
Pump it up! Weightlifting 'cuts diabetes risk in women'
Women who pump iron in the gym cut their risk of developing diabetes, say researchers.
The findings come from a study that tracked the health of nearly 100,000 US nurses over a period of eight years.
Lifting weights, doing press-ups or similar resistance exercises to give the muscles a workout was linked with a lower risk of diabetes, the work in PLoS Medicine shows.
Adults are already advised to do such exercise at least twice a week.
We know for certain that the best way to reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes is to maintain a healthy weight by eating a healthy, balanced diet and by taking regularly physical activityDr Richard Elliott , Diabetes UK
Check your risk of type 2 diabetes
The benefit seen in the study was on top of any gained from doing aerobic workouts that exercise the heart and lungs - something which adults are meant to do for at least 150 minutes a week.
Women who engaged in at least 150 minutes a week of aerobic activity and at least an hour a week of muscle-strengthening activities had the most substantial risk reduction compared with inactive women. They cut their odds of developing type 2 diabetes by a third.
Experts already know that regular aerobic exercise, such as jogging, brisk walking or swimming, can help stave off type 2 diabetes.
The latest work suggests adding resistance training to exercise regimes - something already recommended by the NHS - will give further protection.
The Harvard Medical School researchers point out that their work is not perfect - it looked at only nurses who were mostly Caucasian and relied on the study participants rep
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