Glucose tolerance in young and older athletes and sedentary men

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Abstract
Groups of endurance-trained masters atheletes (60 .+-. 2 yr), older untrained men (62 .+-. 1 yr), lean older untrained men (61 .+-. 2 yr), endurance-trained young athletes (26 .+-. 1 yr) and young untrained men (28 .+-. 1 yr) were studied to obtain information on the separate effects of age, physical activity and body fatness on glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. Each subject underwent an oral 100-g glucose tolerance test. Skinfold thickness was determined at 6 sites. The trained groups had a higher maximum O2 uptake capacity and lower sum of skinfolds than their sedentary peers. The lean older untrained group had a sum of skinfolds similar to that of the young untrained group. The masters athletes, young athletes and young untrained men exhibited similar glucose tolerance, whereas the 2 older untrained groups had an almost 2-fold greater total area under the glucose curve (P < 0.05). The masters and young atheletes had significantly blunted plasma insulin responses compared with the other 3 groups (P < 0.05). The young and the lean older untrained groups had similar plasma insulin responses, with significantly lower insulin levels than the older untrained group (P < 0.05). Regularly performed vigorous exercise evidently can, in some individuals, prevent the deterioration of glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity with age.