| THE BEST MEDICINEf- LAUGH! FIRST DOSE There are always two ways to look at everything, I guess. My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion last October, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table. My wife noticed me staring and asked me, "Do you know her?". "Yes", I sighed, "She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since." "My God!" says my wife, "Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?" Got a Joke? E-mail it to us: frontpage@collectivewizdom.com |
| THE BEST MEDICINE- LAUGH! SECOND DOSE Last night, my friend and I were sitting in the living room and I said to her, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug." She got up, unplugged the TV, and threw out my wine |
Home > Conditions > Diabetes > You Are Here
Best Exercises to Lower Blood Sugar-
A Comprehensive Review
June 21, 2009 (last updated, November 9, 2017)
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By A.J.Lee, Associate Editor and Featured Columnist
Blink an eye. Breathe. Even think. Every single movement and
activity of your body requires calories. Every beat of your
heart. Every cry. Every laugh. And, to some degree, even the
slightest motion draws down on the body’s available fuel---
either sugar or fat. But which physical activities and exercises
force the body to choose to draw from your sugar reserves. In
other words, which exercises are best at lowering blood
sugar? Are there any such ideal exercises or physical activities
to lower blood sugar in diabetics?
It turns out, there are exercises and physical activities which
are far superior to others in lowering blood sugar in diabetics
and non-diabetics. In diabetes, there are only two ways to
lower blood sugar without medications--exercise and diet.
Sedentary lifestyles and poor diet are in fact the primary causes
of Type 2 diabetes, which the World Health Organization has
determined is the third most deadly disease in the world.
Growing levels of obesity and inactivity are marching shoulder-
to-shoulder in unison with growing rates of heart disease and
diabetes.
The good news, however, is that there is a “cure”. Diabetes’
effects are by and large reversible, if caught in time. The anti-
dote to diabetes, the “cure”, if you will, is in fact a well-
managed low-glycemic diet and active lifestyle.
What constitutes an active lifestyle of the sort that prevents
Type 2 diabetes or that helps to lower blood sugar in diabetics?
Over the past several decades, numerous research studies have
tried to identify the connection between certain kinds of
exercise and lowering blood sugar. What follows is a
comprehensive review of the exercises which studies have
found to be effective in lowering blood sugar.
Here are the best exercises to quickly lower blood sugar:
1. Walk 10,000 Steps a Day. There is an important
connection between walking and diabetes. Several studies have
found that walking extra steps can help diabetics to stave off
the worse effects of the disease by better managing blood
sugar. One study in 2008 found that women who walked an
average of 10,000 steps a day had vastly improved blood sugar
control. The study, published in the journal Diabetes Care on
January 28, 2008, was led by Dr. Michael Trenel of Newcastle
University in Scotland. Researchers gave 10 subjects with
diabetes a pedometer and instructed them to walk a 10,000
steps per day. A second group of people of a similar age,
weight and height but who did not have diabetes did not walk
during the study.
At the end of two weeks and again at the end of eight weeks,
the research team used an MRO scan to measure how well the
participants processed sugar in the cells of their leg muscles.
What the study found was that diabetics do not have impaired
ability to burn energy. There’s nothing wrong with the part of
the cells responsible for processing energy --mitochondria.
Results showed that there were no major problems with the
mitochondria for people with Type 2 diabetes, but walking
10,000 steps – about 45 minutes extra per day helped them
burn about 20% more fat – increasing the ability of the
muscles to store sugar and help control the diabetes.
“We were able to show that people with Type 2 diabetes did
not have any basic problems with the mitochondria but by
becoming more active it actually helped the mitochondria to
become more efficient.”, Dr. Trenel explained.
Other studies have found similar results. A 2007 study of 142
people by the Department of Human Movement Sciences,
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, found that just walking an
extra 1300 more steps a day improves your ability to process
blood sugar. When comparing individuals with good glucose
control to those with less favorable glucose control, walking
just an additional one-half (1/2) to three quarters (3/4) a mile
was associated with better blood sugar control. Individuals
with fasting glucose levels under 100 mg/dl walked only about
1,343 more steps per day than those with unfavorable fasting
plasma glucose values.
2. Explosive squats. Don’t have the time to walk those 10,000
steps? You may only need a few minutes to lower your blood
sugar by 23%, according to a 2009 study from Heriot-Watt
University in the UK. Exercises that we can do in quick bursts –
like jumping up from a squat position or running up a flight or
two of stairs –can quickly reduce blood sugar levels. So-called
“high intensity interval training” is the most efficient way to
reduce diabetes risk, the study found. Dr. James Timmons, who
lead the study, recommends 4 x 30 second sprints on an
exercise bike three times a week. According to Dr. Timmons,
people can reduce their risk of diabetes and heart disease
substantially with short, intense workouts. These type of "time-
efficient" exercises appeal to busy workers concerned about
controlling blood sugar.
Quick sprints may work because they deplete the body’s supply
of glycogen –the sugar fuel stored inside our muscles. Think of
your muscles are having tubes of sugar stored in them, much
like sugary toothpaste. Think of the blood sugar that
accompanies diabetes as stand-by sugar. The only way to
force our bodies to siphon off the excess sugar circulating in
our blood is to first make it run down its glycogen inventories
in our muscles. And, the only type of exercise that works to
“squeeze out” the glycogen inventories from our muscles are
intense contractions.
The study is somewhat questionable at this point because only
16 young men were studied and more work should be done to
duplicate the results with more participants of varied ages
before you rely exclusively on “quick sprint” exercises as the
only type of exercise you do to control your blood sugar.
3. Laugh. Laughter is one of the best exercises for quickly
lowering your blood sugar. A study from the University of
Tsukuba in Japan has found that laughter lowers blood sugar
after a meal. Why does laughter work? The study’s researchers
speculate that laughter affects the neuroendocrine system,
which monitors your body's glucose levels. Or they speculate
that laughter draws on energy used by the stomach muscles.
Laughing actually exercises one of the deepest layers of
abdominal muscle, the layer closest to your internal organs. It’s
very difficult to reach this layer of muscle with conventional
abdominal exercises. Ever hear the expression tat someone
“laughed so hard it hurt”? Well, what is “hurting” is a little-
used layer of abdominal muscle. So, please, laugh. Laugh every
day. At everything. Until it hurts. You may hurt your tummy
but your blood will love you for it.
4. Ab exercises. Ab exercises have been found to lower
blood sugar 30 minutes later. As we have seen, laughter –- a
natural ab exercise -- drops blood sugar. But, in case there’s
not a lot for you to laugh about these days, try these ab
exercises. Lie on your back and raise both legs. Then lower
them until they are about a foot above the ground. Hold to the
count of 10. Repeat 5 to 10 times a day. Or, assume a plank
position. Hold it for at least 30 seconds. Repeat whenever you
need to lower your blood sugar. Planks cause the kind of
intense muscle contractions needed to squeeze out glycogen
supplies from our muscles, forcing our muscles to draw down
on excess sugar as a fuel.
5. Go Downhill. Remember “The Sound of Music” and the
beautiful scenery of the snow-capped Alps? The hills are “alive
with the sound of music”. And the people who walk the Alps
are very much alive as well. Walking downhill lowers your
blood sugar. The study, led by Dr. Heinz Drexel of the
Voralberg Insitute, was conducted on the slopes of the Alps.
In this study 45 healthy, sedentary people walked down a
steep mountain for 3-5 days per week for two months. The 45
people were separated into two groups. One group traveled up
the mountain by cable car but walked down. The other group
walked up the mountain but were given a ride by cable car
down.
Researchers found that the downhill walkers had significantly
lower blood sugar. LDL (“bad cholesterol”) levels went down
for both uphill and downhill walkers, much more for the uphill
walkers. Uphill walkers also had much lower triglycerides levels.
6. Squats and Other Strength Training. A 16-week study
of Hispanic men found that strength training helps to manage
blood sugar levels. For this reason, the American Diabetes
Association now recommends strength training to manage
diabetes. Strength training does not require a gym
membership. There are plenty of exercises you can do at home
to strengthen your body and lower your blood sugar. Squats
are one of the best. Squats use your quadricep muscles in front
of your thighs, the single largest muscles in your body. Squats
also activate the large muscles in your buttocks. Once
activated, these large muscles draw down blood sugar levels
quickly. They also help you to lose weight by increasing your
metabolism. With a straight back, lower yourself to a sitting
position just above a chair. Rise up and repeat, keeping your
back straight. Aim for 3 sets of 10 squats, every other day.
Update:
In 2014, a team of researchers from the University of Michigan,
lead by Dr. Lukas Schwingshackl reviewed other studies which
have looked at how best to lower blood sugar through
exercise. The study looked in particular at whether strength
training, aerobic training or a combination of both worked best.
The clear conclusion was that a combination of strength
training and aerobic exercise works best to control blood sugar
in diabetics.
Aim for 2 to 3 days a week of strength training and 30 minutes
of aerobics 5 days a week.
[Update:
This will bring you to a total of 150 minutes of aerobics per
week. But this is just a minimum. In its 2016 Position
Statement, the American Diabetes Association goes further,
recommending between 20 and 30 minutes of exercise on all or
most days, which would mean a total of 210 minutes at the
upper end.
Related: Ideal Breakfast for Diabetics / Ideal Breakfast for
Hypoglycemia /Foods That Shrink Your Waist/ Foods That
Reduce Blood Pressure/ Alcohol and Diabetes--Do They Mix?
More Related Links
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