Episode 135: Exercise in Diabetes Kishan and Princess explain how exercise lowers or raises blood glucose levels in diabetes. Dr. Arreaza adds some comments about insulin resistance. Written by Kishan Ghadiya, MSIV, Ross University School of Medicine. Comments by Princess Enuka, MSIV, Ross University School of Medicine; and Hector Arreaza, MD.
Episode 135: Exercise in Diabetes
Kishan and Princess explain how exercise lowers or raises blood glucose levels in diabetes. Dr. Arreaza adds some comments about insulin resistance.
Written by Kishan Ghadiya, MSIV, Ross University School of Medicine. Comments by Princess Enuka, MSIV, Ross University School of Medicine; and Hector Arreaza, MD.
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Today is April 7, 2023. Ep. 135.
Intro:
It is widely known exercise is paramount for all individuals. The American Heart Association recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise weekly for general health. Exercise is particularly important in patients with diabetes, who require extensive lifestyle modification to manage their sugar levels. However, it is not well known how glucose metabolism changes when patients with diabetes exercise.
My patient in the clinic.
I recently saw in the clinic a young patient newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes who asked about how his exercise was helping his sugar levels. He was confused because he heard that exercising allows for better glucose control but complained that his sugar levels were higher after exercising.
To understand what is going on in this patient, it is important to understand the underlying pathophysiology of diabetes. First off, the two most common types of diabetes are type 1 and type 2. Type 1 occurs when the pancreas stops producing insulin altogether. Type 2 occurs when the insulin secreted by the pancreas is no longer effective in normalizing blood sugar levels; the body is not able to utilize glucose efficiently, the number of calories consumed exceeds the body’s demands, and thus increasing body weight, which leads to insulin resistance and eventually pancreatic beta-cell exhaustion. Diabetes is thus a disease state of prolonged hyperglycemia and confers many long-term complications such as accelerated cardiovascular disease, neuropathy, nephropathy, and retinopathy.
How does exercise lower blood glucose?
Once patients are diagnosed with diabetes, management is lifelong, and it takes considerable mental and physical effort to manage this change in health. Exercise is a key metric in diabetic management because lowering blood sugar is as simple as using excess glucose to create energy in our muscles. There are two main mechanisms in how exercise has a positive effect on diabetes.
What type of exercise would be the most effective in controlling blood sugar?
The data is very clear that there is no relationship between exercise technique and glucose level, but there is a relationship between exercise intensity and glucose levels. In other words, patients wanting better blood sugar outcomes may choose whatever exercise regimen as long as they are able to do high-intensity exercise (i.e., resistance training, strength training, High-intensity interval training, HIIT).
Anaerobic vs. aerobic
Blood sugar levels during exercise will be different based on the types of exercise patients choose. For example, high-intensity anaerobic exercise (such as weightlifting) causes large spikes of blood sugar because the liver creates large amounts of glucose for anaerobic glycolysis.
On the other hand, high-intensity aerobic exercise (such as running) confers lower blood glucose. Keep in mind both types of exercise confer excellent long-term patient outcomes, but the disparity in blood sugar is important to note as it can lead to confusion in patients that are very actively monitoring their sugar levels.
Hyperglycemia after anaerobic exercise.
So, returning to my patient mentioned above, further history revealed that he does weightlifting two or three times a week. Hyperglycemia would therefore be expected during and immediately after anaerobic exercise due to large amounts of glycolysis requiring the liver to create sugar. This patient’s increased blood sugar seen after exercising would not be a cause for concern as this is part of normal human body physiology.
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Conclusion: Now we conclude episode number 135, “Exercise in Diabetes.” Kishan explained that exercise improves insulin sensitivity and promotes muscle growth for improved glucose metabolism. Princess explained that anaerobic exercise may cause a transient rise in glucose while aerobic exercise causes glucose control over a longer period. Dr. Arreaza explained that insulin sensitivity is lost when we give frequent “high shots of sugar” to our body.
This week we thank Hector Arreaza, Kishan Ghadiya, and Princess Enuka. Audio editing by Adrianne Silva.
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