Diet and Exercise for Diabetics

Diet combined with physical exercise brings results almost twice as good as medication for diabetics, found researchers from Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health in Columbia.

The research group had three goals: to decrease the calories level with twenty five percent, to lose weight and to increase the activity level to approximately thirty minutes of moderate daily activity like fast walking on five to seven days a week, according to Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, a research group member.

People involved in the study lost between ten and fifteen pounds. Even a modest weight loss has a benefit: "That's one of the best pieces of news here, which is to say that you don't have to become a different person. If you're 300 pounds, 5 percent is only 15 pounds, and that was the amount of weight loss that was shown to be so effective," said Mayer-Davis.

Other specialists agree. Jules Oaklander, a family physician with 40 years of experience, recommends exercise to his patients. Oaklander found substantial improvements in the health of patients who exercise, such as loss of excess weight, and lower cholesterol and sugar levels. In some cases, physicians were even able to discontinue the medication. “In some cases weight loss alone can make diabetes disappear. There's no question about that, "said Oaklander.

The same opinion about the benefits of working out is shared by W. Stuart Tucker, an endocrinologist at Eastover Internal Medicine in North Carolina. Tucker said that getting deconditioned and gaining weight are related to a sedentary lifestyle, and people who are not in shape find it harder to start a regular workout program.

To sedentary individuals Tucker recommends to start the workout gradually, and to those with health problems he advises to take a step by step approach, starting with a walk of ten minutes on flat ground to forty-five minutes of going up and down the hills after six months of practice. For patients with walking difficulties Tucker recommends water aerobics.

He and other specialists say diabetics should check their blood sugar level before and after exercising in order to avoid the negative effects of having the sugar level too high or too low, “ It's a good insurance policy to check it", said Tucker.

Practice and a healthy diet may help control Type II diabetes by reducing the amount of medication, and may help prevent those who do not have it, from getting it.