Get Up and Move! Keeping Diabetes Under Control

Up to half a billion people in the world are estimated to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (T2D) by the year 2035, which would be close to 10% of the world’s population. Studies state that in Australia, approximately 280 new people are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes daily, and in America this figure is closer to 1.5 million a year.  This costs the Australian healthcare system more than $14 billion a year, and in America healthcare, the costs total more than $245 billion. Diabetes is the major source of ill health and leads to a greater risk of cardiovascular, neurological, ophthalmic and renal diseases. Diabetes is an epidemic. Sustainable, safe and effective approaches are needed to manage the growing type 2 diabetic population.

Exercise is the key to diabetes management

It has been emphasized that exercise is the key to managing diabetes. Exercising prevents blood pressure from rising and helps with insulin sensitivity. It’s challenging to implement resistance or those essential strengthening exercise guidelines, and aerobic exercise can be annoying and boring. The conclusion? Instead of just trying to exercise, many people with diabetes just remain seated and inactive.

In developed countries, it is somewhat of an oxymoron that sedentary behaviors or too much sitting is the behavior of choice. People sit at work, school, while they are going to and from school and work, and leisure time is spent watching television or playing on a computer (all, as we know, would have you sitting).

You don’t have to go to the gym every day, just cutting up lengthy periods of sitting with normal everyday activities will provide cardio-metabolic health benefits.

Sedentary activities after eating, causes glucose and blood pressure to increase. So, try to get up and move to decrease sugar levels and blood pressure as much as possible for the best results.

A study had patients, who used Metformin and diet changes, to add exercise to their routine

In a study concluded in March of 2018, 24 sedentary men and women have type 2 diabetes and used diet and Metformin to treat their diabetes, used their own controls, plus 3 interventions per day, and a one-week break between intervention days.

Each contributor was provided normal Western-style meals during the 2-day lead-in period and during each of the intervention days. Researchers also gave these types of foods on intervention days to control the influence of  the diet. However, all other factors that could influence the outcomes of the study stayed the same. The researchers managed the participants sitting and activity patterns.

One intervention day, required contributors to sit for 7 hours continuously (except for bathroom breaks). For the other two intervention days, participants sat but did regular activity breaks for 3 minutes every 30 minutes. These breaks totaled 36 minutes of activity over the 7 hours. The three-minute sitting breaks included slow walking on a treadmill, or simple body-weight resistance activities (SRAs), like calf raises, knee raises, and half squats.