Join a softball league, take fitness classes at your local YMCA, or resolve to lap the block each day. Doing so may help you live longer, according to a study of more than 3,000 middle-aged men with type 2 diabetes. After seven years of follow-up, researchers discovered that the most-fit men lived the longest and that each increase in their level of fitness led to a decrease in the risk of death. The study focused on African American and white veterans; while exercisers in both groups lived longer, white men profited more. Why is unclear. The authors say that, unlike previous research that has focused on exercise, diabetes, and mortality in middle-class participants, this study was of men from low socioeconomic backgrounds, showing that exercise is beneficial to both groups.
Source: Diabetes Care, April 2009