Got Diabetes? Get Active!

Physical activity helps your diabetes and your heart

Walking for health

Rob Fisher of Whitehall trimmed off 60 pounds after learning he had diabetes four years ago at age 48. But it took a heart attack this year—and help from the Dr. Dean Ornish Program—to get him exercising. Daily activity keeps his blood glucose under control with half the medication he used to take, he says, “and I feel so much better!”.

If you’re one of the 18 million Americans with type 2 diabetes, daily physical activity may be one of the most powerful prescriptions you’ve ever filled. “I can’t give a patient a pill, an injection or any other treatment that has so many benefits with so few side effects as physical activity and exercise,” says endocrinologist Matthew Corcoran, M.D., of Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network.

Diabetes must be taken seriously, Corcoran says—not just for its own sake, but also because of its close link with cardiovascular disease. “A person with diabetes has the same increased risk for heart attack as a person who’s already had one,” he says.

Physical activity and exercise help lower glucose, blood pressure and weight, and raise HDL (“good”) cholesterol—all good for your heart. Staying active may even decrease the need for certain medications. Finally, it helps relieve depression, more common in people with chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease.

Before you start an exercise program, get a full medical evaluation. Certain diabetic complications may require adjusting your exercise plan. Start slow and easy if you’ve been sedentary. Pick an activity you enjoy and set manageable goals—a few minutes every other day at first, working up gradually. An exercise partner can help keep you motivated.

Traditionally, people with diabetes have focused on aerobic exercise such as walking, Corcoran says. But strength training—lifting weights or other resistance exercise—also is important, and safe for most. “Whatever form of activity you choose, it need not be vigorous or intense,” he says. “Most benefits come from a longer duration of physical activity, as opposed to a higher intensity.” It’s a bit more complicated to exercise when you have diabetes, because of the need to monitor your blood sugar closely and plan your exercise accordingly. “But the effort,” Corcoran says, “is definitely worthwhile.”

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