We often hear the importance of indulging ourselves in some or the other kind of physical activity. Any form of exercise is indeed helpful for not only diabetes but also for the overall health of the individuals. Most of the diseases in human beings are the result of a sedentary lifestyle and a lack of physical movement and exercise.

In this article, we shall explain how can exercise help people who suffer from diabetes. In fact, you can even prevent diabetes from occurring and affecting you, if you have the habit of exercising on a regular basis.

Ways in Which Indulging in Exercise Helps in Diabetes:

The following are some of the ways in which physical activity can help someone who has diabetes:

• The regular form of physical activity and exercise helps to maintain stable levels of blood glucose levels. Regular monitoring and maintaining stable blood glucose levels, as we know, form one of the most effective ways of dealing with diabetes effectively. Exercise helps in the following two ways:
• When you are exercising regularly, the sensitivity of the body towards the hormone insulin is known to increase. As a result, the cells are in a greater position to utilize insulin just before and after you have had a session of physical activity or exercise.
• Besides, when you are into some or the other kind of physical activity, it is well-known that your muscles contract at that particular time. The result of this is that the cells use glucose in a much better way and convert the same into energy.
• Exercise, in the form of aerobics, include brisk walking, dancing, bicycle ride, or even swimming. These forms of exercise help to lower the risk of type 2 diabetes as it is known to improve circulation of blood in the body while also reducing the levels of blood pressure and the levels of bad cholesterol. All this helps in reducing or even preventing the risks of type 2 diabetes.
• Similarly, when you are involved in strength training, you burn calories at a faster rate. This, as you know, further contributes to reducing the risk of diabetes.
• Apart from that, physical activity and exercising regularly helps to reduce the risks of several cardiovascular diseases including stroke which as we know, is an important complication of diabetes.
• When you are diabetic, you often suffer from a lot of complications. This leads to you feeling stressed out. Stress, as we know, leads to several different bodily complications. When you are stressed out, you are exposing yourself to a greater risk of contracting diseases like diabetes. When you are into regular exercising, stress from the body is relieved and hence, you keep disease like diabetes at bay.
• An important way to control diabetes is to lose weight. While maintaining a well-balanced diet is important to achieve the goal, the same cannot be achieved if you are not in the habit of exercising on a regular basis. Thus, exercising helps you to lose weight and thereby help diabetes.
• Finally, when you develop the habit of exercising regularly, the A1c levels tend to stabilize. This further promotes effective management of diabetes

Thus, exercising is important for those with diabetes. As per the experts, even twenty-five to thirty minutes of exercise for at least five days a week shall be helpful in getting the desired results.

Read Also: Why is My Blood Sugar High After Exercise?

Tips for Effective Physical Activity in Diabetes

When you are a diabetic patient, you need to be extremely careful about every single thing you do and how indulging in a particular activity will affect your blood glucose levels. As such, following are some of the tips that you should follow while exercising in diabetes:

• To begin with, before getting anything new, you should consult your doctor. Only if the doctor says a yes should you go ahead with any form of exercising.
• Showing to the doctor is also important because depending on the amount of physical activity or exercise you do daily, you will have to adjust and change your medicines, drugs, insulin, etc.
• Always make it a habit to check the level of your blood sugar just before and after the physical activity or exercise. Sometimes, the doctors even prescribe to check the levels of blood glucose during the exercise. This is a way of judging whether or not you would be needing a snack or two
• Remember that exercise simply does not mean that you will have to hit the gym regularly. Exercise could mean any of the physical activity that you like and anything that is enough to raise your heartbeat. It can include swimming, bicycle riding, running, walking, yoga, or even dancing.
• Besides, it is important to remember that sometimes during exercise, your carbohydrates may become very low. Hence, being a diabetes patient, you should remember to carry a source of carbohydrate with you. It can be a doctor prescribed snack or even fruit.
• When you have adopted exercising your daily habit, make sure you are hydrating yourself in an efficient manner.
• Make sure to wear athletic shoes while you exercise. This might appear to be a minor tip. However, when not followed adequately, it might lead to foot problems that are very common in diabetes patients
• When you start experiencing sudden pain and discomfort during a session of physical exercise, make sure to consult your doctor.

Thus, follow the above tips and take the maximum benefits which indulging in regular physical activity has to offer to all the patients who suffer from diabetes

We hope that the above post has been helpful in educating you about the several benefits that regular habit of exercising can bring in the long run. Not only in diabetes, physical activity is highly recommended for the overall health and well-being of the individuals!