Minireviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. May 15, 2023; 14(5): 565-572
Published online May 15, 2023. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v14.i5.565
Exercise therapy for sarcopenia and diabetes
Seung-Taek Lim, Sunghwun Kang
Seung-Taek Lim, Institute of Sports and Arts Convergence (ISAC), Inha University, Incheon 22212, South Korea
Seung-Taek Lim, Waseda Institute for Sport Sciences, Waseda University, Saitama 341-0018, Japan
Sunghwun Kang, Laboratory of Exercise Physiology, College of Art, Culture and Engineering, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon-si 24341, South Korea
Sunghwun Kang, Interdisciplinary Program in Biohealth-machinery convergence engineering, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon-si 24341, South Korea
Author contributions: Lim ST and Kang S contributed equally to this work; Lim ST and Kang S designed the research study; all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sunghwun Kang, PhD, Professor, Laboratory of Exercise Physiology, College of Art, Culture and Engineering, Kangwon National University, 1 Kangwondaehak-gil, Chuncheon-si 24341, South Korea. 94psycho@kangwon.ac.kr
Received: December 19, 2022
Peer-review started: December 19, 2022
First decision: February 8, 2023
Revised: February 13, 2023
Accepted: April 10, 2023
Article in press: April 10, 2023
Published online: May 15, 2023
Processing time: 147 Days and 7.7 Hours
Abstract

Aging is characterized by the gradual deterioration of function at the molecular, cellular, tissue, and organism levels in humans. The typical diseases caused by changes in body composition, as well as functional decline in the human body’s organs due to aging include sarcopenia and metabolic disorders. The accumulation of dysfunctional aging β cells with age can cause decreased glucose tolerance and diabetes. Muscle decline has a multifactorial origin, involving lifestyle habits, disease triggers, and age-dependent biological changes. The reduced function of β cells in elderly people lowers insulin sensitivity, which affects protein synthesis and interferes with muscle synthesis. The functional decrease and aggravation of disease in elderly people with less regular exercise or physical activity causes imbalances in food intake and a continuous, vicious cycle. In contrast, resistance exercise increases the function of β cells and protein synthesis in elderly people. In this review, we discuss regular physical activities or exercises to prevent and improve health, which is sarcopenia as decreased muscle mass and metabolic disorders as diabetes in the elderly.

Keywords: Elderly; Diabetes; Sarcopenia; Resistance exercise; Aging; Muscle

Core Tip: Exercise or physical activity should be regularly performed even before aging begins, and muscle mass should be increased through resistance exercise. The protein intake necessary for protein synthesis during resistance exercise should also be maintained in elderly people and those with diabetes or/and sarcopenia.