Aerobic Exercise Can Prevent Chronic Kidney Disease in Diabetes

Physical activity can prevent or reduce the risk of kidney diseases in patients of type 2 diabetes.

It is widely known that patients suffering from type 2 diabetes are at higher risks of obesity, metabolic syndrome, renal injury and kidney disease. Physical activity can reduce these risks by preventing complications, but the extent of this link is unknown.

A recent study, published in the American Journal of Physiology, has found a strong association between lifestyle interventions like physical activity and prevention of chronic kidney diseases or impaired mineral metabolism.

The Study

Researchers used 40 male Zucker rats that were randomly allocated into four experimental groups, two of them (an obese and a lean one) performed an aerobic interval training protocol, and the other two groups were sedentary.

After eight weeks, urine, plasma and femur were collected from these rats and their kidneys were processed for histological studies.

As reported in Times Now, the researchers found an improvement in blood vessel health and overall kidney function in obese rats, who had a hardening or scarring of the renal arteries, increased protein in the urine, and fat deposits within the filtering structures of the kidneys.

In a comparison between the obese rats in the exercise group and those in the sedentary group, the former showed a reduction in the above mentioned factors, indicating positive progress in kidney function in obesity, and changes in bone composition. They also had higher levels of calcium and copper, but lower concentrations of iron. 

Therefore, the researchers concluded that the specific training protocol used in this study was able to prevent the development of diabetic nephropathy, and affected the metabolism of certain minerals.