I heard from somebody's sources that people with diabetes are - could not or
should not exercise.
I have discussed that with my doctor and he said, "That's a bunch of nonsense."
I think in order to conquer diabetes, you gonna have to exercise.
The only way you're really gonna get that A1c counts down is to move where I am.
You have to move when you got diabetes. I don't like to exercise, but from what've
discovered when I exercise I feel better and it's very good for you and it helps
keep your numbers down in terms of weekly glucose levels.
I found out that it really does make a difference, diet and exercise.
I used to wonder why they used to emphasize that and then I stopped eating
as much as I used to and I didn't lose a weight that I thought I would reduce one
just not eating. So then, I started exercising and I
noticed that my weight did come down and I did feel better.
So exercise with the diet does make a difference.
Hello, I'm Dr. Regina Benjamin, United States Surgeon General.
Welcome to this program on physical activity for people with type 2 diabetes.
Along with diet, medication, and testing your blood sugar, exercise is crucial to
managing your glucose.
In fact, it's just as important as the pills or the insulin you take.
People with diabetes often have to take multiple medicines to control their blood
sugar, their blood pressure, and blood cholesterol and that can be very
inconvenient and some doctors have talked about a poly pill where all of those
medicines would be rolled into one pill taken once a day and make it easier for
the patient, but if you think about it, exercise is the ideal poly pill because it
helps to lower the sugar, the cholesterol, and the blood pressure and if people were
more active, it is very possible that they can reduce the real pills they have to
take or perhaps even eliminate them all together.
If you have type 2 diabetes, exercise can help you in a number of ways.
Blood sugar also known as glucose is a primary fuel for muscles as they do their work.
Physical activity helps the muscles use the glucose instead of letting them build
up in the blood. Lowering blood sugar improves your heart
health and protects your eyes, your feet, your nerves, and your kidneys.
Physical activity keeps your joints and bones healthier and helps control your
blood pressure, cholesterol, and weight.
It also makes you feel better and improves your quality of life.
Now that I'm maintaining an exercise regimen, I'm not as tired as I used to be.
I'm moving more and I have more energy and I'm not coming home in evening and falling
sleep on the bed.
I began to notice that I can sleep better at night.
In fact I needed alone with less sleep.
I found that since I've exercise my blood sugars are lower and my insulin usage
is down and I think that's a good thing, you know.
People who should be screened before starting an exercise program who have
diabetes are those over the age of 40 and have at least two cardiovascular disease
risk factors like high blood pressure or high cholesterol and people who have
a family history of premature heart disease.
It's important to tell your doctor when you are about to start an exercise program
because they may need to make adjustments in your medications.
It may also be necessary for them to make adjustments in your meal plan.
It's important to have realistic expectations about activity so you can be
most successful. Keep in mind that if you haven't exercise
for many, many years, you're not gonna become fit over night or even weeks.
It may take several months so it's important to start slowly, build up over
time, although we set a goal of 30 to 40 minutes a day, the first week, you might
only be able to do 10 minutes.
When I start exercising on the elliptical machine, I can only do about 2 minutes.
At this point, I can do 20 which is good because it took a while coz the first day
I was thinking I'm gonna die on this machine because, you know, I'm exercising
and I'm out of breath and my legs are hurting. You can break it up into shorter periods
of time. For example, 10 minutes in the morning,
10 minutes at lunchtime, 10 minutes in the afternoon and then over time, over weeks,
and months, try to consolidate that so you can go for 30 minutes, 40 minutes nonstop.
Gradually as the weeks went on, then I was doing 5 minutes and then I challenge
myself to do may be 7 minutes and then challenge with 10 minutes and so after
a while, I was doing 20.
You know I started out with step aerobics because it didn't look that hard for me.
But once I got into it, I found out that it was really hard but it's something I
had to just continue to do and after a while, I'll just thought of it pretty much
as dancing.
You know, I learned to like it. So, it's important to find the form of
exercise that you're enjoying so that you can do it consistently because you'll be
more likely to stick to your routine and exercise, even if you aren't losing weight
is still beneficial for several reasons. It helps to relieve stress.
It helps to lower your blood pressure and cholesterol and it also helps your body to
use your diabetes medications better.
Although it's important to choose an activity that's fun, you also need to make
sure that the exercise does not harm your health.
There are several ways you can keep yourself safe while exercising;
exercise with someone who knows you have diabetes and knows what to do if you have
a low blood sugar reaction, wear a medical ID bracelet that says you have diabetes,
and test your blood sugar often so you know how your body reacts to exercise.
There are three different types of physical activity and they each benefit
your body in different ways. Aerobic exercise benefits your heart
and lungs, resistance exercise also called strength training builds muscles
and increases endurance, and flexibility exercises increase your range of motion.
Let's start with aerobic exercise.
There are exercises during which you carry your body weight on your feet like running
or walking and other types of exercise like swimming or bicycling during which
your body weight is supported by water or a machine.
Both approaches give you the same healthy benefits.
They burn calories, improve your heart and circulation, reduce body fats, and improve
your muscles ability to use blood sugar more efficiently.
If you have problems with pain or numbness in your feet, you should consider doing
exercises like swimming or bicycling rather than walking or running because
you're not carrying your weight. These activities are more gentle on your
feet and on your joints.
Let's look at resistance training.
You choose your muscles to generate force. For example, lifting weights or household
objects such as cans of soup or bottles of water are a form of resistance training.
Resistance training burns calories, reduces body fat, and increases your
metabolism, muscle strength, bone density, and the body's ability to use insulin
and burn sugar.
To find the right starting weight for you, find something you can lift 12 or 15 times
without getting tired.
Once 15 lifts become easy, you can go from a half gallon of something to a gallon or
if you're lifting weights, you can increase the weight by 5 or 10 pounds.
No matter what you are lifting, make sure you breathe freely and try not to hold
your breath.
The aerobic exercise should be done more frequently three to five times a week.
Resistance exercise should be done at least twice a week.
If you have an amputation and you're on a wheelchair, you can do some of the same
exercises in the wheelchair that you would do on a regular chair.
So, upper body exercises will still improve your overall health as well as
increase your wheelchair mobility.
In addition to aerobics and resistance training, you should also do some
flexibility or stretching exercises.
Yoga and Tai Chi help maintain balance and many community center and gyms offer classes.
You can also do this at home.
Stretching keeps the joint healthy. You can use stretching as a warm up
and cool down for 5 to 10 minutes before and after any type of physical activity.
The stretches can be done almost anywhere and what stretch does is move the joint
through what we call a range of motion. So, the goal is to stretch as long as you
can to really flex those joints
and another key factor is to do it slowly. You don't wanna bounce coz bouncing in
a sudden jerking action can actually lead to injury where stretching really is designed
to help avoid injury and soreness.
If you have diabetes, there are several other things to think about when you start
becoming physically active.
Don't ignore pain. Stop if something hurts.
Otherwise, you may cause stress or damage to your joints.
Examine your feet regularly. For diabetes, you may not feel pain
and won't know if you have an injury like a blister or an ulcer.
Drink water before, during, and after exercise so you don't get dehydrated.
Have some type of carbohydrates food available like hard candy or crackers in
case your blood sugar drops.
Physical activity can sometimes cause low blood sugar especially if you don't
carefully time your meals, medications, and exercise schedule.
I usually carry either banana, cracker, or something with me and a bottle of water to
help keep my blood sugar levels normal so I don't have a drop.
It's important for me to keep mine up because I know once it started to drop I
started to feel lightheaded.
If you have diabetes and you're exercising, you should be aware of
developing blurred vision, confusion, sweatiness that's more than what you would
normally have with exercise or feeling excessively hungry or shaky, those could
all be signs of a low blood sugar also called hypoglycemia.
So if those symptoms occur, you should eat at something with simple sugar in it such
as a graham cracker or drink a drink with simple sugar such as orange juice.
It's important to get specific shoes for exercise because they can help to prevent
injury by protecting your feet, your knees, and your hips and also they provide
the appropriate cushioning that you need which is very different than your everyday sneakers.
So, it's important to go to a sporting goods store to be specifically fitted for
the correct walking and exercise shoes.
Protect your feet daily when you have diabetes because you may have developed an
injury or a lesion particularly if you something called neuropathy or you may
have nerve damage from diabetes and don't feel when your feet are injured.
So the things specifically that you should talk to your doctor about are new cuts or
bruises, calluses, redness or swelling or anything else in your feet that's of
concern to you.
It's also helpful to set aside a certain time each week to exercise.
For example, if you plan to exercise every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, marks those
days on your calendar so you make a real commitment to yourself.
You wanna make exercise a habit so it becomes part of your lifestyle routine,
in other words, something you do regularly every week.
The benefits of exercise are actually firmly short live so if you go out
and take a walk, you lower your blood sugar, but after a couple of days it will go
right back up. So, it's important to do the exercise on
a regular basis so that the benefits are always there.
The best approach to controlling diabetes and preventing its complications are to
take all of your medications as your doctor directs and also to engage in an
aerobic as well as resistance training as
a form of exercise. This does not only help to improve blood
sugar, but also lowers blood pressure and blood cholesterol.
It is important to try to do at least some form of exercise every other day.
You don't have to belong to a gym to get the benefits of exercise.
You can do little things throughout the day to increase your physical activity.
Going up and down stairs is great exercise.
Stand up and walk around in the house while you're talking on the telephone.
Some people find this more fun and helpful to do it with a partner.
The two of you can motivate and encourage each other to stick with whatever type of
physical activity you want to do.
I find that exercise once you make it a part of your regimen, it actually becomes
easier not only that, it becomes fun. The more I do, the more I enjoyed it.
I really do. So, if I don't do it three times a week,
I really miss it. Agree about what you're gonna to do this
week and what you're gonna do next week and start with a little steps and then
a big steps will take care of themselves in the future.
My weight has gotten a little smaller but still not to the point where I feel
comfortable at. I have a long ways to go, but I haven't
given up, you know.
I think - I think I can pull this one off.
Before you know it, it's just that an everyday practice.
It's like breathing out and breathing in, that's something you do.
We hope this program, helps you decide to move.
Be sure to talk to your own doctor or clinician if you have any questions or
concerns about starting to become physically active.
Good luck and good health and have fun.