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Lecture Notes

So the next question you might be asking is "Why does physical activity work to prevent type 2 diabetes?" and there are a few explanations here on this slide. The first is that being active increases the muscles' need for energy. This allows glucose to enter the cells through a pathway that is not dependent on insulin, so it's almost like an extra way to get glucose into the cell when you're being physically active. And as you can see on the slide, we also see increased insulin sensitivity after acute bouts of physical activity, so just after one bout of physical activity we see an increased need of the body to replenish muscle glycogen stores, and that effect can last for up to 48 hours. We also see increased insulin sensitivity that results from regular participation in physical activity, and this improves the functioning of the insulin pathway that allows glucose into the cell that we've talked about already in this lecture. And so all of these are ways that physical activity can help to prevent type 2 diabetes.