Type 2 Diabetes And Exercise: Can A Short, Daily Workout Make A Difference?

Type 2 Diabetes and Exercise: Can A Short, Daily Workout Make a Difference?

The scientifically-proven 7-minute workout has been shown to have impressive benefits but can it be helpful for people with type 2 diabetes?
Thinking about trying the popular 7-minute workout? This series of high-intensity exercises performed in succession with short periods of rest in between has been shown to produce impressive benefits when performed 6 days per week. These benefits include reduced body mass index (BMI), improved oxygen uptake, smaller hip and waist circumference and improved sensitivity to insulin. 1
The workout includes 9 to 12 exercises that use the body’s big muscles at a high-intensity pace. Exercises are done at the rate of 15 to 20 repetitions per 30-second interval, with a rest period of fewer than 15 seconds between exercises to maximize metabolic impact. Below, personal trainer Katie Teasdale (who also has type 1 diabetes) demonstrates how to complete each exercise within the 7-minute workout whilst maintaining proper form and technique:
Research has shown that even a very short workout can achieve a reduction in waist circumference and can be a “great solution for people to get started and plan on continuing exercising.”2
All of which sounds great but what about people with type 2 diabetes?
While physical exercise is vital in the prevention and management of diabetes3, the intensity of the workout may initially prove daunting for some. What's more, people with type 2 diabetes may need longer resistance and additional aerobic training than can be achieved from a 7-minute session, says Nicholas Beltz, PhD, assistant professor of sports phys Continue reading

Rate this article

Total 1 ratings

A Sedentary Lifestyle and Diabetes

What happens when you are sedentary and don't get a good daily dose of physical activity? You raise your risk of obesity and developing type 2 diabetes. Once you have type 2 diabetes, you are at increased risk for heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, eye complications, and foot and skin problems.
The World Health Organization says a sedentary lifestyle is one of the 10 leading causes of death and disability.
It accounts for 300,000 premature deaths each year in the United States alone. These deaths are mainly from cardiovascular disease -- something for which people with diabetes and prediabetes are at a much higher risk than others.
Overview
One way to maintain a healthy weight or to lose weight is through exercise. The CDC and the American College of Sports Medicine recommend that people engage in moderate to intense physical activity for at least 30 minutes a day, at least five days a week. Yet less than half of Americans get the recommended amount of physical activity, according to a CDC survey. Even worse? A whopping 25% get no physical activity at all.
Kids aren’t faring well, either. Increased time spent with television, computers, video games, cell phones and homework means less time moving around and playing outside. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, since 1976, the number of overweight children in the United States has tripled.
In practical terms, this means that today more than 1 in 6 children between the ages of 12 to 19 are overweight and at risk for health problems.
The Role of Exercise
Keeping one’s weight in proportion to height i Continue reading

New Stem Cell Treatment "Switches Off" Type 1 Diabetes

For those with type 1 diabetes, regularly injecting themselves with insulin is part and parcel of their daily lives. This form of treatment hasn’t advanced much for nearly a century, so it will come as good news that researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are on the verge of a breakthrough. As a study in Nature Medicine reveals, insulin-producing beta cells made from human stem cells have been shown to effectively “switch off” diabetes in mice for up to six months.
Within a healthy person’s pancreas, clusters of beta cells produce insulin in order to counteract rising blood sugar levels. Someone suffering from type 1 diabetes is unable to control their blood sugar levels, as their own immune system attacks and destroys these insulin-producing cells. Type 1 diabetes, which makes up roughly 10 percent of all diabetes cases, is therefore a type of autoimmune disease, and is currently incurable.
In 2014, a team led by Harvard University made a significant step in developing a bonafide cure. Using human embryonic stem cells, the team induced them into becoming beta cells in large quantities – up to hundreds of millions at a time, enough to transplant them into a hyperglycemic mouse and watch them dramatically reduce the animal's blood sugar levels.
Unfortunately, as with the mouse’s original beta cells, its faulty immune system destroyed the new, transplanted beta cells fairly quickly, so the technique didn't provide lasting benefits. Now, a team at MIT has found a way to hide these beta cells from the self-destructive immune system of mice su Continue reading

Blood sugar alert – Why prediabetes can be just as deadly as diabetes

(NaturalHealth365) Prediabetes – elevated blood sugar that has not yet reached the threshold for clinical diabetes – is widespread in the United States. Now, several recent studies have revealed the dangers of being prediabetic – including a heightened risk of heart disease, cancer, dementia and stroke.
Read on to learn more about prediabetes, and what you can do to reverse it.
Prediabetes is a warning sign of danger ahead
Prediabetes, characterized by a fasting glucose level between 100 and 125 mg/dL, is becoming more common across America. A 2016 UCLA study revealed that a shocking 46 percent of all adults in California either have prediabetes or suffer from undiagnosed type 2 diabetes – meaning that almost half of the adult population of the state has blood sugar that is too high.
And, elevated blood sugar could very well be even more widespread in other states across the nation, as California residents usually score near the top of the scale for longevity and healthy lifestyles.
For many, the term “prediabetes” seems to imply that no damage has occurred – yet. All too often, the condition is viewed as a yellow traffic signal, signaling “caution” – and possibly triggering a resolution to adopt healthier habits.
But in reality, a diagnosis of prediabetes should function as a red light, signaling a serious health threat.
It’s official: “High normal” blood sugar raises risk of degenerative diseases
The truth is: even with fasting glucose levels at the medically-accepted threshold, it is entirely possible that major microvascular damage has already Continue reading

Top 5 Apps for Diabetes Management

We live in a tech-centric world, and smart phone apps have become the new tools of today. Apps can certainly make living with diabetes more manageable. However, with so many out there it can often be difficult weeding out the best. Apps for diabetes can be used to log blood sugars, count carbohydrates, lose weight, and record exercise. Some apps do it all, but you may want to use them for a specific purpose.
Please note that the apps I will be discussing may not work for everyone and you will have to use your judgment as to what app is best for you—these are my top five because these have worked best for my patients.
dLife
I personally love this app because it has a feature that allows you to search a library of over 400 videos on cooking demos and real life stories from real people. The app has a Q&A feature where you can search from over 4,000 questions related to diabetes—answers are provided from both experts and people in the community. The food section of the app can help with recipes and its database includes information about 25,000 foods with full nutritional analysis for your diabetes diet. If you choose to use the logging feature of the app, you can elect to share your glucose readings and insulin doses with your health care provider by emailing them directly from the app.
Price: dLife is a free app that is available for both iPhone and android devices.
Go Meals
GoMeals is a nutrition focused app that has a wide search engine for counting carbohydrates. With over 40,000 common food items to select from and over 20,000 restaurant menu items, you are bound to f Continue reading