I’m still confused by the fact that exercise is one of the cornerstones of my diabetes management and the topic gets one page out of the typical 76 pages of Diabetes Forecast magazine published by the American Diabetes Association.
I don’t think I’m off the mark to consider exercise a cornerstone of diabetes management for anyone with type one or type two diabetes.
Several people profiled in 50 Secrets of the Longest Living People with Diabetes agree with me.
The book includes “secrets” on various life and living topics, but exercise is the one “secret” to being successful at living long and well with diabetes that came up the most consistently as one of the top ones regardless of how long people had been living with the disease, according to authors Sheri Colberg PhD and Steven Edelman, MD.
I knew it!
Exercise helps any insulin work better—be it insulin manufactured inside your body (type 2) or outside of it (type 1) and injected in.
Exercise helps food work better—rather than being stored for possible use in the future, exercise helps us use our food as energy now, before it gets to storage.
Exercise helps us manage stress—that daily moment to moment inescapable stress of calculating and figuring and evaluating and checking and projecting and reviewing and anticipating and worrying.
Exercise helps us stay active and mobile to keep us healthy and young as long as possible. It’s simple—staying active every day helps us achieve our diabetes goals by helping to keep our blood glucose levels in check.
Exercise helps our bodies and hearts stay healthy and helps ward off cardiovascular disease that is one of the leading health complications of type one or type two diabetes.
So why only one page?
It probably isn’t as photogenic as a fruit salad with accompanying recipe. It probably isn’t as profit-generating as an advertisement for a new (or old) insulin, medication, delivery method, socks, ID bracelet, shoes, lancet, or blood glucose meter.
But it’s a heck of a lot more effective in the fight against an unhappy unhealthy life, if you ask me.
We all need to re-orient ourselves when it comes to our diabetes management. Think beyond “food” and “medication” and add in an invaluable tool you have already in your Diabetes Management toolbox: your own body.
Use it or lose it!
