In most cases, when people are diagnosed with diabetes (type 2 diabetes especially), they tend to give up all hope of making a complete recovery, and tend to think that their fate is been sealed. This is far from the truth. This disease can be cured and permanently prevented from coming back and one of the ways to achieve this is by regular exercise.
The beauty about exercise is that it has an almost immediate effect on your system and these effects last for as long as you keep working out regularly. There are also long-term effects of regularly exercises that you should take advantage of.
Recent research has shown that one single session of moderate exercise can improve the way that your body regulates glucose, and reduces the spikes in blood sugar that often happens after having a meal. Read on to see 6 more reasons you need regular exercise if you have diabetes:
1. Helps you to get better sleep
One of the major risk factors that leads to diabetes is inadequate sleep. When you don’t have enough sleep, it raises both your cholesterol and stress levels, both of which are risk factors of diabetes. Exercise helps you ease off and sleep well.
2. Aids in lowering your blood-sugar level
Diabetes occurs when your blood-sugar level is higher than normal. There are so many factors that might lead to this. Lowering your blood-sugar level is the key factor to treating diabetes and exercise helps you do this quite efficiently.
3. Helps you reach and maintain a healthy weight
Obesity is a risk factor of diabetes and many other major illnesses. Exercise helps you get in better shape and maintain a healthy weight, lower your calorie level and also eliminate unwanted fat from your system.
4. Prevents the insulin centered system from being overworked.
Insulin is a very important hormone in the body. Its primary function is to carry glucose to the cells, where it is used as energy. Insulin basically forces excess sugar into storage form but exercise uses up excess sugar, thus reducing the work of insulin.
5. Reduces your risk of heart disease and stroke
Diabetes is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Over 37 percent of people that suffer from diabetes, end up getting diagnosed with heart disease or stroke in the long run. Exercise however, aerobics in particular, are a generally good way of preventing heart disease and stroke.
6. Lowers your stress level
A high stress level is another major risk factor for diabetes that is mostly ignored. Stress raises bad cholesterol levels, which is entirely bad for your health. Exercise has been proven to be of great help in reducing stress levels.
Conclusion
If you’ve been contemplating on when to start exercise, or why you should even start, the answer is simple: Now. Why? If you read half of this article, you should know by now.
The best way to do any exercise for maximum efficiency is by doing the high-intensity interval training. This training uses short bursts of intense activity followed by a longer period of recovery, and this cycle is repeated multiple of times. All you need is about 20 minutes of this training, 3 to 4 times a week for maximum benefits.