Can running keep diabetes in check? Finance exec took up the sport to avoid taking medication for the condition – now he runs ultra races

Diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 51 in 2015, a stressed CFO chose running, not medicine, to manage his condition. His blood glucose level soon fell

Ravi Chandra has since run 29 races, including ultra races, formed a running club in Hong Kong and inspired his two grown-up children to take up the sport

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Ravi Chandra was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 51 in 2015. Instead of medicine, he took up running - and he has not stopped since. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 11:15am, 16 Mar 2024Updated: 11:02am, 1 Apr 2024

When Ravi Chandra was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at the age of 51, his doctor recommended he start taking medication. Instead, he started running.

That was in 2015. Since then Chandra has run 29 races – 12 marathons in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and India, five half-marathons, seven 10-kilometre races and five ultra runs, including the 100-kilometre (62-mile) Oxfam Trailwalker in Hong Kong.

Just three months after he took up running regularly, Chandra’s blood glucose levels had fallen back into the normal range, to 6.80 from 8. He has never needed to take medication.

Chandra had good reason to choose exercise over medication.

Chandra’s blood glucose levels soon fell back into the normal range, to 6.80 from 8. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

“I felt that once I started [medication], the dosage would keep increasing. I felt that improving my fitness levels would help control the diabetes. In addition, my work was very stressful and I thought regular exercise would help calm me down,” says Chandra, a long-term Hong Kong resident who works as the chief financial officer of a family office.