What is diabetes?
Diabetes. The common description being excess sugar in the blood is hugely misunderstood. The word is commonly used among households as the majority of adults, especially in our modern-day busy lives, suffer from this malicious yet manageable disease. Once recognized by hardly 0.1% of the population, it is now the most widely found illness affecting more than 65 million Indians and is thought to be accelerating at a steady rate.

People have either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, both preventing them from indulging in sweet and calorific diet, along with a constant worry hovering in the mind about ‘ how do I keep my diabetes in control and prevent permanent damage?’
With the ever growing competition and demands of our life, we need a solution for keeping sugar levels in control in a way that is easy and manageable.

This auto-immune disease, which has no cure at the moment can still be easily managed with small changes to the lifestyle and routine.

Management of the disease
The first thing people generally do when they know about their diagnosis of diabetes is to stop eating all possible sources of sweets and starchy food. They try following a very strict diet in order to maintain their blood sugar levels, which, however, lasts for only a few months as they get caught up in busy-working schedules which calls for…..street food….packed with a lot of fat and calories.

And the blood sugar level starts fluctuating, giving all kinds of symptoms like blurred vision, fatigue, irritability, etc. Others try medicines or insulin injections, rendering them dependent on drugs for the rest of their lives. Thus, these 2 effective strategies still fail to manage the disease.

Exercise to the rescue
What most people don’t realize is that apart from medicines and a well-controlled diet, the biggest factor that will help you live happily with diabetes is…..exercise. It is scientifically proven and highly recommends by doctors to be the safest, effective and easy method to keep sugar levels in control, not to mention the other numerous benefits of exercising on the mind and body. Stronger bones, muscles, higher energy, better sleep are among the few benefits of physical exercise.

Just 30 mins of aerobic exercise (walking, running, jogging, biking ) can boost your overall well-being, a natural and perfect way to keep diabetes under control.
With the kind of work people have these days, a treadmill at home is the most convenient option as it allows you to get on your legs as and when your professional life allows. It not only saves the traveling time but seeing a treadmill right in front of your eyes will constantly keep motivating and reminding you that you need to get up, wear shoes and start running. At your own time and own comfort.

How exercise helps
During exercise, the muscles use up the extra sugar in the blood for energy, automatically reducing sugar levels. Whether you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, exercise helps them both. It either acts like insulin, breaking down sugar in blood or reduces your insulin tolerance, ensuring the effective reduction of glucose.   This also promotes overall well-being.

In the long term, it will help you reduce some pounds, again reducing the stress on your heart and liver. The benefits are numerous.

Exercise for prevention
Working out is not just something to be followed by diabetics. With the ever-growing rate of diabetes diagnosis, every individual is at risk of developing the disease at some point or the other. Some factors which can contribute to the onset of the disorder such as genes and age are not under our control. But we can certainly control other factors in our lifestyle to minimize and probably even cancel out the chances of acquiring it. Exercise boosts up your immune system, making you less vulnerable to diseases. It will also reduce your weight, putting you off the category of obese and overweight, who are significantly more susceptible to getting diabetes.

Whether you are diabetic or a non-diabetic, there’s nothing more safe and beneficial than exercise. Taking out 30 mins a day, for yourself, for your health proves to be a very smart choice in the long term.
So get on your legs today!