Can just 30 minutes of exercise help prevent type 2 diabetes?

For this study, researchers recruited 32 study participants — 18 men and 14 women — between the ages of 20 and 35 years old. All participants were healthy with no sign of diabetes, and of normal weight or slightly overweight.

All study participants were mainly sedentary or lightly active only during leisure time.

After taking baseline measurements for blood sugar concentrations and insulin levels, participants were asked to perform a single 30-minute aerobic exercise session of light jogging.

“The choice to study a single 30-minute aerobic session in young, healthy adults was driven by the lack of prior research examining the immediate metabolic impact of one-time exercise in this group,” Teresa Mezza, MD, PhD, researcher in the Department of Medicine and Translational Surgery at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Italy and corresponding author of this study explained to Medical News Today.

“This approach allows researchers to observe the acute effects of exercise on glucose metabolism without the confounding factors of prior conditioning or diabetic status, providing a clearer baseline for how exercise alone affects glucose and insulin dynamics,” she noted.

Mezza and her team remeasured study participants’ glucose and insulin levels 24 hours after the 30-minute exercise session.

They found a significant reduction in participants’ blood sugar levels after exercise, as well as increased insulin sensitivity.

“This reduction in fasting glucose and insulin levels, alongside improved insulin sensitivity 24 hours post-exercise, highlights the potential of a single exercise session to induce rapid and beneficial metabolic changes,” Mezza said.

“This suggests that short bouts of aerobic activity could play an essential role in glucose regulation and insulin response, possibly lowering diabetes risk in nondiabetic populations and offering immediate benefits in managing glucose for those at risk,” she suggested.

“Although this study focused on healthy adults, the improvement in insulin sensitivity and glucose regulation seen after a single exercise session could also apply to those with type 2 diabetes. These findings suggest that incorporating brief, manageable sessions of aerobic exercise might improve glucose control and insulin response in diabetics, potentially helping to manage blood sugar levels effectively and potentiate the effect of drug therapies.”

– Teresa Mezza, MD, PhD

After reviewing this study, David Cutler, MD, a board-certified family medicine physician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, told MNT that he was glad to see data supporting what doctors have been telling people for the last 35 years.

“We just always told people that exercise is good for you and that it most likely reduces your risk of developing type two diabetes,” Cutler explained. “We’ll often recommend it to people, even before they develop diabetes, when they have prediabetes or even no signs of diabetes. And it’s good to have some evidence and support what common sense would tell you is a good thing to do.”

“Diabetes […] increases your risk of blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, stroke, [and] amputations,” he continued. “It takes years off your life and diminishes your quality of life. It’s a huge cost burden to the individual and to society.”

“Changing people’s behavior is a really hard thing to do, and getting them to exercise can be a challenge sometimes, that there’s no immediate reward for it sometimes, and the benefits can take not days, but months or years before they’ll notice them,” Cutler added. “So to have something like this where there’s some immediate positive feedback in it is a good way to entice people to exercise more.”

MNT also spoke with Jennifer Cheng, DO, section chief of Endocrinology at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center in New Jersey, about this study.

“This study highlights the importance of exercise and activity in maintaining glycemic control for patients with type 2 diabetes,” Cheng, who was not involved in the research, commented. “We know that exercise helps decrease insulin resistance, and helps people become more sensitive to insulin. Exercise helps burn fat and also assists people in achieving better sugar control.”

“Diabetes really changes and transforms patients’ lives, and finding novel ways to help control and prevent type 2 diabetes is really critical,” she continued. “Diabetes impacts so many different systems of the body, and day to day life for patients.”

In terms of what she would like to see as next steps in this research, Cheng said an expansion of research on postmeal hyperglycemia and mitigation efforts, and the role of continuous glucose monitors as a way to monitor sugar trends.