Skip to main content
  • More from ADA
    • Diabetes
    • Clinical Diabetes
    • Diabetes Spectrum
    • ADA Standards of Medical Care
    • ADA Scientific Sessions Abstracts
    • BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care
  • Subscribe
  • Log in
  • My Cart
  • Follow ada on Twitter
  • RSS
  • Visit ada on Facebook
Diabetes Care

Advanced Search

Main menu

  • Home
  • Current
    • Current Issue
    • Online Ahead of Print
    • Special Article Collections
    • ADA Standards of Medical Care
  • Browse
    • By Topic
    • Issue Archive
    • Saved Searches
    • Special Article Collections
    • ADA Standards of Medical Care
  • Info
    • About the Journal
    • About the Editors
    • ADA Journal Policies
    • Instructions for Authors
    • Guidance for Reviewers
  • Reprints/Reuse
  • Advertising
  • Subscriptions
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Institutional Subscriptions and Site Licenses
    • Access Institutional Usage Reports
    • Purchase Single Issues
  • Alerts
    • E­mail Alerts
    • RSS Feeds
  • Podcasts
    • Diabetes Core Update
    • Special Podcast Series: Therapeutic Inertia
    • Special Podcast Series: Influenza Podcasts
    • Special Podcast Series: SGLT2 Inhibitors
    • Special Podcast Series: COVID-19
  • Submit
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Journal Policies
    • Instructions for Authors
    • ADA Peer Review
  • More from ADA
    • Diabetes
    • Clinical Diabetes
    • Diabetes Spectrum
    • ADA Standards of Medical Care
    • ADA Scientific Sessions Abstracts
    • BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care

User menu

  • Subscribe
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Diabetes Care
  • Home
  • Current
    • Current Issue
    • Online Ahead of Print
    • Special Article Collections
    • ADA Standards of Medical Care
  • Browse
    • By Topic
    • Issue Archive
    • Saved Searches
    • Special Article Collections
    • ADA Standards of Medical Care
  • Info
    • About the Journal
    • About the Editors
    • ADA Journal Policies
    • Instructions for Authors
    • Guidance for Reviewers
  • Reprints/Reuse
  • Advertising
  • Subscriptions
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Institutional Subscriptions and Site Licenses
    • Access Institutional Usage Reports
    • Purchase Single Issues
  • Alerts
    • E­mail Alerts
    • RSS Feeds
  • Podcasts
    • Diabetes Core Update
    • Special Podcast Series: Therapeutic Inertia
    • Special Podcast Series: Influenza Podcasts
    • Special Podcast Series: SGLT2 Inhibitors
    • Special Podcast Series: COVID-19
  • Submit
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Journal Policies
    • Instructions for Authors
    • ADA Peer Review
Online Letters: Comments and Responses

Comment on: van Dijk et al. Exercise Therapy in Type 2 Diabetes: Is Daily Exercise Required to Optimize Glycemic Control? Diabetes Care 2012;35:948–954

  1. Saurabh S. Thosar, MS and
  2. Janet P. Wallace, PHD, FACSM
  1. Department of Kinesiology, School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
  1. Corresponding author: Janet P. Wallace, wallacej{at}indiana.edu.
Diabetes Care 2013 May; 36(5): e73-e73. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc12-0879
PreviousNext
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

We read with great interest the recent article by van Dijk et al. (1) supporting the importance of exercise in the treatment of diabetes. The authors deserve credit for conducting a difficult study on a topic that is of interest to researchers and clinicians alike. We wish to comment on the study design as well as important findings of the study that were overlooked in the manuscript.

Authors compared the glucose control between daily exercise (DE) (30 min) to exercise done every other day (EEOD) (60 min). We compliment the authors for controlling the total volume of exercise. However, because there were only two 30-min sessions compared with a single 60-min session, the authors cannot conclude that they were comparing frequencies of DE to EEOD; they compared a single session of exercise to equivalent volume of exercise distributed over 2 days. If the variable of interest was comparing DE to EEOD, the exercise sessions should have been distributed over 7–10 days.

The primary variables identified by the authors, i.e., the average glucose concentrations presented in Fig. 3 of ref. 1, were used to support the efficacy of the distribution of exercise as DE or EEOD for overall glucose control. We found the data reported in Fig. 2 of ref. 1 to be more intriguing given the role of postprandial hyperglycemia in the etiology of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (2), which is responsible for 80% of the premature deaths in diabetes (3). Comparing the postprandial glucose concentrations (PGCs) from DE (30-min sessions between day 1 and day 2), the PGCs were significantly lower than the control session on each day, but were not significantly different from each other (∼11 mmol/L and ∼10 mmol/L). More dramatic findings were in the PGCs from EEOD (60-min session; nondaily). On day 1, the PGC was significantly less (∼8 mmol/L and ∼11 mmol/L) than in the 30-min session, implying a dose response based on duration of exercise. On day 2, the PGC from the previous day’s 60-min session was significantly higher (∼11 mmol/L and ∼10 mmol/L) than the 30-min session. Possible conclusions from these data indicate that 1) DE may be better than EEOD for reducing postprandial glucose, or 2) a longer duration of exercise may be more beneficial. In all, based on these findings, more research is warranted on the dose response as well as the duration of benefit for the postprandial period.

Keeping in mind the importance of postprandial glycemic control, further studies should use longer and rigorous designs to quantify the effect of exercise on a sensitive variable.

Acknowledgments

No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

  • © 2013 by the American Diabetes Association.

Readers may use this article as long as the work is properly cited, the use is educational and not for profit, and the work is not altered. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ for details.

References

  1. ↵
    1. van Dijk J-W,
    2. Tummers K,
    3. Stehouwer CDA,
    4. Hartgens F,
    5. van Loon LJC
    . Exercise therapy in type 2 diabetes: is daily exercise required to optimize glycemic control? Diabetes Care 2012;35:948–954
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  2. ↵
    1. Ansar S,
    2. Koska J,
    3. Reaven PD
    . Postprandial hyperlipidemia, endothelial dysfunction and cardiovascular risk: focus on incretins. Cardiovasc Diabetol 2011;10:61
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
  3. ↵
    1. Schalkwijk CG,
    2. Stehouwer CD
    . Vascular complications in diabetes mellitus: the role of endothelial dysfunction. Clin Sci (Lond) 2005;109:143–159
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
View Abstract
PreviousNext
Back to top
Diabetes Care: 36 (5)

In this Issue

May 2013, 36(5)
  • Table of Contents
  • About the Cover
  • Index by Author
  • Podcast
Sign up to receive current issue alerts
View Selected Citations (0)
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about Diabetes Care.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Comment on: van Dijk et al. Exercise Therapy in Type 2 Diabetes: Is Daily Exercise Required to Optimize Glycemic Control? Diabetes Care 2012;35:948–954
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Diabetes Care
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the Diabetes Care web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Comment on: van Dijk et al. Exercise Therapy in Type 2 Diabetes: Is Daily Exercise Required to Optimize Glycemic Control? Diabetes Care 2012;35:948–954
Saurabh S. Thosar, Janet P. Wallace
Diabetes Care May 2013, 36 (5) e73; DOI: 10.2337/dc12-0879

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Add to Selected Citations
Share

Comment on: van Dijk et al. Exercise Therapy in Type 2 Diabetes: Is Daily Exercise Required to Optimize Glycemic Control? Diabetes Care 2012;35:948–954
Saurabh S. Thosar, Janet P. Wallace
Diabetes Care May 2013, 36 (5) e73; DOI: 10.2337/dc12-0879
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Acknowledgments
    • References
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

Cited By...

More in this TOC Section

  • Comment on Khunti et al. Clinical Inertia in People With Type 2 Diabetes: A Retrospective Cohort Study of More Than 80,000 People. Diabetes Care 2013;36:3411–3417
  • Response to Comment on Khunti et al. Clinical Inertia in People With Type 2 Diabetes: A Retrospective Cohort Study of More Than 80,000 People. Diabetes Care 2013;36:3411–3417
  • Comment on Lázaro-Martínez et al. Antibiotics Versus Conservative Surgery for Treating Diabetic Foot Osteomyelitis: A Randomized Comparative Trial. Diabetes Care 2014;37:789–795
Show more Online Letters: Comments and Responses

Similar Articles

Navigate

  • Current Issue
  • Standards of Care Guidelines
  • Online Ahead of Print
  • Archives
  • Submit
  • Subscribe
  • Email Alerts
  • RSS Feeds

More Information

  • About the Journal
  • Instructions for Authors
  • Journal Policies
  • Reprints and Permissions
  • Advertising
  • Privacy Policy: ADA Journals
  • Copyright Notice/Public Access Policy
  • Contact Us

Other ADA Resources

  • Diabetes
  • Clinical Diabetes
  • Diabetes Spectrum
  • Scientific Sessions Abstracts
  • Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes
  • BMJ Open - Diabetes Research & Care
  • Professional Books
  • Diabetes Forecast

 

  • DiabetesJournals.org
  • Diabetes Core Update
  • ADA's DiabetesPro
  • ADA Member Directory
  • Diabetes.org

© 2021 by the American Diabetes Association. Diabetes Care Print ISSN: 0149-5992, Online ISSN: 1935-5548.