Football May Improve Bone Health In Elderly With Prediabetes: Study 

Playing football helped improve the overall strength of legs and clinically important femoral sites.
"Our results show that football and dietary guidance are indeed an effective cocktail for improving bone health," said Magni Mohr, Associate Professor at the University of Southern Denmark.
"Football is a multipurpose sport that combines strength, endurance and high-intensity interval training, and this makes it a good tool for the prevention and treatment of Type-2 diabetes and other lifestyle diseases," added Peter Krustrup. 

For the study, a small group of 55 to 70 year olds underwent a 16 week intervention comprising dietary guidance and twice weekly football training sessions lasting 30 to 60 minutes.
Now when you think of elderly, it is uncommon for us to associate them with an activity as dynamic and agile as football. For 70-year-olds with low physical capacity or poor bone health, exerting so much could also affect their health in a major way. 

Researchers have found that a modified version of football, the so-called Football Fitness concept, which included a thorough warm-up, ball drills in pairs and games on small pitches, was feasible and effective for the middle-aged and elderly patients.

After 16 weeks of training, changes in favour of football training were observed for bone mineral content of the femoral neck (3.2 per cent) and femoral shaft (2.5 per cent) as well as for bone mineral content (32 g).
Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases that cause high blood sugar levels. This may happen due to inadequate production of insulin by the pancreas or when the cells of the body do not respond to the insulin produced. Diet forms a crucial aspect of diabetes management.  For people suffering from prediabetes, it is all the more important to make healthy tweaks to their diet before itself, to prevent onset of diabetes.

Here are some dietary tips that could help:

 
1. Maintain Healthy Balanced Diet:  Keep a check on your carb intake. Since carbs are broken down into glucose that results in raising our blood sugar levels. Reduce simple carb and increase the intale of complex carbs. Moreover, consuming an adequate amount of fibre-rich foods can help control our blood sugar. Adding more of soluble dietary fibre to our diet is the most effective. Eat more fresh vegetables and bitter herbs.

2. Include more Low GI Foods In Your Diet: Glycemic Index (GI) is a relative ranking of carbohydrate in foods according to how they affect blood glucose levels. Carbohydrates with a low GI value (55 or less) are more slowly digested, absorbed and metabolised and cause a lower and slower rise in blood glucose. Low GI foods are also rich in fibre which takes the longest to digest, make you feel fuller for a longer time and help control appetite. This could further help in weight management. Tomato, spinach, guavas, cauliflower, and pears are some low glycemic index foods you can choose to add to your diet.

3. Ditch Drinks and Fruit Juices: Diabetics should steer clear of aerated and sugary drinks, these drinks are full of liquid calories and can cause major spike in the blood sugar levels. Your can of fruit juice is not one of the healthiest substitutes either. Fruit juices especially packaged fruit juices are loaded with fructose that elevates the blood sugar levels. It is advisable to eat whole fruits instead. Fruits are full of fibres, fibres take time to metabolise and thus doesn't result in sudden surge in blood sugar levels. Eat fruits that have a low glycemic index. Eat fruits with some nuts and olives to balance the glycemic load.

(With inputs IANS)