The 8-week aerobic exercise improves blood sugar، HbA1c and lipid profile in women with type 2 diabetes: A Controlled Randomized Clinical Trial

The effect of aerobic exercise (AE) on cardiovascular (CVD) related risk factors are still debatable. Therefore this randomized controlled clinical trial (RCT) was performed with unique and specific AE protocol to investigate the effect of eight-week AE only on female subjects with type 2 diabetes.

A controlled RCT was performed on 30 women with type 2 diabetes aged 30 - 50. They were randomly divided into two groups, intervention and control by block randomization method. The intervention group received an incremental AE for eight weeks, three sessions per week, max heart rate (55-75%) and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) 12-13 for 150 minutes per week. Blood samples were taken before and after each intervention for both groups to be evaluated for fasting blood sugar (FBS), hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), lipid profile [triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C)].

Eight-week AE intervention led to a significant decrease in HbA1c, FBS levels (p = 0.025, p=0.003) in experimental group compared to control however no significant differences was observed in terms of lipid profile (total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), LDL-C and HDL-C) between control and experimental group (p> 0.05). The results of paired t-test showed that FBS, TC and HbA1c levels were significantly reduced within experimental group after intervention compared to pre-test (p = 0.038, p = 0.05, p = 0.002, respectively). There was no significant difference between TG, LDL-C, and HDL-C levels within experimental group between pre and post-test (p>0.05).

It can be concluded that AE has been effectively reduce FBS, HbA1c and TC in women type 2 diabetes.