Can exercise cure diabetes? This is a question which is often asked by people. Unfortunately, there is no cure for diabetes. There is a way, however, to manage this disease so patients can live a normal life. The key is exercise. Exercise can play a vital role in keeping the disease under control.

Exercise Stabilizes Blood Sugar Levels

During exercise, the muscles absorb glucose for energy. This causes a lowering of the blood glucose (sugar) levels. The reduction of glucose levels creates a natural treatment for diabetes. It is important to note that exercise that is too strenuous may have the opposite affect of increasing blood glucose levels, which can be harmful to diabetics. The key is to find the type of exercise that will work best for the patient and to do this exercise at levels that are not harmful.

Lower Rate of Cardiovascular Disease

Studies have shown that exercise has a positive impact on blood pressure, cholesterol, and glycemia. This significantly reduces the risks of cardiovascular disease, which leads to the death of many diabetic patients. So, although exercise cannot really cure diabetes, it can definitely prevent some life threatening symptoms in diabetic patients.

Weight Loss

Exercise also helps in the reduction of body fat. This is important for individuals that suffer from type 2 diabetes, which is characterized by a reduction in the sensitivity to insulin. Weight loss has a proven effect of increasing insulin sensitivity and improving the efficiency of insulin production in the body. Reversing problems with insulin sensitivity may be as close as we can get with regard to a cure for type 2 diabetes. Many overweight people originally diagnosed with type 2 diabetes no longer experience diabetic symptoms once they shed the excess pounds.

An Improved Sense of Well-Being

The psychological benefits of exercise also have a profound impact on diabetics. The endorphins released by exercise create an improved sense of well-being. This increasingly positive outlook is accompanied by a desire to work toward a better physical, mental, and emotional state. The result is a stronger commitment to engaging in the daily habits that are necessary to gain control over this disease and manage its symptoms. Patients begin to eat better, feel better, look better, and live better. This doesn’t imply that exercise is a cure for diabetes but it definitely illustrates how exercise can have the power to bring about a newer and brighter phase in the patient’s life.

Diabetics Can Benefit from a Variety of Exercises

Exercises that improve cardiovascular health are ideal for diabetic patients. These include walking, swimming, cycling, jogging, roller blading, etc. Walking is recommended more than any other exercise because it is not too strenuous and can be done for a longer duration without exhausting the patient. Strength Training is also great for those suffering from diabetes because it will aid in the burning of fat and building of lean muscle mass, which is necessary for controlling insulin sensitivity. Additionally, yoga, pilates, tai chi, qi gong and other types of mind/body/spirit disciplines will also help tremendously with managing diabetes.

Conclusion

So for anyone posing the question “can exercise cure diabetes?”, it is important to understand that exercise can only help you manage the disease. Nevertheless, management of the disease may lead to the complete elimination of all known symptoms of diabetes. This is as close to a cure as anyone can get. If you suffer from diabetes, you should begin incorporating exercise into your lifestyle as soon as possible. Start by determining which exercise regimen will be the most enjoyable for you, as well as help you to meet your goals in the safest way possible. Be sure to consult a physician before starting any exercise program. Furthermore, monitoring your blood sugar levels before and after exercising is a must. You need to educate yourself on how to determine when it is safe for you to exercise so you do not put yourself in any danger.

With an estimated 150 million people world-wide currently diagnosed with diabetes mellitus, and a continuously rising prevalence of this disease in the general population, acupuncture and herbal medicine have become attractive alternatives to the side-effects and high cost of currently used treatments. (1) Researchers continue to study the effects of numerous herbs in an attempt to locate a single treatment that addresses the multiple facets of symptoms usually seen in diabetic patients.

Acupuncture, especially when combined with herbal medicine and diet/lifestyle changes, has become increasingly popular as an effective aid in treating diabetes mellitus. As an example, one approach to treating diabetes is to use the 5-Elements Theory: for a diabetic patient who is overweight, we can insert acupuncture needles in specific points corresponding to the Fire Element and the Earth Element. Because Fire nourishes and strengthens Earth in this theory, and an imbalance or weakness in Earth often correlates with a condition of being overweight, this approach can be quite effective.

An often used Chinese Herbal Formula for diabetic patients is liu wei di huang wan, or “Six-Ingredient Pill with Rehmannia.” One of the main herbs in this formula is the root of the rehmannia plant that has been specially prepared through a cooking process to attain the needed properties. (2, 3)

Another promising herbal treatment is the herb gymnema (Gymnema sylvestre), a large, woody climbing plant from tropical Africa, southern and central India, and tropical Australia. This herb has shown an impressive ability to simultaneously target several of the problems encountered in diabetes patients, including obesity, chronic inflammation, pancreatic B-cell function, and enzymatic defects. This is of great interest, as no single oral hypoglycemic drug presently demonstrates such a wide range of positive effects. (1)

In treating diabetes with acupuncture and herbal medicine, however, a flexible treatment plan is required such that we can tailor the herbs and acupuncture points selected for the constitution and imbalances unique to each individual patient.

(1) Gymnema Sylvestre for Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review, by Mathew Leach; The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, V13, #9, 2007, pp.977-983

(2) Chinese Herbal Medicine Materia Medica, 3rd edition, by Dan Bensky, et al.

(3) Chinese Herbal Medicine Formulas & Strategies, by Dan Bensky, et al.

The glycemic index is a measure of how fast a carbohydrate is converted into blood sugar in the body. It is important to know and understand because it’s directly related to the number one killer of Americans. Our love of high glycemic foods has led this nation down a slippery slope in regards to our health. The following information is science based knowledge and endorsed by physicians and nutritionists alike. It’s never too late to improve your health, and eating smart is easy and effective.

The glycemic index (GI) of food is found by giving a healthy individual a portion of food containing 50 grams of digestible carbohydrates (carbs minus fiber), and then measuring the effect of their blood glucose levels over a 2 hour time period. It is determined by calculating the persons blood glucose level changes in relation to the reference food which is liquid sugar (glucose).?Foods that have a high GI (above 70) metabolize into glucose fast, and low glycemic foods (below 55) slowly release the sugar into the blood stream evenly over a long period of time.

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High glycemic foods raise insulin levels quickly, and can lead to type II diabetes. Diabetes is directly related to heart disease, which is the number one killer of Americans by a large margin. It is this relationship between diabetes and heart disease that is so alarming. Diabetes is growing at an epidemic rate. High glycemic foods can actually cause type II diabetes and increase the chance of a heart attack.

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Low glycemic foods trickle sugar into the blood stream. This keeps you feeling full longer and stabilizes your blood sugar. But more importantly, it keeps your insulin levels from fluctuating. This combination results in weight loss and prevents things like heart attacks, strokes, and especially diabetes.