why exercise in diabetes?

[Imotep]

Most doctors advise exercise hand in hand with diet to control the progression of type 2 diabetes. While it looks
good on paper, based on actual physiology of exercise and pathology of diabetes whether type 1 or 2 is not that easy to do and could be dangerous due to occurrence of hypoglycemia during or after exercise. I am not a doctor but reading the physiology of exercise which got very interested when my doctor announced that I am now a bona fide
type 2 diabetic, i question the effectiveness of more intensive or vigorous exercises. As I understand it, type 2 diabetic
which is adult onset type, the body does not respond to the insulin being produced by the pancreas or the pancrease is not producing enough insulin. According to the medical community, exercise will decrease blood glucose levels and
improves sensitivity of the body to insulin. The problem with this dictum is that exercise dictates how glucose or fuel the body will continue to be produced: the more we exercise, the more glucose is poroduced. But in diabetes, the muscles cannot use the glucose due to lack of insulin or lack of sensitivity to insulin. My question: so why continue to produce high amounts of glucose by doing exercise when the body cannot use it and end up in the blood stream causing a disease called diabetes?

[caregiver222]

Moderate exercise is helpful and necessary to prevent the cascade of horrible events that can take place secondary to diabetes.

It doesn't just "look good on paper". It is the appropriate and correct suggestion.

We could discuss "dictums" and space aliens and the price of tea in China, and asccomplish little but degrade the environment through excess production of hot air.

As for "excessive exercise", that is another issue.

[Imotep]

According to Mayoclinic.com: " exercise or physical activity moves sugar from your blood into your cells." the more active you are, the lower your blood sugar level." But they forgot something with this assumption- insulin. This assumption only works if insulin is in order or the body has the right sensitivity to it. I am a waiter and I am on my feet all day. How much more exercise do I need?

[missy569]

You need 30 mins of continual cardiovascular exercise - being a waiter (I was a waitress) doesn't begin to do that for you. 30 mins on a treadmill or recumberant bike each day or MOST days of your week will help to lower your bg by having your body use the extra glucose floating around in your system.

I know, at least for me, if I DON'T exercise, my bg numbers ARE higher.

[Imotep]

I did a lot of reading about exercise and diabetes and this is what I found:" the mechanism by which training decreases utilization of blood glucose are not well understood." Reference: Exercises hypoglycemia in non-diabetic subjects by Jf. Burn,M. Dumortier, C.Fedoa, J Mercer. Insulin tranports glucose to the muscle cells for utilization. You can exercise all you want but if insulin is not present in the recipe then the whole thing is an exercise in futility. The medical community advises physical activity
such as walking, mowing the lawn, dancing, gardening, etc which is better than just sitting in front of the television and becoming fat. So walking around from table to table and in and out of the kitchen is not a physical activity? You say:" 30 mins. on a treadmill or recumbent  bike each day or MOST days of your week will help to lower your bg by having your body use the extra glucose floating around in the system." This
is a major misconception. Because the amount of glucose in the muscles have already been depleted by exercise that's why diabetics go into hypoglycemia. and in the absence of insulin cannot be replenished right away. What makes the body more sensitive to insulin because of exercise is only said but not really proven.

[Zoelula]

We've all been taught that exercise is important, though I have certainly heard more what Imotep is saying, that any moderate exercise such as waitressing certainly is is good. I think though, that the points Imotep makes re logical. I certainly don't know the answer either, but I'm wondering if you can put it to someone who is more of an expert in the physiology of diabetes and exercise and then share the results here?

[WaveRider]

The argument is endless on moderate to vigorous exercise so why don't you tell us, Imotep, from your personal experience whether short spurt waitperson movements do lower or maintain glucose levels. Can you post your prandial and postprandial tests results and include days when you aren't waiting tables?
Thanks.

[missy569]

I didn't say you have to "kill yourself" exercising - I do a simple walk, 3.6 on my treadmill - I do NOT run, like some folks are prone to do...not unless I feel like it, which is rarely, giggle....but ANY exercise is better than NO exercise.

There are a LOT of folks who will NOT do ANY exercising at all! It's to those folks to whom I am really speaking.

I'm usually on another/different diabetic website and you wouldn't believe some of the reasons folks give to get out of exercising.

[Imotep]

I was just proclaimed a full pledge corporal in the new People's Diabetic Brigade last week by my doctor.  So my doctor will do more test before giving me medications to control my type 2 diabetes. I am not doing any self -administered glucose test at the moment so i won't be able to tell you the result of a prandial and post prandial test. Anyways I am more affected by post prandial somnolence which makes it harder to work. Thanks.

[troytroy]

Including myself there were 7 diabetics in my extended family and two of these relatives died before age 60 from diabetic related diseases. Of the surviving 5, I am the only one that exercise regularly (1 hour a day, 5 days a week). All four of my remaining diabetic relatives have diabetic related medical complications. Although I still need to drop another 35 pounds my doctor said I was a reasonably healthy overweight 65 year old diabetic and keep on doing what I am doing. My medication include Metfornin 750 mg twice a day and Starlix before meals.I have been a diabetic for 10 years.

I vote for moderate exercise, if your doctor concurs..

troytroy

[Zoelula]

Thanks for your post, troytroy. I was only diagnosed a year and a half ago and I have already progressed to insulin deficient. I was 58 when I was diagnosed. I haven't always taken good care of my body (an understatement!) but in recent years have learned to eat very healthy so this wasn't a major adjustment for me. But exercise has ever come naturally to me. Fortunately I moved to a town where I walk everywhere and so walking is built into my life. I try to walk quickly but that isn't always easy as the streets are all cobblestone and the sidewalks very uneven and crowded.

What I liked about your post, besides the reminder about the importance of exercise is the hope. When I was first diagnosed my sister in law mentioned two relatives who lived into their 80s with this disease.I'm a bit shocked when I hear about people who ignore their diabetes and think it will go away. I want as many more years as I can get and I want them as healthy as possible. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to manage this disease. Keep up the good work!

[missy569]

Before I became a diabetic, I helped to care for an elderly diabetic - this was MANY yrs ago... She lived to be 84-85 yrs old and did NOT pass away fm diabetic complications. She died of old age... She simply got tired of living.

They had home nurses come and do things like give her, her bath, etc. and I came to sit with her, feed her, etc in order to give her husband some badly needed time off...sometimes the local hospital would admit her too, for the same reason, as she would be awake ALL NIGHT LONG, calling her husband to do this and that, and then in the morning, she'd go to sleep. The doctor wanted her husband to get some rest, so he admitted her.

Her husband would be SO EXHAUSTED that he'd fall asleep at the computer and wake later to find that his finger would fall on a key and he'd have 6 pages of whatever key he'd touch when he fell asleep. The hospital doctor would tell us to make sure she was safe in her bed after we fed her and pottyed her - her bed was in the living room - but that we'd HAVE to leave her to call out, and only check on her every so often. That's what they did at the hospital when she'd be there. It was terribly hard. It was hard to hear her call out, and hard to watch it. Many times her husband and I would stand in the kitchen and cry.

I would be so afraid too, when her husband would have to drive his car into town - to get mail, groceries, do the planning board, etc...I knew his sleep was so very disrupted and I prayed a LOT for him not to have an accident.

Linda, one of the main home nurses didn't know why she was still with us. I told her, that their anniversary was coming up very soon, and as soon as that was over, I knew she'd pass away. I was correct, she died about a week later...but NOT fm diabetic complications, and she had been bed bound for ONE YEAR.

The good ending to this was when her husband, later on, met another woman around his age of 80 and he married her! It was SO SWEET! He's still married to her, although he's since become sick now, and is living in a nursing home.