Exercise before age 13 cuts risk of diabetes in later life

Make your kid exercise harder as targeting early teens and making them do physical activities can actually reduce their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

In a study conducted by the University of Exeter researchers have found that physical activity provides the greatest benefits to adolescent insulin resistance which is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes when the condition peaks at age 13, but provides no benefit to it at age 16.

During the research the scientists measured insulin resistance, a condition which leads to high blood sugar and is a precursor to type 2 diabetes in the same 300 children every year from age 9 through to age 16.

The results showed that the condition was 17 per cent lower in the more active adolescents at age 13 independently of body fat levels, but this difference diminished progressively over the next three years and had disappeared completely by age 16, when insulin resistance levels were much lower.

Researcher Brad Metcalf said that insulin resistance rises dramatically from age 9 to 13 years then falls to the same extent until age 16 and their study has found that physical activity reduced this early-teenage peak in insulin resistance but had no impact at age 16.

The study is published in the Journal Diabetologia.