Walking, which can be safely performed and easily incorporated into daily life, can be recommended as an adjunct therapy to diet treatment in obese NIDDM patients, not only for BW reduction, but also for improvement of insulin sensitivity.

Taken together, the findings indicate that cirrhosis appears to be a more important predictor of glucose intolerance than HCV infection, and the combination of both factors increases the risk of DM in our populations.

Physical training has been shown to improve glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. In the present study, insulin action was determined using the euglycemic clamp technique in six untrained nonobese subjects before, during, and after long-term mild regular jogging. After 1 yr of jogging, steady-state plasma insulin levels (I) decreased significantly, and the metabolic clearance rate of insulin was increased by 87%, although insulin infusion rate during the clamp was constant for each individual. The amount of glucose infused (glucose metabolism, M) tended to increase from 6.16 +/- 0.94 to 8.15 +/- 1.94 mg.kg-1.min-1 after regular jogging for 1 yr, although that was not statistically significant. However, M/I increases significantly from 0.060 +/- 0.012 to 0.184 +/- 0.056 (P less than 0.05) after 1 yr. The concentrations of plasma free fatty acids during the hyperinsulinemic clamp decreased more significantly after 1 yr of jogging (P less than 0.05). The concentrations of plasma glycerol decreased gradually before and after long-term regular jogging, showing only a 50–60% reduction in 120 min. Therefore, long-term mild regular jogging, which did not influence either body mass index or maximal O2 uptake, appears to improve insulin action in both carbohydrate and lipid metabolism and to increase the metabolic clearance rate of insulin.

The current study showed that a 12-week exercise intervention program did not significantly improve IR in elderly diabetic patients. However, changes in IR were associated with improvements in memory function, and reduced FBS was associated with improvements in TMT-B.

To clarify the difference in immunity between untrained subjects and well-trained athletes, the number of total leukocytes (WBC), lymphocytes, and neutrophils, percentages of various lymphocyte subpopulations (OKT3, OKT4, OKT8, Leu7, OKla1), and the levels of lymphocyte transformation response to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) were determined in five untrained male subjects and six male athletes before, immediately after, and 24 and 72 h after acute physical exercise at 60% of VO2max for 2 h. Exercise produced a significant rise in the number of WBC, lymphocytes, and neutrophils in both groups. Immediately after exercise, the percentage of OKT3 or OKT4 positive cells had significantly decreased in both groups, whereas that of OKT8 positive cells had markedly increased only in the athletes. Neither group showed any change in the percentage of OKla1 positive cells. In both groups, the response of lymphocytes to PHA immediately after exercise was significantly lower than before, 24 h and 72 h after exercise. The level of Leu7 positive cells rose remarkably immediately after exercise in the athletes, but not significantly in the untrained subjects. These results suggest that an increase in Leu7 positive cells provides added host defense capacity in trained athletes during periods of stress which impair T-lymphocyte function.