Diabetics can walk for life

If you're diabetic, a new study finds that you'll probably live longer simply by strolling. An analysis of 2 900 adults who had diabetes for an average of 11 years found that even two hours of walking weekly reduced the risk of death by 39 percent. Included in that reduction was a 34 percent decrease in risk of death from cardiovascular disease, to which diabetics are particularly prone.

Representative study shows walking tied to longevity. "This is the first study to look at a nationally representative sample of people with diabetes," says Edward Gregg, an epidemiologist with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who did the analysis and wrote the results in a study published in the June 23 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. "Other studies have found that people are less likely to get new diseases if they walk, but we found that walking will increase the length of life once people have diabetes," he says. This is particularly important, Gregg adds, because of the incidence of the disease. "Diabetes is one of the most common chronic illnesses; the ratio in people 60 and older is one out of five or one out of six. But even though the disease increases the risk for death, most people with diabetes will go on to live for a long time. So one of the key things to do is improve the quality of life, and walking will increase the length of life once people have diabetes."

For the analysis, Gregg and his colleagues at the CDC's Division of read more