Exercise Benefits for Diabetics

“Diabetes mellitus consists of 2 subgroups (type 1 and type 2) that currently afflict 18.2 million Americans with the number expected to increase to 23 million by 2025”. Every year at least 1.3 Americans the age of 20 or older find out they have diabetes. It is the sixth leading cause of death by disease in the U.S. Diabetes also causes blindness, kidney failure, and limb amputations and represents an independent risk for cardiovascular disease. The two types are insulin-dependent mellitus (type 1), which a person has very little or no endogenous insulin capacity.Non-insulin dependent diabetes (type 2), which a person will have some insulin function and therefore are not fully dependent on insulin for survival.4

Symptoms include 4:

·         Presence of glucose in urine (glycosuria)

·         Frequent urination (polyuria)

·         Excessive thirst (polydipsia)

·         Extreme hunger (polyphagia)

·         Unexplained weight loss

·         Irritability

·         Blurry vision

·         Numbness or tingling in the extremities (hands, feet)

·         Slow-healing wounds or sores

·         Abnormally high frequency of infection.

Medications 2:

Insulin is the treatment for type 1 and for type 2 in emergency cases. There is no calculated average dose for insulin. It is determined by each individual person’s need to attain euglycemia and avoid hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia.

Rapid acting insulins:

·         Regular Insulin (Humulin R), NovoLog, Humalog – ($13.46-$85.77 ML)3

Intermediate Acting:

·         NPH Insulin (Humulin N), Lente Insulin – ($13.39-$85.77 ML)3

Long Acting:

·         Ultralente

Combinations:

·         Lantus, Humulin  50/50, Humulin 70/30, Novolin 70/30 – ($24.00-$28.00 ML)3

Exercise Benefits:

• Exercise can help with positive changes in hormones during endurance training.4
•  “Cross-sectioned, retrospective, prospective, and interventional epidemiologic research, including studies of enforced inactivity, provide strong evidence that regular exercise reduces type 2 diabetes risk in adolescents and adults with or without concomitant body composition changes.”4
• Regular physical activity improves blood glucose and can prevent or delay type 2 diabetes.

*With diabetes it is always important to talk with one’s physician before starting/ continuing a regimen, especially if one has type 1 diabetes because there are risks when exercising due to the condition of their body.  

Diabetes can lead to several other diseases, so why not try exercising to let your body try and do what it does best. Exercise can help with diabetes; however, it cannot cure it. But if it can help, then that can also save some money that one will have to spend on the costly medications.

1Association, A. C. (2016). Exercise and Type 2 Diabetes: American College of Sports Medicine and the American Diabetes Association: Joint Position Statement. American College of Sports Medicine. Retrieved from American College of Sports Medicine.

2McKenry, S. (2003). Mosby's Pharmacology in Nursing. St. Louis: Mosby.

3NADAC as of 2016-10-12. (2016, October 12). Retrieved from Medicaid.gov: https://data.medicaid.gov/Drug-Prices/NADAC-as-of-2016-09-14/nxzv-5ndn

4William D. McArdle, F. I. (2007). Exercise Physiology; Energy, Nutrition, & Human Performance. Maryland: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.