Research

Hormonal

Higher cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) causally reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes, independent of adiposity (BMI), with a 1-SD increase in genetically predicted fitness associated with an 11% lower risk.

Improving your cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2max) directly lowers your risk of type 2 diabetes, regardless of your weight. Focus on exercises that challenge your heart and lungs (like cycling or running) to improve your body's ability to use oxygen, as this has independent metabolic benefits beyond just burning calories.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
1-SD higher genetically predicted fitness was associated with an 11% (95% CI: 4-18%; p = 0.005) lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes... the casual association between fitness and type 2 diabetes that was observed in the univariate Radial-filtered MR was attenuated but remained nominally significant (p < 0.05) after controlling for the effects of intermediate traits, individually and collectively
Lina Cai et al. · Nature Communications · 2023

Why this rating

Large sample size (UK Biobank), robust genetic instrument (160 SNPs), validation in independent cohort (Fenland), and consistency across multiple MR methods.

Source

Causal associations between cardiorespiratory fitness and type 2 diabetes

Lina Cai et al. · Nature Communications · 2023

DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-38234-w

cohort · n=73574Cited 51×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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