Diabetic Living - Fall 2010

calling all potatoes c ou c h

Here is the powerful case for
making regular physical activity
part of your diabetes care.

BY Winnie Yu

xercise: Doctors, educators,
“Exercise doesn’t get nearly the
focus or attention it deserves,” says
Gary Scheiner, CDE, author of Think
Like a Pancreas (Da Capo Press, 2004)
and an exercise physiologist in
Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. He says
the effects of exercise can, in some
cases, be as powerful as medications.

E

Sunny’s average blood sugars had hit 150 mg/dl. He began watching his portions. In three months, his glucose levels dropped about 10 points.

But when Sunny, 67, started exercising, his sugars took a dive. After 12 weeks of strength training and walking on a treadmill ;ve days a week, his average blood glucose hovered about 100;mg/dl.

“All my numbers were lower—my blood pressure, my cholesterol,” Sunny says.

Case study

Getting daily physical activity is the secret weapon in your battle against diabetes and its complications. That became clear to Sunny Harris, PWD type 2, from Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Expect good things Exercise can lower blood sugar and improve sensitivity to insulin (whether it’s the body’s own or injected or pumped). Exercise also lowers blood pressure, total cholesterol, and LDL (bad) cholesterol, and increases HDL (good) cholesterol.

People who exercise regularly have more energy, manage weight more easily, and sleep better than people who don’t exercise—and all those things help control blood glucose.

Regular physical activity also counters in;ammation, which is at the root of many diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Exercise triggers enzymes that help cells use oxygen more effectively and prevent the oxidative damage that leads to disease, says Sheri R. Colberg, Ph.D., professor of exercise science at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

“When you look at ways to combat cancer and other diseases, physical activity is always on the list,” Colberg says. Turn the page for effective ways to get moving.