Type 2 Diabetes - Types of Exercise To Help The Arteries Of People With Diabetes

When we think of exercise we often think of the muscles rather than the blood vessels, but a good workout is good for the arteries too. Remember when you exercise your muscles demand more oxygen and nutrients than when you are at rest, and the arteries are responsible for carrying needed supplies to the muscles.

When the heart beats faster as the result of physical activity, more blood is pumped and the arteries need to open wider to accommodate it. One complication of diabetes is stiff arteries that have difficulty conducting enough blood to the muscles and other organs, and that can result in heart failure. Exercise is one way of keeping the arteries able to open up enough to conduct a large flow of blood when needed.

Researchers at the Diabetes Center of Eulij Hospital in Seoul, South Korea, set out to discover whether aerobic exercise or resistance training were better for improving arteries. Their results were published in August 2011 in the Diabetes and Metabolism Journal.

The Study: Forty overweight women with Type 2 diabetes, with an average age of 57, were included in the study and divided into three groups:

13 performed aerobic exercises,12 performed resistance training, and15 served as the control group without exercise.

After 12 weeks of 60 minutes of exercise per day, 5 days per week, their arteries' ability to dilate were measured. The aerobic group increased their arterial ability to dilate more than either of the other groups.

Aerobic exercise is defined as physical activity that causes the heart and breathing to go faster. Aerobic capacity is defined as the maximal amount of oxygen delivered to your body during exercise, and it is used as a measure of fitness. The aim of aerobic exercise is to increase aerobic capacity.

Locomotor exercises such as walking and cycling, are often recommended for increasing aerobic capacity.

walking is good for beginners,cycling is good for people who are more than 50 pounds (22.7 kgs) overweight because it puts less stress on their back, hips, knees, and ankle joints, than walking does,stair climbers and steppers have the advantage of being used indoors, although people with arthritis of the knees should avoid them.

Swimming is less efficient for raising aerobic capacity because it emphasizes smaller muscles, but many people enjoy swimming, and the exercise you like is often the one you will stick with. Aerobic dance can be fun too, and emphasizes the large muscles of the legs, so consider it when discussing your exercise program with your doctor.

To discover answers to questions you may be asking yourself about Type 2 Diabetes, click on this link... Natural Diabetes Treatments

Different Types of Diabetes and What Is Insulin

Diabetes develops when a person's body either doesn't make or produce enough insulin or the body isn't able to use enough of the insulin properly. There are two main types of diabetes, type 1, in which the body does not produce enough insulin and type 2 where the body produces insulin but has trouble absorbing or using insulin in the cells.

Gestational diabetes develops in some women during pregnancy and usually goes away shortly after the child is born. No one really understands why it develops but many believe it has to do with the hormone changes during pregnancy. These hormones may have a blocking effect on insulin or make insulin resistant to being absorbed. In either case, gestational diabetes is a temporary condition during pregnancy. However, there is a chance the mother could develop type 2 diabetes later on in life so she needs to keep a watch on her health.

Insulin is a hormone used to change food into energy. The body makes insulin in the pancreas and more recently discovered also in the brain. Carbohydrates and proteins when digested are broken down and turned into sugar or glucose. The cells use glucose as fuel. During digestion, the liver releases insulin into the blood stream to send the glucose out of the blood and into the cells of the body. This is what gives you energy to get your daily activities done.

Since the discovery that insulin is produced in the brain as well, the link has been made that dementia and Alzheimer's disease are related to diabetes and now being dubbed type 3 diabetes. Apparently the brain cells need insulin to help retain memory. It is believed that a protein builds up in the brain cells and this blocks insulin from entering the brain cells.

Diabetes is a disease that affects many sections of the body. When your blood is saturated with glucose (sugar) it can restrict the blood flow throughout your body. This can cause many different complications from simple things to fatigue and weight gain to more complicated things like losing your eye sight to kidney disease and even cancer.

Diabetes can be managed and controlled through eating healthy foods, exercising on a regular basis to supplements and medication. Having diabetes doesn't mean you can't enjoy life, you can. It does mean you may have to make some lifestyle changes in order to have a long and healthy life.