Is Physical Activity An Effective Medication For Diabetes?

Nikki Attkisson | Last Updated : September 19, 2022

The role of exercise or moderate physical activity is crucial in bringing out your healthy self. Besides, it is also a part of fitness and weight loss programs, as it burns fats and prevents further fat accumulation. However, apart from the benefit of maintaining fitness, physical activities are effective to bring multiple positive changes in your body. One of the prominent impacts it can bring is on your blood glucose levels as it improves your glucose metabolism.

Diabetes And Physical Activities

Lately, CDC has suggested physical activities are beneficial to combat diabetes and its associated symptoms. There are also various scientific studies that came up with similar findings.

Is Physical Activity An Effective Medication For Diabetes?

To tell you about it in detail, your body becomes more sensitive to insulin, if you follow regular physical moves.

This facilitates your tissues to effectively use blood sugar to produce energy and to keep diabetes under control. 

How To Follow Physical Moves And Manage diabetes? 

Even though the link between physical moves and reduced blood sugar levels is obvious, experts have given certain suggestions to follow them ideally. To begin with, just keep in mind that you don’t have to perform any vigorous or extreme level of exercise. But, moderate physical activities also carry the power to bring desirable changes in managing hiked blood sugar and resting metabolic rates

To give effective support to your healthy blood sugar markers through exercise, experts have suggested a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity, every week. Or else, you can try to adapt to 20-25 minutes of regular physical activity. At the same time, targeting your major muscle groups twice a week with effective exercise moves are more beneficial to give you results. 

Here is a list of activities that are moderate, but can bring a greater impact on your blood sugar levels. Most of them are done with enjoyment as they are not performed in closed areas. 

  • Brisk walks
  • Engaging in sports 
  • Swimming 
  • Cycling 
  • Dancing 
  • Aerobics 
  • Pushing a lawn mower 
  • Gardening 

Following each of these activities benefit your muscles, while raising your heart rate and making you breathe in harder. This supports your fitness and endurance as well. 

More From Powdersville Post:

🔵Diabetes Warning Signs In Your Eyes | What You Need To Know!

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How to begin? 

As regular physical activity determines the quality of your life, adapting to an effective regular exercise regimen is necessary as early as possible. Especially, if you are a victim of diabetes and its disturbing symptoms, you need to follow it right away. But never ignore the directions given by experts on following them. 

Start from the base: if it is for the first time you are on to perform effective physical activities, always begin slowly with patience and bring time to time improvement in intensity to reach the desired levels. For instance, you can start with 10 minutes of walking, adding a few activities to your routine such as doing yard work, helping the household, and playing outdoor games.  

Find something interesting: in case you find exercising boring, detect what brings your enjoyment. let it be swimming, dancing, or cycling, you can stick with it more than any other move while enjoying your effort. 

Find a mate: exercising or doing physical activities with a friend is more effective and interesting. Besides, you will also get timely suggestions and motivations, while following your plan with a genuine partner. 

Set adequate goals: setting the right goals is also important, but consider your abilities and set specific and realistic targets, that will not make you struggle to reach the finishing point. 

Schedule the time: if you succeed in making regular physical moves a habit rather than practice, you are not likely to unfollow them ever. So, scheduling the time, and sticking with the plan will help you link the activity with your daily life. Besides, never skip these activities for more than 2 days if you want to include them in your habitual actions.  

To conclude

Even though exercise or moderate-intensity physical moves are beneficial to manage diabetes, always proceed to follow them in accordance with your physical health and abilities. Besides, you need to gradually improve their intensity up to the required levels for a better impact. At the same time, you can also follow certain other tips like drinking plenty of water, and keeping updates on your blood sugar levels are also crucial to keep going on the right track. 

References:

🔵National Library Of Medicine (n.d) Antidiabetic Effects of Physical Activity: How It Helps to Control Type 2 Diabetes (Available On):https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7443456/

🔵Mayo Clinic (1998-2022) Diabetes and exercise: When to monitor your blood sugar (Available On):https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes/in-depth/diabetes-and-exercise/art-20045697


Nikki Attkisson

With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.

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