Exercise interventions in polypathological aging patients that coexist with diabetes mellitus: improving functional status and quality of life

Abstract

In elderly populations, diabetes is associated with reduced muscle strength, poor muscle quality, and accelerated loss of muscle mass. In addition, diabetes mellitus increases risk for accelerated aging and for the development of frailty syndrome. This disease is also associated with a polypathological condition, and its complications progressively affect quality of life and survival. Exercise interventions, including resistance training, represent the cornerstones of diabetes management, especially in patients at severe functional decline. This review manuscript aimed to describe the beneficial effects of different exercise interventions on the functional capacity of elderly diabetics, including those at polypathological condition. The SciELO, Science Citation Index, MEDLINE, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, and ScienceDirect databases were searched from 1980 to 2015 for articles published from original scientific investigations. In addition to the beneficial effects of exercise interventions on glycemic control, and on the cardiovascular risk factors associated with diabetes, physical exercise is an effective intervention to improve muscle strength, power output, and aerobic power and functional capacity in elderly diabetic patients. Thus, a combination of resistance and endurance training is the most effective exercise intervention to promote overall physical fitness in these patients. In addition, in diabetic patients with frailty and severe functional decline, a multicomponent exercise program including strength and power training, balance exercises, and gait retraining may be an effective intervention to reduce falls and improve functional capacity and quality of life in these patients.

Relación entre calidad de vida, actividad física, alimentación, y control glucémico con la sarcopenia de adultos mayores con diabetes mellitus tipo 2.

“…Con relación a la sarcopenia, se encontró una asociación inversa entre realizar más actividad y la presencia de esta, es decir, a mayor actividad física, menor prevalencia de sarcopenia. Esta podría ser una de las razones por la que las mujeres presentan menos prevalencia de sarcopenia en este estudio, ya que distintos estudios han mostrado la mejora que produce el ejercicio en adultos mayores con DM2 (30,31). No obstante, se hace necesario realizar un mayor número de estudios de prevalencia de sarcopenia en personas con DM2 en el futuro para poder comparar de forma más fiable, ya que el análisis de regresión logística no consideró la actividad física medida en METS como un predictor de padecer sarcopenia.…”

Effectiveness of a multimodal intervention in functionally impaired older people with type 2 diabetes mellitus

“…For those able to participate, resistance training appears to be effective in improving functional capacity including enhancing balance, which may lessen the risk of injurious falls . Less is known of the benefits of exercise in older people with T2DM despite evidence demonstrating that they exhibit greater declines in muscle strength and functional capacity and more rapid loss of muscle mass than do normoglycaemic controls . However, the benefits of resistance training in terms of muscle strength and function have been shown to be comparable in diabetic and non‐diabetic participants following a thrice‐a‐week programme of resistance exercise over 12 weeks …”

Fasting plasma glucose and lipid profiles of diabetic patients improve with aerobic exercise training

“…19 Although there are many studies in Ghana 20-27 on diabetes management, study on the use of exercise intervention as vital tool in the management of diabetic patients, trending diabetes healthcare management technique of developed countries [28][29][30][31][32] …”