Thursday, April 12, 2012

Exercise for diabetes

Exercise for diabetes is very important. Some limes it may see easier to pop a pill or even take a shot than to put on your walking shoes and hit the trail. But the truth is that exercise in combination with a healthy diet is one of the best things you can do to take care of yourself if you have diabetes.

Why exercise?

Exercise burns calories which will help you lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.

Regular exercise for diabetes can help your body respond and is known to be effective in managing blood glucose. Exercise can lower blood glucose and possibly reduce the amount or medication you need to treat diabetes, or even eliminate the need for medication.

Exercise can improve your circulation especially in your arms and legs when people with diabetes can have problems.

Exercise can help reduce your cholesterol and high blood pressure. High cholesterol and high blood pressure and lead to a heart attack or stroke.


Exercise helps reduce stress which can raise your glucose level.

It can lower your risk for heart disease; reduce your cholesterol levels and your blood pressure.

In some people, exercise combined with a meal plan can control Type 2 diabetes without the need for medications.

How much Exercise for diabetes?

Regularly an intensity and duration of exercise are very important. It is recommended half an hour of continuous aerobic exercise. During this exercise, the heart goes up for a few minutes and drops of sweat appear. This is all what a generally required. Person should stop exercising at once, if he feels any sort of discomforts like pain in the cheat, neck or any other body part.

How to start exercising?

If you are out of shape or have recently been diagnosed as having diabetes, see your doctor before your began an exercise program. Your doctor can tell you about the kinds of exercise that are good for you depending on how well your diabetes is controlled and any complications you may have.

Here are some tips for starting:

If you are planning to walk or jog, be sure your shoes fit well and are designed for the activity you have in mind. Be alert for blisters. Wear of new shoes for a bit each day until they are comfortable and not as likely to cause blisters. Remember, always wear socks.

Start slowly with a low-impact exercise gradually. You can start wit five minutes and add a bit of time each day.

Always wear an ID tag indicating that you have diabetes to ensure proper treatment in case there is a problem when you are exercising or you have an injury.

Avoid lifting heavy weights as a precaution against sudden high blood pressure.

If you have foot problems, consider swimming or biking which is easier on the feet than jogging.

Stretch for five minutes before and after you workout regardless of how intense you plan to exercise.

Types of exercise for diabetes:

There are two main types of exercise. They are Aerobic and anaerobic.

Aerobic Exercise: It is a steady exercise over a period of time that causes our body to use more oxygen. It makes our heart and lungs stronger, lowers blood lipids, lowers blood pressure and used up blood sugar. Aerobic exercises includes, walking briskly, cycling, dancing, swimming, jogging, skating, some team sports etc.

Anaerobic Exercise: It consists of short bursts of energy that work one part of the body at a time. Such as, weight lifting. It builds muscles but does not strengthen the heart and lungs. It uses small amount of blood sugar. But not enough to have much effect on overall blood sugar levels.

Both types of exercise are beneficial. While aerobic exercise works to lower blood sugar better. The benefits of anaerobic activities such as weight training are important too. For maximum benefit, aerobic exercise should be done 3 to 5 days a week for 20-30 minutes each time. If a person is taking insulin then it is easier to balance his blood glucose levels if he exercises at the same time of day.

Precautions:


Straining or over exertion during exercising should be avoided. If after stopping the exercise the breathing and pulse rare do not come to normal then it proves that the person has got over strained and this may lead to a condition known as hypoglycemia that is reduction in blood sugar level.

During exercising, person should not wear tight clothes. Should wear loose, comfortable clothes and the types of clothes he wear should suit the weather. In summer, generally light weight and light colored clothes are preferred. If the person exercising, then care should be taken that he is having his regular meals, that is sufficient quantity of carbohydrates are provided in his diet otherwise, hypoglycemia may occur.

Patient should not keep on exercising continuously in a condition if he finds blisters or cut in his feet. Exercise should be immediately stopped until the healing of feet occurs.

1 comment:

  1. Hi. A well constructed and informative blog. Thanks for visiting my photographic blog "Looking in the Square" Good wishes with your blogs - Dave

    ReplyDelete