GLASGOW, SCOTLAND — Want your diabetes patients to get more exercise? Tell them to go get dogs, Dr. Steve Cleland said at the Diabetes U.K. Annual Professional Conference.
Not only do animals require their owners to increase their physical activity, but they also provide companionship, which reduces depression and can aid in diet management, said Dr. Cleland, who is a consultant in diabetes and endocrinology at Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow. One other benefit of dogs is that they also eat leftovers, he added.
Dr. Cleland's theory arose after observing that in his career only five of his patients had managed to improve their metabolism through exercise, and all of them have dogs. He explained that for many patients with diabetes, formal exercise can seem daunting. “For someone who is 50, carrying excess weight, and not used to it, exercise can be difficult,” he said. However, simply increasing activity levels—as opposed to embarking on a specific training regime—can burn calories. Dr. Cleland accused diabetologists of having “failed in being evangelists for exercise” in their efforts to encourage their diabetic patients to give up their sedentary lifestyles.
There is a precarious balance between taking in enough calories to replace those burned by moving around, and taking in too many calories, according to Dr. Cleland. “When humans become overweight, obese, and inactive, energy supply exceeds demand,” he said. “Fat cells spewing out fatty acids that are not being used in muscle contraction [cause problems].”
Among these problems are reduced mitochondrial capacity, as well as abnormal changes in the sympathetic nerve system and in the neuroendocrine and adipocyte feedback systems—in addition to the obvious accumulation of fat in places where it does not belong. The results, said Dr. Cleland, are accelerated aging of cells, heart problems, and perhaps cancer and dementia.
Exercise involves a balance between two states: catabolic and metabolic, both of which involve hormones. And the body has developed many biologic backup mechanisms to respond to exercise, he said.