Relationship between age-adjusted heart rate and anaerobic threshold in estimating exercise intensity in diabetics

We compared heart rates at the anaerobic threshold (AT) with age-adjusted heart rates in two groups of diabetics (DMY, mean age 31; and DMO, mean age 48) to ascertain whether the AT is useful for evaluating the intensity of exercise therapy for diabetics. In both the DMY and DMO groups the AT was reached at lower heart rates than in control groups of healthy subjects, indicating that the metabolism of diabetics may become anaerobic if their age-adjusted heart rate is higher than their heart rate at the AT. In this study, 86% of the DMY and 50% of the DMO group had age-adjusted heart rates, at 70% of maximum, that were higher than the heart rates at the AT. Thus, exercise intensity with an age-adjusted heart rate at 70% of maximum may induce anaerobic metabolism in some diabetics. We also studied the relationship between exercise intensity and the glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level at the AT in order to understand why the heart rate at the AT in diabetics was less than in healthy subjects. Exercise intensity at the AT in both diabetic groups was less than in healthy groups, and so did not increase the heart rates. Both exercise intensity and the heart rate at the AT were inversely related to the HbA1c level, suggesting that HbA1c may be important for keeping low the exercise intensity and the heart rate at the AT. As far as possible, we excluded cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy, so that it could not explain the mechanism.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)