# Diabetes: the right way to exercise



## Northerner (Mar 16, 2012)

If you have diabetes, you?re sure to have been told about how important exercise is when it comes to controlling your blood glucose levels. Now new research indicates that what kind of exercise you do and when you do it can alter the beneficial effects.

Experts recommend exercise because it boosts the uptake of glucose into the body?s cells and counteracts high blood sugar levels that can occur after eating. Ideally, people with diabetes should aim for a minimum of three to four 40-minute aerobic exercise sessions each week. But it?s important to be careful that your that blood sugar levels don?t drop too low if you are on insulin or some of the other treatments for type 2 because of the risk of hypoglycaemia.

http://www.saga.co.uk/health/news/2012/march/diabetes-and-exercise.aspx


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## Medusa (Mar 16, 2012)

i was reading too that weights should be done prior to cardio.... but if i do weights first i can never be bothered to do cardio after......


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## Northerner (Mar 16, 2012)

Medusa said:


> i was reading too that weights should be done prior to cardio.... but if i do weights first i can never be bothered to do cardio after......



When I had a gym membership I used to run to the gym, do the weights, then run home! I hardly ever do any weights now, I find it intensely boring!


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## MCH (Mar 16, 2012)

Is this one of the things we could try out?

It occurs to me that if those of us who go to the gym and do a bit of cardio and some weights (or the other way round), posted our BG resutlts and the order we did the exercise in, we might be able to see if this is correct or not.


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## Medusa (Mar 17, 2012)

i love doing the weights and love the increased muscle definition from it too.... dont like being shapeless


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## Northerner (Mar 17, 2012)

Medusa said:


> i love doing the weights and love the increased muscle definition from it too.... dont like being shapeless



I used to enjoy doing the weights when I went to the gym, but I can no longer afford that and can never motivate myself to do it at home (have some dumbells etc.) I really ought to, because upper body strength is very handy in distance running - you move your arms almost as much as your legs! Might lose the moobies too!


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## cherrypie (Mar 17, 2012)

For anyone on statins.
There is an article here worth reading about statins and exercise.  Do the muscles get damaged before and after exercise?  Nothing conclusive as yet.

Do statins make it tough to exercise?
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/do-statins-make-it-tough-to-exercise/?ref=health


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## Northerner (Mar 17, 2012)

cherrypie said:


> For anyone on statins.
> There is an article here worth reading about statins and exercise.  Do the muscles get damaged before and after exercise?  Nothing conclusive as yet.
> 
> Do statins make it tough to exercise?
> http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/do-statins-make-it-tough-to-exercise/?ref=health



Thank you very much for that article cherrypie, it has made me even more glad that I stopped taking statins within a few months of being prescribed them! 

Statins are very powerful drugs, and I often think that they are automatically prescribed to overcome one perceived problem (getting cholesterol below 4.0) without looking at the whole picture. When I was taking them I did experience muscle pain, cramps and fatigue, although at the time it was difficult to say whether the statins were the cause or a contributory factor, or not at all to blame as I was on other drugs at the time, and also recovering from DKA and a hige weight loss. But the muscle cramps and joint pain stopped almost as soon as I stopped taking them, as did some of the nausea I had been experiencing. The cardiologist told me he considered me low risk for CVD, but if I hadn't researched things and decided I didn't need them, then my doctor would have been happy for me to continue taking them even though the potential benefits were highly marginal.


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