Hi welcome type 2, where we discuss everything about type 2 diabetes in a way that everyone can understand. I'm
Dr. Vladmir Carvalho, and today we're going to talk about exercise.
I will tell you the most important thing that you need to know about exercise and type 2 diabetes.
Now, a lot of people think about exercise as something that you can do to lower your blood sugar.
Many people go for a walk just to try to reduce their blood glucose. Well, it's possible to do that.
It's actually so possible that if you have patients that are on insulin.
You normally tell them to reduce their insulin intake before they exercise,
because exercise can actually
lower your blood sugar. And many people also do exercise because it's good for your whole body.
Like... it's good for your brain, your cardiovascular health, for your bones... for everything, right?
So a lot of people do exercise
But today I'll tell you why exercise is one of the best investment you can make if you have type 2 diabetes.
You know that when we eat, our blood sugar increases. Our blood glucose will go up.
But you also know that glucose is not staying in your bloodstream. Just going up and down for no reason.
Glucose is actually passing by so that the cells in your body
can take them and
use them for energy.
Or store them to use later for energy. And what many people will tell you is that for glucose to get inside the cells,
you need insulin, right? Because we know that glucose
cannot cross the membrane of the cells. So for glucose to get into the cells, they need to have some special
transporters. We call them glucose
transporters. And a lot of people will tell you that you need insulin,
so that it will act as a key to unlock the door of the cells so that glucose can get inside.
But this is what a lot of people don't know. That most cells in your body do not need insulin.
Because cells in your body. They have different transporters. We have transporters one, two, three four...
You have a lot of them, and most of the transporters do not need insulin to work.
For example on your red blood cells. The cells that carry oxygen.
You have glucose transporters 1. They do not need insulin.
For example, your pancreas... your beta cells, they have glucose transporters 2.
They also don't need insulin. For example, the cells in your brain... They have glucose transporters three
They also do not need insulin. And it makes sense, right?
You don't want to be writing an exam and then you realize that, you know, your brain is not working because there's no insulin.
So your brain...
Your brain doesn't need Insulin.
So when we're talking about insulin. When we're making all that noise about insulin, you know...
It needs to get glucose into the cells and this and that, we are basically talking about two types of cells.
Your muscle cells and your fat cells.
Inside your muscle cells, they have glucose transporters 4.
These glucose transporters, they don't stay on the membrane.
They hide inside the cells and they need insulin to connect to a receptor. Not this one.
Let's say an insulin receptor. Then these transporters
will move to the membrane and
glucose can get in...
get inside the cells.
Here's the problem: muscle is functional and fat is just a storage.
When you put glucose inside the muscles,
you are putting glucose inside the cells so that the cells
can burn the glucose for energy.
The cells can use it for energy.
Glucose will disappear.
It's just like when you put gas in your car.
You go somewhere, you come back,
it's gone. But when you put it inside the fat cells, you are just storing it.
So that's why I say exercise is one of the best investment that you can make for type 2 diabetes.
Because exercise can take your body from A to
B. This one will have a lot of insulin resistance,
because insulin is trying to force glucose into storage, and your body will resist it. And
this one... B is someone who is insulin sensitive.
Because when insulin comes, your muscle cells are happy to take the glucose.
Now, another thing that muscles can do is that during movement...
When your muscles contract,
they can take glucose
without the need of insulin. So when muscles contract,
the glucose transporters can move to the membrane
without the need for insulin.
so going from A to
B
will change your life. Will make you insulin sensitive. And
will make all the glucose that's coming into your body be
useful, to produce energy, and they will disappear.
That's why in many studies, people that do exercise for a long time,
they will slowly get rid of their medication, get rid of insulin, get rid of everything they were taking before.
But you need to understand that this is not like diet. When we compare exercise with diet...
diet looks like your your regular job, that you know, you get paid every month.
But exercise is more like an investment
that, at the moment, you might not see a lot of
benefits... You can see a little bit, but you don't see a lot of benefits like diet.
But in the long run it will change your body
from this
to this. So to give you an example, let's say that your beta cell function is impaired...
let's say you only have half of the beta cells that are working. And you
have a lot of insulin resistance.
Now, sugar is staying in your blood.
If you go from here
to here,
you will not need all that insulin.
When you move your muscles, they will take glucose on their own, and
even when they take them because of insulin, they use them quickly and take some more. So you will go from someone
who probably needed medications or insulin to someone who doesn't need anything.
So that's why sometimes I talk about professional athletes, because those people are here.
They are so insulin sensitive that even if you want to give them type-2 diabetes,
you can't! If you look at someone like Christiano Ronaldo for example,
even if you remove half of his beta cells,
he will still be Ok. He will not have type-2 diabetes, because his muscles are
professional glucose takers. I
don't know if you can say that... but if you put glucose in his body, those muscles will take all of them.
Ok, not all of them, but a lot of them. So this is the main reason why exercise is extremely
important for people with type 2 diabetes.
Now, some people don't like this. Some people say that exercise is stressful for your body, and it causes inflammation,
you know... increased cortisol, you know... this and that.
But no!
Exercise is only stressful in the beginning
just like any other new thing that you try to do.
To give you an example. You can just go back to watch my first video.
I was so stressful that I think the entire neighborhood was feeling it.
But now I just turn on the camera and talk. The same thing happens with exercise. In the beginning
it is stressful. But in the long run,
exercise can decrease inflammation!
Exercise can make you relax!
Not stress your body!
So when we think about exercise, we don't think of it just like running or
walking or maybe monkey flips or whatever it is...
we think of it as a way to take someone from here to here. And
to do that most people will do some sort of aerobic exercise and
resistance exercise. But how you do that will depend on the patient. For example, in our hospital,
we have a big gym that will take patients from this
to this.
So every patient will have his or her own
exercise program. And I believe that most hospitals have something similar, and if you're in a place where your hospital doesn't have that,
you can buy a gym membership and get a professional trainer. And they can take you from here to here.
It's not very difficult to do. And there are a lot of channels on the internet, on YouTube that can help you
reduce your body fat and
increase your muscle mass.
And if you can't find anything that you like, write it in the comments section.
I will make sure I'll put some links there or ...I will
even, maybe, do some exercise and show you how to do exercise and stuff like that. But these days do not go outside.
Exercise at home, you know, you know why. So I think I'll stop here and make other videos on exercise later. Maybe
teach you how to do some of the exercises that we do.
And don't forget to give this video a thumbs up if you liked it and subscribe to my channel for more.
Have a blessed week
Bye