Physical Activity And Diabetes

What is physical activity? Physical activity is any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles resulting in energy expenditure. Therefore this includes sports and leisure activities of all forms. Why do we need physical activity in our lives? Physical activity and exercise helps tune the "human machine", our bodies. Imagine a car constantly driven only to stop for fuel. It would be a client for all sorts of damage, rusting, oil leaking, dehydration and the chances are most likely it would die in the middle of the road not long after. This is what the body would be like if we didn't exercise at all. We would be and as a result of today's lifestyle many of us are, the perfect target to all kinds of diseases and infections. For those of us who are carrier of some disease or illness we are still encouraged to exercise by our physicians if we have the strength to. This is to help make our organs; muscles, bones and arteries more efficient and better equipped to fight against the disease or illness. This is our way of counter attacking. And if we are still healthy then we reduce the chances of getting an illness or a disease. Recently insulin injections have become available to dependant patients. However in the pre-insulin era physical exercise was one of the few therapies available to physicians in combating diabetes. For an IDDM carrier to benefit from exercise they need to be well aware of their body and the consequences of exercising. If an IDDM carrier has no real control over their situation and just exercise without considering their diet, time of insulin intake, type of exercise, duration of the exercise and the intensity, then the results can be very hazardous to the patient. This leads to symptoms of hypoglycemia. The reason this occurs is that glucose uptake by muscles increase during exercise, in spite of no change or even a diminishing plasma insulin concentration. As a result of this type of information we know now that if a patient is not controlled through a good diet and program then they could put themselves in danger.