7 Ways Physical Activity Can Help Lower Your Blood Sugar

Physical activity plays a crucial role in managing your diabetes by helping you lower your blood glucose levels and promoting overall health in several ways:

1. Increased Insulin Sensitivity: When you engage in physical activity, your muscles require more glucose to produce energy. This increased demand for glucose prompts your cells to become more sensitive to insulin, the hormone responsible for moving glucose from your blood into your cells. This heightened sensitivity means that your body can use insulin more effectively, which leads to better blood sugar control.
2. Enhanced Glucose Uptake: During activity, your muscles can take up glucose from the bloodstream without the need for insulin. This effect occurs through a mechanism involving glucose transporters, particularly GLUT4, which become more active in response to muscle contractions. As a result, blood glucose levels decrease during and after physical activity.
3. Reduced Insulin Resistance: Regular physical activity helps you combat insulin resistance, a common feature of type 2 diabetes where cells become less responsive to insulin. By improving insulin sensitivity, activities like walking and biking help counteract this resistance, making it easier for glucose to enter your cells and reducing the need for higher levels of insulin production.
4. Weight Management: Physical activity can contribute to weight loss or maintenance, which is important for managing your diabetes. Excess body weight, especially around the abdomen, can worsen insulin resistance and increase the risk of complications associated with diabetes. Regular physical activity helps regulate body weight by burning calories and promoting the development of lean muscle mass.
5. Improvements in Cardiovascular Health: Diabetes increases your risk of cardiovascular disease. Regular physical activity can help reduce this risk by improving your heart health. Activity strengthens the heart muscle, lowers blood pressure, improves cholesterol levels, and enhances circulation. These benefits collectively reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, which are common complications of diabetes.
6. Stress Reduction: Physical activity is known to reduce your stress levels and promote a sense of well-being. Stress can contribute to elevated blood sugar levels through the release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. By managing stress, physical activity indirectly helps regulate blood glucose levels.
7. Better Blood Lipid Profile: Regular physical activity can improve the lipid profile by increasing levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the “good” cholesterol) and decreasing levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol) and triglycerides. This improvement in lipid levels reduces your risk of cardiovascular complications that are associated with diabetes.

Overall, by incorporating regular physical activity into your diabetes management plan, you can achieve better blood glucose control, reduce insulin resistance, manage your weight, and improve your overall health and well-being. It is important to consult with your healthcare provider before starting any new exercise regimen, especially for individuals with diabetes, to ensure it is safe for you to do. A good place to start can be walking, as it is easy on joints and doesn’t require any special equipment. So choose an activity that you enjoy, and watch your health improve!