Walk Your Way to Better Health

Here’s how one simple exercise can bring a host of benefits!

When your doctor or diabetes educator tells you that exercise can help you lower your blood sugar or lose those extra pounds, you may feel overwhelmed at the thought of starting an exercise program. “But you don’t have to fear a program, because all you have to do is walk,” says Marc Shalaby, M.D., an internist at Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network.

What walking can do for you

You may already know that having diabetes puts you at higher risk for developing heart disease. And although any kind of aerobic exercise—an activity that gets your heart pumping, such as swimming, biking or running – will help lower that risk, most physicians recommend walking as the exercise of choice for people with diabetes.

“You don’t need any training or special equipment, and you can do it anywhere,” Shalaby says. “All you need is a pair of comfortable shoes that fit well. Even if you don’t lose a pound, aerobic exercise such as walking strengthens your heart muscle, improves circulation, boosts good HDL cholesterol, lowers bad LDL cholesterol, and lowers your blood pressure.”

Walking also helps you better manage diabetes symptoms. “People with type 2 are often insulin resistant, which means they have a hard time using the insulin their bodies make,” says physical therapist Jennifer Roeder, Shalaby’s colleague. “Walking helps your body use insulin more effectively. It also helps lower your blood sugar.”

And if all that weren’t enough, walking also fights the weight gain that can go hand-in-hand with diabetes, and the extra pounds that can make diabetes symptoms and heart disease risks worse, Shalaby says.

How to get started

If you want to start walking, take it slowly and easily at first. “Walk every other day for 15 minutes. You need a day off in between to rest your joints and pat yourself on the back,” Shalaby says. It may not sound like much, but if you’ve been best friends with your couch, that 15 minutes is progress. “Gradually increase your time until you’re walking 45 minutes every other day,” he says.

How will you know if you’re exercising too hard – or not hard enough? Give yourself the “talk test.” If you can’t talk without gasping for breath, slow down. If you can sing, pick up the pace. “The key is to walk fast enough to give your body and heart the aerobic exercise it needs without becoming out of breath,” Roeder says.

Playing it safe

Although walking is safe, take a few extra precautions to prevent injury if you have diabetes.

For example, if you have loss of sensation in your feet (peripheral neuropathy), your balance could be affected. And if you have retinopathy, your eyesight could be somewhat limited. “In both cases, wear comfortable, sturdy walking shoes that fit well. And take a buddy with you,” Roeder says. (See “Shoe Sense” box for more on buying a good pair of walking shoes.)

Drink plenty of water before, during and after exercise. “Drink even if you don’t think you’re thirsty, because your body needs water even before it registers thirst," Roeder says. How much water is enough? “Drink 8 to 12 ounces every 30 minutes or so,” she says.

If walking brings on low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), talk to your doctor or diabetes educator about adjusting the timing of your medications to prevent those blood-sugar dips. “And check with your doctor before starting an exercise program if you have high blood pressure or high cholesterol,” Shalaby says, “just to be safe.”

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