medical Center in Nashville,
Tennessee, and colleagues followed
a group of 64,227 Chinese women
for an average of five years. They
interviewed the women every two
years between 2000 and 2004, to
gather health-related information
such as dietary habits and physical
activity levels.
During follow-up, 1,608 women
developed type 2 diabetes. Results
showed that women who con-
sumed more carbohydrates overall
were more likely to develop dia-
betes. When they were split into
five groups based on carbohydrate
intake, those in the group consum-
ing the most (about 337.6 grams per

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