Have you ever thought about the amazing things exercise can do for your body? Turns out, it’s a real superhero for people with Type 2 diabetes.
This kind of diabetes is when your body doesn’t use insulin properly. Insulin is like a key that lets sugar (glucose) into your body’s cells to give them energy.
Without it working right, too much sugar stays in your blood. That can cause health problems. A new study has some great news about how to fight back with exercise.
The Study: A Deep Dive into Exercise and Diabetes
The study we’re talking about came from The American Journal of Medicine. Researchers like Steven Malin, a teacher from Rutgers University, looked at many studies to find the best ways to use exercise to control blood sugar.
They checked out what kinds of exercises are best, when you should do them, and if it matters if you lose weight or not.
So, what did they find out? Let’s break it down:
Keep Moving: They found that any exercise that gets your heart beating faster and makes you breathe harder helps to manage blood sugar. This could be things like biking, swimming, or going for a brisk walk.
They also found that lifting weights helps because it makes your body better at using insulin. Plus, even moving around throughout the day helps.
So, next time you’re stuck at your desk or on the couch, remember to get up and move every so often.
Timing is Key: The time of day when you exercise matters too. If you can, it’s best to exercise later in the day. It helps you control your blood sugar better and makes your body more responsive to insulin.
Food and Exercise: Should you exercise before or after you eat? Well, both are okay. But, exercising after a meal may help a little bit more.
Losing Weight Not Necessary: And guess what? You don’t have to lose weight for exercise to help. That’s because even if you don’t lose pounds, exercise can reduce body fat and increase muscle.
Why All This Matters
Why do we care so much about this? It’s because a lot of people in the United States have diabetes, especially Type 2.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that more than 37 million Americans have diabetes, and 90-95% of them have Type 2.
When you have high blood sugar from diabetes, it can harm your body and cause serious health problems. So, it’s a big deal to find ways to lower blood sugar.
That’s where exercise comes in. It’s like a superhero that comes to the rescue by increasing insulin sensitivity. This means it helps your body use blood glucose better, so it lowers the amount of sugar in your blood.
Researchers and doctors are now calling exercise a “medicine.” They think it should be one of the first things doctors recommend for people with high blood glucose.
Steven Malin is one of these researchers. He believes exercise is like a drug that helps your body fight disease.
With this new research, doctors now have the best information on how to use exercise to help their patients.
So next time you think about skipping your workout, remember: exercise is your superhero, ready to take down high blood sugar. So, go ahead, get moving!
If you care about diabetes, please read studies that green tea could help reduce death risk in diabetes, and widely used diabetes drug metformin may reduce cognitive decline.
For more information about diabetes, please see recent studies that blueberries strongly benefit people with metabolic syndrome, and results showing common diabetes drugs that can spike heart attack risk.
The study was published in The American Journal of Medicine.
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