Sitting around on the couch all day watching TV will likely make your blood sugar spike, even though you may not have diabetes. However, you're one step closer to getting it.

Australian diabetes experts said the effects of a sedentary lifestyle on blood glucose/sugar levels are particularly true for women.

"The findings reinforce the case for a strong focus in diabetes and obesity research on sedentary behaviors, such as television viewing, in addition to the now well-established base of evidence on the importance of increasing physical activity," Dr. David W. Dunstan, a researcher at the International Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, told Reuters.

"It is possible that other sedentary behaviors may have an additive effect on risk, in that TV viewing may be a marker for a broader pattern of sedentary lifestyle that includes a variety of other forms of sitting time."

Raising the risk 

A high level of glucose/sugar in the blood raises your risk substantially of type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease.

More than 54 million Americans have "pre-diabetes," in which their blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough to get a diagnosis of diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Recent research shows that some long-term damage to the body, especially the heart and blood vessels, may already be occurring during pre-diabetes, according to the association.

Healthy eating, exercising

Health experts say two major ways of avoiding pre-diabetes and diabetes are through healthy eating and exercise.

However, preventive medicine experts at the University of Colorado's medical school in Denver found that most people who are at risk for type 2 diabetes are less likely to be physically active than folks who aren't at risk.

And the more risk factors they have, the less likely they are to get enough exercise, the Colorado researchers said.

Cutting tube time just 10 hours

But nutrition and exercise experts at Boston's Harvard School of Public Health said women who avoid sedentary behaviors, such as watching television more than 10 hours per week and incorporate a 30-minute brisk walk into their day, reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 43 percent and obesity by 30 percent.

In the Australian research, Dunstan's team studied the link between TV viewing and blood glucose levels in nearly 8,400 people who didn't have diabetes.

After considering the time spent exercising and other factors that could spike blood glucose, Dunstan found that the more time women spent in front of the TV, the higher their blood glucose levels two hours after they took one of the glucose tests in the study.

For more information

•  10 Reasons to Go 30

•  10 Ways to Get Moving

•  American Diabetes Association

•  Diabetes: A Needed 'Wake-Up Call?'

•  For Women, Fatty Junk Foods Too Risky?

Source: Diabetes Care

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