Short Breaks from Sitting: How It Affects Sugar and Insulin in Adults with Type 1 Diabetes

You're an adult with type 1 diabetes, wearing a pump that gives insulin 24/7. You're told to sit for six hours, either straight or with short exercise breaks every half hour. What happens to your blood sugar and insulin? A small study found that these little exercise breaks raised insulin levels and improved how well your body used it after meals. But the breaks didn't change how much sugar was in your blood. Isn't that interesting? First, let's know more about this experiment. Eight adults with type 1 diabetes, aged around 46, took part. They all used insulin pumps to get a steady supply of insulin. In one day, they sat without moving for six hours. On another day, they took short 3-minute breaks to do simple resistance activities every half hour. Their blood sugar and insulin levels were checked often to see how they responded to meals. So, what did the study find? Well, both days were closely similar in terms of blood sugar levels after meals. But here's a twist: the days with exercise breaks had higher insulin levels. This meant that for the same amount of sugar, there was more insulin in the body. And surprisingly, this higher insulin didn't raise blood sugar as much as expected. Another cool finding? When it was time for dinner, the body reacted better to insulin after the exercise days. This didn't happen at breakfast or lunch, though. It's like the body got a little training session on how to use insulin more efficiently during those short breaks. Pumps aren't the only way people with type 1 diabetes get insulin. Some use multiple daily injections. This study only looked at pumps, so more research is needed to see if the same things happen with other insulin methods. Also, it’s important to understand why these small breaks make such a difference. There's a lot to learn from this research. It shows that even small movements can help people with type 1 diabetes use insulin better. Simple things like getting up from our desks every now and then might go a long way!