By: Heather Pennington
It is Diabetes Prevention Awareness time in our country! Here are some tips on activity for those who have pre-diabetes or for those with various types of diabetes. The best advice for preventing Type II Diabetes is to be active every day! Do something recreational that you enjoy like gardening, walking the dog, pushing to the mailbox or around the block, doing relaxing yoga or stretching to relieve stress. All of these are good ways to help working muscles pull the glucose into them so your tissues become less “insulin resistant”. That term may be confusing and perhaps professionals throw this around without thinking to define. Well, insulin is like a car that carries passengers of glucose to working muscles and liver for storage. If, over time, there is too much glucose and insulin constantly flooding your bloodstream and system, your tissues become resistant or “numb” to the fact that you need to lessen blood glucose by pulling it into working muscles.
By simply being active and choosing to do something that you enjoy that allows your body to move, you can be powerful in preventing and overcoming that resistance. Your working muscles can then bring your blood sugar back down by pulling that car with passengers into working muscles. Sometimes you do need to seek professionals to help with medication as you engage in this important first step which is simply being active. However, don’t rely on medication alone. Continue to move and recreate so you can enjoy life every day. Never stop moving! Our bodies are made to move, however wonderfully different they might move with different abilities.
If you do have diabetes or you are monitoring your blood sugar, sometimes called self-blood glucose monitoring (SBGM), follow these tips and press on! Moving can make an impact not only on overall health but occasionally on the need or amount of medication as well!
- Keep a small notebook that records your SBGM info so you and your physician can make informed decisions based on numbers.
- Check your blood glucose 30 minutes before you exercise and if your blood glucose falls below 100 mg/dl then do the 15:15 rule!
- The 15:15 rule is simple and easy to remember. Ingest 15 grams of carbohydrates and recheck blood sugar in 15 minutes. If your SBGM result is anywhere from 100-250 mg/dL then go be active and move to enjoy life! If it is too high, rest, talk to your doctor, and follow their guidelines. If it still too low, perform the 15:15 rule again.
- If you do engage in activity, don’t forget to monitor and check blood sugar after your activity and sometimes 3-4 hours after activity. It is important to see how your body responds.
The number one take away application here is to enjoy moving as much as you can, preferably every day for 15-45 minutes. Check your blood sugar regularly if needed and follow the steps above so you can prevent or manage your diabetes and continue to move!