Type 2 Diabetes

Obesity is rapidly increasing in the United States. According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), obesity is the fasted growing health problem in America1. When looking at the trends in the United States, it is estimated that approximately 33% of the adult population is obese and 15% of children, ages 6 and older, are obese1. Although not falling into the obesity population yet, two-thirds of the adult population may be considered overweight, and making their way into the obesity category soon1. It may be startling to most that current evidence suggests that by the year 2030, approximately 90% of all American adults would have become overweight or obese, and 51.1% of them would be obese1.

A disease highly correlated with obesity is type 2 diabetes. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in America has drastically increased in recent years1. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2007, approximately 24 million Americans had diabetes, with one quarter of those (6 million), undiagnosed2. It is estimated that roughly 60 million U.S. residents also have prediabetes2. The superseding issue in diabetes is glucose control1. Type 2 diabetes is a major cause of premature mortality and morbidity related to cardiovascular disease, blindness, kidney and nerve disease, and amputation2. Exercise has been proven to have a positive effect on preventing type 2 diabetes, via its effects on preventing elevations in blood glucose1. The focus of this essay will be to summarize the effects of resistance training on the improvement on individuals with type 2 diabetes.

Aerobic endurance training has conventionally been promoted in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, while the likely role of resistance tra...

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...n spontaneous physical activity6. With this information, it can be presumed that resistance training can work in addition with standard care in diabetic patients6. This piece of information may be vital to a diabetic patient who is disobedient with medical recommendations that have been provided, as well as, patients who may receive inferior health care6.

As expected, resistance training proves to have various health benefits to populations dealing with type 2 diabetes2. As previously stated, the chief concern when dealing with type 2 diabetes is glucose control1. The results of the collective studies being referenced in this essay have confirmed that resistance training leads to a decrease in hemoglobin A1c3,4,5,6. With this evidence, it is clear that resistance training will help to make improvements on patients living with type 2 diabetes3,4,5,6.