The experiment showed: Staying in the daylight helps diabetics balance their blood sugar

International research shows that spending a few hours in the daylight every day can help keep blood sugar at a healthy level for longer. The study was conducted on people with type 2 diabetes.

“The data is small, but the results make sense. I have always considered it important that there should be a window to the outside in the study room,” says the professor Jorma Toppari from the Department of Biomedicine, University of Turku.

Toppari studies the origin of type 1 diabetes.

The study was published in the prestigious Cell Metabolism in the journal. Dutch Jan Frieder Harmsenin tells more about the group’s research Medical Xpress.

Daylight known to be good for health. In industrialized countries, however, the population spends a large part of their time in artificial light. According to the release, this can affect the body’s internal clock.

Researchers refer to the circadian rhythmwhich regulates human biology in different ways, such as digestion or body temperature. Lack of natural light is one of the risk factors associated with type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is general metabolic diseasein which the production of insulin, which regulates blood sugar, is disrupted or its effectiveness in the tissues is reduced. It is usually treated primarily with diet and exercise and medication.

Now in the study, researchers exposed volunteers with type 2 diabetes to both natural light and artificial light.

There were thirteen subjects, so the experiment was small. The subjects were on average 70 years old, and their body mass index was on average a little over 30.

In the experiment, the test subjects spent several days in an office room, the lighting of which was changed.

First, the subjects sat at a desk in front of a large window from morning to late afternoon. In the second phase, the windows were covered and the subjects sat at a desk in artificial light for the same amount of time.

All test subjects ate the same meal three times a day and otherwise did the same things in daylight and artificial light. They took their medicine as normal. The test lasted 4.5 days in both daylight and artificial light, with a break of several weeks in between.

In daylight lounging helped the subjects’ blood sugar stay at a normal level significantly longer than lounging in artificial light.

In the daylight, the subjects’ metabolism increased or changed, as they consumed more fat for energy and less carbohydrates. The equivalent was observed study in 2023.

Based on the muscle samples, the genes related to the internal clock stayed better in the circadian rhythm in daylight. According to the researchers, it seems to promote the utilization of nutrients in the muscles.

From Finns about 75 percent of people with diabetes have it Health Library according to the second type.

“The results of the study are very much in line with the observation that regular eating and exercise have been found to prevent the onset of diabetes in the type 2 diabetes prevention study”, assesses the professor of clinical nutrition Jussi Pihlajamäki from the University of Eastern Finland.

“In daylight and summer, we are usually more active in moving and following healthy lifestyles.”

Finnish Diabetes prevention study according to, the risk of getting sick was lower the more of the following five lifestyle changes a person followed. First of all, losing weight of more than five percent prevents diabetes. The share of fat in the total energy may not exceed 30 percent, and the share of saturated fat may not exceed 10 percent. There must be at least 15 grams of fiber per thousand kilocalories. In addition, exercise must be done regularly.