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Posted by Dr. Dolittle on April 16, 2015
Insulin is a major hormone responsible for regulating blood sugar. Its main function is to lower sugar by increasing glucose uptake into muscle and fat cells. Insulin resistance is the hallmark of type 2 diabetes and occurs when tissues in the body are not able to respond to insulin resulting in sustained elevations in blood sugar, also known as hyperglycemia.
An alternative mechanism for lowering blood sugar is muscle contraction as it stimulates a pathway distinct from insulin in the muscles to cause glucose uptake from the blood. Exercise also helps to improve insulin sensitivity in muscles. Currently most research in this area focuses on laboratory rodents, which are rather short-lived in comparison to humans. Researchers at Victoria University and the University of Adelaide in Australia have shown that sheep may provide a good model in which to examine the effects of exercise in a longer lived mammal. Their findings were published recently in the American Journal of Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology. Using larger mammals overcomes the limitations of small sample sizes from rodent studies and opens the door for studies that are not possible to conduct using humans.
What they found was that treadmill exercise (30 min, 8%slope, ~4.4 km/h) improved insulin sensitivity by 32% (measured by hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp) in sheep.
Considering that spontaneous development of diabetes has been reported for sheep (among other domestic animals), perhaps these findings will benefit sheep as well. I doubt the farmers in the photo below knew they just might be improving insulin sensitivity when they put this animal to work:
Insulin is a major hormone responsible for regulating blood sugar. Its main function is to lower sugar by increasing glucose uptake into muscle and fat cells. Insulin resistance is the hallmark of type 2 diabetes and occurs when tissues in the body are not able to respond to insulin resulting in sustained elevations in blood sugar, also known as hyperglycemia.
An alternative mechanism for lowering blood sugar is muscle contraction as it stimulates a pathway distinct from insulin in the muscles to cause glucose uptake from the blood. Exercise also helps to improve insulin sensitivity in muscles. Currently most research in this area focuses on laboratory rodents, which are rather short-lived in comparison to humans. Researchers at Victoria University and the University of Adelaide in Australia have shown that sheep may provide a good model in which to examine the effects of exercise in a longer lived mammal. Their findings were published recently in the American Journal of Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology. Using larger mammals overcomes the limitations of small sample sizes from rodent studies and opens the door for studies that are not possible to conduct using humans.
What they found was that treadmill exercise (30 min, 8%slope, ~4.4 km/h) improved insulin sensitivity by 32% (measured by hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp) in sheep.
Considering that spontaneous development of diabetes has been reported for sheep (among other domestic animals), perhaps these findings will benefit sheep as well. I doubt the farmers in the photo below knew they just might be improving insulin sensitivity when they put this animal to work:
What do you think about this study 
come on now be honest now don't bleat about the bush 
come on now be honest now don't bleat about the bush 
