By PowerMax Fitness / 02 Jun 2018
This is a common question: what is the best, or ideal, the blood sugar reading for diabetics? How does fasting blood sugar or post-prandial (2 hours after a meal) blood sugar levels affect your overall HbA1c, which gives you a clear idea of your blood sugar control index for three months? Yet another question would be: Is physical activity recommended for diabetics and, if yes, how much time should a diabetic devote for exercise in every day? This isn’t all. There are other concerns that diabetics would want to find out to improve their health and quality of life. All you’d need to do is find out what are the ideal levels of blood sugar you need to maintain and how long you’d need to exercise regularly to attain or maintain such levels.
Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases that are characterized by high blood-sugar levels, due to compromised insulin secretion, or lack of insulin. Diabetes is, perhaps, the most prevalent, or pervasive, metabolic disease of our century. It is also a very serious problem. It can be more than serious, when not properly managed. It is, in fact, the leading cause of death worldwide, because of the damage it can cause to the various organs of our body, such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, eyes, etc. There are basically two main types of Diabetes — Type 1 and Type 2.
If a person is diabetic, the best sugar levels that one could aim to maintain is below 126 mg/DL in the fasting fasting state and below 200 mg/DL after a meal. This is the recommendation provided by American Diabetic Association. It is also recommended that such blood sugar levels must be maintained, along with a healthy balanced diet, supplemented by a regular, albeit moderate exercise programme. Note: Fasting Glucose/Blood Sugar levels contribute to about 70% of your HbA1c levels. Diabetes is a chronic issue – it is also a manageable disorder, if one keeps a check of their blood glucose levels regularly and controls them appropriately. The World Health Organization and the American Diabetic Association have provided guidelines for people with diabetes. According to the guidelines vis-à-vis one’s physical activity, they suggest that diabetics should follow a simple daily exercise programme. This should include:
Research suggests that most diabetics also suffer from heart related problems. Therefore, the best exercise for them, any which way you look at it, is usually walking. Walking is imperative and also extremely important for such individuals. Most people find it hard to go for walking, all right, today, or hit the gym due to our hectic lifestyle and tight, busy schedules. Also, the lack of space, traffic hurdles and congestion and bad infrastructure, or condition of the roads and footpaths make it next to impossible for people to enjoy normal 30-minutes of brisk walking, every day. The scientific testimony is simple and clear. Regular walking is known to reduce the risk of complications in diabetics and hypertensive (individuals with high blood pressure) by almost 50-60%.
| Normal Blood Sugar: | |||||||||||
| Fasting | 60–99 mg/dl | 3.3–5.5mmol/L | |||||||||
| 2 hours after a meal | less than 140 | less than 7.8 | |||||||||
| Pre-diabetes: | |||||||||||
| Fasting | 100–125 | 5.6–6.9 | |||||||||
| 2 hours after glucose | 140–199 | 7.8–11.1 | |||||||||
| Diabetes: | |||||||||||
| Fasting | 126 or above | 7.0 or above | |||||||||
| 2 hours after glucose | 200 or above | 11.2 or above | |||||||||
| Anytime | 200 or above | ||||||||||
| with symptoms** | *75 Grams of glucose by mouth. | **Such as thirst, frequent urination, weight loss or blurred vision. | |||||||||
You may tend to add extra flab to your body when your blood sugar shoots up. Walking gives a wholesome exercise to the body to keep that extra flab at bay. A daily 30-minute walk programme helps you to lose weight; it also keeps a check on your overall body weight and other health conditions like high cholesterol and heart disease.
Walking helps to improve digestion — it also keeps your gastrointestinal system, or the gut, free from discomfort, bloating, diarrhea etc. It improves digestion, and you will feel fresh and energetic throughout the day. You will also feel light and comfortable after a walk. This leads to better blood sugar control. Walking also leads to a perfect balance between the calories consumed and burnt.
Research conducted at the University of Otago, New Zealand, reports that after-meals walking lowers blood sugar level by 12 percent as compared to the ‘standard’ 30-minutes’ walk. When your carbohydrate intake is higher, a short walk formulates speedy digestion, while making the breaking of the nutrients expedient and fast. Diabetes patients are reported to also experience a reduction in their insulin dose after a post-meal walk.
Diabetes makes the body prone to minor and major health complications. Regular walk keeps the heart healthy, combats obesity, controls blood pressure and eases the movement of muscles. The body remains healthy — this boosts our immunity, making it easier to fight diseases.
Diabetes, with its stresses, could be one big reason for emotional problems, like depression and anxiety. A short walk on a regular basis refreshes the mind. It connects you with nature. This rejuvenates your mind, calms your stresses, and eases depression.
The concise list of benefits of walking, especially for diabetics:
At Powermax Fitness, we offer a wide range of Home Exercise Equipment. You may choose and order the Treadmill that is best suited to your requirement, from a vast range of Treadmills showcased on our website:https://www.powermaxfitness.net/treadmill.html The idea is simple. Also, profound. Having a treadmill at home gives you the freedom to choose the best time that is best suited to your schedule for exercise. What are you waiting for — just start walking on the Treadmill, right away, for as little as 5-10 minutes a day, and increase your walking time on it to about 30-60 minutes a day… incrementally. You will not only keep diabetes under control, you will also improve your fitness levels, emotional wellness, and quality of life.
