Adults with Type 2 diabetes who improve their physical fitness lower their chances of getting chronic kidney disease (CKD), and if they already have kidney damage, they can improve their kidney function.
Health care providers have long known that exercise has a beneficial impact on overall health and wellness in both the general public and people with Type 2 diabetes. This study, though, demonstrated the benefit of improved physical fitness on a common complication of diabetes—CKD—which in some people can lead to kidney failure and death.
“It is essential for individuals with Type 2 diabetes to improve their physical fitness because it can improve kidney deterioration and reduce mortality,” said the study’s lead investigator, Shruti Gandhi, MD, an endocrinologist at Washington DC Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center.
Gandhi said 60 to 90 minutes of exercise weekly “is not a burdensome amount. Our study, while small, provides hope to patients with progressive kidney disease that there is something they can do to improve their kidney function and perhaps prevent or delay the need for dialysis.”