Introduction Whole-body exercise can attenuate postprandial glucose (PPG) excursions, one of the three main components in glucose control. Respiratory muscle endurance exercises (RMEE) based on resisted hyperpnea could offer an alternative or managing postprandial glucose (PPG) excursions in individuals unable or unwilling to perform whole-body exercise. Methods We investigated whether PPG excursions during a 2-h oral glucose tolerance test are attenuated with 5 min (RMEE-5) or 15 min (RMEE-15) of respiratory muscle endurance exercises in 18 younger (age 24 ± 4 years) and 10 older (age 54 ± 7 years) healthy adults. On three separate visits, participants (8-h fasted) ingested 75 g of glucose and, 14min later, performed either RMEE-5, RMEE-15, or sat quietly (control). Blood glucose concentration was monitored periodically for a 2-h period. Results Neither intervention differed from control in terms of glucose area under the curve ( p 0.53), peak glucose ( p 0.09), time to peak glucose ( p 0.21), or glucose level at 2 h ( p 0.60). Discussion Based on the apparent lack of effects regardless of age group and exercise duration, bouts of increased respiratory muscle work do not seem to be effective for the management of PPG.
Beltrami et al. (Thu,) studied this question.