Stop sweating blindly, exercise will lower your blood sugar

Some people with diabetes will find that their blood sugar does not drop after stretching their legs to exercise. What's going on? Today we will analyze two cases for everyone.

Case 1

Mr. Li, male, 62 years old, has suffered from type 2 diabetes for 5 years. After Mr. Li finished eating, he got up and walked 100 steps, and then sat down on the sofa to watch TV.

A month later, his wife tried to persuade him to exercise again, but it was even more difficult. I just heard Mr. Li say confidently: "I have been exercising for a month, but isn't my blood sugar still the same as before? If exercise is effective, do I still need medicine?"

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"Walking a hundred steps after a meal" is not unreasonable. Research shows that exercise can help lower blood sugar. However, Mr. Li's 100-step walk after meals did not grasp the appropriate timing and intensity of exercise.

It is known that to determine a complete exercise program, patients with diabetes need to undergo a glucose tolerance test. However, "sugar lovers" do not drink sugar water with every meal, but eat whole grains (the ratio of eating and drinking glucose water, the blood sugar rise rate becomes slower after eating, and the conversion of starch-polysaccharide-monosaccharide takes time), they can make their own "copycat version" Glucose tolerance test (this is more in line with the actual situation of the individual). According to your daily eating habits (type and amount of food), measure your blood sugar levels at 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 120 minutes, and 180 minutes after a meal, find out the regular curve of blood sugar changes after a meal, and determine your exercise time and intensity after a meal. It is generally recommended to exercise 1 to 2 hours after a meal. At this time, the patient's blood sugar level is relatively stable, and most of the food in the stomach has been digested. Compared with exercising immediately after a meal, it is less likely to damage the gastrointestinal tract. The intensity of exercise must be enough to make you sweat. If you don't sweat, the effect of exercise will be greatly reduced.

For people like Mr. Li who have no physical exercise habits, a simple method is to use different intensities in one exercise, walking fast for 10 minutes and then walking slowly for 10 minutes. After exercising for a period of time, if you want to increase the intensity, in addition to increasing your walking speed, you can also choose to climb hills or increase the inclination of the treadmill, which will help stabilize blood sugar. However, people with diabetes who suffer from joint diseases such as knee joints and ankle joints should be cautious.

Case 2
Ms. Zhou is a young white-collar worker who has converted from gestational diabetes to type 2 diabetes and is engaged in marketing-related work. She runs every day and keeps walking for about an hour after she can no longer run.

Due to work reasons, she inevitably has to go out to socialize and often drink. Knowing that her diet was not well controlled, she hoped to exercise to help control her blood sugar. But the strange thing is that every time after being drunk, the blood sugar level measured when I wake up at noon the next day is within the normal range and sometimes even low. However, after running, the blood sugar level increases instead. She thought to herself, contrary to expectations, should I continue to run and exercise?

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First of all, high-intensity exercise increases blood sugar because very strenuous activities stimulate the liver to release glucose into the blood, causing blood sugar to rise. The exercise intensity must reach or exceed 80% of your maximum exercise capacity for this to occur. Normally, when this threshold is reached, breathing will be significantly deepened and accelerated. For example, continuous fast running, playing football, badminton, etc. for a few minutes or longer will cause blood sugar to rise. Ms. Zhou's blood sugar was caused by excessive exercise intensity. rise. Secondly, alcoholic beverages contain a large amount of carbohydrates, which will definitely increase blood sugar, but after 12 hours of drinking, blood sugar can drop.

The American Diabetes Association recommends no more than one drink a day for women and no more than two drinks a day for men. The amount of alcohol consumed at one time is 150 ml of wine, 360 to 120 ml of beer, or 4525 ml of liquor.
Also, not all exercise raises blood sugar levels. Moderate-intensity exercise can usually effectively control blood sugar, including walking, jogging, yoga and other forms of activities. It does not strain the body like strenuous exercise. Therefore, it does not stimulate the liver to produce more glucose and can also consume the glucose stored in the liver. Ultimately lowering overall blood sugar levels.

Two principles for a reasonable amount of exercise:

The amount of exercise is determined by both exercise time and exercise intensity. In order to achieve the purpose of lowering blood sugar, diabetic patients should master the following two principles.

1. Exercise time: After reaching the target heart rate, continue for 20 to 30 minutes. Target heart rate = 170 - age. If you stop after reaching the target heart rate, the effect will be affected.

2. Exercise intensity: It is recommended that patients with diabetes do moderate-intensity exercise. A simple way to judge the intensity of moderate exercise is: you can talk but not sing during exercise, and your body must sweat.

3. The simplest way for diabetic patients to judge whether their exercise level is appropriate is to measure blood sugar, rest for 5 minutes after exercise, and observe the blood sugar changes before and after exercise. Gradually find out the amount of exercise that suits you. You will definitely feel the benefits of exercise. The joy of blood sugar changes in your body.