Comparison of the effect of combined exercises (resistance-aerobic) with ginger and cinnamon supplements on some glycemic indices in obese postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes

Diabetes is an inflammatory disease caused by long-term imbalance of the immune system, metabolic syndrome and excess energy associated with obesity. In addition to its role in the prevention of diabetes, exercise also helps in the treatment of diabetes and significantly improves insulin sensitivity and diabetes-related health disorders with minimal side effects.

In this research, which was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design, 23 obese women with diabetes were selected as an available sample and trained randomly in two groups using a one-way blind design. Combined exercise and cinnamon consumption (12 people, height 154.17±4.69, weight 75.45±6.62, body mass index 31.7±1.7) and combined exercise and ginger consumption (11 people, height 154.45±4.03, weight 75.18±6.09, body mass index 1.56± 31.46) were placed. The people who were in the ginger consumption group received 1500 mg of ginger rhizome powder daily for eight weeks, and the people who were in the cinnamon consumption group received cinnamon capsules according to the same plan. Both groups performed resistance training and aerobic interval training (running) with an intensity of 75-85% of maximum heart rate for eight weeks, three sessions per week. The indicators were measured 48 hours before the first training session and after eight weeks of training to determine changes in glucose, insulin and insulin resistance index. Analysis of variance with repeated measurements was used to check the mean difference of the desired variables. A significance level of α ≤ 0.05 was considered.

No significant difference was observed between the changes in the glucose in the studied groups (P>0.05), but a significant decrease was observed in the insulin and insulin resistance in the group of combined exercises and cinnamon compared to the group of combined exercises and ginger. (P = 0.0001).

According to the results of this research, it seems that resistance-aerobic exercises and cinnamon consumption show better efficiency for improving glycemic indices.