In a new study, researchers found the makeup of the gut microbiome can be a determiner for the efficacy of exercise with prediabetics.
The research was done by a team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in China.
In the medical community, type 2 diabetes is considered to be preventable in most people—all it takes is a change in diet and an increase in exercise.
But things may not be as simple as that as the researchers with this new effort discovered—they found that exercise does not always lead to reductions in glucose metabolism.
In the study, the team asked 29 male people with pre-diabetes to undergo glucose metabolism and gut microbe testing.
Then the group was divided into two—20 volunteers were asked to undergo an exercise regimen for three months while the other 19 were asked to maintain their normal eating and exercise habits.
At the end of the three-month period, all of the volunteers once again underwent glucose and gut microbe metabolic testing.
The researchers found that only 70% of the volunteers who carried out the exercise regimen saw improvements in glucose metabolism and changes in the sensitivity to insulin.
None of those in the sedentary group saw any improvement.
The researchers also found that they found differences in the gut microbiomes between those who followed the exercise regimen—those who had reductions in glucose metabolism were also generating more short-chain fatty acids.
They were also doing a better job breaking down branched-chain amino acids.
The researchers then transplanted fecal samples from the volunteers into obese test mice.
They found that those mice that received such samples from the volunteers who saw improvements in glucose metabolism developed better insulin resistance—none of the other mice saw any improvements.
The study gives evidence of the gut microbiome playing a role in glucose metabolism and the degree of sensitivity to insulin.
This shows fecal transplants may be a viable option for people who do not gain glucose metabolism benefits from exercise.
The study is published in the journal Cell Metabolism.
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