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How Activity and Movement Lower Blood Glucose
How Activity and Movement Lower Blood GlucoseEveryone knows physical activity is good for your health, but for people with diabetes, it also helps to directlylower your blood glucose. Let’s take a look at how this happens.Diabetes affects the way your body uses the food you eat.Most of the food you eat changes to glucose, a form of sugar. Glucose enters the bloodstream causing yourblood glucose level to rise.As your blood glucose rises, the pancreas releases insulin. Insulin works like a key to open the cells and letglucose enter. The glucose is used for energy or stored for later use. Normally, our bodies maintain a balanceof glucose and insulin in the bloodstream.When you have diabetes – your cells don’t respond easily to insulin. This is called insulin resistance.So the body does what it can to make more insulin and try to get more glucose into the cell, but meanwhile thecell isn't getting the fuel it needs. The sugar or glucose is high in the bloodstream.You may feel tired since the cells aren't getting fed.“The cells in the extremities, for example, aren’t getting the fuel they need, so they’re sending signals to thebrain that they’re hungry, they would like to eat, even though there’s plenty of glucose or sugar available in thebody. So it’s a problem of just not being able to get them the fuel that’s needed into the cell.”When you are active and exercise, your cells become more open to insulin and glucose can enter.Exercise helps use the extra glucose in your bloodstream and turn it into energy.How much effect the exercise has on your glucose level depends on the type of activity and how long you do it.Take your blood glucose levels before and after you exercise. You will see just how activity helps yourreadings.“So with insulin resistance, among the best things that we know is helpful is, short-term is exercise, because ittends to open the gates and allow the cells to then, again, receive blood sugar from the bloodstream.Secondarily, on a longer-term, weight loss is very, very helpful.”Regular exercise and activity also can help lower your A1c and help you lose weight which also helps yourbody respond to insulin and can reduce insulin by itself.Even 5-10 bs for many people is enough to help lessen insulin resistance.Talk with your diabetes care team about being more active and adding exercise to your daily routine.This program is for informational purposes only. Publisher disclaims all guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness,or suitability of this video for medical decision making. For all health related issues please contact your healthcare provider.© The Wellness Network
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Learn where to find support to help you through the day-to-day challenges of managing your diabetes.
Watch this to learn how being diagnosed with diabetes affected Russell, and the changes he made to live with his diagnosis.
Watch this clip for tips and ideas for starting and sticking to a safe and regular exercise routine.
Watch this to learn how Violet reacted after being diagnosed with diabetes, and how exercise helped her physically and emotionally.
