Physical Activity and Type 2 Diabetes: Therapeutic Effects and Mechanisms of Action

Over the past 50 years, there has been a dramatic increase in the prevalence of interrelated metabolic disease states, including obesity, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. In modern Western nations, the population-based prevalence of insulin resistance is approaching 20%, and type 2 diabetes is now the most common endocrine disorder in adults. No longer a disease reserved for the aging population, type 2 diabetes is also on the rise in adolescents. Approximately 30% of all newly diagnosed cases (between 1982 and 1994 in the United States alone) are among people 10 to 19 years of age.

For those engaged in a struggle against this modern-day epidemic, Physical Activity and Type 2 Diabetes provides cutting-edge research to energize current efforts in diabetes prevention, management, and treatment. The most in-depth and up-to-date book on the topic, Physical Activity and Type 2 Diabetes presents a series of independent but related chapters authored by the foremost researchers of insulin resistance examining topics such as these:

-Physical inactivity as a primary cause for the rising incidence of insulin resistance

-The emergence of an "exercise-deficient" phenotype

-The effects of exercise training on selected aspects of substrate metabolism

-The role of endurance and resistance training programs for the prevention and treatment of insulin resistance

-The identification of new molecular targets and pathways useful for the treatment of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
Physical Activity and Type 2 Diabetes provides a four-part, in-depth examination of the relational nature of diabetes and physical activity. Part I begins with a description of the scope and extent of the "diabesity" epidemic. The risk factors for diabetes, the underlying causes of the epidemic, and its potential consequences are outlined as well as the role of physical inactivity in the pathogenesis of diabetes and plans for preventive exercise biology.

Part II continues with an examination of some of the major defects of substrate metabolism in individuals with insulin resistance, while in part III the authors discuss the impact of exercise interventions in the prevention, management, and treatment of type 2 diabetes. Part IV presents recent developments in molecular and cellular biology that may provide treatment therapies for the prevention of type 2 diabetes.

Based on extensive research, Physical Activity and Type 2 Diabetes presents a wealth of information to assist the biomedical and research community in creating prescriptive therapeutic tools for type 2 diabetes intervention--and offers hope for the alleviation of the global epidemic of insulin resistance.

John A. Hawley, PhD, is professor and head of the Exercise Metabolism and Diabetes Research Group in the School of Medical Sciences at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, where he has a postgraduate research program comprising eight postdoctoral and doctoral students. His areas of research include the regulation of fat and carbohydrate metabolism, with a particular emphasis on insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, and the role of exercise training in alleviating the metabolic syndrome.

A fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and a member of the American Physiological Society, Hawley serves as an editorial board member for the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism, Sports Medicine, the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, and the Malaysian Journal of Sport Science and Recreation. Hawley is also a regular reviewer for many international journals.

In 1990, Hawley received the Medical Research Council (MRC) Scholarship for Outstanding Foreign Researcher from the South Africa MRC (1990-1992), which is awarded to assist doctoral studies in medical physiology. Hawley completed his PhD in physiology in 1993 while studying at the University of Cape Town Medical School, South Africa.

Hawley has published more than 150 papers in medical, biochemical, and sport science journals, three books, and 15 book chapters and has served as a visiting lecturer for the University of Otago, New Zealand; the African International Olympic Committee Sports Medicine Program; and the International Olympic Committee Sports Medicine Program. As an invited speaker at conferences and symposiums throughout Europe, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia, Hawley speaks on a range of subjects, including exercise as a therapy for the prevention of metabolic syndrome, mechanisms for improvements in insulin resistance after physical activity, the relationship of exercise to insulin resistance and diabetes, and nutritional strategies and exercise performance.

Juleen R. Zierath, PhD, is professor of physiology and head of the section of integrative physiology in the department of surgical science, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and an adjunct professor of biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine.

Zierath leads an active research group consisting of members representing 10 countries. Through clinical and experimental research approaches, her group has unraveled the signaling mechanisms that mediate hormone action to promote glucose and lipid metabolism. In collaboration with a leading pharmaceutical company, she has contributed to the discovery of a nonprotein insulin receptor agonist that may offer a new type of oral treatment for people with diabetes. Her group collaborates with leading research groups from Scandinavia, Europe, Asia, and North America and is primarily funded by the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Strategic Research Foundation, and the European Union.

She has published more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific papers, including 35 review articles in journals focused on endocrinology, metabolism, diabetes mellitus, and exercise physiology. She has also coauthored a textbook with Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson on the subject of skeletal muscle metabolism.

Zierath is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Minkowski Award from the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, the Fernstrï¿Å"m Award from Karolinska Institutet, and a Future Research Leader Award from the Foundation for Strategic Research, Sweden.