When the heart is emptied of blood, it twists, as when a washcloth wrung out. In many people with diabetes it turns back again slower than in healthy individuals. But a new study from our group shows that exercise may fix the problem.
– Impaired diastolic heart function can be reversed, and our findings underline the effect of exercise to prevent cardiovascular disease in this group of patients, first author of the study, Siri Marte Hollekim-Strand says.
The study is recently published in the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography.
37 patients with type 2 diabetes were enrolled in the study and they were randomly distributed in two training groups. One group trained with moderate intensity and the other one with high intensity. Patients in both groups improved the time it took for the heart to twist back after 12 weeks of training.
Read the study here!