Oh yawn, I thought to myself this morning. Upon turning on National Public Radio, I immediately heard what seems to be yet another report on diabetics and exercise. According to the results of a new study, the majority of people with Type 2 diabetes or at risk for it fail to follow through on their doctors' advice to get moving and get some good old-fashioned exercise to ward off the disease - or at least slow its progress. The study comes courtesy of a team of researchers at the University of Colorado, Denver. It's a sizable study, involving over 22,000 patients. The results are being published in Diabetes Care (February 2007) and basically conclude that fewer than forty percent of those advised to get exercise actually do so. Moreover, those most at risk are in fact the least likely to heed exercise advice. Dr. Elaine Morrato, who led both this study and an earlier one on a similar topic, says "People should exercise more, that story is out. What we're saying is, 'Here's a high-risk population that can benefit from exercise, and they're even less likely to exercise.'" Now, I hate to be a grumpy naysayer, but (to use an exercise-related metaphor) isn't this just a case of running over the same old ground? Is this study really contributing anything new? According to the NPR report, Morrato goes on to say that the results are "very pessimistic," but that she does not know the answer to what is perhaps the real question: how to change peoples' behavior. We already know there is a T2 diabetes epidemic going on. We already know that obesity and inactivity are to blame. Instead of studying the issue over and over, from every conceivable angle, shouldn't researchers be focusing on how to stop this national health train wreck that we're seeing? Am I being unreasonable? You tell me.
