Muscular Exercise and Metabolism in Male Juvenile Diabetics II. Glucose Tolerance after Exercise

Abstract

The effect of graded physical exercise on glucose tolerance has been investigated in eight, young, male, insulin-treated diabetics. The subjects were exercised, for three hours or to exhaustion, whichever came first, on a bicycle ergometer at four different work loads. 15 min after the exercise 0.5 g glucose per kg body weight was infused i.v. Glucose disappearance rates (GDR) were followed, and the results compared with that of a resting experiment. GDR was found to be dependent upon the relative work load expressed as per cent of max. V˙_O2 Exercise at 20% of max. V˙_O2 did not affect GDR. GDR was significantly increased after exercise at 50%, 70%, and 90% of max V˙_O2 in both diabetics and non-diabetics The glucose tolerance curves of the diabetic subjects resembled more and more those of the non-diabetic subjects as the severity of the preceding exercise increased. It was concluded that moderate to severe exercise affects glucose metabolism by increasing GDR in young, male, insulin-treated diabetics.

Key Words:

• Diabetes mellitus
• exercise
• glucose tolerance test
• insulin