What would be the outcome of confining young people to bed for two months without any physical activity? This is what a new study from the University of Bath found.

Twenty men took part in a unique study in which they stayed in bed for two months straight. The results show that being inactive for long periods of time is bad for the body’s metabolic health, which has implications for both future space missions and life on Earth.

What do you get when you put 20 young guys in bed for two months without any exercise?

Long-term inactivity dramatically raises blood sugar levels, even if you restrict food consumption to prevent gaining weight, according to new research conducted by the University of Bath.

The research, which was conducted as part of a bed rest study conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA), was headed by a team from the University’s Center for Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism.

Twenty young, healthy male volunteers were studied for a whole month as they stayed in bed with their feet elevated. Even as they ate, bathed, and used the restroom, many stayed in bed.

The research conducted by the team from Bath focused on the metabolic health of the subjects, namely how efficiently the body manages blood sugar.

Earlier research from the same team in 2018 showed that exercise, even in brief bursts, had a significant short-term influence on blood sugar.

They want to learn more about what happens over the course of weeks and months when there is no movement or physical activity with this new research.

Participants were given a much smaller amount of food to make up for how little they moved around and keep them from gaining weight.

The results, which were published in the journal Clinical Nutrition, show that participants’ blood sugar levels went down even when they ate less to match their much lower energy needs when they were in bed.

The average blood sugar levels of participants in the bed rest study rose by around 6% during the day and by about 10% at night.

Their capacity to get rid of blood sugar, also known as taking blood sugar into muscles, fell by roughly a quarter (24%) as a result of the condition. Individuals had difficulty maintaining normal blood sugar levels, an indicator of future vulnerability to cardiovascular illness and type II diabetes.

The study team explains that the subjects’ consumption of less calories did keep their blood sugar levels from rising any more.

Given the decreased capacity to eliminate sugar, the authors surmise that their blood sugar levels would have increased considerably more during the bed rest if they had eaten the same quantity as usual.

ESA carried out the bed rest research to better comprehend how astronauts’ future crewed space journeys will affect their health.

The results, according to the researchers, also apply to life on Earth, where millions of individuals experience extended periods of inactivity as a result of unhealthy habits, chronic illnesses, poor health, or injuries.

The findings, according to lead author Dylan Thompson, show that, in addition to the effects of managing nutrition, withdrawal from physical exercise has a significant negative influence on physiological health.

Due to their inactivity, participants’ blood sugar levels significantly increased and their capacity to absorb and use sugar decreased, even though the changes were not as significant as would have been anticipated if they had continued to consume the same number of calories as they had before the study.

This demonstrates that even if you manage to avoid gaining weight, changing your diet alone regrettably cannot counteract all the harmful impacts of cutting down on your physical activity.

According to Dr. Angelique Van Ombergen, who leads the life sciences discipline at the European Space Agency (ESA), their spaceflight analogs, which use bedrest as the standard method, enable researchers to conduct studies that not only benefit astronauts but also have potential applications for people on Earth who are immobilized or elderly.

“This newly published study from Prof. Thompson and his team,” according to the expert, “is a good example of that. ESA is currently planning two new bedrest studies where we will test a combination of countermeasures.”

The Bath team is focusing on preventative methods that might benefit both astronauts and those who are bedridden on Earth. Recent work by the CNEM team showed that electrically stimulating the muscles in the legs can help to recreate some of the effects of exercise on how blood sugar is controlled. This could be used to help people who have no mobility at all.

“Without movement, long-term inactivity,” as pointed out by Professor Thompson, “will increase the likelihood that people will develop chronic conditions, such as type II diabetes.

“Even in extreme cases where individuals have lost movement completely, we believe there are exciting technological options that could impact muscular contraction for blood sugar control which we are keen to explore and develop.”

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